In transit...

JULY 28, 2011

In transit

Thursday was a bit of a blur. The majority of it was spent in the air, in transit.
We landed in London at 9am with a short 1.5 hour layover. We were making good time as we arrived at security to proceed to the next area for our second flight. There were maybe 20 people in front of us. We relaxed; we were doing okay. An hour and a half later, we were still standing in the slowest security line I have ever experienced. We had 3 minutes until our flight left and we were starting to sweat.
Karen and I were the first in line, so the group told us to run to the gate and hold the plane. We went as fast as we could weighed down with all sorts of camera equipment and carry on gear. We turned the corner and came to a tram. Great. We were not as close as we thought we were. We got on the tram – and 15 seconds later ended up at the next terminal. We ran through that terminal too … to the gate at the farthest end of the terminal and arrived winded and ready to convince them to stop the plane.
Luckily, our convincing was not needed. We met with super nice British Airway employees who checked us in and let us wait at the top of the stairs for the rest of our team. We met a woman who is the leader of a medical mission team going to Nairobi. She and her team had been on our flight from Dallas; she was waiting for the rest of her team to arrive as well. Apparently, the plane was waiting on at least 30 other people to make it through security – so we were good.
About 10 minutes later, the rest of our team rounded the corner into view. It was like a scene from a movie. People rounding the corner, running, bags flying every which way. We knew they were fine; but they still didn’t know that yet. But they got to us, checked in, and we all went to board the plane. One 8.5 hour flight down; one more to go.
That flight passed uneventfully as well, and we landed in Nairobi about 9:30pm. We headed to customs and then managed to pick the slowest line ever. Seriously. You always feel like this, but this time it was true. 2 hours later, we finally ended up moving to the line next to us. The woman in front of us from the first line was literally THE LAST PERSON to clear customs. But we met with a very nice gentleman who passed us through customs easily and kindly. And we headed downstairs to find our 19 bags. 20 minutes later, we had 19 bags piled up and we were following Shadrack, our driver, through the parking lot.

We got to the Paris Hotel about midnight. Lovely little place that we stayed last year. The people there are super friendly. We checked in and headed to our rooms to catch a few hours of sleep. After 24 hours of travel, we were ready to rewind and recharge.

One new change since last year – a disco has moved in next door. So we were had the privilege of experiencing a Kenyan disco – complete with blaring music, including BonJovi, and a very energetic DJ until about 2am. This bothered many on the team, but I was tired. I fell asleep within minutes.

We were up again at 4am for breakfast before heading back to the airport for the final flight to Kisumu. And that’s where the story really begins…