Arrival in Kakamega September 18, 2011

Greetings from Kenya

I have arrived in Kakamega safely but I was one really tired traveler.  I can’t sleep on airplanes and I can’t seem to sleep on a steel table at the airport either.  I arrived in Nairobi on Friday somewhere around 8:30 in the evening.  I waited in line and paid my fifty bucks for an entry visa.  The visa doubled in price since my last visit.  I then proceeded to get my bag and left the international terminal to make my way to the fly540 counter to get my ticket for the morning flight to Kakamega.  I could have booked the flight online in advance but it was $117 one way.  The fly540 sales office was closed and after about 30 minutes I was successful in securing a ticket for the morning flight to Kakamega at a much better price of $60 one way.  The really nice lady that sold me the ticket then told me that I need to be back and checked in at least an hour before the flight boards at 6:30 am.  By this time it was ten thirty or eleven o’clock and I had at least 7 hours to boarding time.  I had a choice I could leave the airport find a hotel and risk oversleeping.  I was going on 40 hours without any sleep and I knew once I get my head on a pillow I am out.  Also there is only one flight a day to Kakamega and missing that flight would not be good.  Or I could stay at the airport and rough it.  I decided to stay at the airport and went to a little coffee shop and had some Joe.  After midnight I then decided to go and find a place to rest.  I could not get back into the international terminal because I did not have any papers that allowed me pass security.  So I went to the domestic terminal and hung out there for six hours.  I was the only passenger in the terminal from like midnight until five in the morning. 

The midnight shift at the domestic terminal at Nairobi has to be about the worst job that anyone could ever have.  There were a few security people that managed the baggage x-ray and the walk through metal detector.  From the time I walked through a little after midnight there wasn’t another passenger that came through for over 5 hours.  Those two guys didn’t move from their stations for hours on end.  They must have been Zombies there is no way I could sit in one spot for hours on end like they did.  I don’t even think they talked to each other.  I did give them a break at about three in the morning because I had to leave the terminal to go to the bathroom.  I took my luggage with me because you know what happens when you leave unattended luggage at an airport.  Dave does not want to spend any time in a foreign prison.  All the check in people started to roll in around 5 am and I think there might have been one or two cleaning people that had left the building and came back.  Me I just tried to get a few winks spread out on a steel bench or table I couldn’t tell what it was.  It just happened to be the only thing that was flat except the floor.  I played some Angry Birds offline on the laptop until the battery ran out.  I am happy to say I now have three stars on all 21 games in every level and three stars on every bonus play on Google Chrome’s free offline version.

Bishop Hezron was waiting at the Kakamega Airstrip upon my arrival there at eight fifteen in the morning.  I was now on my fourth wind and I decided I could possibly go and visit the widow’s orchard site.  First I checked into the guest house and then we went to the orchard.  We spent about six hours visiting with Councilor Bianna, Pastor John, some of the widow’s, and a few of the local pastors came by.  Hezron got me back to the guest house just before three in the afternoon.  I immediately crashed and spent the next fifteen hours asleep except for an occasional potty break.

I have been unable to get onto the internet for the last few days because my Safaricom modem has not been working.  I could not get on Saturday or Sunday.  Earlier this afternoon (Monday) we went to the Safaricom store and one of the salespeople reset my modem from 3G to 2G because the 3G network is going to be down off and on for the next couple of weeks.  So I am really behind on the blogs.  There is much to talk about on what has happened since my arrival and I will need to spend the next couple of days getting caught up on the events of the last three days.  Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will be out to the Kakamega widow's orchard to meet with the widow's and discuss what is happening.  We will also spend a great deal of time looking for the end posts for all the orchards.

Take care and God Bless

Dave