Awake at 4am. Matatu at 5am. Just about to leave when I do a head count. There is no sign of Teacher Rispa. Bonface checks and discovers she is still fast asleep in her bed. She nearly missed the trip! Fair play to her – she makes it to the matatu in 10 minutes flat.
At the station, we make it through all the security checks. There is a tense moment when the sniffer dogs encounter our giant bag of mandazi (donuts). Imagine ending up in a Naoirobi jail over a bag of cakes! Luckily, we are allowed through – mandazi intact.
We find a comfortable spot and enjoy our homemade breakfast of mandazi and tea. Catherine, Sylvia and Rispa stayed up until 11pm making 200 of them so that we could save money. We also have bananas – or rather we should have – it turns out that Rispa has forgotten them. She’s definitely having a shaky start to the day. However, nothing can dispel the excitement of our trip. Only Bonface has ever been on a train. The others are nervous, excited and unsure. I hear a couple of people mutter prayers under their breath.
We board the train at 8am. It is all very efficient. Waiting staff, dressed like air hostesses , stand at every door of the train to direct you to your seat. We are in Carriage 9, of 13 in total, and we are all seated together. Rispa, Helen and Noisim ask me to come with them to explore. They are amazed that there is a toilet and impressed that there is a water dispenser. “Oh Margaret, Look! There is even an ATM.”
Really?
“Actually, Rispa that’s a control panel for the doors. Better not to touch it!” I advise.
Helen mentions she has heard a rumour that some people sleep on the train at night. Rispa exclaims, “So it has a hotel, too?” More like a few sleeper carriages.
We set off and no-one can believe how smooth it is and how fast it goes. The journey is full of fun, laughter, regular rounds of mandazi and Bob Marley (thanks to my phone and speaker.) We see elephants, zebras and a giraffe as we pass through the Kapiti Plains and Savo National Park. Six hours later, we arrive in Meritini station, on the outskirts of Mombasa.
Train journeys are something we don’t think much about at home – other than as another form of travel. But here in Kenya, it is different. It is a privilege to experience the wonder of a train, for the first time, through someone else’s eyes.
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