Off to Nairobi

After eating some yummy, freshly baked beer bread, it was off to the airport (for the third time in a week!). There was a crowd outside the terminal and only the passengers were allowed in, so T and I said our good-byes at the door to the airport. Again, the airport in Juba is not your normal airport, and it doesn't help that all the flights depart at the same time, so it is chaos in there! I put my bags through the x-ray machine and walked through the metal detector (which I'm pretty sure wasn't even on), then pushed my way through the mass of people and bags to get my bags as they came through the x-ray machine.

I stood in what I thought was a line for a few minutes, then when it still hadn't moved (and I didn't even know if the "line" was for the right airline), I gave up and climbed over some luggage and shoved my way around the crowd of people weighing and packaging luggage, until I eventually found the Jetlink desk. I should also note that unlike most airports that have big signs behind them displaying the airline name and logo, in Juba, it's just a small name card at waist height - not much use when there's a crowd! I got checked in, handed my bag to them over the desk, then made my way over to the immigration desk.

After shoving myself over to the immigration desk, I showed my passport and travel permit, and both got stamped without me having to say a thing. I made my way over to the not so clean bathroom (T warned me that the one in the lounge area was even worse, so I figured I should probably go while I could) then to the "security" area. I pushed my way through the guys into the women's line, where a female security officer first couldn't find the stamp she was looking for in my passport, then hand searched part of my backpack and gave me a quick pat-down. I found a seat in the lounge (there aren't any gates, just door leading to the ramp) and read for a while waiting for my flight.

Another different thing about Juba is that they don't announce when flights are departing, you just have to KNOW when your flight is boarding! I saw a group of people suddenly stand and walk to the door so followed, but was met by an older lady who asked which flight I was on. Turns out that we were on the same flight and this wasn't it, so we sat down together and chatted for a while. The second time a group surged for the door (there isn't any assigned seating on the plane, so everyone makes a run for it so they can get a good seat) it was our flight, so off we went, pointing to our bags on the tarmac to identify them and get them loaded on the plane.

It was an uneventful flight to Nairobi, but I got a small meal and the plane seemed relatively new! In Nairobi I went to the Kenyan Airways desk to see if I could change my flights home, but they couldn't do anything about it. Getting into Kenya was simple - I already had my visa, so just needed to be fingerprinted and photographed. I took a taxi to the hotel, checked-in, sent an email home, then relaxed and read in the room, waiting for the group meeting. I had planned on taking a nice, relaxing, WARM shower, but there weren't any towels (I eventually got them later that evening, after calling the desk twice and then going downstairs to ask again) and there wasn't any hot water (that eventually got sorted out, too)!