My phone rang at 8 AM. It was Avril Orwa, Mervines cousin. I blinked a few times as I tried to comprehend why she was calling me. Maybe she wanted to say good bye?
"Hello?" I sputtered into phone.
"Hi Hilary, this is Avie."
"Hi Avie, how are you?"
"I'm good. Hey, the Nairobi airport caught fire this morning so you might want to call your travel agent and see what the deal is with your flight."
I scrunched my face and replied, "Uh...what?!"
She repeated what she had just said and I asked if this was a joke. No joke. Apparently, the airport really was on fire. I was shocked and couldn't really believe it.
At the time, Alyssa and I were staying at a comfy and cozy hotel on the coast of Malindi, a town about 2 hours north of Mombasa. I was stunned. I thanked Avie, hung up the phone and thought "Well, I better go get Alyssa."
I found her sitting in the lounge area, checking her mail. I made my way to sit across from her, looked straight into her face and said, "The Nairobi airport is on fire, Avie just called me. We need to call Brussels Airlines." As imagined, she gave me this "you've got to be kidding me" look and said what I had said to Avie, "WHAT?!"
Instead of spending out last day relaxing on the beach we were consumed with Google-ing the airport fire, calling our airlines to try and get out of Kenya and basically freaking out. No one knew what had happened to cause this fire, some were speculating it was terrorists. It was also the 15th Anniversary or the US Embassy bombing in Nairobi. After hours on the phone, a representative from Brussels Airlines finally called me back and said that a flight from Mombasa to Entebbe, Uganda was leaving at 3:20 PM. If we could make that flight, she said, we could get on an international flight to Brussels that evening, and then eventually home.
GREAT! We thought. Then we realized it was 12 PM. We quickly gathered our things (and by gathered I literally mean stuffing everything I had in my bag as quickly as I could.) Our hotel called us a private driver and we took off around 12:30 PM. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic but it didn't matter, by the time we arrived at the airport we were told the flight was completely full. We were not getting to Entebbe today. As Alyssa and I slumped down in our chairs, we felt out of options. "Well, now what??" we both asked aloud. As we sat there, we figured it was a good idea to let people back home know we were fine. Especially since I had witnessed this fire making front page of the NY Times, CNN.com and other news sites.
Originally we were supposed to fly from Mombasa to Nairobi that evening on Fly540 and then catch our international flight from Nairobi. Now we didn't even have a way to get to Nairobi....or so we thought.
After about 30-45 minutes in the airport, we decided we needed a game plan. We could go get a hotel for the night or I could call Wilson, Mervine's uncle, and see if we could stay with him. The second option won and Wilson could not have been more welcoming and hospitable. We arrived at his house and his wife Deliah made us fresh avocado juice. As we were sitting outside, chatting, my phone rang.
"Miss Hilsabeck?"
"Yes?"
"This is ______ from fly 540. The flight to Nairobi is going tonight."
I was so confused.
"Um Ma'am, how is that possible?"
'They opened up the domestic terminal. Would you still like to take the flight?"
I told her not to cancel our seats yet and I would call her back.
Meanwhile, Alyssa had a BRILLIANT idea, that literally saved us tons more hassel in the long run. She called Brussels Airlines and asked if they would pay for accomodations in Nairobi since we would be stuck there for the night. They happily obliged. After just 30 minutes of sitting at Wilson's, we were headed back to the airport.
We made it to Nairobi safe and sound and had our cab driver, Duncan, pick us up and take us to Hotel Emerald. Duncan was recommended by our friend Pete who had used him numerous times before. After checking in, we received a letter that Brussels Airlines would be meeting with us in the morning. We walked across the street, got some food, and passed out in our luxurious hotel.
The next morning, Friday, at 10 AM the manager of Brussels came to our hotel to let us and about 7 other people know that we would not be flying out today but by 1 PM he would know if we were flying out of Nairobi the next day or if we had to go to Entebbe, Uganda. We regrouped at 4 PM to hear the verdict. Unfortunately, we had to go to Entebbe. It was because the JKIA airport had set up "temporary terminals" out of tents and these terminals could not host all the 747 and huge aircrafts that were expected to be there. Only a few airlines, including Kenya Airways, were flying out of Nairobi. Therefore, the plan was to take a 15 hour bus ride to Entebbe the next morning. Then the passengers who were supposed to land it Nairobi but instead were re-routed to Entebbe would take the busses back to Nairobi.
The bus ride was pretty uneventful until the Ugandan border when Brussels Airlines staff tried to keep everyone's passport until the airport. I put a stop to that by kindly asking for mine back and then the lady just decided to hand them all out. I was not about to get all the way to Entebbe just to have my passport lost or stolen. We arrived around 3 AM, breezed through security and hopped on the plane. It was full. Most passengers were from Kenya.
8 hours later we landed in Brussels. At this time, Alyssa and I still didn't have a connecting flight as everything had been screwed up so when we departed the plane, we were instructed to go to the Brussels Airlines desk to ask about connections. I had been very easy going and patient with Brussels Airlines, after all this wasn't there fault, until now. When Alyssa and I got to the counter, we were handed different boarding passes. Her's was leaving that day (Saturday) and mine wasn't leaving until 10 AM the next morning. We were surprised/confused and honestly a little ticked off. Why would they split us up? We tried for the next hour to get seats on the same flight but no luck. She was off to Amsterdam and I would be in Brussels for the next 18+ hours. After hugging her/holding back tears, I made my way to the free shuttle outside the airport. Brussels had arranged for overnight passengers to stay in a Holiday Inn not far from the airport.
After checking into my room, I decided to spend the next 12 hours exploring Brussels! Except I forgot to tell my bank that...I made me way into the city only to realize my debit card didn't work. I returned to the hotel, called my mom and asked her to call the bank to let them know I was in Brussels and to open my card. After that fiasco, I went BACK to the middle of town and ate the best waffle of my life- cinnamon and sugar, with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. I also had to taste the Belgium beer...
By dusk I took the train back to my hotel and headed to bed. Tomorrow I would finally, hopefully, be coming home.
As I stepped into my nice, hot, running water shower I thought about how this was my normal now. I wouldn't have to worry about having clean water to wash my hands or my hair each day. I could brush my teeth with the running water from my sink. My car was 10 feet away from me if I needed to run to the grocery store or go meet friends. I was happy to be home, but part of me missed my Kenyan experiences. In the next few weeks I found myself missing the ability to purchase bananas on the side of the road or hop on a piki for a taxi ride. I missed the simplicity of life there and was thankful to have Ali and Alyssa in the same city for debriefing time.
I've been keeping in touch with the Kenya Red Cross ever since I left and am happy to report they continue to use the soccer equipment to hold tournaments every month. They have also organized a Kenya Red Cross soccer team to represent the Red Cross at tournaments around Western Kenya. I am so thrilled to see this project continue to grow and am looking forward to getting back to Kenya next fall or winter to check on the progress and visit my dear friends there.
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