Thursday

We all met up on time at our appointed rendezvous. The 12 cases we had packed 2 days earlier zipped, lined up then loaded into the cars ready for the journey up the M3 / M25, to Heathrow. It was straightforward – no delays, so was the check-in – all the cases weighed, labelled and dispatched without question and no surcharges for excess baggage. We watched them trundle off, hopefully headed for our plane’s hold whilst we were duly processed through departures.

The Kenya Airlines 777 was full but comfortable – as comfortable as it is possible to be for 8 ½ hours in the same economy class seat. My screen was broken, so no film. I read, did the crossword, ate some salmon then slept – fitfully. It felt like 10 minutes but was clearly several hours, still we were eating breakfast at 4 am – 2 am uk time.

Friday

Nairobi, even at 6 am, was humid. Immigration and customs were a formality, our contact was ready and waiting to take the 4 cases of second hand uniforms off our hands and deliver them to the local New Life Homes.

We crossed the road to domestic flights. There was seemingly no system for checking in. Some tempers (not ours) were fraying in the queue but we eventually made it through to the gate on time. Some time later, we all rose as one, headed for the door. We crossed the tarmac, climbed the plane steps, stowed our bags in the overhead lockers and strapped ourselves in. The safety announcement commenced as we rolled off the stand, taxiing to the runway, ready for takeoff. Kisumu here we come! Our journey completed without a hitch……..

… 4 hours later we are still sat waiting back in the departure lounge – how come?  As our plane turned to commence take off there was an announcement by way of an apology for the delay – what delay? Seemingly we had missed our landing slot at Kisumu, where they are working on the runways, so our plane did a gentle tour of the airport perimeter before coming to rest back where we had started 5 minutes earlier. And that was that – we disembarked and here we are, 2 hours more to wait until the next attempt. Welcome to Africa!

I had had a meeting with the head of St Marks school on Wednesday where I had bumped into an old contact while waiting at reception. He had heard we were travelling to Kenya and he told me he was also travelling through Nairobi to Mombassa, at the same time. So we were still sat waiting for our connecting flight when who should come over and say hello but Tony from Southampton. Small world!

6 ½ hours later than originally scheduled, we land at Kisumu airport. After a moderately short drive across the gravel which seems to comprise 90% of the airport surface, we arrived at the ramshackle huts by the entrance.  We were greeted very warmly by Charlie and Bev.

We picked up our cases which had been lobbed out of the back of a minibus into the dust. We loaded them, for the last time, into the New Life Homes minibus and set off for Charlie and Bev’s home, down the airport approach road.

The scene is a film set. This cannot be real. The “road” is a dirt track with large flints and potholes, criss-crossed by bikes, scooters, tuc-tucs, jeeps, pickups filled with people hanging off the back, the roof, the sides. There is no road, there are no markings. We pass concrete huts, concrete shops, concrete factories, wooden shacks. In half a mile, this is a complete culture shock.

We arrived at Charlie and Bev’s, beeped the horn for the guard to open the gate and unloaded the cases for the last time- hurrah! We walked the grounds and drank tea. Later we all sat down together to eat chappatis, mince and coleslaw.  We walked across the road for an evening at the home of a young American couple, before heading off to bed at 9pm. I crashed out, dead to the World until 8am the following morning.