Touchdown in Nairobi!

(Note: this was written about 9 hours ago, 11:30pm EAT, but I had no Internet connection 'til now!)

First things first: I've made it safe and sound to the place I'll be staying for the next three days in Nairobi. There you go Mom and Dad ;)

The trip: was practically non-stop after Vancouver. A short, 50-minute layover in Amsterdam was sandwiched by a nine-hour and an eight-hour flight. Time flew; I don't feel like it could've actually been that long, but it's kind of strange to think that I've technically spent most of June 10th and nearly all of June 11th sitting in a plane. I've already experienced some neat perks of travelling alone, namely, meeting new people! On the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, I sat beside two men, one, a Kenyan businessman with children ranging in age from five to twenty-five years (whoa!); he helped me practice some Swahili and gave both myself and our other row-mate his business card if ever we're looking for a place to stay in Kisumu. The other was a college pastor from the South Eastern US who has two cute kids himself (family stories were swapped), and was on his way to Kitale with a couple other men to speak at a church planting conference. He saw my Bible which got conversation flowing, and the businessman from Kisumu attends an African Inland Church! Hey-o!

At the airport, once my visa and luggage were obtained, I found the person waiting outside the arrival area with my name on a sign. (Just like in the movies, and yes, it does feel cool.) There were several of us taking the van back to the guest house, and on the ride I chatted with a lovely young woman named Irene, who lives near the Ugandan border, as well as two men from Northern Ireland and California. 

So far, everyone I've spoken with about my going to Northern Kenya has said it's like a different world, hardly the same country. The man from California said whenever the North is talked about, it's in terms of famine, drought, and dry, desert-ness. He said it's as if it's been forgotten by the rest of the country, an orphan. The businessman from Kisumu told me that it is good that I am going, that there, they really need health education; he laughed as he suggested that perhaps I should be going for 10 months rather than 10 weeks. 

The trip could hardly have gone more smoothly, other than a burst bottle of hand sanitizer in my suitcase. Serves me right for wanting to be clean. But, it's lemony fresh so now everything smells fantastic. #silverlinings

Off to sleep for now! Lala salama to me :)