Travel Missed Adventures

A lighthearted look at what ALMOST went wrong during our travels this year. My family would call much of this Toews luck (my maiden name for those many times when we, on my dad’s side, don’t plan well and just happen to have good things still happen).

Nairobi

Traveling, with and without littles, is usually an adventure. Flights connecting Nairobi and Europe are not always, or usually, catering to people living in Kenya. Our flight to Greece left at 4:20am. I have made many trips to the airport this year, so I calculated accordingly. Early in the morning, there is usually very little traffic and the trip takes about an hour. At that time of the morning there is usually not much of a line at the airport. No sense in leaving super early with small kids just to wait with the cranky kids a long time before getting on the plane. Ideally, it is best to arrive just as we can get through the last bit of security with 10-30min left to spare and not hours.

I asked our usual taxi driver when to leave, suggesting 1am. He agreed 1:30am,would also be fine. BUT, he was sending someone else to drive his car as he personally was out of town. Well, we left a bit late around 1:45 because...kids. Though we rarely get stopped at police checks here in Kenya, we did that morning. I was trying to keep the kids asleep in the backseat, and I mostly ignored the rapid conversation going on in Swahili. Clearly something was amiss, but I wasn’t concerned until the police said in English, obviously to shame the driver, “I could have you thrown in jail for driving without a license!” What?!? At this point we did start worrying about time, but after a few more intense looks, the policeman indignantly waved us on.

We were looking at the time, but hopefully we could still make it to the airport a little after 3am. We did need to check baggage, so it was cutting it close for the hour before mark, but we’d probably make it. We always carry extra clothes in our carry-ons anyway. At the security checkpoint before the airport, again we were delayed for some time. I assume this was continuing to be the lack of license issue. Who drives a taxi without a license?? It’s like playing baseball without a glove or running in a marathon without a number. We were getting anxious, and really I just wanted to ask the security personnel, who had every right to detain us, to just let him drop us off a few minutes later and then they could arrest him. I contemplated how long it would take for use to walk/run to the airport from the security area. Nope, not with the kids and luggage.

They finally let us go, and I don’t know why. We arrived at the terminal only to see a HUGE line outside the door to go inside. As I wrangled the kids and Ryan put our luggage on a cart in the dark, Ryan immediately said, “We’re going to miss our flight. There is no way. This line is at least an hour long.” It was nearing 3:30am. I felt adrenaline surge. “No we’re not. We have little kids! Let’s just go up to the front of the line.” So we did. We totally cut the line, and when we got to the front, I asked one of the passengers when their flight left. 5am. 6am. I said that ours leaves at 4:20am. They looked at our full hands, sleepy kids, and gestured for us to get in front of them, saying, “You’re late!”

We raced through security to get to the check-in counter. It looked closed. My heart sank for a minute, but then I realized that there was still someone behind the desk. Whew! And then not 5 minutes later another passenger on the same flight came with his baggage. Ryan pointed out to me that he probably arrived at the airport an hour before we did. Gulp. But, we made it. Just in time to walk through immigration, find our gate, go through more security lines, and finally get in the boarding area and sit, even if just for a few minutes.

Greece Missed-Adventure

I was standing near a message board at our conference, reading through the bus schedules so that I could know which one to sign up for in order to catch our flight back to Africa. It was a couple of days before we were to leave. Providentially, I overheard another couple talking about how their flight to Egypt had been canceled and that they were now on an earlier flight. Curious, I asked them which flight it was. Same one we were on. I checked my email. Nothing. Hmmm. I asked Ryan if he had heard anything from our travel agent. Nope. For once, I was thinking ahead and planning. We emailed our travel agent, and they assured us there had been no notifications. However, it was too much of a coincidence to overhear a conversation about that flight and I wanted to make absolutely sure. I decided to ask the concierge service at the conference center to verify our flight details. They called the airline directly. Sure enough, our evening flight had been canceled and we were now booked on the afternoon flight. Had we gone the three hours ahead of time as recommended, we would still have missed our flight by an hour. Whew!

Wanting to take advantage of as much of the conference as possible even though we were leaving on an earlier bus, Ryan and I divvied up the tasks we needed to do before leaving, agreeing to meet at the bus before it left promptly at 11am from the front of the conference center. I took some luggage to the waiting area and went to a session while Ryan finalized packing. Then we swapped and he took some luggage and went to say some goodbyes and pick up a flash-drive while I got the last of the luggage and picked up the kids from their kids sessions. Being over 30 wks pregnant, I decided to drag the luggage to the kids and then haul it all together back to the meeting point. Problem was, the kids were busy having fun. Sydney was getting her face painted so I went and picked up Zack first instead. When I came back, Sydney was still finishing up, but I finally tore her away and we said goodbye. Then we headed with the luggage to the meeting point. It was a good distance away but along the road the bus was going to travel at least. Of course the kids did not walk in a straight line nor did I have enough hands to carry them both and drag the luggage. It took a bit, but even so I did not realize how close we had cut it until we reached the bus. 

