Saturday, June 20: Bomas

We got up at 5 to say good bye to Timothy and Christine. The driver was a little late, but arrived in plenty of time to make the flight connection. It was sad to say good bye to our good friends. As soon as they left, we crawled back in bed, but were up at 7 for breakfast.

Christine (not the other Christine who was in the air headed back to Kisumu, but the cook at Eshel Garden) cooked a wonderful breakfast of crepes, sausage, and fruit. We even had maple syrup. The morning was spent packing and figuring out how we were going to get to Bomas (a Kenyan cultural center) and then to the airport. Plans fell into place a little at a time, making me feel a little more relaxed.

At 3, Bovince, the driver for Eshel Garden, took us to Bomas. When we arrived, we heard music coming from the large pavilion. We paid our admission and went in. They have a dance group that dresses the various tribal costumes and performs a traditional dance. There were also drummers and acrobats. The show was pretty interesting. We thought the center was only open for a 2 hour interval, but that was just the time the dancing was going on. As a result, we did not have time to tour the huts and other surrounding exhibits.

As we were leaving, we spotted two warthogs grazing in the parking lot. We returned to Eshel Garden for our last supper there, and spent a little time visiting with Mary and her family. Our transport arrived, and we loaded our baggage, and then sat on top of it for the ride to the airport.

Getting everyone through the airport checks is quite an experience. It is nothing like going alone. The procedures in African and European airports are also different from what I have experienced in the US. At the airport entrance in Nairobi, passports are checked and everything immediately is x-rayed, just to get inside. We collected everything on the other side of the scanner, put shoes and belts back on, and then located the weigh-in station. All of the bags were weighed and stamped with a sticker. Then we went to the ticket counter to check the bags. Passports again. We checked ten bags (maximum allowed) so we only had personal items and the musical instruments to carry-on. Our burden lightened and boarding passes in hand, we headed to passport control desks to get our exit stamp. This required filling out yellow cards (again). I think this is the 4th time for this card, so it was at least a familiar process. When the yellow cards were dutifully filled out, we presented them to get our exit stamps in our passport. Next we located our departure gate; another x-ray and security check (passports and boarding passes). This is where all the water and lethal weapons (toenail clippers) were being confiscated. There was a large container of such items. Belts, shoes, computers were collected on the other side and we sat down to wait in the secure waiting area. Sarah, David, and Kayla stayed behind to do some shopping with Lisa and Evey (whose plane left an hour later than ours). As our boarding time drew near, we worried that they might not get through the security line in time. The line remained fairly long, even though the waiting area was filling. Our plane was a 747, and it holds a lot of people. We were about to go looking, when we saw them in line. Wendy appeared also (she was on the same plane for the first leg of her flight).

Boarding was delayed; they reported they were doing extra security checks. The plane was nice and the individual video screens all worked very well. The KLM staff were very helpful and friendly. After takeoff, we watched a movie or two and tried to get some sleep. Dinner was good -- chicken pot pie, salad, and a cream-filled cake of some sort. I had trouble getting comfortable. The plane was quite full; there was no opportunity to stretch out.