So in my last posting, I was at home anxiously awaiting for my adventure to begin, so much in fact that I was over worried about everything. Did I pack everything I needed? What did my bags weigh? Were the storms going to come through and delay or cancel my flight? Obviously, I didn’t want anything to get in the way of me getting started so I woke up early on the morning of the 10th to a beautiful sunny day in Charleston. I flipped on the weather to hear our cheery weather man inform the low country residents that thunder storms were expected in the afternoon. So I quickly checked the web to see if there were any earlier fights out of Charleston to Dulles (there was) and I spoke to a wonderfully unhelpful representative from United Airlines that hadn’t quite mastered the English language and could only communicate sentences if they were written on a card for her. After about 15 minutes of speaking slowly and ensuring she understood my question, I was able to decipher that there were seats available on the earlier flight. So at 8:30 in the morning, I caught a taxi to the airport to see if I could possibly get on the earlier flight and avoid any delays due to Mother Nature. When I got to the airport, the agent informed me that there was 1 seat available on the next flight to Washington, DC but he couldn’t reserve it for me. The most he could do was give me a high priority for standby. Ok, not too bad. In the 15 minutes from when I spoke to one of the finest representatives in United’s outsourced call center to when I got to the airport, the multiple available seats had disappeared. So I said goodbye to my bags (possibly forever) and went through security. Once I got to the gate, I checked in with the agent there and she informed me that she just gave away the last and only standby seat, but I was first on the list if any other seats became available. I said fine, that’s why they call it standby. As I watched the passengers board the flight, I saw everyone get on except for just a few people sitting in the waiting area. The gal that was in the line ahead of me got called and then, much to my surprise, a flight attendant and her daughter were called to board as well. Somehow, I started as a high priority at the ticketing counter to being trumped by a 4 yr old girl with her Hello Kitty pull along suit case and her “In the business” mom. Oh well, such is life; unfair in so many ways.
So now I had 4+ hours to kill in the Charleston airport which I did uneventfully. I watched the window and saw the storms that the weatherman had talked about earlier which brings up the question, why are the weather forecasters only right when it’s inconvenient for us? For once I witnessed some forethought and planning when the airline decided to board the flight early to try to beat the storms. I put away my things and grabbed my ticket, wide eyed like a toddler on Christmas coming downstairs to see what Santa had left. The dreams of sugar plums and dancing nutcrackers came crashing down when I saw Anchor Ass sitting in my seat (you’ll see why I dubbed him Anchor Ass in a minute). Apparently in my decision to try to be proactive, United airlines saw it fit to double book my seat. Nice. So I set my bag and half drank energy drink in the seat in front of him to try to get a resolution from the sole flight attendant. As I did that, Anchor Ass stayed right where he was, clutching the seat as if it were the winning Powerball ticket and afraid that if he even moved slightly I would rush in and sit underneath him stealing away his chance to stay on this flight. When I took the 8.5 steps to the front of the plane (it was a pretty small commuter jet), the flight attendant looked at me blankly and told me to just stand to the side. Ok, so I went back to the seat in front of Anchor Ass and grabbed my stuff so it wasn’t in the way of other passengers and in my flustered state, forgot about my can of Rockstar. Once I got back to the front, I quickly realized I didn’t have the sweet nectar in my hand and went back to see where I left it. Apparently, I left it spilt all over the seat. Sh*t. So I got some paper towels and soaked it up as best I could all the while, Anchor Ass just looking blankly ahead completely unhelpful, probably celebrating his win mentally. Then I met the lady whose seat I just spilled the drink all over and she obviously wasn’t happy either. She grabbed another seat that hadn’t been recently washed with sticky sugar and caffeine infused energy booster. Finally the flight attendant told me everyone was on board and just to grab any seat. Well any seat meant the one that I had just wiped up because there were no others available. Lucky me. I didn’t complain though because it was partly my fault but it was also partly the fault of our friends in the outsourced call center. See if that lady hadn’t told me there were extra seats, then I would have tried to go standby on the earlier flight and then my original seat wouldn’t have been doubled booked with Anchor Ass and then I wouldn’t have spilled drink all over the seat that I was currently residing in. It’s amazing how the chain of events had led me to sitting in my drink, but I was just glad to be on the flight.
SWATCH's in Switzerland! Say that 5 times fast!
