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The morning we left wasn’t too crazy. We had been pretty well packed for days. In fact I spent the last few days agonizing over whether to bring this or that and whether we’d be under the weight limits. So then it became a question of remembering whether something was in the bag or not. But everything made it as it turned out. My backpack is heavier than I’d like it to be but I’m bringing an extra camera body and backup hard drive for insurance and it’s just going to have to be that way.
Marion’s friend Linda came and drove us to the airport, stopping at Starbucks of course. We had our usual breakfast at Wendy’s at the airport, a family tradition. There were balloons and coffee and various treats set up at the gate. That seemed a bit odd. It turns out there was a boy, Marcus, who was getting a ‘wish’ fulfilled. It wasn’t the Make-A-Wish people but something like it. Dream-something. He and his family were going to Orlando. Disney World we assumed. He has MS as does his older brother, who either didn’t warrant a wish or had his wish before. The kid in the wheelchair isn’t the one getting the special gift. Go figure.
They asked us all to create a 3×5 card for him. Marion drew a picture of the castle at Disney World. The flight crew loved it. The first one who saw it said “are you an artist?” The second one said she was going to frame it. I wondered if that meant she wasn’t going to give it to the kid. But you should have seen the smile on Marion’s face. For mine, I drew a happy face, the full extent of my artistic capability, at least with a pen. There was no comment from the flight crew.
Our first stop was Dallas-Ft Worth. Although I think we landed in Dallas, then drove to Fort Worth. We taxied for ages. They had turned on the fasten seat belt sign just before I had to go to the bathroom, 30 min before we landed. I’m usually pretty good at sensing this but I mistimed it. Then we taxied for half an hour. And we were in the back of the plane. Not nice. “Where is the next available bathroom” became a theme for the trip as it turned out. The guy in the row behind us kept getting up anyway, even with the seat belt sign on. It kicked in Marion’s ‘rule breaker’ gene but I calmed her down.
We did not like Dallas. The people were rude. But we had a pretty good BBQ pork baked potato thing for lunch (after a careful perusal of all options). They do know how to barbecue those Texans (cows, pigs and people). Our favorite image was of an over blond, over built, over plastic surgeried woman who walked past. I told Marion it looked like someone had hit the ‘enhance’ button once too many times in Photoshop.
While we were looking for food we caught some snippets of announcements over the PA. It was mumble mumble Portland, which sort of registered but not really. Then mumble mumble mumble Kessler mumble mumble gate D14. Wait, did they just say Kessler? And did they say Portland before? What’s our gate? Is it D14? What’s going on? It turns out they just had to re-check our passports at the gate but it was an extra moment of stress we really didn’t need.
Boarding international flights is always a joy. There are hundreds of people, everyone is stressed. Half the people can’t communicate with the other half of the people. We’re waiting to board and it’s getting late. In a great example of group dynamics, a couple of people stand and move towards the gate. Suddenly a great mass appears and it’s like the last chopper out of Saigon. The gate people tried to explain we weren’t boarding yet and get people to sit back down. A few did but there was a large French tour group that was having none of it. They staunchly held their ground (unlike in WW II). But after awhile we were finally ready to go.
The British Airways crew was great. Love the accents. And the matter of fact way they do things, especially the safety announcement. None of this ‘in the unlikely event of a loss of cabin pressure’. What they say is ‘if the oxygen system should fail…’ Fail? Americans would panic at this I’m sure. And they reminded us to check where the emergency exits were when we landed too. Which is a good idea, but not something we fat dumb and happy Americans want to hear.
The only problem, and this has been true since I’ve been flying with British Air for 20 years, is the food is a little strange. One of the offerings was two thin pieces of white bread with a piece of plastic orange cheese and some kind of tomato-based sauce. Scary. But one big improvement is the in-seat entertainment. None of this one or two movies to watch on your 9 hour flight and hope you like what we’re showing because that’s all there is. They had quite an on-demand library to choose from. And it only failed once and had to be rebooted which for BA is also pretty good based on experience. In my Sequent days when I went to London twice a year, I think I had about a 70% failure rate where something was wrong with the plane.
