Am sitting comfortably in my good friend Pippa's spare room in Steatham writing this. I did wonder if I was going to spend a couple of months or more in a Nairobi jail yesterday. After managing to get round not paying US$75 per kg for being 3kg overweight in Harare and leaving at 01:40 instead of 00:10 as it had said I actually arrived in Nairobi on time yesterday morning, a little sleep deprived. My whole trip has been proudly sponsored and supported by Kenyan coffee most of the way. I found a nice coffee shop in the airport and took my meds as normal before heading to the departure gate. I did note they had a security check point to go through but it wasn't in operation. They did however randomly pick people out to be searched and have swabs taken of the inside of your hand luggage and your hands and clothes. As I obviously look like a potential drug smuggler I was singled out and had to wait to be searched.
They literally emptied out the entire contents of my bag and got to work. Well ... they hadn't been at it long before the fancy looking chemical analysis machine starting going off. I started wracking my brains as to what could be triggering this but I was in no way prepared for them to say, "Madame, it appears you have explosives in your bag." Sorry, what??!! Instinctively I reached forward to try look in my bag but was told, "Do not touch the bag!" OK. Not having touched my bag, they then did swabs of my hands and to my alarm and consternation they announced these were covered in explosives too. They called for security back up at this point and I started wracking my brains as to what could possibly be explosive in my bag - panic. I could only think of an eau de cologne but it is not an aerosol. The new security person wanted to know if I had packed my bag myself - yes, and if I had at any point left my bag unattended - no!
I suddenly thought of my lithium tablets. Suggested these but was told no, lithium is not an explosive. But .... they had a look at what else I have in my medication vials and low and behold Venlorflaxin is! At this point I would like to thank my psychiatrist who wisely told me to photograph my prescription before I left Zim, which thank God I did! I had to switch on my phone and showed this to security and luckily it had a nice big stamp with my psychiatrist's name and qualification on it. I did begin to wonder though if they would confiscate my meds - do you know how hard they are to get in Zim at the moment and they cost me precious US dollars?? To my great relief though security filled out a form with all my details on and then said I could repack my bags and go wait for my flight. So there you have it - my story. I did not spend Christmas and next year in jail as a potential terrorist from Zimbabwe who uses her medication to blow up planes.
I managed to make my way from Heathrow to Streatham on the Underground and thanks to Pippa helping me get an Oyster card last time managed to get a bus. Did go the wrong way up Streatham High Street and rescheduled to see my cousin Carly today rather but now happily ensconced in chilly England. Off to watch A Very Very Very Dark Matter with Pippa tonight at the Bridge Theatre - it looks like it will be good and seeing Carly for tea this afternoon.
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