Now We’re in Nairobi

We arrived in Nairobi at about 4:15 AM in the same time zone in which we left Turkey. This was a six hour flight, but we were hopeful that it wouldn’t require too much adjustment, although none of us got much sleep. For the record, it’s the first time anyone on team TimB’Liz has been in the southern hemisphere!

Passport controls and baggage were a breeze. Both Ben and Liz had their full set of fingerprints scanned, but Tim was not asked to do so. Also, we all submitted to a quick infrared temperature check, presumably on the lookout for the Wuhan Coronavirus. A few people on our flight were briefly detained due to unacceptable readings — we don’t know where they ended up but I suspect they were eventually granted entry.

At this point we’d been carrying around an “enhanced” set of luggage all the way from Madison that included two large duffle bags full of clothes and shoes along with a “drum throne” (stool) that we’d picked up from Amazon and brought along at the request of our friend Denis. Most of these were destined for specific people that we will meet later in Rwanda and Uganda. Of course, this is all in addition to our day-to-day luggage. Today would be the day we would be able to reduce our weight and responsibility to just our own clothes and belongings!

We had an Airbnb booked just down the block from where our friend Jeff was staying, but we had some time to kill because it wasn’t available until 11am.

Eventually we had delayed long enough, and rush hour traffic had become bad enough that we could make the trip across the city to Hurlingame by Uber. It was about 1hr 15min driving with Jeffrey, who we were thrilled was in control. Not the least reason because they drive on the left here but also because it was very chaotic. This went just fine and the questing crew was starting to come together. We took on coffee at Jeff’s hotel and re-acquainted for a few hours and then he walked us up the block to our Airbnb, a third floor apartment with two bedroom/two baths.

After a nap and some laundry, we returned to meet up with Jeff and Denis for afternoon tea and coffee and nice dinner to inaugurate our trip. To get to the restaurant from Jeff’s hotel, we took our first trip on boda boda’s: small motorcycles that you hail on the street, negotiating a fare on the spot. We secured a group of four and paid them approximately $1.50 each to take us about ten minutes by bike. Since it was rush hour, an equivalent ride by Uber would have been cheaper ($2.50) but would have likely taken 3-4 times as long because the bikes don’t exactly follow the same rules of the road.

Our drivers may or may not have known each other beforehand, but they worked and stayed together on the road on our behalf; when two of us were cut off and delayed due to a traffic obstacle, the lead two pulled over and waited. It was pretty exhilarating and apparently we will be using this sort of transit even more often in Uganda and Rwanda.

Uganda and Rwanda boda boda drivers are safer than those in Kenya. Avoid using them at night because that’s when the “learners” are out.

– Denis

Unfortunately, no pics of that experience because we were busying hanging on for dear life. SAFETY FIRST!

Over a nice dinner (lentil curry, quinoa tofu, Argentinian malbec), we talked about the rough plan for the next two weeks: A sweeping road trip through Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda!