Uganda 2024 Day 14/Kenya Day 1

Today I woke up around 12:30a to say goodbye to the team. They were leaving the house at 1a to go home. I waited up to say goodbye to all of them and  stayed until the bus pulled away. I also said goodbye to Martin and Sam. I would have ridden to the airport with them, but I caught a cold that was slowly going around our group. I thought I better stay and sleep a little. I went back to sleep, but it took a little bit. I told Ivan I would be ready at 6:30 am for him to pick me up for the airport. It was so sad to wake up and have nobody (except Paul doing security outside) at the house. Not long after my alarm went off, I was ready to go and Ivan walked in at 6:30. When we arrived at the airport, I had to get out and walk through a security point while Ivan drove through and picked me up on the other side. He saw a lady walking who had gotten off a boda boda, so he gave her a ride up to the building as it would have taken her some time. He is so kind. When he dropped me off he told me he would park and let him know when I made it though everything. The problem ended up being I only had him on Facebook and it does not work well here. It did not want to send a message and he did not answer when I called. I tried calling his wife and texting Martin so they could let him know, but nothing happened. I calle Ivan a second time and it went through. I told him I made it and thanked him for driving me. He asked me to let him know when I arrive in Mombasa. 

While waiting for my flight, I FaceTimed a couple people and texted a couple people. Then I learned my 9:55a flight was delayed until 1p due to a strike at the Nairobi airport. I made sure to inform Aaron as my flight to Mombasa should be leaving at 1p. I may end up on the flight to Mombasa with Mike, Margaret, Tucker, and Rudy if they don’t hold that one for people coming from other places or have more options. That later changed to 1:30p. I got up to stand and walk a couple times and met a sweet couple from the east coast named Mike and Connie. They were headed to Madagascar via Nairobi, so they are going to have issues with their connecting flight as well. I talked to them about my mission trip and learned they do a lot with operation Christmas child. My church works on collecting supplies for this year around. They asked me what church I go to. Turns out they went to Calvery chapel before they moved to a different state. Connie gave me her email and I gave her the link to my journal/blog. Then I walked a little because I needed to avoid sitting all day. We were finally able to board. I passed Mike and Connie on the plane and Connie said she had already been reading my journal/blog. (Hi Connie!) when we landed it was confusing as to where I needed to go. It turns out that I had to stay upstairs. Then I found my way to customs and baggage. From there I had to go outside and go to a different area of the airport to check my bags again for Mombasa. Aaron had already sent me a message that my flight had left, so I found where I check my bags and they had a flight leaving not long after I checked them in. I contacted Aaron to let him know I was boarding and he said Dama was going to meet me at the airport. 

When I arrived, they did not put our checked bags on a belt like normal because it was being worked on.  They just loaded it on their carts from the plane and drove it to the door. My bags were easy to find, so I grabbed them and headed to the exit. I texted people at this time to let them know I made it because many people were having me keep them updated. As I walked through the doorway I scanned faces for Dama. I was surprised to see her and Aaron a few yards away. Than something pulled my eyes to look at the three kids by the door and I realized it was their girls. I stopped to say hi and asked if they remembered me. They said they did not, but I was not surprised. At home they are always with the kids at church and I may see them only once or twice the whole time they visit. We walked to Aaron and Dama. This is when I learned their pastor was their picking up his brother and sister in law (I think) from the same flight. They did not know that each other were there until they arrived and saw each other. We hit rush hour traffic on the way home and it felt like being on I5 or in Kampala. Once at their house, we had dinner and then Dama had me shower there. Our group is staying at a guest house a little ways away, but it does not have hot water, so she wanted me to use their shower. It felt good to shower after a day that felt so long. Not long after I got out, they drove me to the house (because my bags were still in the car). We did a quick tour of the guest house and then they told me to walk to their house when I was ready to in the morning. After locking the gate and door, I went directly to bed.