The team of three left Montreal just after 9pm on Wednesday evening, and we must make mention of Andrew, Andrew and Valencia! All three British Airways employees who gave exemplary customer service – which as most of you know is completely unheard of in Montreal. (Not because it was British Airways, but because it was Montreal!) Their courtesy, attention to detail and jocularity went above and beyond – repeatedly.

We had a tight connection in London – and here I will say, we were far less than impressed. With only one hour and forty minutes from landing to departure – there was no reason for some of the ridiculousness. For starters, we landed in terminal 5, had to walk to terminal 3, where they put us back on a bus to go back to terminal 5 and then back to terminal 3 again! Once finally on our way – or so we thought – apparently Heathrow airport feels this overwhelming need to make you go through security AGAIN – and this is just with carry on’s as we did not retrieve our checked bags. Quite frankly, not sure what they think we were going to stash away in our carry on between security in Montreal and switching planes in London – but hey – gave me something to write about tonight! They searched and actually questioned things like toothpaste! If that wasn’t enough, the gentleman who was originally putting us through, put two of our three bags to the side –for further checking… and then just left – seriously… left the area without a word to anyone. It wasn’t until the grumblings got loud (no mention of names) that another attendant stepped in and proceeded where the earlier attendant had decided he “needed a break today.”

None the less, we got through it – had to walk the entire length of the dang airport – from gate 1 to our gate…. 35! And boarded with 10 minutes to spare. The second flight was very long. Perhaps it just seemed that way because of the time changes. It was 10 am in London when we boarded and 11pm when we arrived – but that was in Kenyan time. It really was only just over 9 hours in the air for the second flight… but seemed like forever.

Wifi was not working in London airport – though it said it was… so John was not receiving any of our messages. When we finally arrived in Nairobi – the airport appeared to have wifi – which floored us – until we realized it didn’t actually work. lol We had to run back and forth between two luggage racks as some of our bags came out on one and some on the other, but none the less, they were all there and all intact! And it really just added to the adventure.

Once outside, we were puzzled that John was nowhere to be found. We stood around just a short distance from the airport, taking in the warm temperatures (19 degrees when we arrived) and after 30 minutes or so, I asked an airport attendant if I could use his phone to call John. Our local phone was not charged (we left the charger here in Nairobi last year) and so we had no way to reach him with no phone and no internet. But alas – he picked up on the first ring and as luck would have it, he was asleep in the parking garage, waiting patiently for us – just across the road.

It was a short journey from the airport to the hotel and a wee bit quiet as we are all quite tired. Karon was still excited about the wildebeest statues, then Zebra statues along the roadside outside the airport. When suddenly there was another zebra – and it moved – her reaction was hilarious. We were able to get all checked in and settled, sorted our donations for tomorrow (Kawangware at 9am and Kambui at 1pm).Shared a short conversation and prepared for our day tomorrow.

Alarms are set for 7am, (its 2:06am now here), which gives us only 4 hours of sleep before meeting in the morning and catching up with John at 9.

Stay tuned….. the adventure continues.