Home again!
The kids and I arrived back in Kenya exactly one week ago today. While it was a wonderful trip, it also sure is nice to be back home again. The kids were especially happy to be back in their own familiar surroundings. Our week back here has been quite exhausting between the kids not sleeping well at night due to jetlag and a stomach virus that all of us have had except Torrie. Thor is still not feeling well, but the rest of us have improved, and all 3 kids are now sleeping through the night again.
Thor came back several weeks before the rest of us in order to be here for the start of the school year. The kids and I stayed in the U.S. for several extra weeks in order to finish taking care of all the things we needed to do there. Since I know some of you were concerned about how traveling by myself with 3 little kids would go, I'll start with that part of the trip, and then do some future posts on the rest of it.
I had specifically planned our trip back to Kenya so that there would be no long layovers, which I thought would make it much easier with 3 young children. However, two days before we left, I happend to check our flight schedule online and discovered that our 4 hour layover in London was now going to be 14 hours, due to our flight being canceled by Kenya Airways. What bothered me the most was that they didn't even bother to let me or our travel agent know about the change. I was thankful though that at least I found out about this ahead of time and could change plans accordingly. I decided we would book a day room at a hotel near the airport in London, so that we would have a place to hang out and rest during our time there.
When we were checking in with United Airlines at the New Orleans airport, the agent informed me that I could not check our baggage directly to Nairobi because our layover was more than 12 hours (which is one of the reasons I didn't want a long layover to begin with!). I knew there was no way that I could handle all of our luggage plus the kids by myself, so I pleaded with her to try to find a way to check the baggage through directly. She responded that the computer wouldn't even let her do it and that there was nothing that she could do. So, I said a quick prayer, and waited to see what would happen. The lady poked around on the computer some more and then informed me that she didn't know why, but for some reason the baggage tags came out with Nairobi as the destination. I was very thankful for that, as it would have been a major ordeal to deal with the luggage in London.
The kids did very well on the flights and slept quite a bit on our overnight flight from Washington DC to London. I got about 3 hours of sleep as well. I was very glad to have a baby bassinet on both of the long flights, so that Kammie didn't have to stay in my lap the whole time. Once we got to London, we just took a taxi to our hotel and checked in. As it turned out, we actually had a very nice day in London. There was a nice heated indoor swimming pool at the hotel, so we all went for a swim in the morning. Everyone then took a long nap. We then took a nice walk to a nearby McDonald's, where we had a late lunch before heading back to the airport around 4 pm.
Our last flight was the most difficult one. Because the kids had taken a nap, they only slept for 2-3 hours, and I don't think I got any sleep at all. The video system wasn't working on the airplane, so there were no movies or videos for the kids to watch, which was a disappointment for them. Also, Torsten's backpack which had all of his books and activities to do during the flight somehow managed to disappear. As we were getting on the plane and arrived at our seats, the flight attendants immediately grabbed all of my carry on bags and put them in overhead bins, in an effort to be helpful. However, they then couldn't find where they put Torsten's bag when I needed it during the flight. So keeping the kids entertained for an 8 hour flight proved somewhat difficult. The bag did show up again at the end of the flight. Overall, our experience with Kenya Airways was not great, and we will try to use a different airline next time. One issue that has come up repeatedly with them is that the flight attendants have no comprehension of leaving children alone while they are sleeping (which I realize is a cultural difference between us and Kenyans). After finally getting the kids to sleep towards the end of the flight, I couldn't believe it when a flight attendant walked by and just yanked Torrie's blanket right off of her and woke her up, because they were collecting all of the blankets in preparation for landing. If they really had to have the blanket right then, they could have at least asked me for it, and I could have gotten it off of her much more gently in order to let her keep sleeping.
Anyway, we were very happy to finally arrive in Nairobi. The people at the airport were helpful in getting us through immigrations quickly and in assisting me with our luggage. Thor was there waiting for us, and of course the kids and I were very excited to see him again. Our flight arrived at 6:30 in the morning, and we arrived back at our house by around 9:00 AM, so all went very smoothly with that part of the trip. The kids were so happy to be in their own home again and had a great time playing with all of their toys that they hadn't seen for 2 months. Overall, the trip went fine, although I wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon!
