Because it is always good to fight corruption.

You know that dreaded middle seat you never want on a plane? Where you pray that the other two seats are occupied by a couple hoping to not have anyone in the middle and they give up the middle seat and let you sit on the isle? Where you pray that the people on each side are not “large” and “smelly”? Well I got that middle seat for 8 hours. They were not a couple traveling together but they were also not large and smelly. It was ok and I discovered the games they have on the back seats of the headrest in front of you. I have always watched movies but never played the games. It was great! And I will never play Blackjack for reals because I would be poor.

I arrived in Nairobi, got my Visa, spotted Daniel outside the window and waited for my bags to arrive. My plane was very large with many people on it which meant a lot of luggage. For some reason when they loaded the luggage on the carousal they loaded everything upside down AND on top of each other. Luggage was falling off the carousal and it was hard to identify which luggage was mine. I found the first two pieces quickly but the third piece seemed to be taking forever. I realized it was the piece of luggage that had the “weapons” that had been confiscated in Holland. I knew it was probably going to be a while before it showed up so I sat and waited. Finally it arrived!!

I proceeded out the front door and was stopped by a nice man who was checking bags. I figured he wanted to see my luggage tags to make sure the bags belonged to me. He was very friendly and asked me about my stay. I told him I was visiting my son. “Oh you are” he says, “Did you bring him any gifts”. “Why yes, I bought him some clothes and new shoes”. “How nice” he says. “You will have to pay duty on the”. He gets out his handy calculator and punches the numbers in and tells me I have to pay 17,000 shillings. By now I am staring at him trying to figure out what is going on. I have NEVER had to pay duty on anything coming into Kenya. I told him I was not going to pay it. “Oh but you have to” he says. I tell him I have no Kenya Shillings. “No problem, he points to the money exchange place and tells me I can go right over there and get some”. Hmmm what the heck is going on? I am looking blankly at him and he tells me it is ok I can just pay him 10,000 shillings. A light went off in my head!! He is trying to cheat me. Oh no that is not going to happen. I am alone, I won’t embarrass anyone by the way I am about to act. I look him in the eye and tell him, YOU ARE CHEATING ME!! Now he is shocked. I tell him, I have never paid duty on gifts I have brought to my son and I never will and I begin to walk away from him. He hollers at me, well now you know you have to pay next time. Hah, what to bet?