|
Our flight from London to Nairobi was relatively uneventful. However, Jeff had the good fortune of
sitting next to a man who was the assistant/aide to the leader of the opposing party in
Kenya's December 2002 election. They were just coming back from the United States where they had
met with President Bush and his cabinet.
They were there trying to get the United States' support for their party should they win the
election.
He really liked our president and the Republican Party.
They had a really nice talk about many things. One subject he explained to Jeff in detail was
how the government is set up in Kenya and the differences between how things work
in Kenya versus the United States. What Jeff remembers the most was him explaining that
the Kenyan presidency has no term limits, with the current president on his fifth term of five years.
In comparison, in the
United States we have an election every four years and there's a two term limit.
Jeff really enjoyed his time with him and remembers him as "very well educated, a vegetarian, and he was
sick from all his traveling."
After we went through customs and claimed our luggage in Nairobi, we walked out of the terminal to look
for a sign that had our name on it. What an initial shock this was! There were about a hundred people
with signs staring at us as we entered this area. Jeff and I got frustrated because after 15 minutes,
we still couldn't find our name on any of these signs. We hadn't exchanged any money yet
as this was the first thing
we were to do with our driver, so we were stuck.
After waiting for about 30 minutes, I talked the security guard into letting me back into
the terminal so I could exchange enough money to make a phone call. Jeff stayed with the bags in a secure
area, and I went into the huge crowd to find a pay phone. We were told later that because of the men that
were on our plane, there was an usually large crowd. There was also a very large and LOUD dancing and singing
troop that was there to greet him. It was completely nuts.
I was hassled all the
way to, from, and while I was on the phone by people wanting to take me where ever I wanted
to go. Plus I couldn't hear a darn thing because of that dance troop!
I was able to get a hold of the travel agent, and a driver was already on his way to get us so we
only had to wait another 10 minutes or so. What an introduction to Kenya!
TOP OF PAGE
Copyright © 2002, Dawn M. Dalton.
All rights reserved.
|