There were two buses already loaded but no Ryan in sight. I sent Sydney onto the first bus and held onto Zack while looking for Ryan. The buses were ready to pull out. Finally I saw Ryan who had been frantically running, trying to find out where to come help me. He had been back to our room and again to the conference center at least twice but I’d come a different way. He had our other luggage on the second bus. He grabbed the bags from my hands and I started coming with Zack. “Where’s Sydney?” Right! Sydney was on the first bus which was about to pull away. I ran up those steps and snatched her :) and we ran together to the second bus. Ryan was sweating despite the cold weather and put his head forward on the seat as we started the first part of our journey. I felt horrible for causing the stress I’m sure he had felt for the last 15 minutes. I should have been way more anxious. But it didn’t do much good for me to get worked up about what could have happened.

Our heart rates had returned to normal when we got to the airport. We were there a lot earlier than we normally are (see above). As we usually do in airports, we took turns and scouted out the kids’ area first. We waited for a bit to check in our luggage as it would have been impossible to lug it all over. Finally, our hands lighter, we headed first to McDonalds to satiate tummies. We still had a smaller cart with carry-ons along with the two kids. Both are so active. Ryan held onto Zack and went to put our trash away and I maneuvered the cart through the very large McDonalds, thinking Sydney was in front of me. She wasn’t. Ryan and I met outside with Zack and luggage but minus Sydney. Great. Our very independent child was now lost in McDonalds or somewhere in the airport. Ryan headed back into the McDonalds. Not anywhere where we had been. I tried to look but I couldn’t go up and down stairs with the cart and Zack. Ryan quickly scoured the area, looking downstairs and I looked in a second restaurant closeby. Finally, Ryan went back into McDonalds and located her on the opposite side, trying to order from an electronic menu. Whew!

Our beautiful, independent girl

We headed, finally, to the kids’ area. We didn’t have a lot of time anymore, but we had promised the kids that they could have some time to play. As we sank back into the parents’ chairs for a respite, Ryan looked at our tickets and saw that it said we needed to be at our gate over an hour before. Weird. We reluctantly left the kids’ area after less than 15 minutes. It was better than nothing. The security line was pretty normal, although longer than it had looked initially. As we walked up to our gate, we noticed that the sign said, “Final boarding call.” What?!? We walked up and gave them our boarding passes and they directed us out to a bus. In a few minutes, the bus took off and bused us a ways to our waiting plane. We weren’t late at all, but why were we cutting it so close? Whew!

Immigration Missed Adventure

We had taken a bit of a risk when we left for Greece and then Egypt. Due to the extensive traveling we have had, both Ryan and Sydney’s passports had no free pages left. We realized this without enough time for Ryan to take off time from teaching and to get new ones. We had been thinking that the last two pages of the passport would suffice, but they are apparently endorsement pages and not visa pages. We knew we would get stamps and perhaps a big visa in Egypt. Would they use the endorsement pages or would we have to spend our days in Egypt going to get an emergency passport at the embassy? Turns out that Egypt just put their big visa over a previous page, ignoring whatever was already on that page. Ha! So Ryan and Sydney were both allowed into Egypt and back to Kenya.

Egypt Missed-Adventure and Misadventure

Our layover in Egypt was a bit more than 48 hours. We wanted to have a little adventure with our kids, see the pyramids, and have some family time. We organized an AirBnB that would pick us up from the airport. I notified them that our flight had been moved up many hours (see above), but I hadn’t gotten a reply. We waited in baggage claim and noticed a few people that had been at the conference and on our flight with us. They lived in Egypt. We decided to Uber our way to our destination using their local phones if our AirBnB wasn’t waiting outside. They weren’t, so we caught an Uber along with our new friends who were going to their homes. We got in the first car and they got the next. On our way! To the pyramids and camels etc. Little did we know that our friends were detained with their Uber driver for over 45 minutes after we left because he did not have permission to enter the airport for customers. We would not have had the language nor a cell phone to help get ourselves out of that or to know what exactly we should do. Whew!

Our AirBnB was as advertised—right across from the Great Sphinx. The window right above Sydney’s bed looked straight out on the pyramids and Sphinx “Look mom! They are in order!” and straight down 4 stories to the street below where the street was crowded with camels and buses and horse-drawn chariots and taxis. What an odd mix! Thankfully, I inspected the room carefully and when I got to those windows, I noticed that they easily opened without a screen or a window lock. They were large, and did I mention we were 4 stories up? I was just imagining my kids trying to get a better look at the camels by sticking their heads out of the window and then falling 4 stories. Gives me shivers. We soon had jury-rigged a sort of lock using the end of a broom handle to ensure that the windows only opened a crack big enough for an arm. Whew!

Sydney looking out at the pyramids from our AirBnB window.

Because of our early flight, we were able to plan a bit for what we would do the next two days of being tourists. Turns out we had chosen a day to explore the pyramids when nearly everyone in Egypt was not working. Good Friday meant Christians had a holiday. Friday is the Muslim weekend. And it was also the day before Jewish Passover. All of the regular tour guides were already taken (ahh, lack of planning). We had few expectations, but we wanted a camel ride, a chariot ride, to explore the inside of at least one pyramid, and see things that were generally climbable and not breakable.

