I don't see the word "phone" in any posts. Any advice about phones? We usually try to check out a plan, but our carrier has not one for Africa.

What is your carrier? I'm on Verizon and while they don't have a "plan" per se, you can receive unlimited texts and there is a per text and per minute price for outgoing. I go to Africa to unplug, so I figure I'd only want to receive texts in an emergency, but coverage in the bush has been spotty at best even for folks I've been with who have a local SIM card. My safari planner knows how to reach me in an emergency no matter where I am, so I just make sure my family can reach them if need be.

I just came back from Tanzania and although my carrier, Sprint, has free unlimited data in Tanzania and .50 per minute phone calls, the data speed is only 2G so I bought an Airtel sim card so I could upload photos at a half-way decent speed, although that speed was only 3G. Sometimes it went quickly, other times it went very slowly. I bought an Airtel sim because I read that they had good coverage country-wide, and were especially good in the Serengeti, where half of my safari was spent. It wasn't that good in the northern Serengeti, but all of the camps and lodges I stayed at had wifi so I was able to get online and upload photos with that. I did not get a plan that had voice since I didn't see a need for it, but there are plans available for both voice and data. I hope this helps.