Trip to Sangar

A few weeks ago I got a chance to head out with our field team - this doesn't happen often for me as I'm in the office all day. I was very excited because this area is quite off the beaten track and supposed to be very beautiful. Plus its great to see what the teams are up to. This day Simon, our new Watsan Manager, was sizing up some boreholes to see if they were ready for a cattletrough. The cattletrough is just like it sounds, a wide trench connected to a long channel from the borehole to collect the extra water that is pumped out. If there is no cattletrough, the animals will come right up to the borehole, which presents a number of problems including animal dung that contaminates the water & spreads disease as well as broken concret around the handpump that can lead to contamination as well. I have learned a few things since I've been here!

Our cat

Mainly, I like having a cat, specifically our cat Tony, because he is cute & loves to cuddle - doesn't seem like an African cat as I always figured they would be scrawny & mangey. Tony is definitely not mangey... But, another very important reason we have Tony is for this:

This rat was in my tukel at midnight...I was very thankful to have Tony to take care of it!

Fun with Pink

Trace is a master practical joker...and I am easily drawn into her evil ways. While Jakob was on break last week, we decided to make good use of the red & white paint we have lying around our base. The result is below, with a few added accents to really make Jakob's princess tukel (do you see the barbie sheets?), or as I affectionately call it the 'pinkel', ready for his return. The smile you see below is slightly forced. Pink suits him, don't you think?

Shameless appeal

Yes, this is Jacob & I doing a Tim Tam Slam…and I am now officially out of tim tams!

Any slammers out there want to send me some?

Oh, and those Lipton Green Tea (honey & lemon flavor) To Go packets are amazingly good & helpful for me to drink enough water to keep hydrated as well as having a full 80mg of protective flavonoid antioxidants (not sure what they are, but I’m quite certain my body could use more of them!) …and I’m out of these too.

Do I sound pitiful enough?

Surprised by friendship

My hope upon moving here to Kaabong was to be able to help those who are in need, to serve some of the most vulnerable by using my skills and through which to honor God. I expected in this journey to meet people of various backgrounds and diversity. I expected to enjoy living here, getting to know the culture, interacting with the Karamojong people. I expected to learn a ton about relief & development work, to draw more conclusions as to my opinions for or against humanitarian aid. I expected to miss home and friends, but love being here even in the midst.

Right before leaving for Uganda last August, I wrote the post called Feeling Life. I talked about feeling the loss of amazing community and the hope that when I leave Uganda in a year or so, I would feel the same way then – that my investments here would be just as deep and life-changing.

So far, I’ve had a couple glimpses of this investment and loss. This month we have 5 staff leaving our team in Kaabong. Below is a picture of 4 of these staff.

Jacob, also known as Coco, has accepted the position of Chairperson of the Dodoth Hand Pump Mechanic Association. Because of the nature of this position/association, he cannot be the chairperson and work for Medair at the same time – unfortunately it is a conflict of interest. He’s a pump mechanic, a water technician, a trainer, and overall a really great guy!

Anna Stella is one of our Community Trainers & her contract is over this month due to the end of her part of our project, which involved mobilizing the community and training Hygiene Promoters to encourage more healthy hygienic habits within Kaabong Town.

Sarah is going to work for the District as their HR official. She has been a Community Trainer for us as well & has shown us how amazing she is at mobilizing the Water User Commitees around the district. She is highly respected and loved in this community – let alone within Medair – I will truly miss her laugh, smile, and strong will!

Benson is working with the District as Town Agent. He has also been a Community Trainer with us for the last 3 months and has proved himself to be honest, trustworthy, and very hardworking. We are sad to see him go!

Charles (not pictured) is working as the District Water Officer & therefore will be still very involved in Medair’s work as we work alongside to create better access to clean water throughout the district. Charles has been working with us for 4 months & has proved to be one of the most intelligent and motivated Karamojong I’ve ever met. He has the best smile & laugh, yet the strictest loyalty to truth! He is determined to not get caught up in the corruption associated with a high position & I’m praying God gives him the strength to see that through and be the change within this town/district!

