Pardon me, I tend to ramble...

Wow, I literally think I slept for 3 hours…maybe even less. I’m surprised I even slept at all given I am in a foreign country, by myself. Not to mention that it is 9:16pm back at home and 4:17am here.  I think by body is experiencing temporary amnesia.  “Who am I? Where am I? What’s going on?” said Liz’s body grumpily.

So, last night I arrived in Nairobi at 10pm.  We were delayed in France for almost 2 hours.  First of all, the airport in Paris CDG airport is insanely large and really nice.  Everyone who works there is extremely good looking.  It was kind of weird? I think I walked over a mile to get from terminal 2B to 2F.  And to board the plane to Kenya, we had to take a bus to the plane.  I get on and I am sitting next to Spanish speaking women, which I was very happy to hear.  To be able to understand most of what they were talking about was refreshing.  The plane was HOT as we waited to take off.  But I figured, “oh well, 10 minutes of this is nothing. It’s like training for Kenya…  They’ll turn on the air right after take off.  “

Thirty minutes later, a voice comes in over the speaker.  “Good morning ladies and gentlemen.  This is your captain speaking.  It appears as though we are having some difficulties, uhhh with the power and, uhhh the engineers are trying to fix it, uhhh once they do, we will be on our way, uhhh thank you for your patience.”

Thirty minutes later, the voice came in again repeating a similar status.  I thought to myself, “No way, I’m loving this sweatfest, don’t stop now!” However, this time he added that we might have to disembark should the engineers be unable to fix the problem.  He also acknowledged how hot it was on the plane, so he asked the flight attendants to open the doors to let some air in.  People flocked to the doors and honestly it became much more comfortable again and people were a little less cranky.  Within 30 minutes, they closed the doors, said the problem had been fixed and we were now waiting for the signal to take off.  So that became another 30 minutes of sitting in the stagnant heat. It was so hot, that I started falling asleep.  I woke up with drool on my face, smelling like BO. And then we flew for 8 hours.

The best part of the flight was being next to the Spanish-speaking women who were a telenovela in and of themselves. They were funny as there response to everything was very dramatic.  And by responses, I am referring to their responses to the screaming child in the middle isle next to us, to the hot towelette that was too hot, to the food that was mediocre and too small a portion in their opinion.  I will agree with them on the butter sandwich being a particularly interesting choice for snacks to give out.  But in the end, they were more entertainment than anything else.

So when I arrived in the Nairobi Airport, I ended up in the visa line, which took almost an hour to get through.  We are all the idiots who should now be convinced to apply for our visas before travelling.  The last thing you want to do at 11pm after being on a plane for 10+ hours is wait in a line for another hour to get your visa and watch all the people who had their visas before travelling simply flash their paperwork and proceed to pass you.

I then went downstairs to pick up my luggage (all 3 50+lb bags and then getting through customs was a walk in the park. As soon as I walked out of customs, I saw a crowd of people behind the gates and I simply searched for my name.  And there it was.  Simon was the name of the man who had been waiting since 7pm to pick me up.  It was now 11pm.  Apparently he was told that I was coming on a different flight and he was not notified of the delay to my flight, which I notified my supervisor when I was in France. I was too tired for the sob story at the moment.  But we had a nice conversation on the way to my guesthouse for the evening.  His driving managed to fit the description of any driving experience I have ever had with an African person.  Yes, my mom is from Ethiopia so I can talk about African driving. With barely any traffic on the road, he still managed to honk his horn at like 5 or 6 cars along the way not too mention the different driving style of speeding up and abruptly slowing down.  It was funny more than anything.

I should go back to sleep for a couple hours…oh…wait…hold that thought…they just started construction in the room next to mine. Hee hee…Please understand, I’m not complaining about anything. I just think it’s funny stuff.  The hotel is actually really nice.  How else would I be updating my blog with free wi-fi …

Off to the airport to get to Kisumu in a few minutes…pictures are coming next!