Flight to Nairobi and what awaited us there

I met a man from Nairobi, Kiprop Lagat, who was traveling back from business in Paris.  He was very interesting, he had a PhD in History and had worked at museums throughout Nairobi for 17 years, first as a curator and then in administration.  We had a great conversation about our cultural differences, how missions can do more harm than good if not handled properly and a whole range of other topics. We exchanged business cards at the end of our time together and I hope to stay in correspondence with him.  Our time together was a blessing and would not have occurred without the events leading up to it.  I guess you do just bloom where you’re planted and good things happen.

The flight to Nairobi was kind of surreal.  The lights were never really dimmed very much, strange for a flight that finally took to the air around 2am.  As with our other Turkish Air flight, a chef, a female this time in full white smock and chef’s hat, made her way down the aisle before liftoff.  Our previous flight had been on a bigger plane and we never saw that chef again, figuring he was pre-occupied with first class passengers.  On our flight, we were awakened to a full meal at around 4am and our chef was helping to serve drinks.  She did it with gusto, flipping bottles and glasses as she worked, reminding me a little bit of the act in a Japanese steakhouse.  I wasn’t sure if I really saw this or it was only part of the bad dream our travel had become.  

We were relieved when we finally got to Nairobi around 8:30am, nearly 12 hours and a lot of wear and tear after our original plan.  I went through Customs first to clear the way for the team and our footlockers were there right away on the baggage carousel.  I quickly flung them out of the way and got them stacked up.  As the rest of the team joined me to wait for our luggage, Howard and Martha’s bags appeared right away.  Not so good for the rest of us, our baggage had been lost.  We spent the better part of the next hour filing claims for it and making sure that it would be delivered to Rosa Mystica, our lodgings for the next week at a Catholic convent.  It was after 10am when we finally met our drivers.  One was Jackson, one of our best drivers over the years for the weekend excursions and for working with clinics throughout Kenya.  The other was to drive a truck with our belongings, what little there were, and our clinic supplies to the convent.  We got there, checked in and took 15 minutes to freshen up before regrouping to decide what could be salvaged of our first day in Nairobi.  Thank you Jesus for our safe travel and for the mostly graceful way we worked with everyone that was placed in front of us in a trying 2 days of travel.