They are talented, educated, incredible people who we have prayed, worked, laughed and cried alongside for the past 4-9 months. We had a goodbye party last week for 2 of them & the tears were very near as I thought of days going by without seeing them. The good news is that 4 of the 5 have jobs within town, so I will still see them around! But I did get a glimpse of what leaving Kaabong may bring…

The other glimpse came in the form of a very unexpected blessing upon living in Kaabong – Jacob & Georgia Reed. I’ve mentioned these folks many times before, but now they have officially left Kaabong and I already miss them dearly! I never expected to meet people here that I could connect with so quickly but also that I could hope to see again upon returning to the states! Their friendship was a blessing from God to me. Georgia has been a strong shoulder for me as I’ve waded through the last 7 months of getting to know Kaabong. She’s a prayer partner, a chick-flick friend, a facebook scrabulous sister, and a tim-tam slammer extraordinaire! Jacob has been a source of wisdom as we wade through the issues of suffering and culture here, wrestling difficult situations and relationships through prayer and grace. Both have been a source of stability in being fellow Americans as I’ve learned that living with others from all over the world can be trying & just having some common background can be so refreshing.

The Reeds have finished their time here in Kaabong, definitely in God’s timing, and are headed home to Lubbock, Texas to hopefully begin a family and see what God has in store next for them. (check out their blog) I will miss them oh so dearly, but am grateful for the time I had with them here in the middle of nowhere! Thank you, God, for providing friendship where it was never expected!

Empties

On my way back to base today from a walk, I had a few friends join me. They kept saying this word I didn't know in ngkarimojong, so I asked our guard, Charles, what they wanted. He said they were asking for empties - these are containers from food we have that we'll be throwing out. We used to just put them in our rubbish pit, but after finding children rooting through the pit a few times for these 'gems', we decided to keep them aside & every once in awhile have a giveaway day when all the children around our base could get some empties. These containers range from tin cans to olive bottles - junk/trash from our point of view, but treasures to them! I asked our friend, Kristine, today if we should even give them the tin cans & she said of course! The children love to play that they are cooking with them! Aren't children the same everywhere? (that is, they like to play house & pretend - not that they play with dirty old containers!)

Today's treasures were 2 baked bean cans, a nescafe instant coffee tin, and a cocoa powder bottle.

Our guard, Charles, is here behind the children.

This is Martha, she's my ngakarimojong tutor, and her baby. She's a lovely woman who is very patient with my slow learning.

My issues - Jan to April 08

Upon my arrival back in Kaabong I was more hopeful, as I mentioned in the last post. Our team was changing in a good way and I had been here for 4 months – surely I was now settled and ready to thrive here like I hadn’t before. Unfortunately within the first two weeks, I had experienced a heightened sense of anxiety – unlike any I had experienced before! What was wrong with me? I would obsess over little decisions, my head turning & turning over minute details all the while I’m rationally telling myself its stupid & I should stop, but I can’t. Anything new that was thrown my way seemed like the most challenging thing I ever faced, I was paralyzed by decisions and trying new things. Not the best way to have to work in a totally different culture! Plus, my relationships within the team started suffering – it wasn’t outward, just inside me I found I was taking everything that was said to me deeply personally. I constantly felt defeated and like I was battling within myself day after day. January was such a difficult month for me – I had some conversations with my bosses and explained what I was going through. I knew that if something didn’t change, I was going to need to leave. I couldn’t just keep on surviving day in & out, I want to thrive, or at least have a bit of joy & peace in my days, rather than the despair and frustration I was feeling right then. We agreed to take those first 8 weeks for me to seek out what the best next step was for me, that in March I would have to decided if I would stay or go.

