The flight was supposed to include Ryan, Tonya, Sage, and me. It was a rough start with Ryan testing positive for Covid. Since Tonya is traveling with Ryan and is exposed, that ruled out her traveling, as well. Sage went to the airport on Sunday morning to catch her flight to Amsterdam in order to meet me, but was denied boarding the flight. Her Covid test, while negative, was done a day earlier than required.

After finding a rapid testing center in Salt Lake City, testing negative quickly, and, by the grace of God, one seat opening on my flight, she was able to join me! I was buttoned up with all my requirements to board: negative Covid test, E-visa, yellow fever vaccine, and the completed Covid health questionnaire for Kenya.

We are trying to be nimble and accepting of the constantly changing rules regarding Covid and testing requirements for entry in different locations. The Covid rules changed for arriving in Amsterdam and travelers there now need a negative test within three hours of departing for their country. Luckily, the Atlanta international airport has a testing center just for this purpose and things went well for us. I have tested negative for Covid every time I’ve been tested, but I still get nervous with each test that I somehow have contracted it unknowingly and will have to abort all my plans.

The travel hours have seemed endless — four hours to Atlanta, eight hours to Amsterdam, and nearly nine hours of flight time to Nairobi including layovers. When I arrived in Nairobi, I got through all the customs, Covid protocol, and visa entry, and ended up at the hotel midnight local time. Over 24 hours travel and subsisting on airplane snacks had me a little worried about the first days of the trip!

When I checked into the hotel and got to my room, I realized there was no air conditioning. Nairobi sits virtually on the equator and is super hot and humid. Transferring to a hotel with AC was out of the question after Nairobi’s strict 10pm curfew. Sleep didn’t come for a while with the time change, despite my extreme travel fatigue.

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