Saturday, June 1, 2019

Saturday safari, etc.

I was able to manage about 4 hours of sleep between 1 am and 5:15 am, not bad for being all wound up from travel.  Our flights were great this trip, mostly smooth, friendly cabin crew, interesting people to talk to sitting with me, good food, etc.  Unfortunately, the theme of this trip from the start has been long lines in very hot rooms with cranky people.  It began in Houston and carried over to our arrival at Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi.  We arrived right on time at 8:10 pm and then proceeded to take nearly an hour to get through the visa line.  We picked up our luggage pretty quickly after that since it had already been off loaded from the conveyor belts due to how long the visa process took.  Next, we found out that they had implemented at new system for customs, scanning every bag that was leaving the place of folks that declared nothing to claim on their forms.  That line was the better part of an hour and all three of us got flagged by the x-ray machine for our suitcases with the clinic supplies in them.  A customs agent tore us apart and was trying to determine the value of our supplies so that we could pay a duty tax on them.  Even after I protested that it was all for donation, he still insisted we must pay.  I was very tired and a little grouchy, so the next thing I knew I was his office, one on one.  I knew other teams had paid as much as $400 to enter the country and I told him I might as well get on the next plane home if they couldn't let us serve the Kenyan people at our own expense.  Then, I decided since we were alone, I would play the humor card.  While he was putting figures in a spreadsheet on his computer, I told him that this was my 19th trip to Kenya and I wanted to marry a Kenyan woman so I could become a citizen.  The only problem was that all of my Kenyan friends had told me I was not strong enough for a Kenyan woman.  We both laughed until we almost cried and when he finished his figuring, the possible $400 duty had become 3,280 Kenyan shillings.  At first I thought he wanted $3000, but quickly realize that he had magically reduced the cost to about $30.  He walked me over to the currency exchange and I paid the tax on the spot and made a new friend.  I even got a receipt and may not turn it in, but frame it instead since it's such a good story.  I'm sure he was so used to upset people that I caught him off guard with my joke at my own expense.  All's well that ends well except for all the waiting.  We finally got to Rosa Mystica after 12, I got a shower and was finally in bed around 1am.

We had an early breakfast a 6 am and were on the road to the game park by 6:30.  That's when the curse of the long lines kicked in again.  Catherine, our superstar project coordinator, had already wired Friday to the park office to pre-pay for our safaris so that we could drive right in.  The money didn't appear on the other end, so we waited for over an hour while our 3 drivers stood in line to purchase our entry to the park.  Even so, we had one of the best mornings of animals and birds I've ever seen and were done by about 12.30 pm.  Stay tuned here and on my Facebook Page, pictures will begin appearing shortly after the trip.

We had lunch at the Veranda, a nice outdoor venue and then went back to Rosa Mystica for much needed naps and showers.  Our day ended with a worship service of all of the team members, Catherine's Pastor delivered a nice message, I got to do a devotion, we had a Kenyan Choir sing for us and by 6 pm or so we were done and heading for dinner.  That's about it for now, I'm hoping to sleep well tonight, but it's usually Sunday or Monday before we're really in the groove.

Blessings everybody!

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