Nearly recuperated from jet lag on Thursday

I came back to 100 plus temperatures in Texas after being in paradise for the last 3 weeks.  It'd been 74 every day for a high in Nairobi and in the mid to upper 50's at night, with flowers everywhere.  There had been some rain while I was gone, so the lawn needed mowing.

I took it easy Tuesday and Wednesday, unpacking, catching up on laundry, stocking up on groceries, mowing the lawn and napping when necessary.  I worked on pictures from the trip, made a few phone calls to close friends and began getting receipts together from the mission in preparation for settling up with our business office at church for the team cash that I was sent with.  Slowly but surely, I am getting back on schedule with sleep, but it's been a little harder to adjust this time after being 8 hours different for nearly 3 weeks in Kenya instead of the usual 10 days to 2 weeks. 

Even though we did nothing but eat, eat, eat during the after-mission safari, I was a little surprised to find that I had lost 10 pounds.  Covid is not a good way to diet, but it seems to work!

I answered a few computer questions by phone, but resisted going on any repair calls until today, knowing that I wouldn't be in any shape to work on my own computers, let alone for a client.  I am starting to schedule service calls again and will be heading to Redeemer tomorrow morning to work with our business office on mission accounting.  More to follow as I get pictures from the vision clinic and the safaris ready to publish.  Blessings everybody!    

Trip to Austin via RedCoach

 After waiting for a couple of hours at the Residence Inn by Marriot in downtown Houston, the RedCoach arrived about 6:35pm.  One of the other passengers got a little nervous and called the company at 6:30 and they reassured him that the bus was nearby.  The driver helped his previous passengers unload their luggage from the right side of the bus.  There were 3 large doors that could be raised to hold whatever baggage would be onboard.  They let you check two bags and you can have a carry-on in the bus.  As advertised, the seats fully reclined.  There were two rows of seats on the left side of the bus and one row on the right, with overhead bins to put carry-ons in if you wanted to.  There were maybe 20 seats on the bus and each had its own 110 volt outlet and a USB jack.  I used the USB with my phone and it was strong enough to keep it charged even while I had Google Maps running to see the progress of our trip.  We hit some traffic on the Houston expressways.  I was reclined with a sleep mask on and I nodded off on I-10 until we finally got out to 71 and headed towards Austin from near Columbus, TX.  The driver took about a 15 minute stop for refueling at the Buc-cees in Bastrop, right by Casa Chapala's other location.  He let anyone that wanted to get off the bus go in and buy a drink or snack.  About half of the 8 passengers took him up on it and everyone was back as the refueling was completed.  I was in contact with Pastor Kevin, who had agreed to pick me up, via text message and I kept him informed him of our progress.  With the late start and the brief stop, we were about an hour late getting into Austin.  Just as we were nearly in sight of the Embassy Suites where we would disembark, there was a wreck at Riverside and the I-35 access road and we needed to take a small detour.  As I was leaving the bus, I told the driver he probably wondered why being an hour late had not upset me.  I told him I had purchased my bus ticket two days before in Nairobi, Kenya and I had been on the road for nearly two full days.  An extra hour was just yet another speed bump in the big scheme of things!  I thanked him for his service as Kevin came over to help me with my bags.  We had a nice conversation on the way to my house in Wells Branch and more than a few laughs.  He was masked up, so I dutifully got my N95 out of my pocket and did likewise.  He let me know he would be taking the family on a trip soon and was being extra cautious, even though he knew I was no longer infectious.  I told him about needing to wear my mask on both Lufthansa flights, a 9 hour first one and a nearly 11 hour second flight from Frankfurt to Houston and how miserable that had been. 

We pulled up to my house before 11pm, I thanked Kevin and pointed him towards MoPac for his ride back home.  Even under less than ideal circumstances and at the end of a long journey, I liked the RedCoach experience and would recommend it to anyone that wants to go to downtown Houston, Dallas or San Antonio from Austin and back again.   I still don't know how they can make it work at only $30 a ticket including tax, but it worked out well for me.  It saved someone from doing a round-trip from Austin to pick me up at today's gas prices and I got home more relaxed than normal, although about 4 hours later than usual.  

