I’m happy to report that I’m writing this post from our Airbnb in Nairobi. No one checked for visas as we were leaving Dubai and upon arrival in Kenya we showed confirmation of our application and that was good enough to be let through. Their systems all seem quite brittle, which can either work for you or against you. Today it worked in our favor.

We had a very early start when our alarms went off at 4AM. Millie was groggy but got up and dressed and out the door without incident. We breathed a sigh of relief at every checkpoint we made it through until we were on the plane. Her favorite airport activity is pushing Judy around on her rolly suitcase and then running after her.

She was excited to match the wall of the bathroom.

Our Kenya Airways flight felt like traveling back to 2001. Fold down TVs, an actual hot meal even though the flight was 4 hours, free alcohol, and a flight attendant taking orders for the Skymall catalog. Our resident iPad addict was happy to have unlimited screen time after not watching anything for a while.

I was excited when we crossed the equator. Millie’s first time in the Southern Hemisphere!

Once we got through passport control we walked to the rental car area. Usually we would book something ahead of time, but this time we didn’t in case we didn’t make it through. Again this worked in our favor and we got one for slightly less than what the aggregate websites had them listed as. Millie is getting better at waiting during boring stuff like this, and sat and played with Judy. Nick is back to driving on the left, which required very little adjustment after our month driving around England.

We still had a couple of hours before our Airbnb would be ready so we went to a grocery store to stock up on breakfasts and a couple of dinners. I googled “best grocery store Nairobi” and the answer was Carrefour at Westgate mall. We had to go through multiple security checkpoints on the way in, including a dog sniffing the entire inside and outside of our rental car.

As we were walking around the store Millie pulled me aside, wide eyed, and asked “Why does everyone in this country have dark skin?” After almost 40 years of socialization in the US to not mention skin color, my first instinct was to hush her and immediately change the subject. But then I put myself in her shoes and, yeah, of course she would be curious about that. I tried my best to explain genetics and evolution in less than 3 minutes. She has some Black friends from school and asked if their grandparents were from Kenya, which then led to a conversation about the African diaspora. She then said “I wish they didn’t have dark skin” which really made me want to change the subject. Her innocent reasoning was because she didn’t want to be the only one with light skin, which then led us on a whole other path of what it feels like to be different. Parenting a curious 4 year old… never boring.

We made our way to our Airbnb and checked in. There is a kids play area in the building where Millie got some energy out. You can’t tell by the photos but it was packed with about 12 very loud kids. Millie loved it.

We retreated back up to our Airbnb for Sunday family movie night. Tonight’s choice: The Lion King. We plan to see animals and visit the actual Pride Rock this week, so it felt fitting. As it started Nick looked at me and said “I can’t believe we just landed in Nairobi and the first thing we are doing is watching The Lion King”. Yep.

Early to bed after our very early morning.