The flight home is long, and I have a five hour stop in Nairobi.
However, the tedium is broken most unexpectedly. I wander into the
coffee bar at Nairobi airport and see a very attractive girl sitting
next to the bar. I mutter something about where to get a coffee, and
realise from her response that she must be deaf. It becomes apparent
that she is traveling alone, so, after considering the problem, I grab
a paper napkin from the bar and write "may I join you?" on it. We then
communicate by paper napkin for about two hours, during which I
discover that her name is Enza, she lives in Canada, works as an anchor
on a television programme for deaf people as well as being a talented
painter (which I don't discover until I get home and find her web site*
and has
spent the last two
months working in a school for the deaf in Tanzania. She is great
company,
and we discover that we are sitting in adjacent rows on the plane, so
when we board I do a deal with the guy next to me - he swaps with Enza
and gets an aisle seat, and she sits next to me.
We get to Amsterdam about 5 in the
morning and have a cup of coffee together before she gets her flight to
Canada and I head off back to Mud Island. Another trip over.
* Since I wrote this Enza's web
site has unaccountably disappeared, which is a great shame. Enza, if
you read this, I'd love to see your pictures back on the web for the
world to
admire.
