THE ROAD TO KENYA

Well my journey officially started on Friday when I left Ejura and struggled but managed to get my passport with me new and expensive visa that will allow me to re enter Ghana at the end of the month. This was not before getting by pack and hence my clothes stained with fish oil from the tro tro that I was travelling in.

After spending a quiet night in Kumasi, I left I though with plenty of time on the 7am bus to Accra to pick up my tickets. This belief however proved wrong as instead of the 5hrs it should take it took over 7 1/2 hrs as we were in road works for an a lot more than an hour and in that time managed to do no more than 2 km. I arrived in Accra to be over charged by a taxi to the travel agent to finally get my tickets. This however did not make him happy as he thought he was taking me somewhere else. Once there I got him to wait for what I said would be 5mins max. However it took many phone calls and a lot of time to get my tickets as they could not get the tickets out of the safe. By the time they did, the driver was feed up and just gave me my very heavy pack (cant believe that it weighs 20kg as I have got rid of so much stuff and have not brought gifts yet) and made us walk the rest of the way. After stopping for an over priced pizza thing (my first meal of the day) I made my way with a friend to the most run down and over priced room I have stayed in so far. It was not clean and the bathroom smelt oh so bad. On the positive side of things I have learnt that I am going to be meeting up with a cousin that I have not seen in I don’t know how long in Kenya as she is by random coincidence going to be there the same time as me. I find this part all very exciting.

Sunday morning was filled with finding us a new room for the night. The afternoon was finally time for me to chill out and relax before my big flights the next day.

I started the day off way to early as expected, even though I tried to take my time. I was at the airport by 8.30am and I was not due to fly till 12.40. The airport itself was so empty, more so than the local terminal at Palmy or New Plymouth. So we went off for a really expensive and bad service breakfast at the airport restaurant. By 10am I was able to start getting my luggage processed. The flight to Addis Ababa was fine. Nothing fancy.

Arrived at just before 9pm so organised chaos. There I was informed that I would not be spending 12hrs in the airport, but would instead be getting a room at a hotel in town. This however took so long to organise that I was not on the road before 11.30 and I was getting picked up at 6.30am! On the way we drove through the red light district and some other not to nice areas of town. This however did not bother me as much as what was about to happen. As we were driving something hit the side of the mini bus we were all in. A little latter I learnt that this was a person. This I learnt by seeing the driver, a police offer (with a big gun) and several other men holding a man down on the ground in the middle of the road divider thing. These people then started kicking the man and then what is worse I think, throwing rocks at the person. The other people on the bus did not seem to mind what they were witnessing (they were mostly African), I however felt sick. The driver then showed the guy the damage he had caused and then placed him on the bus with us! The man started kicking the door in. You could tell he was mentally unwell or high/drunk. After members of the bus started yelling, the driver took the guy off the bus and got someone to watch him. We continued, well so I thought. After going a little further up the road, the driver found some police offers and they with their big guns came aboard the bus. We then went back and found the person. They then chassed him and beat him to the ground. As we left, the police were standing authoritatively over the man. So all in all, it was not such a nice welcoming to Ethiopia. The hotel I stayed in was nice, especially in comparison to all the places I have been staying since I left NZ.

Managed to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Surprised actually how nice it was. Took the short 2hr flight to Nairobi airport, which is not so flash. Proceeded through the easiest customs and immigration process since being away!!! It makes me wonder why Ghana takes so long and makes it soo difficult. I was then picked up by Margaret, who quickly showed me around Nairobi and project where she and her husband do their work.