A maybe daily East Africa backpacking journal
My route: Route - Lagos > Kigali > Kampala > Nairobi > Lagos.
Touchdown at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi. 9pm EAT...or thereabouts.
After wandering around for a while, I finally figure out where the gate to the connecting Kigali flight is. I had to stand in a line for about 15 minutes to get KQ staff to tell me though. JKIA is light years ahead of Lagos' international airport, but sometimes they fall my hand like this.
The other thing that could get better in JKIA is the WiFi. You get one hour for free, which is fine for short connections, but hardly adequate for layovers longer than 2 hours. I'm a poor backpacker, I can't be paying for airport WiFi, abeg.
My kenyan line is in my iPhone, but I can't be bothered to bring it out right now. Not a lot to be gained by it. I'm only here for a few hours, which hardly seems enough reason to figure out the Safaricom codes to subscribe to a data plan, no matter how small.
Besides, I've got other things on my mind. I'm mostly anxious about the East African visa I'll apply for in Kigali. I've encountered enough East African pencil pushers to know that they are pretty chill and helpful, and that it should be no problem. But I'm also a Nigerian that has lived in Nigeria all their life, and that comes with trust issues and ingrained mistrust for all authority.
I'm not afraid that I won't get into Rwanda. I'm hoping that they don't let me into just Rwanda by giving me a standard Rwandan visa. The EAV is essential to my plan to backpack across Rwanda, Uganda and Nairobi, by road. If all goes well, the next time I pass through an airport shouldn't be until I'm headed back to Lagos, via Nairobi next year. If I'd had any sense, I would have applied for the damn EAV online ages ago. It takes just three days to process. But I am a chronic procrastinator. And I did have a few cashflow issues, mostly from an unscheduled detour in Paris on my way back from Switzerland. My friends, do not Uber in Paris, unless you are dying. Or Dangote's son.
Besides visa niggles, I’m heading into Kigali with only a vague idea of what I’m going to do, which is classic Bankole. Until a few weeks ago, I knew exactly zero people in Rwanda. But then again, the world is small, and I was fortunate to meet Faith Keza at the Swiss conference. That’s a grand total of one person, but it’s something. To be honest, while I enjoy meeting people as much as the next person, I prefer to watch them quietly, and that is precisely what I intend to do in the four days that I’ll be in Kigali. I have no doubt that it will be profoundly fascinating. My brief interaction with Faith on some of the panels we were on left me with a deeper appreciation of how different people on the same continent can be, without them realising it. Oh, I’m sure you pretty much will take it for granted that your garden variety Rwandans are different from their Nigerian counterparts (because Nigerians are different from everybody, if Africans were the Shinigami in Bleach, Nigerians would be Zaraki Kenpachi), I am convinced that most people cannot truly appreciate the exact differences, and by how much without a direct juxtaposition and observation.
Time to board. By the time anyone reads this, my visa fate will have been determined, so I don't get to inflict a suspenseful ending. There's no way to be sure until I get there, but I suspect the airport in Kigali is more generous with their WiFi.
PS: Yep, I was given the single entry visa. I’m super bummed about that because it makes things a little more inconvenient than I would have liked, but it can’t be helped. I’ll figure it out as I go. If any of you want the EAV, apply online in advance. Heh.
