Morning Came Quickly: and by afternoon we arrived in Kete Krachi

Submitted by Erin Nolan

 As soon as I woke up I was happy to be alive and I felt so much better knowing there was daylight.

As we started to get ready for the day we stumbled upon someone who made a place to sleep right outside our door.  She never did hear us moving around bright and early I’m thinking she has done this before and looks prepared for the long journey.

The scenery was beautiful and it was a calm trip the entire way along the lake.

Patricia also was so kind to help me make a ”semi-cold” iced coffee since I packed plenty of Starbucks instant coffee so I could still enjoy some coffee in the morning and then Patricia made us all cheese and avocado sandwiches for breakfast and we began the day. I probably would have had another if I knew this would be the one of two days I ended up with the pleasure of eating cheese. 

I then did a trip around the ferry to snap up photos of what I saw in the evening.

 

Part of this ferry trip was for everyone to point out any safety concerns we came across and report back to the company with our recommendations.  We were lucky to get a chance to go down to the engine room and get an engine briefing from the engineer.  I thought being on deck was hot, but I would prefer the engines running on high than not at all. 

Our next visit was with the captain in the pilot house.  We talked about how the ferry operates, communications, the means of navigation, and how they rotate the crew.  It was an interesting discussion, we discovered the GPS was unavailable and we were navigating via the old fashion compass and points along the lake.  We also discovered that the radios were also inoperative.  The more I heard the more I was happy to have found out now and not before I feel asleep.

The ferry arrived safely at the Kete Krachi port and it was a mass exodus.  Everyone was trying to get off all at once; people were in their cars and getting ready to disembark.  The ramp was lowered and everyone was on

their way.

We planned on going to Kete Krachi the following morning after a restful evening and time to settle in but there was a “miscommunication” and they told us all the school kids were waiting for us in the auditorium so we went right to the school to give them an introduction and an assignment for the next day’s presentation.  They were asked to define the following aviation terms; aviate, navigate, and communicate.

Every one of the students looked so intrigued and excited to have visitors.  I’m so excited to have had the opportunity to be a part of these kids hearing and learning about aviation. We headed back to our room so we could settle in, wash up, have a dinner and rest up for the next day.  All of us had a nice dinner together and the room was really pleasant, it felt so good to take a shower and an added bonus was the cool AC.