Part Five: Tanzania

Sunday 12th July It was too cold to sleep after half six, but as no-one else was up apart from Agnes, we went outside to look at the sheep and goats. It seemed a very slow morning, eventually we had cocoa and bread. The thermos ran out whilst Elizabeth was pouring Bruce’s second cup, and she refilled the thermos with tea then topped up his cup with it - a strange concoction! We had cup of 'real' tea with Nicholas later.
John showed us the clothes that had been made for my parents: he made me put my mum’s on! I think dad’s shirt is too big, they thought he’d be big like Bruce! Pic: my parents wearing their beautiful Maasai garments in NZ.
We took some photos just after nine, prayed for each other, then left for airport. Nicholas was rather upset to be stopped by police, who fined him 500 Ksh for ‘carrying passengers in a dangerous manner’ – John, Joseph & Moses were standing on the deck. I’d been more worried about Maurice standing in the cab!
As only passengers are allowed to enter the departures' terminal, we said our goodbyes outside. You pass through security just inside the doors.
After filling out the departure cards, we weighed our bags on some old-fashioned scales, the attendant writing the weights on a card. Check-in was very quick, so we went upstairs and dozed a bit. We were surprised to hear our flight being called for boarding an hour early, at 11. It may have been because three different flights were due out of our gate within fifteen minutes of each other!
The plane left on time, and they quickly served chicken pie, cake + juice during the hour-long flight! We were the first off the plane, but not the first to get visas!
Part V - Tanzania
After filling in the forms, we took them over to an official near the offices. He took our passports, forms and money, telling us to wait with all the rest of the people there - what a VERY long wait! Unfortunately a group of Japanese tourists from our plane hadn’t got their visas at their embassy before leaving home, this caused quite a fuss! An American couple became quite frustrated with the delay, and weren't very amused when I quipped that the staff were just giving them their money’s worth, USD 50 must be worth some time - however, they told us they'd had to pay 100 each! Everyone else waited quietly, apart from one man who went to the offices himself instead of waiting, then when he was given change, he started to argue as they'd given him some old notes - a lot of places won’t accept USD from before the year 2000 or even later. He ended up being escorted away!
A whole hour later, we exited into the roped-off meet/greet area - no sign of Michael Kikumbo, the young man we'd worked with during our year in Bukoba. He'd become rather like a son to me so two years apart seemed far too long!
Oh, there he was - over by a group of taxi drivers, arranging transport! This rather abbreviated the greetings - no hugs possible, as we had to take our bags to the car. I was so pleased to see him, I didn’t take much notice of where we were going on the drive to our hotel, I was far too busy talking in the back seat! I did notice the big, busy soko (market) in Manzese on the way. Michael directed the driver across the dual carriageway, entering an alleyway and coming round by a back entrance to park beside a small guest house. However, Michael decided to take us to a larger place across the road, so we had pick up our bags and look for a good opportunity to cross, leaving the taxi driver to find his way out of the side street.
After being shown up to our room, Michael left to get the bus tickets for the next day, without saying when he’d be back. After having a shower, we slept till 4.30, then decided to wait for Michael, watching the little TV. By seven, he still hadn't appeared and as we were getting really hungry we went downstairs to the little restaurant. He arrived just after we’d ordered our food, but as he'd already eatern, he only wanted some juice. We only had an hour together, as we needed to be up at five to go to the bus station, the bus would leave at 6.30 & arrive in Same about 3 p.m. It was lovely to hear him trying out some English!

