September 15, 2005
I’m up before light breaks fully, completing the packing and wondering what time it is. I go downstairs to the reception area to look at the clock above the desk. The mattress is gone from the floor and the front doors are open. Electricity is back on and a small light reveals the time: 5:00am. The taxi is already here.
My flight is at 7:30. When we pull up in front of the airport, a line of white people and their luggage extends to the roadside. Kenya Airways and East African Safari Airways each have a flight leaving this morning. When I check in, the guy says 12 passengers have been bumped from the overbooked flight to Nairobi, including me, and we’ll be traveling to Dar es Salaam, then onto Nairobi. His manager comes over and explains the process, apologizing. A sharply dressed young man, the manager handles my ticketing and baggage himself. Since my flight from Nairobi to Kisumu isn’t until 5:30pm, I don’t mind the re-routing. When I approach the immigration desk, on the way to the departure lounge, the officer tells me there is a $25 fee to exit Tanzania. Crap. I didn’t know about an exit fee. I was in Tanzania last December and didn’t pay an exit fee.
“Well,” I say to the guy as I pull out my wallet, “I don’t have $25 and my flight leaves in 30 minutes.”
The big guy next to him says, “Borrow it from a fellow traveler.”
“I’m traveling alone and I wouldn’t ask a stanger for money,” I say.
I pull out the 1,300 Kenya Shillings. “This is all I have.”
They point me to the exchange desk and say I may be able to use my bank card to get more money. I go to the exchange window, which is only five steps away, and a large, disagreeble man with 5 o’clock shadow at 5:00 am says the Kenyan money is worth $19 USD and he can’t get money from my bank card. He points out of the airport and says the bank opens at 8:30am.
Jeezus, will they keep me in the country because I don’t have the money?
I find the helpful East African Safari manager and tell him I don’t have the money to get out of the country. He walks over and talks with the immigration officer, then returns to me and tells me to give the officer the Kenyan shillings, which I do. He places a clearance stamp on my boarding pass and stamps my exit visa. I’m free to leave Zanzibar!!
Our plane holds exactly 12 people. We take two steps from the tarmac into the plane and I’m on the back row, by myself. Just in front of me sit a young couple, perhaps Scottish, and the woman has been in a wheelchair all morning with her head propped up as through she feels horrible. Now, she has her head on his shoulder. I snap pictures of the island and the shoreline as we ascend. The view is perfect and I have access to both sides of the narrow plane. It takes 20 minutes to arrive at the Dar airport. The airport is rather large. As we enter the doors, a man and a woman from East African Safari meet our group. The man takes our passports and gets our boarding passes for the flight to Nairobi. There are three Arab men and a couple from Australia on their way to Mauritia, but they must go through Nairobi first. I tell the airline employee there is another couple with our group and the woman is in a wheelchair. The couple rolls around the corner so the airline employee gets their passports, too.
We all sit and wait and talk, getting to know each other. None of us ask about the woman’s health, though we’re very curious. Could be a water borne disease or malaria. When the man returns with our boarding passes, he escorts us to our gate, where boarding starts immediately. We’re all impressed with the efficiency of the Dar airport and are soon on our way to Nairobi. Unfortunately, clouds cover much of Kili this morning so we see only a tiny portion of the ancient volcano’s brownish peak.
Once at Nairobi’s airport, sitting in the departure lounge, I’m excited about being home. I text message Vitalis, the driver, about a ride from the Kisumu airport. My flight gets in at 6:30pm. He texts John, the other driver, and they assure me someone will be there to pick me up. After being away from Kisumu for two weeks, I’m anxious to get home and to settle in. I’m teaching class tomorrow. Beginning at 8am, I’ll be instructing students in communication and public speaking.
It is raining when we land in Kisumu and as I stand under the edge of ariport’s roof, waiting for the guys to pull the luggage cart out, John runs through the rain and stands next to me. How wonderful to see a familiar face. There’s TICH’s brown van in the first (and only) parking row. I’m very grateful to John for picking me up and dropping me home in the nighttime rain.
