Travel Logistics – The Flights (February 21-22)

We were fortunate that one of our team members, Archdeacon Robert Franken, was also an experienced international traveler. His skill at navigating through passport checks, security gates, airline check-ins, etc. was truly awesome. Where I might have been standing someplace beseeching permission to enter, Robert was bulling ahead, and the other 4 of us followed like little ducklings behind our Papa Duck.

While still in transit, we realized we had a little problem with calling folks by name. We had Robert Towner the priest and Robert Franken the archdeacon. Were they both Robert? or both Bob? We cleared it up pretty quickly: Franken preferred “Robert,” and Towner preferred “Bob.” No problem. But, in honor of Robert’s travel prowess, some of us gave him another name: Brother Chutzpah. :) That name resurfaced periodically throughout the trip when he led us through scary passages.

Future travelers: Prepare for a very, very, very long transit. It’s about 25 hours from wheels-up in St. Louis to wheels-down in Nairobi.