Thanks again to so many of you that have followed along on our mission trip via my Facebook page and this blog.   Keep coming back for a while, I will be posting more stories and thoughts on the trip as they come to me and I will announce photo albums of the clinic and our safaris as they become available.  Blessings everyone!

Homecoming in Houston! Yay!

We took off over an hour late from Frankfurt with no explanation.  I’m sure we’ll make up most of that time over the course of a more than 10 hour flight.  I’m waiting for drinks and lunch to be served and then I’ll be napping. The Airbus we flew from Nairobi didn’t recline much. This 747 is roomier and the seats kick back quite a ways.  Much more comfortable,  that’s for sure.  There is a funny glitch on this plane however. The previous flight for it was from Newark and the Flight Info map in the onboard entertainment system got stuck on that. The Captain came on the intercom and joked about it. 

They finally served lunch and it was halfway decent. Pasta with a small salad, a roll and butter and chocolate cake for dessert. I put on an eyeshade and slept for about an hour afterwards. There are still about six hours to go in this final flight.  I’m hoping that now that the Covid test requirement is over that it won’t take too long to get my luggage and clear customs.  I’m going to need some time to take Uber to the bus depot and get checked in there. I’m so glad to finally be getting back to Austin. With one small exception.  I’ve been in paradise for the last 3 weeks.  74 every day, 59 at night with a light breeze.  Not sure I’m ready for the blast furnace just yet! I hope they’ve got a nice air conditioned lobby at the bus depot!

During the last hour of the flight the crew gave some folks hot meals and others,  including me, a “snack”. It was inedible. One lady complained and they brought her a meal.  I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle because the meal didn’t look very good either.

I got to Houston about half an hour late. Immigration only took a few minutes but it took about 40 minutes to get ny luggage.  Another 25 minutes in an Uber got me to downtown Houston to the Residence Inn where RedCoach picks you up. I’ve been making phone calls from the lobby, the manager is letting me sit in here since it’s 97 degrees out. I’ve got another hour before boarding the bus. Glad to be back and I’ll continue to post more stories and pictures for the foreseeable future.  Blessings everyone!

Got to Frankfurt

 Other than a screaming baby for about an hour at the start of the flight,  things were pretty uneventful.  We took a bus out to the plane and climbed 2 flights of stairs to a gangway In order to board. Even though there were more security checks than seemed necessary,  the Nairobi airport is much more efficient now with a lot less corruption possible.  This is a good thing since tourism is a major economic driver in Kenya.

I got some sleep after a dinner of chicken curry which was pretty bad. I made a couple of trips to the bathroom during the night, mostly to stretch my legs.  It’s easy to get deep vein thrombosis if you don’t move around and stay hydrated. We’re approaching Frankfurt as I write this with touchdown  only about 45 minutes away. It’s a monster airport,  with stairs and busses to navigate,  but we’ve got a nearly 4 hour layover, so I won’t be rushing myself. 

Got to Frankfurt a little early, so early our next flight wasn't on the board yet. I had a security check to end all security checks. I had to remove my outer shirt, get all electronics out, including laptop, cameras, Hotspot, cell phone and more. Once again I mentioned the artificial hip.  After the body scanner, I was patted down thoroughly and they even checked inside my shoes and socks. I must fit the profile.

They made us throw our water bottles away. I'm now sipping on a liter of Evian that cost 6.5 Euros. The Euro is worth $1.05 today, so this is my most expensive water ever at about $7. Hope I don't have to throw it out!

We've got about 2 more hours until the flight to Houston.  More to follow as I  can post. One leg of the journey down,  a flight and a bus ride to go. Blessings everyone!

