After our reunion with the Granada team and a tour of ByGrace, Faustin, Mike, and I hopped in the ByGrace private matatu and headed for Nairobi. I had protested in the morning when it was decided that I ought to leave my luggage at the Anglican Guest House where Mike will continue to stay, anticipating (quite correctly), that eventually picking it up would be out of the way and require quite some time for whoever was tasked with the responsibility. But we left it anyway, and found ourselves at ByGrace in the early evening, I without my luggage. It would be helpful, however, to head back to ACK Guest House to utilize the wireless internet one last time, especially since there were some photos I needed to email to Faustin.
Our driver's name was also Stephen, and he's a regular at ByGrace working with the kids and helping with construction and upkeep. Though young, he managed the hectic roads expertly. When we got to ACK, we decided I should stay there to handle my internet needs while Stephen went to the airport to pick up another guest who would be working at ByGrace. At the time I was quite confused, because with Kenyan efficiency being what it is, we hadn't really settled on whether Stephen (our driver) would be returning from the airport to retrieve me, or whether Stephen (Mbogo) would be following behind us to retrieve me, or whether someone would have just gone to pick up my luggage without my presence being required (which would have been nice, but it would also have prevented me from sending pictures to Faustin: a blessing in disguise, I suppose). I knew I'd need a good amount of time to send the shots Faustin wanted, because the wireless connection, while quite convenient, is terribly slow. Furthermore, my aged computer isn't very good at finding wireless signals, even when I can almost see the floating through the air. So I had to sit in the dining room, because it was the only place I could pick up signal. The problem with the dining room is that there are no outlets, and my aged computer isn't very good at staying alive without being tethered to the wall. Of course, this compounded the situation when it began to take longer than the battery would allow to upload the attachments and send the emails, thanks to the terribly slow internet connection. Briefly, I had to suspend my internet activity in order to move to another room in order to charge my aged computer in order to return to the dining room in order to wait for attachments to upload. I sat there for so long that they tried kicking me out. Apparently I was occupying too much space at one of the 7 unused tables which were meant to be used by some group that never showed up to eat.
All of this should have been even more maddening than it was, because I should have had a driver waiting on me by the end of the two and a half hours it took to upload 37 pictures and send 5 emails. But I didn't have anyone waiting on me. In fact, two and a half hours later, I was done with plenty of time to spare. Mike had waited up with me, but by this point, it was nearly 11:00, and we reasoned that it might just be time for me to crash with him in the extra bed which I was no longer paying for at this point. We advised the front desk to call our room when my driver arrived, but I wasn't holding my breath. In fact I had just begun to fall asleep when the phone rang. "Sir, your car is here to take you." the voice on the other end informed me, incredibly dryly, as if it wasn't 11:37.
It seems that the delay was due to our new guest having missed her connecting flight, and the next flight had been delayed by several hours. One slow connection deserves another. Slowly, I climbed out of bed and slowly donned some respectable clothes. Slowly I shoved some garments into my duffle and slowly I gathered my stuff to slowly trudge toward the front desk. Our connecting drive back to ByGrace was refreshingly brief. Apparently the traffic isn't quite as chaotic at midnight as it is at 5:00. It was 12:08 when I climbed into bed. Ryan greeted me from his slumber with a grunt. Dan actually managed some coherent words, although I don't remember exactly what they were - in my lethargy, my mental processing speed was somewhat diminished. Mitch, as dormant as a doormouse (.... yeah, that's not a thing), didn't even acknowledge my presence.
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