All this time, my desire to be here never left. I knew this is where I wanted to me, that this is where God had brought me & my time here was not over. But, was it the most healthy thing for me right then? Or even healthy for my team? I was praying for some major help, as I didn’t know what to do next. They had me come out of the field a bit earlier than had been planned, so I could talk with the counselor in Kampala. Within a day of being out of the field, I had a full-on panic attack and it was very clear that this had less to do with my environment in Kaabong and more to do with something inside me! My meeting with the counselor went well, she is a lovely lady that I had met before with a lot of insight and compassion. After talking for an hour about my experiences, she said with quite some determination, that she thought I had a chemical imbalance and should consider a type of medication to help me. She’s not a psychiatrist & couldn’t prescribe me anything, but wanted me to think about it & see the doctor in the mean time to check if anything else was affecting me physically. My visit with the doctor didn’t produce any results – which led to another doctor & eventually to the psychiatrist.

Honestly, I’ve never been on any type of anti-depressants and obviously never liked the idea. I had some major concerns about just drowning out what’s going on in me (with Garden State on my mind) to the point of not feeling anything and also just being hooked on meds. I wanted to be sure this was really a good option, especially being in a foreign country! But as the days went on & I continued experiencing these anxieties continually, I finally got to the point of saying I would try anything! I wanted some relief, something to control these emotions, these crazy swiriling issues in my brain that I had no control over! I was very convinced that even returning home to the US would not cure what was going on in me – so after some research and great conversations with good friends like Kelley Gray, Constance, and Tiffani, I felt confident to give them a try. So, on my 28^th birthday, I began taking anti-anxiety/depressants – not sure what that mile-marker states, but I’m hoping it says I’m open to new options and always committed to growing, learning, and being healthy…

I’ve been on the meds for 6 weeks now and I feel more like myself than I have since I arrived in Uganda! I can think clearly, I have joy & peace daily! I face each day with courage and am excited at challenges that come my way instead of hiding in a corner and trembling at every new encounter. I finally feel like I’m thriving here! That’s been my prayer all along & finally I’m here – amazing! Thank you to everyone who walked with me through this craziness – especially my parents as I know they only wished I would jump on a plane to let them take care of me instead of getting sporadic updates and worrying for me in the midst of my breakdowns. They are truly the best parents ever! I love you, mom & dad!

I’m also on a 6-month stint with the meds, hoping to go gradually off them so that I’m not dependant continually. This has been a huge learning experience, but I have to say it gives me some major perspective on the fragility of our mental state – my mental state. Thank God for medication that can help my brain remember the correct way to work!

After starting the meds, I saw the counselor again and we began to look at some deeper issues of why I’ve gotten to this state. I’m not really sure how much this can be caused by stress or if there’s even any proven way you come to a point of a chemical imbalance. However, I am sure that I have issues inside that definitely did not contribute positively to my very fragile emotional state. See, I’m a people pleaser – I love to keep peace and have everyone being happy…which often comes at the expense of my well-being. She gave me a book to read called: “Pleasing you is destroying me” and it has been really helpful as I’m working through why I do the things I do. I’m so thankful to even have the state of mind to which I can tackle some destructive thought patterns and even pray through my interactions with the people around me. I still have a lot to work on, but little by little I’m learning to distinguish between what I need to do based on pleasing others versus what I want or my role in my job. There’s a lot more to say about this, but for now I wanted to let you know what’s been going on with me.

So that’s my story – I’m really enjoying Kaabong right now! I’ve started tutoring one of our staff, Stella, in reading & writing English. Here she is:

She is an amazing cook and helps us around the house/office, but has never had the opportunity to go to school. Stella did receive some tutoring when she worked with another NGO, but not enough to feel confident in reading. She is so excited to learn & I’m so excited to get to spend this one-on-one time with her and see her flourish! It’s the best part of my week!

My issues - Sept to Dec 07

My break from blogging is officially over. Excuse the silence, it wasn't so much intentional as a result of the need for less computer time and more relational time.

