Nairobi

I typically do not take a taxi or Uber to the airport from my son’s apartment in Manhattan. But this morning I have 3 bags to carry and it’s rush hour.  I decided to call an Uber.  An Uberx is available in 3 minutes for $117! If I take the subway then AirTrain, it’d have cost me about $10. If I take the subway, the LIRR train, then AirTrain, it’d have costs about $15.  Taking public transportation would have meant carrying my bags up and down stairs and fighting the rush-hour crowd. But paying $100 more just doesn’t make sense at all. The US is one of the few countries that does not have easy access from the city center to the airport using public transportation.  First time visitors are usually shocked at this and how much taxi fares cost.

It's July 15 and today I am taking a direct flight from JFK to Nairobi Airport on Kenya Airways.  OAT could have booked my flights but they usually have 1 or more stopovers.  I decided to take a credit and book my own flight.  Kenya Airways is the only airline to fly direct from the US to Nairobi.  

I arrived at the airport early.  I was shocked to find there was already a long line waiting to check in.  This usually doesn't happen but a group of about 30 young Mormon missionaries were ahead of me.  There were only 4 people working to check us in.  It was a very long and slow process.

I finally got to TSA security, where it'd usually take me 5 minutes to get through because I have Clear and TSA Pre-check passes.  However, this time was different.  I had camera equipment inside my backpack and they want to examine it closely.  In the process they took out my iPad and did not put it back.  I went to the American Express Centurion Lounge and that's when I realized my iPad was missing.  I quickly ran back to the security area.  They showed me several iPads and I finally found mine.  What it is telling me is that this happens frequently - iPads or laptops being left by passengers.  

The flight was full and I was sitting among a group of noisy Mormon missionaries.  They were on their way to Uganda to build a church.  The seat that I purchased had a broken TV screen.  I had to move to another seat.  The girl in front of me leaned her seat back.  I had to tell her that she is taking away 8inches of my space.  I see other passengers doing the same.  That's the case with infrequent travelers - think for yourself and not who is behind you.

A Kenya Airways plane

After a very long 14-hour flight we landed in Nairobi late morning.  I was met by a local representative and had to wait about 30 minutes for my driver to arrive.  I was taken to the Eka Hotel, about 15 minutes away.  It's a fairly nice modern hotel, probably 3- or 4-star.  I met Osbert Kihomwe, my Tour Experience Leader.  He will be leading our group for the entire trip.  In some ways, he is our "baby-sitter."  He is responsible for ensuring that we are at the right place at the right time, our hotels and tours are all okay and listen and act on any personal problems that we have.  It's similar to the Volunteer Trip Leader job that I was doing with Arizona Highways Photoscapes for 7 years.

I took a 2-hour nap to make up for the lack of sleep on the plane.  One has to be careful not to sleep too long or you will not adapt to the local time zone.  Dinner that night was on my own.

I met the rest of the group at breakfast the next morning.  There were 10 of us, from different parts of the US.  There were 2 couples, two friends traveling together and the rest of us four are solo travelers.  The Tour Leader mentioned 3 things that we to do or not to do.  I don't remember the first two but I remember the third - we are not to discuss American politics.  That is not surprising, considering the divide between pro-Trump and non-Trump supporters.  We were all very discreet the first few days but it didn't take us long to find out that most in the group are not Trump supporters or don't care.  This sets the tone for the rest of the trip - a harmonious group, which leads to a lot of laughing and singing.  

Mark Twain wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejuidce, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

Apparently, travel does not change some of these people.

The first place we visited was the Nairobi National Museum.  It gave us a backdrop to the history and culture of Kenya.  A former British colony, it has a population of almost 48 million.  When I think of Kenya, I think of coffee and great middle- and long-distance runners,  The most famous is 11-time world marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, who held the world record from 2018 to 2023.

Kenyan schoolchildren waiting to get into the Museum

Wildlife of Kenya

President Obama's father was Kenyan

Our next stop is the Kobe Tough Ceramic Bead factory, a bead-making enterprise that supports Maasai women whose communities have been pushed into poverty because of worsening drought conditions and loss of cattle herds.  They showed us how they start from clay to shaped products and then firing them in the kiln.

Starting with the raw product - clay

Firing in the kiln

The finished beads

The next morning we visited one of the largest slums in Africa - the Kiberia slums.  Most Americans will be shocked by the extreme poverty but you find that in almost every developing country.  I visited one in Rio de Janeirio in Brazil.  They called that a Favela.  We had a local guide to take us around and visited the inside of a home and watch how the locals go about their daily lives.

Collecting garbage on the street

Inside the room of a resident

Cooking outdoors, not by choice

A local clinic

Our last stop in Nairobi is the Giraffe Center, where they are trying to protect and populate the Rothschild giraffe.  Only 2,000 of this endangered giraffe subspecies live in the wild today.  

Rothschild Giraffes

Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to walk around Nairobi.  We were short on time and it was not safe to walk around on our own.  Even the Eka Hotel is a fenced property.  During our time in Kenya there were riots in other parts of the city to protest against tax increases.  Just a reminder that we are here for the safari, not sight-seeing.