We got to London a bit late and our layover is only an hour and a half. The Nairobi flight is in a different terminal. We have to go through another security check to get there, plus catch a train. We end up at this dead-end where the train is supposed to come and there’s one other person there. It seems awfully empty. You could practically hear the crickets. But thank goodness for the other person or we’d have been convinced we’d gone to the wrong place. The train did arrive and got us to the gate pretty much when it was time to board. It was nice actually to not have to wait around for the flight. It’s 9+ hours to Nairobi. We just spent 9 hours getting to London. It’s like we flew there, walked around a bit and now were flying back.
The plane was late leaving and slow to arrive. So we got into Nairobi about 40 minutes late. There was the typical big crush to get through customs and we somehow managed to be towards the back. But it didn’t end up taking too long and we didn’t have any issue getting through. So next question. Did the bags make it? It’s such a moment of relief when you see your bag isn’t it? Look! There it is! I never thought I’d see it again! It’s how your dog feels when you come home from work.
So now it gets interesting. It really hits us. We’re half a world away, in Africa, and we’re totally in the hands of the tour company. There’s supposed to be someone holding a sign for us when we exit passport control. Let’s see if a pile of money buys us peace of mind. We expected to see a few people with signs. There are 40 or 50! I do a quick scan and don’t see our name. We stand staring stupidly for a few minutes but Marion finds him. His name is George and he is very glad to see us since we’re late. But not as glad as we are to see him!
He is a very nice guy (as is almost everyone else we meet on the trip). He’s a professional student he says. He’s majoring in economics and education and wants to talk about the markets in the US (not a strong point for either of us). His mother is a teacher and an artist. He agrees art is getting short shrift in schools which immediately endears him to Marion.
It’s dark so there’s not much to see but it looks like all suburbs everywhere, just a bit shabbier. Nairobi has 10 million people according to George. I didn’t realize it was that big. He said most people live in the suburbs so maybe it’s smaller within the city limits. He asks us what we think. Well, it’s pretty dark. We can’t really see. But we say something polite.
There’s LOTS of security as we drive up to the hotel. Barriers, fences, road obstructions to slow down cars, bars across the roads and armed and very serious looking guards. We are near a prison but the big reason is we’re next door to the Israeli embassy. The hotel has lots of security too. The hotel info says ‘you should be careful as in all cities’ but then proceeds to tell you don’t lend money to anyone, carry your bags close, drive with your windows up, don’t go out at night, etc. We’ve got a day in Nairobi but we decided we are staying on the hotel grounds. They are very nice actually. It’s an old building, originally built early in the century and it’s in the middle of some really lovely gardens with a pond and waterfalls. And there are three restaurants so we’ve got everything we need.
As it turned out we didn’t have a lot of time to kill. We got to bed around midnight. We got back up again around 1pm the next day when housekeeping called to see if we were ever coming out. I’m very glad we took the extra day. The original plan was to just head out the next morning after arriving. I can’t imagine getting right back on a plane out to the bush at 8 in the morning. But we should have gotten up earlier to get back on local time. That ended up taking a few more days.
We had a nice breakfast/lunch. The first of a number of feral kitties we would meet on the trip came to visit us. There was a large Dutch family going on safari. In fact most people seem to be. We hung out in the room reading and sending internet messages (always cool to IM with someone on the other side of the world) and had a walk around the grounds. There were lots of pretty plants and some giant palm fronds. We had dinner at the pool restaurant. The pool looked very nice but was really more of an ornament for the restaurant. It seemed weird to swim while people were having meals there so we never used it.
We had a decent dinner. Part way through a man came by holding a metal pole with a cauldron-like pot attached to it with hot coals in it. “I brought you fire” he said, which I found humorous. It did a nice job of warming up the area as it got cool at night. Generally speaking, things that can be done without electricity in Kenya are (e.g. hot coals). We get so used to abundant electric power. It’s not typical.
The guy behind us at the next table looked like he was right out of central casting for ‘great white hunter’. We tried not to make eye contact.
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