Thor came back several weeks before the rest of us in order to be here for the start of the school year. The kids and I stayed in the U.S. for several extra weeks in order to finish taking care of all the things we needed to do there. Since I know some of you were concerned about how traveling by myself with 3 little kids would go, I'll start with that part of the trip, and then do some future posts on the rest of it.
I had specifically planned our trip back to Kenya so that there would be no long layovers, which I thought would make it much easier with 3 young children. However, two days before we left, I happend to check our flight schedule online and discovered that our 4 hour layover in London was now going to be 14 hours, due to our flight being canceled by Kenya Airways. What bothered me the most was that they didn't even bother to let me or our travel agent know about the change. I was thankful though that at least I found out about this ahead of time and could change plans accordingly. I decided we would book a day room at a hotel near the airport in London, so that we would have a place to hang out and rest during our time there.
When we were checking in with United Airlines at the New Orleans airport, the agent informed me that I could not check our baggage directly to Nairobi because our layover was more than 12 hours (which is one of the reasons I didn't want a long layover to begin with!). I knew there was no way that I could handle all of our luggage plus the kids by myself, so I pleaded with her to try to find a way to check the baggage through directly. She responded that the computer wouldn't even let her do it and that there was nothing that she could do. So, I said a quick prayer, and waited to see what would happen. The lady poked around on the computer some more and then informed me that she didn't know why, but for some reason the baggage tags came out with Nairobi as the destination. I was very thankful for that, as it would have been a major ordeal to deal with the luggage in London.
The kids did very well on the flights and slept quite a bit on our overnight flight from Washington DC to London. I got about 3 hours of sleep as well. I was very glad to have a baby bassinet on both of the long flights, so that Kammie didn't have to stay in my lap the whole time. Once we got to London, we just took a taxi to our hotel and checked in. As it turned out, we actually had a very nice day in London. There was a nice heated indoor swimming pool at the hotel, so we all went for a swim in the morning. Everyone then took a long nap. We then took a nice walk to a nearby McDonald's, where we had a late lunch before heading back to the airport around 4 pm.
Our last flight was the most difficult one. Because the kids had taken a nap, they only slept for 2-3 hours, and I don't think I got any sleep at all. The video system wasn't working on the airplane, so there were no movies or videos for the kids to watch, which was a disappointment for them. Also, Torsten's backpack which had all of his books and activities to do during the flight somehow managed to disappear. As we were getting on the plane and arrived at our seats, the flight attendants immediately grabbed all of my carry on bags and put them in overhead bins, in an effort to be helpful. However, they then couldn't find where they put Torsten's bag when I needed it during the flight. So keeping the kids entertained for an 8 hour flight proved somewhat difficult. The bag did show up again at the end of the flight. Overall, our experience with Kenya Airways was not great, and we will try to use a different airline next time. One issue that has come up repeatedly with them is that the flight attendants have no comprehension of leaving children alone while they are sleeping (which I realize is a cultural difference between us and Kenyans). After finally getting the kids to sleep towards the end of the flight, I couldn't believe it when a flight attendant walked by and just yanked Torrie's blanket right off of her and woke her up, because they were collecting all of the blankets in preparation for landing. If they really had to have the blanket right then, they could have at least asked me for it, and I could have gotten it off of her much more gently in order to let her keep sleeping.
Anyway, we were very happy to finally arrive in Nairobi. The people at the airport were helpful in getting us through immigrations quickly and in assisting me with our luggage. Thor was there waiting for us, and of course the kids and I were very excited to see him again. Our flight arrived at 6:30 in the morning, and we arrived back at our house by around 9:00 AM, so all went very smoothly with that part of the trip. The kids were so happy to be in their own home again and had a great time playing with all of their toys that they hadn't seen for 2 months. Overall, the trip went fine, although I wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon!
posted by Sharon at 12:03 PM
3 Comments:
That does sound like it was quite challenging, but I'm so glad you all made it back home safely. My kids always love playing with their toys again after being away for a long time too. It's like Christmas!
Welcome back! Nice to "hear" from you again.
Glad you all made it back safely. We miss you all!
love, Treva
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