Saturday, December 10, 2011

Trouble at the Airport

I arrived at the Nairobi International airport at 6:30 this morning with seemingly plenty of time to make my 8:30 flight. I was slightly concerned when I saw the line for the check-in counter looping through the building, out the door, and wrapping around the outside of the building. The line was moving at a reasonable pace until I was inside the building and it ground more or less to a halt. Upon asking an airport staff member if I should be concerned about missing my flight, I was told 'don't worry, you'll be called.' I wasn't. But was comforted by the fact that everyone in the line around me was in the same boat.

I made it to the front of the line at 8:11, nine minutes before my flight was scheduled to be in the air. I'll give some credit to Kenyan Airways - although the process of getting into their airport seems somewhat chaotic and disorganized, they do know how to make it up to their clients when mistakes are made. They immediately booked me on a flight for tomorrow, put me up in a high end hotel, and gave an unecessarily large sum of cash for compensation.

So now me and a lovely Cameroonian girl who was also left behind are hanging out in our fancy hotel. Both aware that we are well underdressed and well out of place, we couldn't help giggling to ourselves when we walked into the hotel, were given hot towels, glasses of fresh squeezed juice, and a concierge to carry our luggage. So if all goes well, I'll be on my way to Madagascar tomorrow.

I'm still trying to figure out how time went so quickly over these last few months. It seems like it was just yesterday that I arrived and yet an eternity all at the same time. There are so many new and wonderful people in my life and so many experiences that I have been blessed to partake in and learn from. Life is such a great adventure.