Aurevoir Kenya...until we meet again.

Che-ching...1700$...yup, you’ve guessed it, Madeleine got discharged from the hospital late this afternoon.

I had set out for the hospital early this morning. The hotel insisted that I take the hotel car and when this nice black sedan drove up, I was very impressed and surprised. I even commented to the entrance valet (this cute bald short man who greeted us with Hakuna Matata when we first arrived) that this was a nice car, to which he said, we want mama to be comfortable for her ride back to the hotel. Sweet.

I left early thinking that, since Madeleine was in such great shape last night, she would be able to leave the hospital early and we could spend an almost full last day in Kenya together. Wrong. I walk in the room, and see her lying in her bed, under the bed net, and obviously, not in great shape. A relapse, no doubt. Furthermore, she had trouble sleeping last night, and what do they do in a hospital when one cannot sleep? Give them drugs. Enough with the drugs; early this morning, Madeleine put her foot down and told them...no more drugs. And they listened. So from the time I arrived at 9AM to around 3PM, we just talked and waited until all those drugs wore off so we could get on with our lives. It worked, by 3PM, Madeleine slowly came back from her drug induced nauseous lethargic state. She showered and dressed in her street clothes, brushed her teeth, sat on her bed looking pretty and healthy, and we waited another hour before one of the nurses came in and said...oh, you’re dressed and ready to go.

After a few phone calls to who knows where, a doctor (one of the many that she had seen during the course of the week) signed her release papers. They instructed ‘the husband’ to settle the bill, and then, on our way out of the hospital, we visited the vaccination clinic next door and got vaccinated for yellow fever, not just for the fun of it, but so that we could get our yellow vaccination cards and subsequently, be allowed into Mali, and then back home to Guinea.

By the time we got to the hotel, Madeleine was feeling a bit tired but happy and relieved to be out of the hospital. I phoned the travel agent who had gotten our flights, and asked if we could postpone our flight out of Nairobi until Saturday, explaining of course that it was for medical reasons. No dice. All is booked, the earliest we could fly out would be next Wednesday.

So here we were, wondering how we should spend our one and only evening in Nairobi? Although Madeleine was feeling great, we decided to play it safe and not try to squeeze in one evening what we had planned to do all week (elephant orphanage, giraffe centre, game farm). Since we were leaving very early the following morning, we decided on one last kick at the can at finding some bare life essentials that we knew we can’t find in Guinea. I’m desperately seeking a pizza cutting wheel and Madeleine is looking for a can opener that works. People at the conference were telling me about this ‘normal’ mall, with ‘normal’ stores, where one can buy ‘normal’ stuff, like pizza cutting wheels. So, let it be known that we spent our last evening in Nairobi at the WestLake Mall, and enjoyed every second of it. I can just hear the groaning and snickering from some of you reading this blog back in Canada, unable to comprehend why we would choose a mall over an elephant orphanage. Well, to coin an old phrase, you had to be here. At that moment, finding a pizza cutting wheel to me was more important than looking at wild african game. Blame it on post traumatic stress or whatever, but that’s where I'm presently at.

Turned out the mall choice was the right one. Madeleine was happy to see something familiar and normal, I got my pizza wheel cutter, and we had dinner at a Wimpy’s at the food court. Perfect last evening in Kenya.

Ah Kenya...we leave you for Mali early tomorrow morning. Sorry, our time here was so short, so it’s going to have to be...until we meet again. Haven’t really seen much of you, except for the insides of the Safari Park Hotel and the entrails of the Aga Khan University Hospital, but hey, I’ll be back. Can’t say that I haven’t experienced anything here...there’s the friendliness of the Kenyan people, that one giraffe I saw on the drive from the airport on that first day, the adrenalin pumping excitement of being stuck in Nairobi rush hour traffic with a crazy taxi driver, the view from my hotel window of that shanty town, with the people spilling out in the morning, walking single file up that dirt road leading to their place of work, like ants moving up their ant hill.

And then, there’s the new people I met at the conference, people who I could relate to in that they are experiencing similar nutty lives as we are on this fascinating black continent. In the midst of tear gas and election anxiety, all are asking themselves the same questions we’re asking...why the heck are we here? Meeting up with Laurel Ridley was one, if not the highlight of my week. Catching up on the lives and times of the Boychuk clan in Ethiopia, and again realizing how blessed we are in having friends from all over the world that you occasionally meet now and then, and although we haven’t seen each other since who knows when, within two minutes of meeting up again, we pick up exactly where we left off years ago, our hair perhaps a bit grayer and our kids a bit older, but still the same people.

So Kenya, it’s been a slice, and a small slice at that, but until we meet again, thank you and good bye.