Departure

Four of us are leaving this evening, including myself. Curtis is scheduled to depart next week. Robert was supposed to depart with the rest of us, but is still waiting for his visa. He's originally from Cameroon and I believe had to send his paperwork to the Kenyan consulate there. That was over six weeks ago. In fact, the rest of us only received our visas last Thursday.

Zahir, Bilha, Marta, and I have a layover in London for about 12 hours. We're planning on going into the city for the day. But again, there might be an issue because Bilha can't just get a entry visa on the spot because she's from Kenya. I can't believe England doesn't have more
streamlined visa process with members of its own commonwealth. She might be able to get a transit visa, though.

I think we're on a code shared British Airways flight. Both legs will take about 15 hours combined. My last international flight was on Singapore Air. They had a pretty great on-demand movie, music, and video game console in each seat, good food, and of course have a famous throwback policy of strictly hiring attractive stewardesses.

I've got plenty of reading material for the flight. My sister gave me a good book called "The Shadow of the Sun" by Ryszard Kapuscinski, about a Polish journalist who has traveled in Africa since the 1950's. It's good so far. I also made some Swahili flashcards to practice with. For bonus entertainment, Marta is turning 21 while we're mid-air. It might be a moot point, though, since the plane might technically be British soil, where the drinking age is 18.