So, some of you know what’s been going on in my life the past few months, some of you don’t. I was trying to decide how much I express on here, since its very public & I probably don’t know some of you reading this very well. But the more I consider, the more I realize that my reasons for not sharing are unnecessary & exactly part of my issues to begin with. I care a lot what people think of me – I’m a people pleaser. I care how people view my decisions & if they would have done the same. That’s probably the biggest reason I hesitate…I hate rejection, which in my mind equals others disagreeing with me be it on what I want to eat for lunch to what the path of my life is. Yes, that’s right, I’m a very sick woman! :) The good news is, I’m very aware I have issues and am facing them.

Back to the last few months…or maybe even further than that… When I first arrived in Uganda, I was taking these malaria meds called Mefloquine – otherwise known as Larium. Now, I’ve taken these meds before on short trips, for no longer than 8 weeks total. I’ve never had a bad experience & when my doctor talked with me before leaving, she recommended it because of my previous experiences – plus its only a once a week pill rather than daily doses. Upon arriving here I heard some stories of others’ issues with the meds, but continued to shrug them off as you kind of have to pick & choose what medical advice you take from those who don’t live in your body and who aren’t medical experts. In September & October I had some anxiety, mostly as it came to dealing with my job and the fact that everything I was experiencing was new and sometimes scary. Plus I was put in the role of leading our team a few times, which wasn’t in my plan and felt way bigger than I could handle – I learned a ton, made it through, but not without continual prayer and lots of deep breaths! Mid-October I started to experience vertigo – this continual dizziness, day in & out…really weird. As I left the field in November and visited with my great friend Tif in Kampala, I experienced my first panic attack. Thanks to Tif’s amazing counseling background and friendship, she talked me into taking another look at the malaria meds’ side effects, as she thought they might include anxiety. Better yet, they include anxiety, panic, and vertigo! Decision made – NO MORE LARIUM! (side note: please consider this drug very seriously if you decide to travel to a malaria-prone country, as many friends here had worse experiences like seizures and long-lasting mental health issues!)

My head & heart lightened up after this was banished from my body and I felt more-or-less normal for a month. Then, the craziness of December came upon us & even though we were not shopping and partying towards the holidays, we were busy and stretched and all on the point of burnout in the Kaabong team. It was tough – so the holiday break was very welcome. I had a lovely time in South Africa, as you may have seen in a post when I returned, and enjoyed my time with Constance & Wayne. However I definitely did not ‘bounce back’ as I thought I would during that time. There was a heaviness that was present that I couldn’t explain & sometimes would just cloud my emotions for periods of time. I returned to Uganda with hope for the future, but definitely unsure of what to expect next…more to come in future posts…

Part 3 - "You're in the wrong queue!"

Brief American English translation for those like me that had never heard the word before the last year or so: queue sounds like ‘cue’ and is the British English for a lineup or waiting line.

So the next morning I head to the airport & make it in plenty of time. They have the security set up as you first enter the airport doors – so no one goes in unless they have tickets. After standing through the line & getting my bags checked, I stand in line at the ticket counter with the pages I was given yesterday at the Kenya airlines office. I get to the front & the lady just looks at me – this ticket isn’t valid. I need to go back to the office to get a printout from them before I can get my boarding pass! :( Of course, right – so begins my day of being in the wrong queue! So I go back outside, quite livid, and walk the 500 meters to the office where I’m trying hard to be polite yet firm, but having a very hard time being patient as I have a plane to catch in the next hour! They print it out, I go back through security, back through the line at the ticket counter & finally get to my gate. HUGE sigh of relief. Finally I’m on my way to South Africa! Just have to comment at this point that I am SO THANKFUL that I packed everything to carry on as I probably would have lost all my luggage to this point going on this luck.

