STORYMOJA

4th of June 2010

After a hectic day of going up and down searching for what I may need during the trip, I had finally finished and it was time to go to the airport. My mother looked more nervous than I felt ; she kept on urging me to hurry up! I understood, she did want me to get late.

Living on the farthest end of Thika road doesn’t make life any easier. The fact it is being reconstructed make it even worse! Our journey to the airport wasn’t much fun, that’s for sure. The tedious traffic jam and chaotic Matatus along the road, made me very worried that we wouldn’t make it. I was more than glad when we reached the airport where Mrs Muthoni Garland the director of Storymoja was anxiously waiting for me.

After exchanging formalities my parents had to leave, entrusting me to Muthoni. After a few inspections we were through Customs and were waiting for our flight. I decided to take a stroll in the busy airport just to calm nerves. I’ve never been outside Kenya before. The place was packed full of people, especially at the terminal for flights going to Dubai. But it didn’t look like any Kenyan was in the waiting line at that particular terminal.

Time seemed to fly, and soon our flight was called. Muthoni and I went through a couple more of inspections before we could even smell the aeroplane!! Then we went through a couple more to ensure that even the 100 gram toothpaste in our bags was not a tool for terrorism; it’s standard procedure!!

Finally we were on the plain waiting for departure. The stewards were very kind and patient; showing us where to sit and answering all sorts of questions from the various parties in the plane! Their kind of job requires a lot of patience, I realised. As soon as we had settled and they had shown us basic safety measures in case of an emergency landing we were ready for take off, my favourite part of the whole flight!

But I could hardly keep my eyes open for long. It was 11pm when we took off, way past my bed time!!!