Our chariot driver ended up being our tour guide of sorts, though he mainly just took us to the different sites so that we didn’t have to walk. Ryan rode a camel alongside us, usually with Zack or Sydney. Most of the others visiting the sites seemed to be Egyptian. We got as many pictures taken of us as we took of the pyramids, especially of Zack with his white hair. We explored. The kids really wanted to climb the pyramids but at least we got to explore the tombs underground. Nearing the end of our journey, we were looking forward to finally going inside a pyramid. This was the smallest one of the three, but at least it was something. We waited around, not sure why we weren’t going in. Finally, after at least 20 minutes of stalling, we found out. Our guide had neglected to get us tickets. What?!? That was the one thing I asked for other than the camel and chariot rides. Ryan and the guide took the chariot to an office close to the main gate to buy the tickets because as Sydney said, “I don’t want to ride the slow camel. The chariot goes fast!” I tried to keep the kids from climbing the pyramid or going inside, etc for an uncomfortable and frustrating 30 extra minutes, but we finally got to go inside. :) Long day but good memories, even with the misadventure.

Ryan and Sydney on the "slow camel"

Enjoying the chariot ride

The second day we went to the oldest of the pyramids, from around 2600BC! There was a lot of fine smooth sand for the kids to play in. We joked that it was the oldest sandbox in history and that they liked the sand more than the amazing architecture that had withstood the test of time. Imagine that Jesus may have seen these pyramids when he lived in Egypt and they would have been old—over 2000 years old at that time! As we were walking to one that we were able to go into, our kids were running and falling and having a grand old time. We had no idea that there were many many open tombs scattered around. They were over 40 ft deep with stone bottoms leading to a burial chamber or perhaps a fake one to discourage tomb thieves. BUT, these tombs were surrounded by only a thin railing. I realized that Sydney or especially Zack could easily have walked, stumbled and certainly crawled through the sand and fallen into one of these pits. We kept a closer eye out for these and our kids closer after that. Whew! Missed adventure.

The oldest  sandbox

Sand filled with hidden tombs and treasures from ancient Egypt

Pregnancy Travel Missed Adventure

I’ve been co-coaching volleyball this term of school, which has been an absolute blast. Our last game of the season was over an hour away and my fellow coach was not able to come due to a previous commitment. At over 36wks and with my history of fast labors, traveling without an extra adult wasn’t smart, so I recruited a good friend to come with us. You know, just in case I need to go to the hospital instead of the game. Would be quite awkward for me to just leave a group of high school players and then be alone myself somewhere in labor. I brought my medical records, gloves and a towel. :) No labor. Whew! And I thought I was done traveling.

BUT, immigration officials here in Kenya decided to have all foreign workers come in to get fingerprinting and to validate their work permits during the next two months. (Imagine the backlash if the US did this.) Faced with possibly standing in line very pregnant or standing in line with a newborn, I chose to take the chance and go early. I mean, it wasn’t very early, but as early as I could. I went with a group from the school. The driver joked that he knew he was leaving with 5 and coming back with 6. "If anything will put her into labor, it’s standing in line for a long time in the sun." Again, I brought stuff to be prepared. I even found out there was an L&D nurse and a pediatrician in line with us. The line was shorter and the process way faster than we thought it would be. I was prepared but it wasn't needed. Whew!

The OB I’ve been seeing as well as a midwife I’d really like to be present at my delivery are currently both out of the country. Such bad timing! They have been gone for almost 2 wks and will get back tomorrow night, just before my due date. I’m really praying for our little girl to come on her due date but not before, and this is why. It will probably all go fine in any case, but birth is sacred and memorable and having people there that I really love is important to me. 

If I deliver in the next two days, it will be ok, but last weekend was a missed adventure for sure! Imagine... my doc and my midwife are gone. I have an L&D nurse who has agreed to help, a nurse practitioner with a lot of delivery experience, and a back up family practice doc. BUT, last weekend was midterm so many of those on campus were gone as well on (mostly) day trips. Monday of this week, it was still midterm. Ryan had to go to Nairobi to do his fingerprinting and I volunteered to keep a couple of extra kids for another couple who were going to stand in line. So I was at home (thankfully with househelp!) with 4 kids at 38w6d, the very day that my water broke with Zack. I was at home with those 4 kids but without Ryan. And all of those people I mentioned had agreed to help if needed? Gone as well for the day. Really, every single person I was hoping to help me was not there. I am so thankful we missed that adventure.

Nancy (Nounou) is here!

Nancy Rice arrived the next morning, as planned, to be around to care for the kids when I’m in labor. I’ve felt much more at peace. If I go into labor now, I have a lot of people around to help and Nancy will handle the kids, just as she did for Sydney when Zack was born. Still, I’d really like to start labor on Monday or Tuesday when the doc and midwife are also back. That would just be wonderful. We will only be missing Dr. Jennifer Goldkamp who delivered my other two. I know she would rather be here than taking another (final!) board exam, but I’ve heard those are important. Hopefully my next blog will be another African birth story. :)