Out of Africa: Part 12 – Flexibility, Change and Not Hurrying are African Mantras

On my recent trip to Africa, I disciplined myself to keep a daily journal of what transpired and how I felt about it. These entries are from that journal.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Well, here is an entry I did not expect to make. I am sitting in the airport at my gate waiting to board. I have already been through five security checks, had my camera, cell phone and laptop gone over several times and been thoroughly frisked once. Security in international travel is indeed a bit heightened these days!

Thursday evening (at least I think it was Thursday) we were preparing to leave Kenya. We caught a 45 minute prop flight from the Masai Mara to the Wilson Airport in Nairobi. (I think this is right, I am not doing my best thinking right now! Airport floors do not rest very well.) We picked up our bags and boarded vehicles to fight the Nairobi rush hour traffic to get to the International Airport for the second of four flights that would take me back to Pittsburgh.

A week ago, when we left orientation, we all packed a day bag with non-essentials for our site visits that we would leave and reconnect with upon arrival back in Nairobi. As is expected there have been many glitches in this sort of trip, but this was a major hurdle. The bags had been misplaced at our original hotel last week. After a long phone call using up much needed travel time, they were finally located – still at the first hotel! Those of us who had remained in Kenya were all missing our other bag. It was a needed bag to repack items for our return flight.

We all jumped in the transfer vehicle and fought the Nairobi rush hour traffic once again, this time twice in two opposing directions, to retrieve the bags at the hotel. You have not really lived until you have ridden in a vehicle with a foreign driver in an emerging third world country. It is interesting to say the least. On one of the three driving legs I sat up front in the nine-passenger Toyota min-van. Read those words carefully and think sardines. You get the picture. Our driver did his best, but some things can appear doomed from the outset. Thus this unexpected entry.