Day One

The adventure begins…

Today is a travel day as we make our way to Nairobi from different parts of the world, from Roanoke to Washington, DC, the Bahamas, and even Tokyo. Because of winter break, we were scattered across the globe, so we decided to depart from our respective home airports and reunite in Nairobi. Our flight from JFK directly to Nairobi was 13-hour-and-30-minute flight, while others departed from DC with connections through Frankfurt, and the longest flight was from Tokyo for 18 hours!

As anyone who travels frequently knows, flying these days always seems to come with some kind of airline drama. This time, Jalloh had an especially adventurous encounter with a gate agent in Atlanta while boarding our flight to JFK (New York). Without any explanation, the gate agent began forcing passengers to check their carry-on luggage all the way to Nairobi. (This is unusual since the bags will be courtsey checked and brought back to the jet bridge after the flight.) Jalloh was not having it. He explained that carry-ons are meant to stay with passengers in case of issues with checked baggage. When he asked the Gate Agent why she was checking carry-ons all the way to the final destination, her response was simply, “Just because!!!”

Jalloh insisted that his bag should not be checked through to Nairobi, and if it had to be taken, it should at least be returned at the jet bridge in JFK. The gate agent became increasingly upset and eventually called TSA. As they made the call, Lindsey was thinking she would have to shuffle everyone away and lead the entire study abroad program alone while Jalloh would spend days being questioned and eventually sent home.

Taking one for the team, Jalloh decided to let it go and allowed his carry-on to be checked through to the final destination. “She’s lucky I’m traveling with a team and don’t want to cause an inconvenience,” he exclaimed. “But I’ll be back.” Lindsey muttered that she just didn't want him to get kicked off the flight. To everyone’s surprise—especially Jalloh’s—the overhead bins on the plane were mostly empty. This only reinforced his belief that there was no good reason for his carry-on to have been checked in the first place.

Rest assured, though—Jalloh will be back. And the next time he’s traveling alone, any gate agent thinking of pulling a similar stunt might want to think twice.

After flying thousands of miles, we found our way back to an American classic for lunch: KFC. Some of us had chicken, but the heat drove most to find fruit, ice cream, and juices at the nearby Naivas grocery store. (One of our partners at Kenyatta, Irene, highly recommends salted caramel ice cream, and we can agree.) We loaded up on waters for the time being and headed just down the road to Kenyatta University. Its as lush and vibrant as we remembered.

We concluded the day with a warm dinner that got rave reviews, and retired for the night.

We are so grateful to our hosts at Kenyatta University who have been extraordinarily accommodating and generous. We are thrilled to be back in Nairobi and to introduce Hollins University students to Kenya. We cant wait to show you all our adventures and what we will discover in the coming weeks.