The flight to South Africa goes just fine, but I do realize that the tickets they booked for my flight from Joburg to Cape Town only leave me about 1 ½ hours in Joburg…ok, let’s see how this goes! (can you tell by now that its not going to go well?) I’m in a rush because I need to make it on this next flight. We head towards immigration & there are two entrances – the first one is the one everyone on the plane is going through. I see another entrance another 50 meters down the hallway. Ah-ha, I think, I’ll go to that one & maybe find a quicker line. I get in there & head to my line for those without a S.A. passport. I wait a minute & then ask the lady guarding the lines if there is somewhere I can get through quicker, since I’m going to miss my flight – she points to the ‘special cases’ line at the end where about 5 families are queued. I head there & after about 5 minutes of no movement and kids screaming, I decide to go back to my original line. About 10 minutes later I’m up to the front, facing the immigration official as he looks at me, looks at my passport and says: “You’re in the wrong queue”. See, that first entrance was the only place I could go through for the flight I was on – they won’t let me through at this immigration station. No flexibility, no hope. So, I head back up the stairs & to the first entrance where I come to a scarily large room with like 300 people queuing to get through!!! I panic, I admit & when I see the sign that says international transfers, I think – surely that’s me, I just came internationally! I stand in that queue about 5 minutes & then ask a lady that works there as she passes by – no, I’m not in the right queue, I need to go back to the line of 300 people! Right – by now I’ve pretty much lost hope at getting on my plane since I have 30 minutes, but I pray for just a little help. I decide to be firm & take my pitiful self to a lady who seems to be in charge of all the lines – I tell her my awful sob story & she lets me go through the S.A. line which has only about 3 people in it! YAY! No baggage to pick up on the other side, so I head as quickly as I can towards the exit to the domestic terminal – but am stopped at the door by the customs lady who is quite curt. I have to fill out a customs form – which they never gave us on the plane! So, in an absolute huff, I fill out the form, hand it to the lady and run through – I’m really just so sick of this place now, I’m not even thinking through where I need to go & why. I end up in the international terminal in a food court – not sure how, but that’s where I was & found a lovely lady who looked at me like I was crazy when I told her what flight I was trying to get on. She said, you’re very far from where you need to be! Big surprise, right? I follow her good directions to the next building over – which is a good 10 minute walk/jog.

Now, this airport is not like airports in the states. Its more like London Heathrow – ever been there? In order to get your boarding pass for your domestic flight, you have to go to the ticket counter again, which is in this massively huge warehouse type room that has hundreds of desks, but only one or two that serve your specific flight. So, I enter this obtrusive room at noon – when my flight is leaving…ok, well, surely I can still get to Cape Town today, right? After asking a few people, all I’m told is to stand in the line for the next flight on that airline & then get them to change the flight when I get to the front. So, for the next 20 mintues of queue I’m at least entertained by this lovely French guy who also was on my flight and missed his connection to Cape Town. When I get to the front, the guy looks at me & says that there is no way to change my ticket – there are no more seats today…and I look at him as if he’s the bain of my existence. I tell him that cannot be possible, he doesn’t know what I’ve been through to now & I have to get on a plane TODAY! He says my only hope is to go to the other customer service desk and get them to upgrade my ticket. Ok, he points the way & here I go to another queue. At the front, the lady says there are no other seats, its not possible, but another airline might be able to get me on & points me across the huge warehouse to another customer service desk. I go there – stand in their queue – and am told they have no seats left, no luck. At this point, I lose it. I don’t know what else to do…and I begin to sob. After a few minutes of telling myself this isn’t helping anything, I head back to the original customer service desk & demand that something has to be done – I’ll pay more, I just want to get there today! The lady says they’ve been told not to sell any more tickets today…but its only 1pm!!!!! So I stand there crying & she tells me to wait a minute.

Side note here – my love & support goes out to all those airport ticket counter reps as that has got to be so hard to handle really frustrated people all the time. But if only I had gotten a smile, an understanding nod, something along the way! I’ve been in the customer service business & its HARD. I’m just saying I feel for them & yet I still get really frustrated with them!

She comes back & says I can pay about $200 for an upgrade. Great. I do it, anything to get there & be done with traveling!!!! She’s gives me a slip and says now I need to go stand in the other line again to get the boarding pass. Ok, so I head to the higher class line & go through. The guy prints my ticket & I begin walking away, actually excited at the thought of having a nicer seat on the way. As I walk, I notice the ticket still says ‘economy’ – must be a mistake! I go back to the counter and interrupt the man, asking why this is an economy ticket? He says because that’s what I purchased – but I said no, I paid to upgrade. He said you’ll need to talk to the customer service lady. Back again – she explains its just an upgrade to a seat that she could sell to me, but not any special class above economy. Right, of course not, how stupid of me to think that $200 would be worth a better seat, maybe a snack or some type of slack at this point. Fine, I go through security & am finally, FINALLY, ready to wait a bit before my flight leaves.

