TEACHING-EMPOWERING-MENTORING-BUILDING OPPORTUNITY Mission: to partner with individuals and communities in Western Kenya to support entrepreneurial activities, education and health through training programmes, scholarships, water and sanitation projects

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Our first news from Kenya

We arrived safely in Nairobi on Saturday evening after a long, and tiring journey. No bags lost, no flight delays and two comfortable hotels thanks to our accumulated points. Paying for two extra bags on the Nairobi-Kisumu flight was a hassle as we expected. I had tried to prepay but the site would not accept the process and a query to Kenya Airways went unanswered for three weeks!. We had enough cash on hand to cover the cost (visa payment was apparently a problem) and athough the 'system' was down for a while, we had allowed lots of time and all was successfully completed. Those of you who know how things work will understand.

Our next problem was setting up internet. We left a router here which had worked well until we left in March, but everything had been 'improved' during our absence. We were with Orange (part of Vodaphone) and they sold us a new modem to use in the old router. No luck. So we bought a new router which worked fine in the office but was useless in the house. Eventually after Rod's third (or fourth?) trip into town with the equipment & his laptop, the techie guy came to the house. Only to see that the signal where we are is far too weak. We are about a hundred meters from a microwave tower (Safaricom) and about a kilometer from the centre of town. Go figure! So we have returned the equipment, requesting a refund, and Rod spent another afternoon with Safaricom setting up with their system. Which works fine, but cost twice as much as Orange.

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes as we left. We have arrived in the midst of a bitter teacher strike, which could seriously affect our plans.

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