Anyhow, lucky for me that was the worst part of the all the flights. I got into Washington, DC alright and caught my next flight. I got to sit next to Roman of Zurich, Switzerland who was very nice and after reading an entire 300 page James Patterson book from cover to cover during this flight, he gave me an air tour of Switzerland as we made our approach. Aside from being an 8 hour flight, it went very smoothly and I must say that the food on International Flight has gotten increasingly better. The double fudge brownie that came with dinner was actually something to write home about (or at least mention in this blog). I made my transfer in the Land of the Alps and caught the 7 hour connection to Nairobi. This flight was also good and the food was very tasty as well. And unlike the United flights that I had taken earlier, this Swiss Air flight gives free alcohol so I drank 2 bottles of red wine to help sleep since I had only previously gotten about 2 hours in the past 27 or so. Ok, they’re the small bottles of wine but still, it was nice and helped me catch a little shut eye.
Once arriving for the first time in Africa, everything went very smoothly. My bags arrived as planned and my team was waiting for me! And for those of you who live in DC and Atlanta, you can’t complain about traffic. The traffic here in Nairobi was horrible and it took well over an hour to get to the hotel/resort. I even saw a bus drive on the tiny median and almost tip over to get ahead of some other drivers. They are crazy here! But I made it safely and got checked in. It was already dark so I didn’t get to see too much of the country or the resort, but from what I can tell, it is beautiful. I will try to post pictures once I get some. Next, I got unpacked and took a cold shower. They’re having problems with their boiler so the hot refreshing shower that I was so looking forward to, just didn’t happen. The water did feel nice though. After getting settled in, I went to the restaurant for a sandwich and a Tusker (it’s their national beer). Let me make this statement. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten a chicken sandwich and fries, with Kenyan beer watching old school Bruce Lee Kung Fu in 60 degree weather and listening to a mixed tape of rousing 80’s music in the background. And yes, I’ve realized it’s not Africa hot here. Even though we’re just south of the equator, it’s quite cool due to the altitude.
So that was my trip to Africa. By the way, my mom won the 10 points for getting the quote right on my last post, but Jansen Deloach wins the bonus points for getting the right one correct. Congratulate Jansen for searching the web during work hours to find the answer!
Anyways, yo ho ho and a bottle of Tusker! Take care all!
13Jul08: Jambo (Hello in Swahili) and greetings to all the followers of the Swashbuckler. Today you can call me the Giraffe Casanova however, which I will explain later. So I’ve gotten settled in pretty nice. Yesterday after getting up and checking out our teaching facilities, I and a couple of my coworkers took a hike around the grounds of the golf resort. This was my first opportunity to see wild sykes monkeys up close. It was amazing because they would let you get very close without getting scared. I’ve posted a few pictures here.
Look! It's a bird, no it's a plane, no it's super monkey!
Weird! A mutated monkey with 4 eyes!
A real friend checks their buddies for hemorrhoids!
Waaaazzzzuuuupppp!! Nuthin'! Chillin', watching the game!
What? Haven't you seen a monkey on a bench before? And no, that's not me!
After the hike, I decided to grab some dinner so I went to the hotel bar. Just after ordering, we lost electricity for about an hour. The infrastructure here is definitely not what I’m used to. I actually felt very rugged however, because the staff brought out a gas lantern and I got to read my Kenya travel book by its light. And it was so eerily quiet. I loved it.
This morning we got up and met our driver to see some of the sites around Nairobi. First, he took us to a baby elephant orphanage where they raise the babies until they get older and can be released into the wild. It was such an amazing experience. Here are some photos of both the elephants and of some wild warthogs:
Hakuna Matata!
Hmmm...I think he smells nuts...
They also have a blind black rhino that they care for which was also very friendly.
Who knew that rhinos pee backwards?
After that, we stopped at a souvenir shop, where I was able to pick up a couple of hand carved animals. They had a traditional Massai Warrior out front as well.
In case you can't tell, I'm the one with the hat!
Next, we went to a Giraffe Sanctuary where we could feed the giraffes. They were so neat to see up close and to eat out of our hands. I also found out that their tongues are very rough, very similar to sand paper. I found this out because after feeding one from my mouth, my chin and lips felt like they had been run over with 80 grit! Here’s some pictures to prove it:
Do we make a cute couple?
I just love a first kiss....
After that adventure, we had lunch at the Karen Blixen house where she had filmed a lot of the movie “Out of Africa”. If anyone has seen it, feel free to fill me in since I have not had that opportunity.
So that was pretty much our weekend. We start classes Monday morning and will teach all week. Next weekend however, we are going to try to do a safari. I’m hoping it will be one of the camping types as well. I promise to continue taking loads of pictures and posting on the blog. If anyone has facebook, I will eventually be uploading all of the photos onto my page. I’ve taken over 200 so far.
I hope everyone is well! Take care of yourselves!
Asante Sana (Thank you very much in Swahili)