Now, I desperately need to call Constance to let her know I’m going to be much later than I thought. Well, I’m in S.A. now & my sim card from Nairobi of course doesn’t work. So, I find the payphones – except none seem to work with the credit cards that they advertise they work with. I have no S.A. Rand (money) because I’ve only been in the airport & didn’t need it. Surely there’s an ATM around…no, only outside of security. Well, maybe I can buy a sim card & some airtime to call her. The phone kiosk only sells through a machine that only takes rand (cash) which I don’t have. The guy sends me to the convenience store. I ask about sim cards & that guy points me to another machine – only takes cash. Can you imagine how I’m doing at this point? Utterly defeated and exhausted…not a good combination. My last ditch effort is the internet place – maybe they have a way to call through the internet that I could use my credit card? I walk up to the desk & explain I need to make a call (to an international number, no less), is it possible to call through the internet? The very nice lady says, well there are payphones around the corner…and I absolutely lose it! I’m a basketcase of tears! I tell her my sobstory and the poor lady just stands there shocked and so concerned – she tells me not to cry & hands me 4 rand of her personal money! She said its going to be fine, go call your friend! Through my tears, I offer her the 10 USDollars I have in exchange, but she won’t hear of it. I stand there sobbing & say “you’re the first nice person I’ve met all day” and with a huge thank you & a ridiculous exit, I make it to the payphone & leave Constance a blubbering message about when I’ll arrive, etc.

Yeah – my plane of course was delayed, but I did make it on! That was my horrible experience, luckily Constance was waiting for me on the other side & the whole trip we continued to experience my luck of ‘standing in the wrong queue’. I even managed to go to the wrong terminal on my way back to Uganda – but made it ok that time! :)

Oh, and if you made it this far in reading my ridiculousness, you’re either a sucker for hoping for a good ending or someone who loves to dwell in the misery of others – either way, thanks for humoring me! :)

Part 2 - Adventures in Nairobi

So, I’m at the airport & need to find a place to stay for the night. Medair has a base here in Nairobi to support the Southern Sudan teams, so that was the place to start – connections are key! Problem is, my phone is not roaming – it won’t make any calls. With the very few Kenyan shillings I have, I’m able to purchase a sim card & some airtime as all phones in Africa are pay-as-you go. I manage to get the Medair number from my friends in Uganda, but can’t get ahold of anyone. I decide its better to just show up there & see what’s available. So begins a fun adventure with Stephen to find this place in Nairobi based on a street name…we get there about an hour later – the traffic has died down since that morning. The Medair office is found, but is closed, no one’s there today! The teamhouse is supposed to not be far, so we search again & this time it doesn’t take too long to find the place – no one’s there either! Ok – but there is a helpful landskeeper who calls the person in charge to see if they have any room for me. Unfortunately, no, they are all full this week…so I ask if they have any suggestions around the area? They do – and it would cost me about $60 for one night…in Nairobi? Huge sigh, Stephen says he’s knows this Catholic guesthouse nearby that we could try. So we head there & it looks promising, but the lady at the front desk says they are not taking any guests today. Right. Next suggestion is the YMCA downtown – a youth hostel. Well, its still the afternoon, so I decide to take a look and see if it might be ok for one night…I really don’t want to sleep in a dorm-like room and have to worry about my things while I’m sick… It actually ended up being quite nice – for a hostel in Africa. I got my own private room, it was very affordable & they have a restaurant there, an internet café, and a swimming pool. The guy at the front desk even escorted me downtown to get some more money at the ATM – he said it wasn’t a good idea for me to go out alone…I think even if I had felt better that night, I would have spent most of my time locked in my room! So, I went to bed early and planned to get up very early to catch my next flight and hope that the next day would be better than my first…

