Post 3

written by Katie McLain

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Jambo, rafikis!
Hello, friends!

Sorry about our lack of entries, our access to the internet is limited and the internet itself isn’t very reliable here in Kenya. I’m currently writing from an internet café (a small shop just big enough to hold 7 old computers offering dial-up internet connection, groan) down the street from our hotel. We’ve attempted to blog a few times already, but each time we’re told that the service was down “in Nairobi.” This happens fairly frequently: Kenya’s internet provider, JamboNet (based in Nairobi), goes down and all of Kenya is without internet until it comes back up.

My roommate, Kellye Johnson from Hurst, Texas, has been keeping a journal via her laptop, and it is the best account of the trip we have so far. I’ve written a few notes of my personal experiences (mostly for my own reference) & will write more later, but hers is more complete & much better written.

TRAVELING:

The first thing that needs to be said is that everyone in the group is healthy & happy. Alfred & I have been fighting coughs, but we’re both past the worst & getting better every day. The Mubichi (I hope I am spelling that correctly) family is taking very good care of us all: from letting a few team members stay in their home (the rest of us are staying at a hotel), to sharing their doctor, and driving us all over town running errands (poor Ravena! We’ve been keeping her and her car very busy).

Right now it is 11:30 AM here, meaning it is 2:30 AM for the people back home on Central Time. When we woke this Wednesday morning at 7:00 AM, you were still enjoying your Tuesday evening. So from now on whenever you glance at your clock and notice that it’s 9:00 or 10:00 PM, you know we’re just beginning our day. (and no need to worry about the world ending “tomorrow,” because it is already tomorrow here and all is well).

We began our journey Thursday, January 12 at Oklahoma City’s Will Roger’s Airport. 29 ½ hours later (feel free to gasp here), the group finally arrived safely in Nairobi.

We had 3 flights: the 1st from Oklahoma City to Chicago, the 2nd to London, the 3rd to Nairobi.

By the time we boarded our 2nd plane in Chicago at around 5:30 PM (central time), it was getting dark outside and our last normal (12 hour) day was ending. We then flew for 7 hours in the dark, in the opposite direction of the sun, so when we arrived in London it was dawn (a very short night). I thought this was interesting: we were served dinner at the start of the flight and breakfast at the end.

Our 3rd flight was 8 hours long, and we saw the sun set again in the midst of the flight. I was fortunate enough to get a window seat. Every seat on the flight had a miniature TV monitor with 18+ channels, one of which was a map tracking the location of the airplane. I looked out my window when we flew over France (even got a picture of the snow covered Alps), when we crossed into Africa via the northern border, and I tried to look out when we were over the Sahara, but the window was so hot and the light outside so bright I couldn’t. We arrived in Nairobi (Friday January 13, 2006) at 9:30 PM Kenya Time, 12:30 PM Central Time, and tried our best to sleep.

We spent the night at a Methodist Guest House in Nairobi, and when we awoke we drove north for 5 extremely bumpy hours until we reached our final destination: Meru. We had to share the road with other cars as well as bikers, pedestrians, donkey carts, etc. This comment from Jean Warner says all that needs to be said about the condition of the road: “Are those potholes or bathtubs?” Still, the drive was a great opportunity to see Africa’s people, their shops and farms, and the breathtaking scenery.

- Katie McLain