Monday, March 7, 2016

Sojourn in Kenya: Home Again (From March 1, 2016)

Originally posted at Da Tech Guy Blog on March 1, 2016.

Jiggety-Jig. I’m back in Los Angeles and with a fair amount of sleep under my belt, though I expect to take another beauty nap today.

What can one say about the trip of a lifetime? First of all, that one week is far too short a time for such a visit.

Oh, and traveling is a headache and a half—other than KLM Airlines, which believes in feeding its charges well and leaving them alone for the most part. Note: if you are ever flying out of Jomo Kenyatta Airport, make sure your flight leaves in the evening and make sure to leave for the airport five hours ahead of time. The airport has five layers of security checks—understandable, in light of the many deadly Islamic terror actions which have been carried out in Kenya since 1998—but, along with the usually international flying procedures, they take a lot of time.

And don’t even get me started about LAX.

My father and my 21-year-old nephew, Philip, Junior, met me at Kenyatta Airport to see me away
back to Los Angeles.

Ochiengs

Philip, his sister, Sarah, their first cousin Jeniffer, and Sarah’s 4 month-old son, Kyle, were assigned to babysit their American auntie during our trips back and forth to Rongai and to Manyatta and I feel so blessed to know these young members of my family. (My next trip: Albuquerque to see my American nieces and nephews.)

And I have a few souvenirs.

ElephantFruitBowl

RiftValleyTrayTop

RiftValleyTrayBottom2

GOP.RINO


Africa

Fan

The elephant fruit bowl, the fan, the continent-shaped jewelry box and the animals are gifts from the family. The elephant-RINO symbolism in the tiny, carved animals is mere serendipity. Notice how I posed them.

I plan to see Kenya again before the end of the year and that’s what I’m working toward as I finish two books.

I called my mom this morning. Mothers are so funny. She had called me on the 28th while I was in the air sounding all worried. (My cell has no service outside of the country.) I’m 54 and a USAF retiree. It certainly isn’t the first time that I’ve been abroad. But my mom worries, still. That’s my mom.

And now I will have two dads wondering aloud when I’m getting married again. Life is good.

(Thanks to Asher Abrams--the author of this trip. Friends for life.)

PREVIOUSLY:

Sojourn in Kenya: Surveying the Ancestral Lands
Sojourn in Kenya: Acorn Meets Tree

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