Sylvia's Journal

It is Sunday morning in Nairobi. The city is already up at 7 AM. I am wondering whether it is too early to call the office of Friends International House to find out what time Quaker meeting is. I went there a few years ago. It is in a complex (International Friends House) where both the silent meeting (unprogrammed) takes place and the programmed meeting, in another building on the premises. The programmed meeting is noisy with much singing and loud preaching which goes on for 2 hours. At the end everyone streams out of their respective buildings and they greet each other with the words brothers and sisters. I asked Ida to come with me this time.

Ida made my welcome in Nairobi very easy. She had arranged for a ‘meet and greet’ at the airport to complement the wheelchair KLM arranged. At my arrival a wheelchair was indeed waiting at the door of the plane with a young woman named Karen. She wheeled me into the building and there was another young woman, Theresa, with a sign with my name on it waiting at the end of the jet way. I was pushed with amazing speed through immigration; they parked me near the baggage area and one got my suitcase while the other located my driver. It was the best landing in Africa ever. I also have never been more exhausted at the end of a trip. I could not have done without all this help.

In the plane the KLM staff put an empty metal container in front of my (frontrow) seat after take off. They covered it with a bunch of pillows and provided me with ice packs at regular intervals. The only difficulty was getting in and out of the chair. It was all very comfortable. I was able to do my foot and neck exercises from time to time, and stayed fairly limber throughout the journey.

At the hotel I found a note from Ida giving me the telephone numbers of a massage therapist who makes home (hotel) calls and a physical therapist plus two small washbasins that she had left with the concierge for my foot baths. It was the first thing I did in my room. After that I took care of my communications (internet set up and cellphone card) at the business office and went to bed. I slept a long dream-ful sleep. The only part I remember is a very long glass rowing boat and my surprise to learn that glass did not mean real glass but fiberglass when I noticed it did not shatter into a thousand pieces when it bumped into the side of a building. Something about expectations, I gather, being more resilient than I thought, may be.

By the way, Tessa filled her void quickly and now has a puppy.