For those who don't know, I spent a month in the USA at the end of last year. I left November 22nd and returned on December 31st/January 1st. It was a busy trip. I traveled about every 3-4 days the entire time. While outside Kenya, I spent time in North Carolina (Durham, Winston-Salem, and Charlotte), Texas (El Paso and Longview), Georgia (Rome/Berry)and Grand Cayman.
I wish I had more pictures, however, my camera broke shortly after I left Kenya. Therefore, you will have to rely on my words alone.
First of all, I want to tell you GOD PROVIDES!
Kijabe is about an hour away from the airport. I took 2 large suitcases and 2 carry-on sized suitcases with me to the USA. This made using public Kenyan Transport difficult to impossible. I found a friend in Nairobi that was willing to take me from Nairobi to the airport, but I still needed to find transport from Kijabe to Nairobi. God did one better! He provided me with transport from Kijabe directly to the airport with some other missionaries travelling the same day.
The journey did have its' hiccups. Somewhere between my seat on the plane to London and the International terminal in London, my "total pillow" travel pillow got lost. It was never found. In view of everything that could have gone wrong, this loss was minor. Especially since all my luggage made it and i was met by my entire family at the airport in North Carolina! =)
When I have a chance I will try and tell you more about my adventures during my month outside Kenya. But for now I am focusing on God's provision during my international flights.
Fast forward to December 31st......
I did not sleep much the night before I left to return to Kenya. Even with my mental fog, I made it to the airport to check in with all my bags.
CUE GOD'S PROVISION!
When the ticketing agent checked me and my 6 bags into the system, the extra baggage fees came to about half of what they should have been! That's a savings of $360!
Security went smoothly and I was off.
While waiting at the gate, I checked my messages and email and found out the transportation and lodging I had all planned out before I left Kenya, fell through! I sent off some messages, but because of the time difference I didn't expect anything back for several hours.
My flight of the three leg journey was booked solid so I got assigned the first seat on the small American Eagle Plane; seat 1A. The cool thing about this seat is: 1. You can look out your window and see down the breezeway, 2. The breezeway seems to come straight at you when it approaches the plane, and 3. You can talk to the flight attendant during take-off and landing because he/she is sitting right in front of you, looking at you. Also, Because I was in the very front of the plane, I overheard the exchange between the gate agent, flight attendant, and pilots before the door closed. Apparently, the plane was overloaded (I wonder why? =P Could it be the passenger who checked 340 lbs of luggage?) and the airline wanted to take a British couple off the plane. However, if this happened, the couple would miss their flight connection to London.
By rearranging some carry-ons under two empty seats, utilizing the crew storage compartment, and the pilots working a little "magic", we were finally released from the gate with all passengers on board. The plane took a little extra runaway to take off and land due to the weight, but other than that, everything was fine. I had a good chat with the flight stewardess and when we landed she gave me some water and juice to carry with me. Once I reached the gate for my flight to London, I had a wonderful last american meal of leftover pizza, apples, and the juice from the flight attendant. While I was eating I checked my messages/emails to find out if their was any progress in finding a place to spend the night in Nairobi after I reached the airport.
NO RESPONSES FROM THE GUESTHOUSES!
Before I boarded my flight to London, I called and said good bye to everyone on my US cellphone.
The flight from JFK to London was mostly empty and I had an entire row to myself. Though I still did not sleep well, it was nice to stretch out a bit. In London, I had to change terminals and reenter security at the International Terminal. Security is one of the hardest things about London. Everyone in line has been through security at least once before and probably just arrived off another long haul flight. Without fail, I am always sweating by the time I get through and head to the main waiting area. In London, gates are not announced until 50 minutes before a flight. This means you have to watch the clock because some gates take 20 minutes or more to get to and the gates close 15 minutes before a flight's departure time.
I was in one of the last group to board the flight to Nairobi so the overhead storage above my seat was full. Thankfully, I found some storage a few rows back.
AND STILL NO RESPONSE ABOUT HOUSING OR TRANSPORT!
The flight to Nairobi was full and I was anxious. What was going to happen when I got to the airport? How would I find a place to stay? My phone had run out of credit. As much as I try to trust God to provide, it takes divine intervention for me to actually do it. The flight wasn't bad, though my entertainment system/screen locked up half way through the flight.
As many of you have heard, the international arrivals terminal at the airport near Nairobi burnt down. Therefore, when our flight landed we were loaded onto buses and taken to the temporary "arrivals" area. (Read this as a large warehouse/hanger type building divided into pre and post immigration areas.) Since our flight got in at the same time as another flight, twice the people had to funnel through the makeshift immigration booths. Soon after passing through immigration, I found out that the chaos of the immigration lines was nothing compared to collecting luggage. The airport was only running 2 small carousels, 1 for each flight. Also, they must have been using only one baggage train/cart because it was at least 20 minutes between each baggage offload. It took me over an hour, but I did collect all 6 of my bags!
ENTER GOD'S PROVISION!
There were several other people from Kijabe (RVA) on my flight, a family and two young ladies. The two ladies ended up at end of the immigration line. So rather than checking their trunks every time they passed on the baggage carousel, I pulled them off and sorted each one's luggage into a separate stack. AND GUESS WHAT?! It's 11:30pm and I still don't have transport or a place to stay!!!!
One of the ladies, an RVA teacher, let me use her phone to call the AIM guesthouse, Mayfield, and they had room for me. YES, I found a room! Now I just needed a LARGE taxi to get there!
WELL, GOD DID ONE BETTER!
It turns out that the guy I called to drive me back to Kijabe the next day, was the same guy who was picking the two young ladies up from the airport and then heading straight to Kijabe. They were willing to take as much of my luggage as space allowed so I wouldn't need to carry so much in the taxi. WELL, GUESS WHAT!? All the ladies' luggage fit in the back of the driver's car and ALL of mine fit into the roof rack perfectly. (I mean like JIGSAW PUZZLE PERFECT) Also, because everything fit so well, I was able to ride with them all the way back to Kijabe THAT night and in my own little house by 2:30 am!
Now onto the next adventure......... JETLAG!!!!!!
