My family and I (2kids n 2 adults) left Kampala at 5 in the evening of Monday 21st 2013, we reached Nairobi Accra street at 6am in the morning , we used MASH VIP since we had kids(If you are travelling to Kenya from Uganda with kids use mash bus and book vip or executive). Using the map we had, we proceeded to the Hotel Partitas had advised us to use after her survey, we checked in , changed and proceeded to Koja stage to find taxis to Gigiri. From this point, we used the map Guriix provided to us thus reaching IOM Gigiri safely.
day 1. 22nd Oct 2013
We arrived at IOM at around 7:30am for an appointment of 8:30am, went through the security check. We then proceeded to the reception, here they asked for our passports and the 2nd nl.we were then told to wait,, at 8am, were called and a lady at the reception used a digital camera to take a passport photo of each of us, again we were told to go back and wait.
At around 8:30am,every one who was doing medicals day one was called for a counseling session(counseled all together as a gr9up) ,after, some were told to go for X-Ray n others for blood sample collection, us we went to the lab where they asked for the 2nd nl and a passport photo and the passports, for adults, one vacutainer of blood was taken from each, for the kid who is over 3.5 years a TB skin test injection was given to him on the hand.
We then proceeded for X-Ray here they asked for a passport photo,2nd nl and passports, after handing them over, were told to wait, the wife had taken photos when the hair was covering part of her fore head and so the photo was rejected, she told us that she will not forward the file to the Dr til we bring the appropriate photo, non the less, the X-Ray was taken, I advice women to go in trousers on medical day one. After the X -Ray, we went to the vaccination room and handed over our vaccination certificates, the lady based on these to quote for us the following vaccines to be taken on medical day 2.
My self, 3 jabs (Tdap, MMR and Influenza
Wife, same as mine
kid of 3.5 years 4jabs (DTaP, MMR, pneumococcal, influenza)
Kid of 1.5 years 6jabs(influenza,pneumococcal,varicella,hepatitis A,MMR,tetraxin)
This was a total of 16 vaccines which means a lot of money to pay(what to do?!!!!!) our total amount was 93,009KSh(basic pay and the vaccines). We proceeded to the village market for payments in commercial Bank of AFrica and also to take the passport photo.At the village market we only had the photos taken but we did not have the Kenyan currency so we went back to IOM and handed in the photos and we proceeded to town.Our 2nd day was scheduled for Thursday 24th so Wed was a relaxation day at the hotel.
WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, we met Partitas and the husband, these people were our heroes, I can not express the warm hospitality they rendered to us, indeed we felt at home and cared for the time we spent in the hands of these people, may the Lord bless this family. They took us around the city and showed us CBA bank where we paid for the medicals and they also showed us where to buy kenyan currency bcs there are a n
No of pple who sell fake notes, from the bank they took us for lunch and that was our day.
day 2. 24th Oct 2013
We were scheduled for 8am sharp, we reached IOM at 8am but this time we were never checked, we were just given a tag for revisit. We handed in our appointment letter for that day and the receipts from the bank, we handed over the receipts to the cashier. At around 830am, a nurse came and read out files which included ours, he took us and did the baseline checks i.e, checked the height, weight, eye sight, blood pressure and medical history questions.
After this, our file was taken to the Doctor who called us one by one after a long wait. She told us that all our tests were negative, handed us the CDs which have the Xray results and said that we shall carry them to US in case we are granted visas. Each of us was told to strip up to the under pant, the checked the ears , nose, throat, dental, legs, stomach, listened to the chest and examined the stomach, the Dr is a SHE and am a man so stripping up to under pant in the presence of a woman who is not my wife was a challenge to me(what to do??!!!).
After the Dr, we went for the jabs, the Doctor realized that the 6th vaccine for the young kid was not necessary so she commanded for a refund processing but we never followed up since its a long process.
By 2 pm we were through.
We headed to town and booked a bus back to kla, left Nairobi on Thurs 8pm seen off by Partitas and we reached kla on Friday 9am.
Once again I thank Partitas and the husband plus Guriix, Nairobi would have been menace to us. I also thank you the forum family for your prayers and support esp Godia, Skache and Jorj who were willing to help but reside far away from Nairobi.
We are now waiting for the D - Day 20th Nov to get the final results from the CO.