Made it through security

It's almost 8 pm, had some dinner in a food court after clearing 3 security checks.The first one was as we drove into the airport.  We all disembarked and went through a metal detector while our vehicle was checked.  Next, we had to pass our bags through an x-ray machine and empty our pockets to enter the airport.  My artificial hip set alarms off and I was patted down. Then, after checking in with the airline and going through Passport Control, one more bag check, no belt, no shoes and another pat down because of  the hip. 

Waiting to board at 9pm for 10.25 takeoff. Had to go through one more document check to get into Gate 24. Now I get to relax for about an hour before boarding.  At least it's nice and cool. I have experienced 95 degree terminals here before. I'll write more on the plane and will hopefully have a post from Frankfurt.  Blessings everyone!

Sunday morning worship

 The six of us gathered outside at 10 am.  I opened the worship with a prayer and proceeded to present the Oswald Chambers devotion called "What is a Missionary?"  It sparked a good conversation about how each of us were called over the years to become a part of our various projects here in Kenya.  Kristin then asked each of us to talk about a couple of highlights from this trip, which also prompted the veterans in the group to recount some of the most memorable moments from over the years.  We spent a little over an hour together.  Chris, who served wtih Salem, read from the 1 Peter, the first chapter and then Richard closed us with prayer followed by the group praying the Lord's Prayer together.  Everyone said it was a meaningful service.  I'm so glad we had this time together to encourage each other and to get to know one another a little better.

It's about 11:30am here as I write this, lunch should be around 1pm. Our dear friend Catherine will be here around 4pm to conduct business with the team leaders. I'll get one last shower before then.  We will be leaving for the airport at 6pm, arriving there about 7pm, ready to clear security and check-in for our flights.

More to follow as time and Internet access permit.  Blessings everybody!

Sunday morning, the last day!

I got up at 11:25pm last night, 23 hours before our flight out of Nairobi to Frankfurt, Germany.  Lufthansa won't let you do online checkin until that weird hour, all the rest of the airlines I have experience with, it's 24 hours ahead of liftoff. I was happy to see that I had aisle seats on both flights until I realized I was in row 45 on both of them, more than likely a bulkhead seat, meaning you can't lean back.  I was in one of these seats on a three hour domestic trip, never again!  It might be wonderful for your posture to sit bolt upright, but a 9 or 10 hour flight like that would be torture.  I proceeded to get seat 25C and 19C respectively.  I'll be off both planes a little sooner that way.  I have a 4 hour layover in Frankfurt, which is a small blessing.  It's a huge airport and navigating from one end to the other involves several staircases and maybe more than one bus ride.  It will be nice to do it at a leisurely pace for once.

I thought a little more about our "worship" service this morning, in addition to a couple of Scripture readings I have, I'm hoping that the group knows a couple of the simple songs that we sang during our clinic in Waithaka with our volunteers.  And I'll entertain ideas from the rest of the group.  We'll be outdoors in the cool of the morning, praising God in paradise, surrounded by His beautiful creation.  I know it will be a high point for me and hope it is meaningful for the others.

I've got all my luggage out and am preparing to rearrange things to balance the load.  Checked bags can't be over 50 pounds each which is no problem as I left a fair amount of stuff here for Catherine and carried supplies for the clinic that are staying here.  The new Lufthansa limit for carry-on luggage is where I have a problem.  Everything with batteries and electronics must be in this piece and rather than 26 pounds like the other carriers, Lufthansa has an 8 kilogram (about 17.6 pounds) limit.  I have two lenses, one quite heavy, two camera bodies, about 2 pounds of spare camera batteries, my laptop and assorted chargers.  I have an HEB bag with a Velcro top just in case.  If need be, I can move the lenses and laptop to it and use it as my personal item that fits under the seat in front of me, but it'll be a pain.  On the way to Kenya, two of my team members each took a lense for me, making it much easier.  I didn't realize the lighter limit until we were already at the Houston airport.  Ah, the joys of travel! Always another detail.

Well, back to sorting my stuff out.  More to follow before we leave if I have Internet.  Thanks again for everybody's diligence in praying for me and those who were left behin last Tuesday.  I feel great and can't wait to be back in 105 degree Texas heat!  Blessings everyone!