As we exited the terminal tunnel a woman from Turkish air called out for Nairobi passengers to wait just outside the tunnel with her, we had 10 minutes by the time our group was assembled. The woman who met us sent us down the corridor with a colleague who ushered us straight to a private security check point. As I stood waiting to have my carry ons searched I saw our flight time change from 1738 to 1838. The airline had held the flight for us. I guess that is a benefit of traveling with a group that takes up half a plane. The sun was beginning to set as we took off, we saw the strange patterns the rivers run though the Sudan in the half light of the African twilight, and then I fell asleep. I woke up to an educational animal movie playing overhead. I love those and searched the channels for the audio, it was in Turkish. Disappointed I looked out the window to find darkness. Pitch black so thick it seemed to almost swallow the wings of the plane. Night flights use to be my favorite because the cities below resemble electric starfish in a dark sea, but this was not the case in Africa. As we approached Kenya and lost altitude it was possible to see small oasis of light flickering in the pitch black, the dark was so solid it was easy to imagine ourselves flying over the large span of a ship-less sea, but as we descended it was clear to see that there was no coast near the sporadic outcrops of light , no water to reflect the fading light ,just consuming darkness. We reached Nairobi with its reaching sky scrapers and city lights. It was 3 am when we landed in Africa. We waited for the other passengers to depart and exited in a large group, slapping the doorway as we exited to declare ourselves ready for battle.
We walked through the terminal to the customs desk. We copied each others visa forms, and I almost copied Jeremiah’s last name in my delirium. We got in line with our teams, since our finance person had to pay for all our visas. All 40+ of us were in two lines, and then the man at the locals check point caught my eye. He flagged me over, I showed him my U.S. passport and he gave me a “don’t worry about it” look and waved me over again. I told my team and after a moment of hesitation we went to his counter. I let Jer go first since he had all the visa money. I went second, the man processed my paper work and Jer paid for me, and said “you know I called you first” in a flirty tone. Jonathan went third, he had recently shaved his beard and left his ridiculously long confederate solider looking sideburns, the customs inspector laughed at him and then said he would be his friend so he could walk around laughing at him. Just pass the check point I pulled an Irish orange out of my purse and ate it before I took my malaria medicine. We went down to collect our bags from the baggage claim and walked out to catch the bus to the hostel. As Jer came toward me from dropping off a bag I noticed he was walking funny, I asked what he was doing and he simply pointed to the ground and went to collect more bags. As I walked out onto the sidewalk I quickly learned why he was walking that way. The ground was slicked with a Vaseline like substance that made every step a slide. Men were waiting by the side of the road to help with bags, we were advised not to let them help because they would expect a tip but I don’t think everyone heard that advice and they ended up helping us with our bags. I felt bad knowing they wouldn’t be getting tips and I gave one man the Euros in my pocket which was probably $5-6 worth, but Euros under 5 are coins, so I handed him a bunch of coins and he gave me the dirtiest look, I now know that coins of that size here are worth 1-5 shilling so he probably thought I gave him like 10 shillings which is about 12 cents. I hope he realized that he had 500 shillings in his hand before the night was over.
