Farewells in Kenya (Day 1)

Well, were I still a Peace Corps volunteer, I would be finishing up my service now and getting ready to complete my service (one of the volunteers from my group flew home yesterday, I believe). I took a different path, but I have a lot of friends who are in the wrap-up phase, so I wanted to go and say some farewells.

As usual, I had a few more loose ends than anticipated, and went back to the office after the Potluck on Saturday. I got back a little after 11 so that I could make sure to finish some work before leaving the country. I was working a bit slow, since I had gotten less than 4 hours of sleep the night before (IDDS meeting coupled with insomnia) and didn't finish until after 2. Even packing up was a slow process, so I didn't get home until 3.

At home I had to pack, which took longer than it should have, but then it's a rare trip where I leave with everything that I need. This time, I managed to leave with everything (most importantly, my new work permit, which I needed to get stamped at the border for it to take effect), and by the time I was all ready, I realized that if I went to sleep, I wouldn't wake up for the bus. So I took in a nice sunrise and Jodie drove Reuben and I to the bus station at 6:30. I also found out at that point that one of our friends in town had just died. He was young and full of life, and we will all miss him (and I think that's all that I'm going to say about that on here).

The bus ride was even less pleasant than I remembered. I slept on the Tanzanian side, but the road in Kenya (it's the one that passes through Maktau) was even more painful than I remembered. Reuben and I did see a giraffe at one point and a family of elephants. Maktau was pretty green, so I was happy that the rains have been better this year than they had been last year.

There were no problems leaving Tanzania, but entering Kenya*, the immigration officials did not want to make things easy for us. They tried to tell Reuben that his single entry visa did not allow him readmission (FALSE: Kenya no longer has multiple entry visas, but the visa is valid for re-entry so long as the visa holder has not left the East African Community, which Reuben had not), which meant that he would have to pay for another one. We convinced them that his visa was in fact valid, and as the official stamped the document, he looked up and asked "How are you going to compliment me?" I pushed Reuben out of the way before he could respond to this thinly veiled code for a bribe. I started by telling the official that I needed a visa, at which point he flipped through my passport and explained to me that my last visa was expired. I requested a transit visa, which is intended for people passing through Kenya for less than 72 hours (I was looking to stay under 48 hours) and costs $10 as opposed to $25 for the visa that allows you to stay for three months. The official explained to me that they don't have transit visas at that border crossing (a rather odd situation). He then reassured me that I would only need to pay $25, and pointed out to me that it is much harder for a Kenyan to obtain an American visa (I wholeheartedly agree with the statement, however, I'm pretty sure that that isn't actually my fault). Then his supervisor came over and asked what was going on. I once again requested a transit visa, and he told me that I was not eligible for one if I would be sleeping in the Kenya (this is certainly not the case, since you can get transit visas at the airport as long as you are planning to leave the country in the next 72 hours). I decided not to point out the inconsistency between their points and paid the $25 since the bus was waiting on me at that point. And in an act of ultimate pettiness, I stole their pen and I have decided to treasure this pen that I paid $15 for.

Anyway, the jostling all the way to Voi made me forget about all that and I was glad to see two volunteers when I arrived. Reuben and I dropped off our bags in the hotel and went to grab a bite to eat (we hadn't eaten anything all day, and it was 3 PM). After that, we caught up on everything a bit (I found out that the planned party was canceled because our host had recently had a family misfortune, and the attendance would have been dismal anyway) and discussed secondary projects (including charcoal, of course). At that point, one of the volunteers left, and another one showed up, so we were still four.

As the volunteer was leaving, I was giving him some GCS products (yep, making sales on vacation) and in the process, I managed to leave my key in the door. About half an hour later, I realized I didn't have my key and asked at the reception. They told me that someone was using my room and he (I think they meant he and his ladyfriend) would be done shortly. I was rather ambivalent, but the volunteer raised serious issue with the fact that they were renting the same room both by the night and by the hour (to be fair, I was an idiot for leaving my key in the door). As the time dragged on (it had been at least 45 minutes), the management agreed to give me a new room, and since they were low, they put me in a bigger room for the same price (the justification they gave when pressed was that they "thought he wouldn't take long in there"). I guess that worked out as win-win for everyone. The management was even considerate enough to remove my bags from the room and store them at the front desk (I was rather grateful for that, since nothing was stolen).

After that, we went to Fine Breeze, which is where we always used to go for some grilled meat in Voi. The wait is always unbearably long, so we wound up playing two hours of cards before the food came. The chicken was good, but the beef was pretty tough and fatty. I mostly ate the kamchumbari (think pico de gallo, but in this case, without hot pepper). Then we went and passed the time with more cards (cards were more in the background to the conversations) before we decided it was late enough to head out to a club. One person and I decided we were exhausted and opted to head back and crash (it was just after midnight, and I had gotten less than 7 hours of sleep over the past two nights). Reuben went out for some Saturday night clubbing and had a pretty late night.

* This is a great link for explaining how visa policy is supposed to be. However, that does not always match up with reality.