Part Four: Kenya

Tuesday 30th June Descending into Dubai, 2 small children started vomiting, one was panicking, and her dad was rather brusque.  She coped much better when she sat by the window with her mother. 
What a hot place, 32° at 5.30 a.m.!
We had a rather frustrating time trying to get our homeward journey organised.  We wanted to use our Skywards points to upgrade to business class from Nairobi to Dubai, and also wanted to find out whether we would be able to get a shuttle to/from our hotel.
Everyone had a different idea as to where the Skywards desk was!  First we were told it’s at Gate 121 in the old terminal – nothing!  The information desk sent us upstairs, two sets of people directed us back through security to another desk where we were told to go upstairs to the Business lounge.  However, we couldn't get there from where we were, so had to go back to Transfers passing through security again!  Well, we were back where we started, halfway down Terminal Three! 
When we went upstairs, we were confronted by a large lady who asked if we were registered!  Only Silver and Gold customers can use the Skywards desks at the airport, so we'd have to use the internet or phone!
After walking around the airport for 1 1/2 hours, we were feeling rather tired!  After having orange juice and sundaes at McDonald’s, we put our feet up for 20 minutes before heading off the the boarding area.  We were very surprised to be upraded to Business class along with many others!  God has a real sense of humour!!It was good to be able to put our feet up on the plane, no swelling for once!  None of the other planes had had foot rests.  You certainly get a much larger variety of foods (including a glass pottle of jam!), larger servings of juice, a choice of teas & coffees, a bottle of water and good earphones!
Take-off was delayed by the paper war that ensued after a passenger didn’t board, also their baggage had to be offloaded, caused a paper war.  Further delays were caused by rescheduling the runway!  However, we were still on time in Nairobi!
Part IV – Kenya
It was humid, and warm, 21° at 3 p.m.  We were shocked by the brownness of the countryside, it should have been green.
After waiting in the queue for ½ hour for a visa, we found we needed another form!  That meant another ½ hour wait!  They were certainly taking swine flu' seriously, you were given a special form to fill in with a tear-off slip for a doctor in case you got sick.
We were met by 5 Maasai including our friend John Tino. They’d been there since lunchtime, although I'd told them not to be there before half 3!  Some had never seen planes before, so had been having lots of fun watching them take off and land.
Unfortunately I managed to lose some travellers’ cheques by accidentally replacing them between my money belt & skirt.  I was trying to be very careful as it's offensive for a woman to show her waist!
We went to the Kenya Airways office outside Departures hoping to pay for our tickets to Tanzania, but they wouldn’t accept our voucher although we’d been assured it would be OK.  That meant planning a trip to the Precision Air office in Nairobi the next day.
We all went in Nicholas Teeka's ute – one of John Tino’s half-brothers – to his house in a small Maasai settlement near the airport.  He and his wife Agnes live in a 3-room corrugated iron hut with their 2 children and one of his other wife’s children.  The other lives with its mother at his father’s manyatta.  Pictured from L to R: John, Nicholas, Agnes + child, Elizabeth (John's fiancée).The house is surrounded by netting fences - animals live on three sides in pens, the fourth has a gate.  A smaller hut contains the jiko (stove), a bed and cupboards.  Hens fly up to peck scraps off the dirty plates stacked in the wooden dish-stand in the yard.  Young animals stay around all day, older ones are taken out to grazing.  The bathroom is a tiny iron shed behind the 'house' with a branch for soap and wire for towel + clothes.  The toilet was a padlocked long-drop in the open space outside the fence.
The settlement has sll kinds of houses from traditional mud/thatch huts, through mud brick to iron.  Many are dilapidated or derelict.  It's approached on a dirt road that first passes between home-made dukas (shops) and kibandas (roofed stalls).  It's a noisy place to live, there are planes all day, (a Red Cross one at 4.30 p.m.), and at night: cow bells; animals snorting, coughing, & urinating; little children crying; people talking; even 2 birds that together sounded like a squeaky see-saw! 
We were only able to eat half the food offered as by the time we got to eat, it was so late at night! However, it was good to meet John’s fiancée, Elizabeth, who’d been staying with Nicholas and his family for a couple of weeks.  She finds the city hard to get used to as her home is out in the bush. 
We were quite shocked and very sad to hear, during the after-dinner discussion, that their wedding had been postponed.  The church leaders had decided this at a meeting on Friday: because John's house isn’t finished, and people can’t afford to bring gifts due to the drought.
It was hard to sleep too as it was so cold and we only had a bottom sheet – usually you supply your own, but we hadn’t packed one!  Everyone else had gone offto bed too, and we didn't want to disturb anyone, so we put on sweaters and socks, and huddled together under my dressing gown all night! 
I woke up in the middle of the night feeling very upset about losing the money, feeling such a fool! I'd only found out when we went to bed so couldn't do anything about it straight away.