Two 9-hour flights, 1 night in a presidential suite, another brief flight and taxi ride to Eldoret, Kenya, and now it’s time for the work to begin!
Traveling wasn’t nearly as rough as what I expected--with the fear of losing luggage along the way or being held at customs because of forgetting to bring along proof of receiving a very important vaccine… Let’s just say I had a few internal meltdowns before deciding it was all going to work out one way or another. I’m mainly sorry for stressing out my parents so much by trying to get them to email me a scanned copy of what I was missing (You two are INCREDIBLE!). I had an excellent conversation with a woman on the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, who is volunteering at an orphanage in Kenya through the 12th of August. In all my stress and worry about travel and coming to Kenya, her spirit definitely aided in my process of finding an even better perspective regarding the trip as a whole, as she continuously travels to Haiti as well as a host of African countries to help in whatever way she can even after contracting Malaria and experiencing her share of hardships in the process. It was wonderful to meet someone so passionate about life and so willing to allow God to lead her--even across oceans (Praying for you, Sandra!).
Once we arrived in Nairobi and made it through customs, we finally arrived at our hotel around 11:30pm. After waiting a few extra minutes for one of the rooms to be ready, the hotel staff apologized for the wait and led us up to the 8th floor, pushed open a pair of double doors, and there we were standing in the Presidential Suite at no extra cost—not a bad upgrade! Undoubtedly, I will never step into another hotel room that would even come close to rivaling it. A couple living rooms, 2 bathrooms, a sauna/steam room, a massive jacuzzi bathtub, a small kitchen, an enormous king-sized bed, 4 large, flatscreen TVs, a walk-in closet bigger than my bedroom back home, and windows lining walls from the floor to the ceiling in several of the rooms. All for our enjoyment for the next 4 hours until we had to wake up at 4am to catch a ride back to the airport for our final flight to Eldoret. It’s too bad that we had to sleep through it all, but the shower was fantastic, the beds were comfortable, and it was an awfully nice welcoming to Kenya!
We arrived to IU House, where we’ll be staying in Eldoret, around 8am this morning, and it has been a very fantastic experience so far. We only had a few items to cross off our list for today, so we have had a chance to ease into the new environment and give our bodies a chance to get over the jet lag. It is definitely a new world here. In some ways, the sights I have seen have paralleled some of my expectations, while other aspects have been unexpected. I’m excited to dive deeper into the culture and have a chance to talk with some more of the locals. Although we have received quite a few stares and glares (as outside of the compound, I have yet to see a single light-skinned person out of the thousands we have been surrounded by in town), the few Kenyans I have talked to have been exceedingly congenial and a pleasure to be around. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some pictures on here soon of IU House and Eldoret to give you a better idea of what it’s like here than a wordy description would attempt to do.
Most days, IU House supplies/prepares breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us on the compound. However, every Wednesday night, IU House treats us to dinner at a nearby restaurant, so tonight we had the opportunity to join a lot of the residents here at an italian restaurant named Mamma Mia’s just down the street. Let’s just say that food was completely overflowing, and, although it’s definitely not the italian I’m used to back home, it was delicious. Plates kept pouring out of the kitchen with all kinds of dishes: some kind of creamy salad with pineapple, carrots, and a few other ingredients, meat balls (maybe lamb?), potatoes smothered in some kind of sauce, pizza, beef/mushroom stroganoff, mashed potatoes, rice, and dough balls filled with herbs and cheese. It’s fair to say that I’m definitely not going to starve here.
Tomorrow will be our first glimpse into the program we’ll be working for/with over the duration of our time here, and I am incredibly excited to begin learning and growing both clinically and personally.
I hope you have a wonderful night!
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