My first Kenyan Massage

We spent the first full day in Kenya getting to know the others in the group and waiting for one of our member to catch up with us. It seems that if you wash your passport you may not be able to travel with it. You might be able to leave the US but returning with a damaged passport can be difficult to do.  We took the bus from our hotel and went into Nairobi and walked around, did some shopping and saw first hand the amount of political campaigning done before their elections that took place the next week.

We had dinner together that night at the hotel and really got to know each other. We met Momma Esther and she shared with us her story of how the orphanage came to be.  Late that evening our last team member Leo Trey Fetch arrived, we were now a complete team.

We loaded up our bus the next morning and headed to the market to buy supplies and most importantly water.  We all crammed back into the bus, our luggage on top and the aisles filled with 5 gallon water bottles and the back seat filled with food and water as well.

Most of the FAs already knew each other, but we all visited and talked about where we were from and shared stories, and snacks. True friendships are made over food. We spent at least 10 hours traveling that day at times through some of the towns the traffic was horrible, all due to the upcoming elections. Our first stop was along the Rift Valley, it was beautiful.We stopped at another store and bought more water and some food to eat, we were starving.   This stop was our first exposure to going to the bathroom over a hole in the ground, it would be nicer that what we had the rest of the trip, but still disgusting. I do have to admit, you get stronger calves and thighs squatting that much! The was a traffic jam so bad in one town that one of the FAs got to know one of the peddlers selling his wares on a first name basis. Items were passed around the bus in hopes that one of us would buy something from the man and the others that came up to the bus to make some money. That guy made a killing, I'm sure his family was very happy that night. The sights we saw, chickens, goats and sheep riding on top of buses. Twenty or so people crammed in vans with the doors aspen and people hanging out. Piky Piky's (motorcycles) with 5 people on them, or the driver and a couch, or a goat. It was market day so in every town there were open air markets going on, the piles of produce lining the streets, booths with clothes and shoes. tools, you name it, and it was being sold. Trash everywhere, the are no laws against littering there and people don't care.

We knew we were close when the last 30 minutes of the ride we were off road. The roads were dirt and very BuMpY! We laughingly called it our Kenyan massage. Once we finished the bumpy part we had glimpses of Lake Victoria! We crept along the coast line inching our way closer to the island and our beds for the night.

We wondered around lost for a bit, we arrived at the end of dusk so it was hard to see, finally after Teddy (our in country support and Mamma Esther's son) had a few phone calls we found our hotel. We unloaded and found our rooms.

Within minutes it was apparent that our bus driver was leaving and headed back to Nairobi because of the elections, he feared for his life (he supported the candidate not so favored in the area we were in) Teddy was amazing and stepped in and reassured him, disaster averted! Teddy was our hero!

They fed us spaghetti that night and french fries. Basically spaghetti with tomato sauce on it. At the time of this trip Mac and I weren't eating meat or processed food, so we had fries and a coke for dinner, that was okay, I just wanted BED and SLEEP! It was hard to sleep knowing that the next day we would meet the kids at the orphanage and begin the real work!