Recently I relayed a situation which brought me to tears of frustration and, yes, anger. Praise God Kennedy received his long awaited surgery and is recovering well. During this process him and his wife have accepted the Lord as their personal savior….that deserves a huge yeah God!
Today I’ll simply replay our recent trip to Nairobi for your enjoyment!
Willy, the guy who drives us to Nairobi, arrived at C4KK around 7 am. Instead of us getting in the car to leave he gets out the car jack and starts working on his tire and brake. After about 1/2 hour he’s finished and Chuck asks “will the car take us to Nairobi?” “No problem”, Willy says “but bring the tools just in case.”
We head into the city and reach immigration around 9. Chuck goes one way to hopefully pick up his resident card and I head up to the 6th floor to hopefully pick up the letter for my dependent pass. Once this letter is received I have to pay and turn in the receipt and wait some more for the actual permit….but that didn’t happen. As I walked into the office there were three workers sitting at their desks discussing who would get what for breakfast (which had been brought in) while I stood there. Finally I handed my slip of paper to one of them and he just walked out of the office…no “please have a seat and wait here” or anything, just left. He came back a few minutes later, handed me my paper and told me to go through the stack of papers on a side table. I asked him what I was looking for and he told me to look for my name on any of the papers. So I began shifting through the papers when Chuck arrived with his resident card in hand! One thing accomplished, yeah! He then helped me go through the paperwork and I did find a friends paperwork but she’s already back in the states! Finally we went through all the papers and none had my name on them and as an employee got up from his desk I asked what I should do now…no response and it was like he didn’t even see me, just walked out of the office. I went to another employee and asked him what do I do now….he took the paper and left the office. When he returned he asked Chuck if he had his permit, which he does and it was requested back in February and he just now got the resident card. The guy said my file doesn’t exist. Hold the phone…..immigration has been telling me, since February, to come back in two weeks, come back in two weeks, come back in two weeks every time we go into Nairobi to check on it and now you are saying there’s no file!? He asked for a copy of my paperwork, which we gave him, and he told me to come back in two weeks! He at least took my phone number but I’m not holding my breath for that phone call. Guess I’ll be back in Nairobi before my third, three month extension expires!
Ok, so we leave immigration and head out to meet Tanya who is helping us with menstrual pads for the girls in our outreach program at Koma Ranch Primary School. Great talking with her and I’ll blog more about this program later. Anyway, while we were at a particular area I thought I’d go pick up a kitchen mixer. Knew the one I was looking for so I went into the store but they were out of that particular brand/model. You would assume I could just go to another of the stores and get one but this store is the only one in Nairobi and the only other store is in Mombasa! Guess when I come to check on my permit next time I’ll check on the mixer too.
We finish our business with Tanya and head out to meet our friend Charlotte for lunch. Charlotte is in Nairobi for a few days then heading out to the Congo for a conference…she is one busy lady and her energy puts me to shame! Anyway, we pick up Charlotte and go to lunch. It’s a food court type place so we sit down and everyone orders their own style of lunch. Chuck orders pizza and he’s very specific with the waiter….pepperoni, ham, mushroom and extra cheese. Waiter writes it down and leaves. A bit later the waiter brings Chuck’s pizza and it’s got what he ordered on it PLUS green peppers and onions. Chuck really dislikes green peppers and onions and he asked the waiter about it. The waiter says “oh, those are free so I put them on.” Chuck told him he doesn’t like them and wants another pizza but the waiter just smiles and says “but they are free”. Chuck says he can’t eat the pizza, please fix it. Get this….the waiter takes it back, comes back a few minutes later and you can see where they’ve literally picked off most of the green peppers and onions, along with most of the extra cheese he’d ordered! Chuck and I look at each other, shake our heads and mentally say to each other “this is Kenya”.
Had enough enjoyment!? Wait there’s more!
When the waiter brings the bill he starts adding up stuff and gets to the pizza….”extra cheese 100/-, extra toppings 100/-” and that’s when I lost it. I said you are NOT going to charge us for something you PICKED OFF the pizza! I told him he shouldn’t even charge us for the pizza but we just got a blank stare. Finally we agreed to pay the basic cost of a pizza. At least we had a nice visit with Charlotte.
Then I walk downstairs to a pet store to check on a few items for Bear and found a 2000/-ksh rawhide (that’s about $25)! Needless to say, he didn’t get that rawhide, but a much cheaper one. When we reach the counter to pay, the young lady (probably around 25 years of age) saw Chuck’s hat (Caring for Kenya’s Kids) and says “Caring for Kenya’s Kids, you take care of kids?” Yes we do to which she says “well I’m a kid, take care of me” and she said it with a straight face! I looked at her in her nice outfit, done up hair and nails, working behind the counter and said…you have a job. Again we get a blank stare.
Please tell me it’s time to go home, I can’t take much more frustration! Luckily it was….but now it was traffic jam time. We left Nairobi at 5:45 pm and arrived at C4KK at 8:30 pm…it’s an approximate 35 mile trip and we saw several close calls on the highway so I thank God for His protection over our journey.
So you see, compared to what happens around here on a daily basis I have nothing to complain about…but I hope this gives you a taste of what we encounter and why you may find me without hair from all the hair pulling due to frustrations!