The worst traveling experience I ever had - post 1 of 3

was my adventure from Uganda to South Africa just before Christmas. It began about two days prior to my date of departure. I was in Kampala for a few days of management meetings and happened to email my travel agent about luggage allowances. She emailed back that night, about 50 hours before I was to board the plane, that my flights from Johannesburg to Cape Town and back were cancelled due to a change in alliance between my airline, Kenya airways, and the domestic airline in S.A. Not only was it cancelled, but I would need to purchase a new flight – at my expense, no refund from the other flight – and I also needed to come in to their office to get it done before leaving. I got this information over email, in Africa. Who would ever think emailing someone in Africa would be reliable? What if I didn’t check my email before leaving? What if I couldn’t check my email before leaving, which is more likely to be the case here! Well, I had meetings for the next two days, all day long, and would not be able to get to their office – plus I had already dished out a pretty penny for these tickets & felt no obligation whatsoever to pay more! On top of those thoughts, I was absolutely exhausted from the last few weeks on the field & therefore coped with this situation by falling into a heap of sobs whenever I had the chance…quite adult, I know. My blessing came in the form of amazing friends here who went to bat for me, calling the travel agent & making them pay for the new flight as well as taking it upon themselves to get the ticket from the office in lieu of me – can’t thank Trace & Shelley enough for their friendship & support!

Did I mention I was exhausted? Well, I’m also socially unable to say no – so I went out each night with all the fun Medair people who I don’t get to see very often. I had fun, but increased my exhaustion and stress…my flight was to leave at 5am from the airport, which means checking in at 3:30, which means leaving for the airport at 2:30am. The night before I was up until 10:30pm and felt sick even as I fell upon the bed. Luckily the alarm did go off, I was able to stumble into clothes & meet my taxi and two traveling companions on time, but not without a very upset stomach and headache brewing. Our flight to Nairobi went well – at least for me…Zoey found out at the counter that she also had that flight I was told about two days before that had been cancelled, but was going to be able to change in when in Joburg, but still a frustrating realization at 3am. Quentin forgot he had his very expensive swiss army knife in his bag and was told it would be given to the pilot to carry, but surprise, surprise it never seemed to make it to the Nairobi terminal… So we’re walking through the Nairobi airport to our next gate & the comment is made that its Jennie’s turn to have something go wrong – I claimed that happened two days ago, so I’m good to go. Ha! We get to our next gate, hand the guy our passports & as he flips through mine, he says “Miss, there’s a problem”…

It seems the pages you see in your passport that say “visa” on the bottom are just that – visa pages. And the pages at the back that say “amendment” are for amendments. So, the blank pages I thought I had plenty of in my passport were actually amendment pages, not visa pages & therefore I could not get on the plane to South Africa until I had more visa pages. The Kenya airways guy convinced me that the South African immigration would turn me away & send me right back to Kenya. There was no way I could get on the plane to S.A. that morning…so I said goodbye to my friends and started the deep breathing again. The Kenya airways guy told me he’d work on getting me another flight on the same day, there was one that night – right now I needed to get to the US Embassy and get more visa pages added to my passport. After paying my one-day entrance visa to Kenya immigration I headed to the taxis to try to bargain a good price to a place somewhere in Nairobi – a city I’ve never been to before and am at least thankful its 7am, not pm as I don’t hear very good stories of this lovely city… I find one taxi company that agrees to transport me to the embassy & back, waiting for as long as it takes while I’m inside. They show me on the map that the embassy is indeed on the very other side of Nairobi, of course, and the agreed rate is $90 – a good price in the US, a very large sum of money here & especially when trying to travel on a budget. The biggest blessing of the day was being led to a lovely older Kenyan man named Steven who was my taxi driver and companion for the day – plus his taxi was a black cab such as the ones in London which just made me smile. We got to the embassy about 1 ½ hours later, complete with huge traffic jams and a scenic drive through downtown Nairobi. I actually learned a lot from Steven during that drive about the upcoming elections – the city was calm then, seemed like such a success for African democracy – anyone who pays attention to world news will know the very next week what hell broke loose and how the hopes of a quiet nation was terribly disrupted, but I won’t go into more detail now.

