We finally arrived in Nairobi at 11pm local time. The delay in Amsterdam definitely made it a late night. Flying into Nairobi at night really robbed us of the chance to see the city and the airport, post-fire. It doesn't take long to see that things are a little off kilter.
We disembarked via a set of stairs directly to the tarmac. We, and the other 400 people on the plane mulled around for a few minutes until they shuttled us to the receiving area by bus. I call it a receiving area, but it's really a tent. Imagine 400 people shuffling into a tent at 1130 pm to go through "customs". Honestly, it wasn't the weirdest airport I'd traveled through, I flew out of a Regional airport in Costa Rica that was a glorified car port! Everyone had a decent sense of humor about it and the constant odor of burnt stuff reminded us why we were in a tent.
After paying $50 for the right to enter the country (they call it a Visa, but I didn't anything about bonus miles, credit limits or interest rates), we are herded to another tent that opens out to a large darkened area. Suddenly a single light goes on and they tell us to find our bags. All 400 of us look out across a small parking lot at a sea of baggage. All the bags from the flight are arranged in loose rows, in a darkened lot waiting for us to find and claim our own. Mayhem ensues.
I immediately found 3 of our 12 bags,but my hands were already full, it was pitch black and the rest of the crew had dispersed to my left. I called for David, he didn't answer. I left the bags to go find someone, trying to maintain my bearings and the location of the bags I had already found. David appeared out of the darkness and pointed me towards where Kevin and John were. Slowly, over the next 10 minutes we rounded up the bags. Literally, as we added the last 2 bags to our pile, someone thought it would be a great idea to turn on the lights! A bunch of trailer mounted spot lights switched on and we could finally see everything...that we had already found!
I have pictures of the madness that I'll post as soon as we get a better internet connection. More to come on the interesting first night in Kenya.
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