Unexpected plans

When I woke up this morning, I never thought that seven hours later I’d be sitting at a tropical resort in the middle of the Tanzanian savannah. And yet here I am, sitting in a breezy, open restaurant, surrounded by beautiful purple, orange and pink flowers and cacti, sipping on “passion juice” (which I can only assume is made from passion fruit), listening to exotic birds that occasionally land on the patio next to me, gazing at Mount Kilimanjaro in the not-so-far distance. The scene is a little different than the uncomfortable, stuffy, dirty airport terminal where I thought I would spend my day. But when I was forced out of the Kilimanjaro airport upon arrival and given the option of walking back in by a different door or finding somewhere else to pass the time, I decided to explore. And so here I am at the Kia Lodge, just one kilometer and a world away from the airport, actually enjoying the ten hours that I'm having to wait before catching my next flight to Dar es Salaam.