Upon arrival at the embassy, I left my luggage and valuables in the cab – risky, I know, but I had no other choice then. I couldn’t even carry my cell phone into the embassy due to their security restrictions! Thank God Steven was honest. I experience for my first time at this secure fortress what I’ve seen many times used in movies – the influence of one dark blue American passport. At the gate, I was ushered ahead of all others waiting to go through security. I hate that feeling of special treatment, but right then I was terribly grateful! I walked down a long path of concrete – luckily covered by an awning as the sun was beating down that day, to find a very long line of people waiting to get in. I could tell most were Africans and I did wonder if there was another line for Americans…but more people were lining up behind me & how was I to find out when I couldn’t even see the front of the line & would lose my place if I continued to the front? So I stood for about 20 minutes, reading my book & wondering. At that point, a uniformed man passed by & glanced at the passport in my hand – ‘are you American’? Yes! ‘then head up to the front of the line’ – very welcome words, though the feeling of guilt as I passed that line of probably 200 people was acute. At the front, I was ushered through again, passed through a small room where you can leave valuables & liquids to gather after going inside, then had to head to another wait outside the main doors. There were about 20 people sitting outside & a security guard at the door – “are you American?” YES! “Go ahead in.” (love that blue passport – at least at that moment) Inside was a room full of occupied chairs and walk-up windows like at the bank, again, “are you American? Go through the doorway to the right – and there, I find a completely empty waiting room! There was one room to the left that was where I was headed, but was occupied & had instructions to wait until the room was empty before proceeding in. So I sat & pondered what all those people could want – a visa to enter the US? All the while, my head is pounding, my body aches, and I can feel a fever rising – will I really get on a plane to South Africa tonight?

The room cleared & I took my seat in a small semi-private room that looked through a glass window to the secure realm of embassy personnel at their business. A lady came over in time and asked what I needed – I explained my situation to which there was not much sympathy, but at least I was given the next step: to go back to the waiting room and fill out a form. Form filled, other people back in the small room & waiting again – reading the form which explains extra visa pages can take 3 days if you expedite and doesn’t seem to mention the price you pay for that speedy service. I start to sweat, partly because I’m sick, partly because I’m sick at the thought of being in Nairobi for three days! The room clears again & I go in – lady takes my passport and I begin to beg for any help since I really have to catch my flight that day…my begging is met with an annoyed stare and some words to the affect of “just go out and wait again” to which I hoped meant they would be working on it for me. So I sat again waiting, all the while worrying if she meant I would for sure get it back today, plus the clock is ticking closer & closer to the 11am mark, which is when they close until 2pm for some reason…do I just sit there and hope at 2 they have something or will I be here all day long wondering? At 11, I finally get the nerve to go to the window again and demand an answer, but of course she’s not around & all I can see are people all the way across the room…after a few minutes of staring, trying desperately to send thought messages to anyone who might receive them in the embassy world, a girl across the room looks up, waves a passport at me, and I happily take that to mean she’s working on it & take my seat again. Thankfully, I translated her wave correctly & only had to worry a few minutes about how much this was going to cost me before she brought the passport to the window, handed it over, and told me to have a good day. Thinking, ‘should I ask if I have to pay for this?’ I decided to walk out and enjoy my lucky getaway & rejoice that the passport is travel-ready once again. My taxi was faithfully waiting for me & I got back in just as my fever really took control and managed to sleep my way back to the airport.

Back at the airport around 1pm, I find out that the flight in the evening won’t work because I’d be stuck in Joburg for the night before catching a flight the next day. So they booked me on the same flight at 7am the next day and now I needed to find a place to stay. Steven had waited around, very wisely understanding I may still need a taxi that day, and here began the second part of my 3- part adventure.