Leaving soon and a little nervous
Nairobi is known as the most dangerous city in Africa. That is the city I am flying in to next Friday, arriving at 10 pm. I have paid for a transfer, someone sent by the travel company to pick me up, who will be holding a sign with my name. I thought the slight extra cost would be well worth the peace of mind. Upon arrival I will need to get a visa for Kenya and get some local currency before leaving the airport. Without the transfer I would have to fight my way through crowds, attracting attention as a solo white female in a sea of very black people, to try to find an honest taxi driver to take me to my hotel. Good luck with that!
Three news items this morning from my local newspaper and facebook are doing nothing to help my trepidation.
First, an election was held a couple of days ago in Kenya. Results are being disputed. It has taken several days to see any results, then in some polls the number of votes is higher than the number of registered voters. The last vote in 2007 had similar results and there were riots in Nairobi streets for weeks, with many people injured or killed.
Second, a facebook friend tagged herself in a pic from 2008 when she visited an animal sanctuary somewhere in southern Africa. She is petting a young cheetah. She commented that this week a worker at a sanctuary was killed by a lion, bringing back her feeling on how amazed and terrified she was at the moment of the picture.
And last but not least, two people were killed by rogue lions at a resort lake town in Zimbabwe. In one case, a man and woman were apparently off in the bush at night, having a “private moment”. The woman died, and the man was unharmed, proving my theory that you just have to be a faster runner than one other person. The other was a man coming home from a bar. Of course you should not be off the beaten path in the dark in Africa but this is really making my stomach roll.
I will keep an eye on the news in the next week and look forward to seeing my transfer person at Nairobi airport.