Day 1: New Year's Eve Travel & Making It to Kenya

I suppose the best advice- given how groggy I feel at 7PM on the 2nd day in Africa- is to try to sleep as much as possible on the plane and at the Hilton Garden Inn near the Nairobi International Airport your first night.

To get to Kenya via the fastest route entails a layover. Typically this is in Paris (CDG) or Amsterdam (AMS). I was booked by UW's travel agency through KLM Royal Dutch Airways out of LAX since my vacation week aligned right before my rotation. It was a bittersweet moment coming off vacation having seen my four nephews (2 in Ohio, 2 in SoCal).

What I had packed: 2 packs of short blades for cutting gross specimens, bug spray, and scrubs + white coat for work. What I had forgotten: exchange USD for KES, sunglasses (which turn out to be very vital in the brutal African sun), and a cooking plan (did NOT realize Rochelle and Ginger cooked a lot most nights, so now I feel just as obligated to contribute).

Getting through LAX to the international terminal was pretty smooth through TSA pre-check. After arriving there it took no more than half an hour to reach my gate and roost there, not only buying data for roaming while in Africa, but checking out hotels for when I leave Kijabe to go on my own vacation in/around Nairobi. I highly recommend purchasing some data plan, especially since I have an eSIM on my iphone, and that requires purchasing (or at least activating) before you arrive in Kenya, compared to buying a physical SIM card at the airport and installing it into your current or old phone. Highlights of the flight to Amsterdam: watched Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore and A Man Called Otto while getting two rather than one meal (meatballs with potatoes, side salad with vinaigrette dressing, bread, cheese, and cheesecake. If you ask for tea they will offer milk and sugar to go along with it- very British of them! They offered a cookie in between dinner and breakfast, the latter of which was pancakes with syrup and cranberry/cherry compote plus fruit and yogurt sides. Again, they offered you the chance to drink more milk tea!

Both the Amsterdam and Nairobi airports still had their Christmas decorations up. Whereas Amsterdam's airport was modern (I had so much difficulty figuring out how the toilet works- which is the bane of anyone's travel experience), boarding for Nairobi seemed a bit chaotic. People were cutting in line, boarding everyone seemed to be a hassle in the back since there was barely any overhead storage, and people just liked standing in the aisle even when they've found their seat on the plane. This continued during the flight, where people would walk around and get up often. Highlights of the flight to Amsterdam: the melanin of the passengers (diversity, FINALLY), watched The Whale and Past Lives, ate a halal meal of chicken with rice and chickpeas in a curry sauce with olives, feta/tomatoes and a hummus-like side that tasted like thousand island sauce -.-, plus bread and cheese. The second meal was only a hot veggie flatbread pizza.

After landing in Nairobi, customs was a nightmare, as it took over an hour to get through, with no air conditioning at passport control even though others were dressed comfortably in coats and long pants. Folks were cutting in line, some didn't know how to place their fingers appropriately on the fingerprint scanner, and kids were running amok. Once I passed through customs, it felt like a rush to meet up with Rochelle and her mom, Ginger, grab my luggage off the carousel (which as it turned out was just sitting upright on the ground), then meet up with Phillip, our driver who shuttled us in his van over to the nearby hotel. Even there, the situation was complicated when the attendant at the front desk miscalculated on my reservation what day I booked the stay for (thinking that it was still New Year's Day when we arrived at the hotel at midnight, January 2nd), telling us that we had to pay for an extra day to spend the night or wait until 3pm to check-in...

But at long last, I was able to get into my room, with the spacious bed and familiar air conditioning. One thing to note here- the hot water and pressure eventually run out if you take too long of a shower!