It’s good to be home.
My flight is at 7:30. When we pull up in front of the airport, a line of white people and their luggage extends to the roadside. Kenya Airways and East African Safari Airways each have a flight leaving this morning. When I check in, the guy says 12 passengers have been bumped from the overbooked flight to Nairobi, including me, and we’ll be traveling to Dar es Salaam, then onto Nairobi. His manager comes over and explains the process, apologizing. A sharply dressed young man, the manager handles my ticketing and baggage himself. Since my flight from Nairobi to Kisumu isn’t until 5:30pm, I don’t mind the re-routing. When I approach the immigration desk, on the way to the departure lounge, the officer tells me there is a $25 fee to exit Tanzania. Crap. I didn’t know about an exit fee. I was in Tanzania last December and didn’t pay an exit fee.
“Well,” I say to the guy as I pull out my wallet, “I don’t have $25 and my flight leaves in 30 minutes.”
The big guy next to him says, “Borrow it from a fellow traveler.”
“I’m traveling alone and I wouldn’t ask a stanger for money,” I say.
I pull out the 1,300 Kenya Shillings. “This is all I have.”
They point me to the exchange desk and say I may be able to use my bank card to get more money. I go to the exchange window, which is only five steps away, and a large, disagreeble man with 5 o’clock shadow at 5:00 am says the Kenyan money is worth $19 USD and he can’t get money from my bank card. He points out of the airport and says the bank opens at 8:30am.
Jeezus, will they keep me in the country because I don’t have the money?
I find the helpful East African Safari manager and tell him I don’t have the money to get out of the country. He walks over and talks with the immigration officer, then returns to me and tells me to give the officer the Kenyan shillings, which I do. He places a clearance stamp on my boarding pass and stamps my exit visa. I’m free to leave Zanzibar!!
Our plane holds exactly 12 people. We take two steps from the tarmac into the plane and I’m on the back row, by myself. Just in front of me sit a young couple, perhaps Scottish, and the woman has been in a wheelchair all morning with her head propped up as through she feels horrible. Now, she has her head on his shoulder. I snap pictures of the island and the shoreline as we ascend. The view is perfect and I have access to both sides of the narrow plane. It takes 20 minutes to arrive at the Dar airport. The airport is rather large. As we enter the doors, a man and a woman from East African Safari meet our group. The man takes our passports and gets our boarding passes for the flight to Nairobi. There are three Arab men and a couple from Australia on their way to Mauritia, but they must go through Nairobi first. I tell the airline employee there is another couple with our group and the woman is in a wheelchair. The couple rolls around the corner so the airline employee gets their passports, too.
We all sit and wait and talk, getting to know each other. None of us ask about the woman’s health, though we’re very curious. Could be a water borne disease or malaria. When the man returns with our boarding passes, he escorts us to our gate, where boarding starts immediately. We’re all impressed with the efficiency of the Dar airport and are soon on our way to Nairobi. Unfortunately, clouds cover much of Kili this morning so we see only a tiny portion of the ancient volcano’s brownish peak.
Once at Nairobi’s airport, sitting in the departure lounge, I’m excited about being home. I text message Vitalis, the driver, about a ride from the Kisumu airport. My flight gets in at 6:30pm. He texts John, the other driver, and they assure me someone will be there to pick me up. After being away from Kisumu for two weeks, I’m anxious to get home and to settle in. I’m teaching class tomorrow. Beginning at 8am, I’ll be instructing students in communication and public speaking.
It is raining when we land in Kisumu and as I stand under the edge of ariport’s roof, waiting for the guys to pull the luggage cart out, John runs through the rain and stands next to me. How wonderful to see a familiar face. There’s TICH’s brown van in the first (and only) parking row. I’m very grateful to John for picking me up and dropping me home in the nighttime rain.
It’s good to be home.
posted by Cindi at 4:29 PM
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