A smooth trip

Any time you travel more than twenty-four (or in this case, more than forty-eight) hours around the world, there's at least one story that comes from the trip.

As I was checking in for my flight from GSP, I handed the woman at the Delta counter my passport. She quickly flipped through it, then looked up at me and said, “I need to see your current visa,” to which I of course replied, “Rwanda does not require a visa.” As it turns out, she was referring to Kenya, where I was scheduled for an overnight layover and which does in fact require a visa. Now I'm sure I checked this at some point (since I never applied for a visa, I’m sure whatever I found said I didn’t need one), but I’m also sure it was long enough ago that I couldn’t remember the details of what I found. Could they have changed the rules? Or did I somehow check the wrong country? Hiding the fact that I was in a slight panic, I gave the most logical answer I could to this woman who was set on not allowing me to leave GSP without a valid visa for Kenya – “I’ll just stay in the airport.” Spending 16 hours in the Nairobi airport was certainly not at the top of my list of things to do on this trip, but so long as I didn’t leave the airport, I didn’t need a visa, so I thought this might convince her to let me get on the plane. I think she was so confused by my slightly-absurd suggestion that she started looking for an alternative option and finally decided I could get a visa upon arrival at the airport.

Of course I couldn’t get off to a smooth start quite yet, so I had to try to get myself in trouble while going through security. Just remember, “Careful, it might explode” is not the right phrase to use when trying to warn the security guard that clothes, Kleenex, pens, gum, books, earphones, and who knows what else are liable to go flying in every direction while he searches your bag. Thankfully he knew what I meant (probably even before I started backtracking) and didn’t suspect me of being a terrorist. I have to admit, though, I did have flashes of having to call my mom on the other side of security to have her bail me out of the airport jail.

I finally boarded for Atlanta and fell asleep immediately, waking up just in time for my five-hour layover at ATL. Thankfully two friends came to entertain me while I waited, which made the time pass much more quickly. Before I knew it, I was going back through security (which was smooth this time, no bag searches or mention of explosions) to get on another flight. Then, after two movies, half a book, two crossword puzzles and a couple hours of sleep, I arrived in Amsterdam. With an airport full of smokers and an airline that makes you run from one end of the airport to the other to check in, only to run all the way back to the gate right next to the one where you arrived, I actually looked forward to getting on the next flight. Round three of security was also smooth, and eight hours later I was in Nairobi, where it only took about five minutes and twenty U.S. dollars to get a visa.

I spent the night in a hotel, and it felt so nice to take a shower (rather than splashing my face with cold water in the airplane bathroom) and sleep in a real bed (rather than twisting into some semi-comfortable position to sleep for a few minutes until the next snack cart came by). I left for the airport early the next morning to avoid Nairobi traffic and flew from Nairobi (where round four of security was a breeze) to Bujumbura. Then it was only a 40 minute flight to Kigali.

Finally, I made it.