While on a school holiday in April 1996, my father woke me up earlier than usual one morning. He asked me and my brother Joe Kagigite to get prepared for a trip. I obeyed his commands without knowing where we were headed to. Well, he had informed me the previous night that we would be travelling but he didn't make the destination of the trip known to me.

My father, Kagigite and I left home early that morning before daybreak. We boarded a bus bound for Nairobi City. When we reached Nairobi, we did a few errands including having our shoes polished till they shone like black diamonds. Afterwards, we boarded another bus.

Sooner than later, I saw airplanes through the bus window. Seeing the planes at close range made me fizz with excitement. Before then, I had been accustomed to seeing them fly high in the sky from where they looked like small noisy toys. It had never occurred to me that I would get a chance to see planes so close. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw the big planes through the bus window on that lovely morning in April 1996.

We alighted from the bus at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. After going through the required clearance, we were led into an aircraft scheduled for Mombasa, a city in coastal Kenya. The mid-sized plane, a Fokker 50 owned by Kenya Airways, looked heavenly on the inside compared to the public service vehicles I had been used to. And I noted that most passengers in the plane were whites - how civilized!

My father allowed me to sit next to the window from where I observed things on the ground shrink in size as the plane ascended to the clouds. I am sure it must have been an exhilarating experience for me.

The plane didn't fly directly to Mombasa. It made a stop in Malindi, a town also in coastal Kenya. And on the flight to Mombasa from Malindi, I saw some rivers flow into the Indian Ocean.

We arrived in Mombasa before midday. The exact order of activities we did in the city has long since faded from my memory. All I remember is us boarding a ferry, taking photos on the seashore and touring Fort Jesus (a historical site in the town) after which we went back to the airport to catch a flight back to Nairobi.

That day-trip to Mombasa helped me to better understand Robinson Crusoe when I read it a dozen months later. Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe in which Robinson Crusoe is cast on shore by a shipwreck wherein all the men perish but himself. Robinson then lives alone for twenty eight years on the island on which he is cast by the shipwreck.

Having seen the expansive blue ocean on my one-day trip to Mombasa in 1996, I could picture Robinson Crusoe stranded on an island. Later on, I would fantasize myself also getting stranded in an island where I would feast on coconuts and fish.

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UPDATE: I have removed this story for reasons I beg not to explain. Sorry for any inconveniences.

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