Kiev, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi,Kigali

Hustle - An Intense Work Trip

September Miles

"My last hard-core work trip" -or at least I hope so. As I sit in the back of a Ukraine Airways plane between Kiev, Ukraine and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E, that's what I'm saying to myself. The flight departed at 8:30PM, and after 5 hours, arrives to Dubai at 2:30AM, local time.

The trip began on September 16th (2023), in Denver. I had funding from BKP Partners, a German consulting firm to provide the final presentation to our clients in Kigali, Rwanda. The project was about the dubious prospects of taxing farmers in Rwanda - a country where starvation is as much a problem as taxation. In any case, it's a long way from Denver to Kigali - so I decided to split it up. And rest along the way.

First stop was Kiev, where I finally have a comfortable apartment of my own. I stopped in there, to rest for a couple of days, and re-set my internal, circadian clock. The following Sunday, I agreed to a 9:00 AM meeting in Abu Dhabi. Sunday is the start of the work week in the Arab world.

So, the trip was shaping up to look as follows:

• 9/16: Denver --> Kiev | 2 days to reset the clock and change my clothes.
• 9/18: Kiev --> Abu Dhabi | 1 day to prepare - then a $90 taxi to Abu Dhabi and presentation to the Undersecretary of the inistry of Finance
• 9/21: Abu Dhabi --> Nairobi, Kenya | Stop over to visit an old friend, Michael, who is now high up in the USAID apparatus. It's been 8-9 years since we've met.. I was able to get a 12-hour layover on my way to Kigali - and to see the local wildlife.
• 9/21: Nairobi --> Kigali, Rwanda | One day early, to give final presentation on farm-based taxation.
• 9/25: Kigali --> Amsterdam | A brutal flight, through Addis Ababa and Vienna, to Amsterdam. Luckily, the 5.5 hour overnight leg from Addis to Vienna was overbooked, so I was bumped into a better seat.
• 9/26: Amsterdam | Pick up my ol' camper-van at "StallingKemper", 6KM outside of the Schipol airport.
• 9/26: Kitesurfing on the North Shore of Holland in a huge storm. Then start the drive down to Bologna, Italy, for Fall Bicycle training.

First Stop: Dubai. Most of the flights come and go through the huge Dubai Airport (DBX), but the Ministry of Finance Headquarters is in Abu Dhabi, which is about 80 miles - along a huge freeway - across the desert.

At the Ministry of Finance for U.A.E., Abu Dhabi:

Next Stop: Nairobi

The Nairobi Wildlife Preserve. It turns out, there's a huge wildlife preserve sitting on the edge of the metropolis of Nairobi. It's a strange setting indeed, with Giraffes grazing in the savannah, and skyscrapers in the background.

A look at the road - it was often smoother, but had several sections like this. We were in the equivalent of an old (maybe 1993) Toyota Corolla:

We also saw lions, monkeys, and a bunch of other animals in the wild there. In my opinion, just visiting the preserve is a much faster, better, and easier way to do a "safari" than paying for a week out in the bush - to get approximately the same photos as the ones I took!

Next Stop: Kigali, Rwanda

The funding source for this whole trip is the project here in Kigali, Rwanda. Funded by the UNDP, the idea of the project was to build an economic model, and see what might happen - if there was a farm-based tax on incomes (or some other farm type tax). This is my second trip to Kigali, so I knew the downtown area well.

But I managed to spend a bit of time outside of the city center also - walking around the back-hills, surrounding the city, and seeing how more usual people are living. Spoiler is: not too great. Although, they don't live that poorly either. The weather is generally comfortable, so you really don't need much. Kigali and Nairobi are almost exactly on the equator.

Next Stop: Amsterdam!
Finally, after a couple of high-intensity meetings, and tons of air-miles, the last stop is Amsterdam. The flight from Kigali was not easy. It departed at 4:20 PM on Friday to Addis Ababa, then 4 hours hanging out in the Addis airport, which felt identical to the Russian "Sheremetovo 2" airport about 12 years earlier. It's a spawling struture, with old marble and fading green and red leather chairs. Indian people sleeping in the corners, and a crazy cross-section of Arabs, Europeans, and Africans.

There was a wierd system, where the "Cloud Nine" customers were totally separate - all of them boarded from "Gate #9", which isn't actually a gate, but is intead a lobby area with elevators down to a series of busses. This sounds great in theory. No need to fight for space while waiting at the gate. But the problem is that all of the flights left from this gate - and there was no information about any of the flights.

So, there was a comfortable lobby, full of nervous and stressed fancy-fliers. Nobody knew what was happening. The organizer would just call out Paris!, and a bunch of tired, stressed Euro-looking passengers would quickly shuffle to the elevators, and disappear. My own flight was delayed about 40 minutes, and the gate-agent made sure that "Cloud Nine" passengers were the last ones on the plane (for thier comfort), so it really felt like we had missed our flight. But, by a stroke of luck, as I "boarded" the flight (got into the mysterious elevator), the gate-agent exchanged my old, tired boarding pass - with Seat #37D - for a shiny new one stating Seat #4J. A welcome upgrade for the a red-eye flight through the middle of the night! Seats were lie-flat and I managed to get 4 welcome hours of sleep there.