Sky High! My Flight to Nairobi

 May 13^th, 2016

Vicki and I woke up early to the sound of thick German accidents, and the rolling of luggage. We spend the night at a Hostel called Keystone House in central London, which cost us a pretty penny for a room with no windows and a bunk bed. After checking out, Vicki and I enjoyed a traditional English breakfast at a greasy spoon nearby (white toast, one egg, 1 large sausage, 2 pieces of bacon that was half peameal half normal bacon?).

Vicki ventured off to the Tube, Germany bound, and my 3 large bags and I took a 60£ taxi (the day before we recruited an America to help carry my luggage through the subway station--very thankful!). We were too cheap to pay and have our luggage stored so we decided to be super on time for our flights (about 5.5 hours before mine!). The taxi ride was about an hour with the heavy London traffic, but the cabs GPS American accent made the trip even better. I found this most hilarious because my Here Maps GPS back home has a British accent.

I was the lucky random contestant that was chosen to get a full body scan in security (that was a first!). And then got to experience a stranger awkwardly sorting through your dirty clothes and makeup while checking it for explosive particles (no worries, they didn’t find any, fewww!).

Boarding the flight and hearing so many Kenyan accents got me very excited for my destination! I love meeting people on airplanes, and today I sat beside a Kenyan born British BBC reporter. I got to share my faith with her, and she shared how she was raised by Catholic Nuns, and how she always questioned them. She was telling me of a terrible killing that lead to many families losing loved ones. The Kenyan government officials then held a rally to pray that the one person who had information on the killing and was involved in it, would not get persecuted for what he did, because he helped the officials. I told her that when I have questions, or am questioning a seemingly spiritual encounter I will look to see if what they are saying lines up with scripture and God’s character.

Soon into my conversation with this BBC reporter we heard blood curdling screams and cries come from the back of the plane. At first I thought this was someone in terrible pain form a sickness or wound, but it was a poor Kenyan man being forcefully deported back to Kenya and physically restrained to the very back seat of the plane. Two large British officials were holding this grown Kenyan man down to his seat, as he struggled to get out of their grip. He was screaming in English that his life was being threatened, and if they brought him back to Kenya they would kill him. You know it’s bad when you would rather be in a British jail than go back to your home country. The reporter that was sitting beside me quickly got on the phone with the office and reported the incident that was happening (you can check out BBCs twitter feed). Several passengers started getting agitated at the noise the Kenyan man was making, and furious with the forceful treatment by the British officials. After 30 minutes of this conflict, the pilot refused to take off with this distraught man on the plane (thankfully! No one should have to travel 8 hours in such a condition).

My morning began with a beautiful Kenyan sunrise, and a lovely greeting from my host family in Kenya!

Tuonane baadae!