both extremes

Day Two - Saturday, 6 June 2015

What a day today was. We woke up relatively early (compared to when I went to sleep) and had a quick breakfast before heading out. We started the day visiting CFA Staff training. There are almost 80 Kenyans that work at CFA (administrative staff, counseling staff at each site, etc) and twice a year they try to get everyone together for training and information exchange. We sat in with them for a few sessions on leadership, community, and compassion. We had a break for tea at 10am, a routine part of the day for Kenyans, and had an opportunity to chat with the Kenyan staff. They are the friendliest people and truly love what they are doing. They've added a lot of new staff in the past year.

We had a traditional Kenyan lunch with things I can't remember, and then headed off to a small village outside the city to a quick 3 hour VBS with a group of kids. The only thing we prepared for was to "get out of your head anything you remember about American VBS." And they were right. It started monsooning on our drive to the church, which meant the roads became rivers. We continued on, no fear. The first floor of the buildings that we were driving passed flooded maybe six inches, but with no concern to any of the occupants. Because its so hilly here, things drain as quickly as they flooded. No panic from anyone.

We arrived at the church (still pouring) and ran into the building to about forty screaming, excited kits between the ages of 2 and 10. They ran up and shook our hands and said "how are you?", which for some is all the English they knew. We did significant improvising because the rain changed almost all of our plans. Things still went off wonderfully though. The kids were excited to color, sing, and play games. We taught them some English VBS songs, and they sang some in Swahili for us as well. My favorite moment of the event was when we divided the room into two groups and did a "Allelujah, Praise Ye the Lord" singing competition. All the kids and all the adults had a great time singing and shouting. The strangest moment was ending the event. There was no parent pick up or check out; all the kids just walk home afterward. The community is very protective of the children and everyone watches out for everyone else. Favorite comment from a child: "What is your long hair about?". 

From VBS we went straight to the home of a member of the CFA board for dinner. They live in the ex-pat area of Nairobi, which was a stark contrast to the church event we drove from. Most of the people that live in that area are ambassadors or business people, and they have a pretty excluded community....their own schools, their own stores, etc. It is easy to live a complete life without interacting with traditional Kenya if you so choose.

After dinner we drove back to the CFA house. Tomorrow is church...which I have been told can be quite a long experience. Stay tuned.

I made it!

Day One - The Flight[s]

I'm not certain how many days its been since I left Atlanta. Definitely more than one but probably less than two. Time zones are crazy things.

I'll start with my oh so great start to the trip; which included a grand strategy around adjusting my sleep wake schedule so that I would be tired enough to fall asleep on Flight #1 to Amsterdam and then awake enough to stay eyes open the whole eight hour flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi.

I stayed up late before departure day finishing packing and closing out some school projects. I woke up very early and went for a (glorious) run through Atlanta. It was the perfect overcast weather that makes you think you can run longer and faster than you actually can - as evidence by my abrupt stop half a mile from home. Mom (rightfully) called me out on stopping my run early so i didn't decrease my pace time. 

My ever-so-gracious mom picked me up and we had a great "last meal" at Flying Biscuit. Mom wouldn't let me call it a last meal because that was too morbid, but after the discussions at work the previous day about my eminent demise I thought it best to be prepared.

We got to the airport with more than enough time to spare, and I found the rest of the crew without any issue. Its a really interesting group I'm traveling with: a total of eight people including Luis, an I-Banker from NYC, and Jen, an epidemiologist with the CDC, and about five other great people. 

My sleep / wake plans did not go as planned, in fact they went exactly the opposite. I tried so hard to sleep on that first flight, I even had a few glasses of wine to try and help, but no luck. I sat next to a very strange man headed to Finland (literally all he said to me was one word...."Finland") and watched a few movies.

The second leg of the trip was worlds better (continents better?). It was on a much larger 747 double decker, and I was in the second to last row. It ended up being a great set up because I could get up to stretch whenever I wanted and we got served all our meals first. Lots of great meals....but no first class dining like a certain younger brother of mine.....

It was dark by the time we landed, and I am bummed about that. But stepping off the plan was super cool. We had to deplane using stairs onto the tarmac and there were Kenyan airline workers welcoming us and ushering us in towards customs. Customs in and of itself wasn't too bad. It was in a mostly unfinished basement type area, with a mass of people in some sort of lines filing in for visas.  The process was relatively painless; my favorite part was when they took my visa paperwork, stamped my passport, and then promptly filed said paperwork in the trashcan beneath the desk.

Baggage all arrived, but it took over an hour to collect the 12+ bags that we brought. We brought over lots of items that the Kenyan Care for AIDS workers had requested / ordered, and everything we would need to run a VBS day.

We loaded into two 9 passenger vans with all the luggage and all the people and made the trek to the Care for AIDS house, in the north of Nairobi about 20 minutes outside the city. Again, because it was so dark it was difficult to see the landscape, but the driving was a different experience than what I'm use to, even in the craziest of Atlanta moments. Note that they drive on the left side of the road, and because of pot holes and hills and all sorts of other obstacles, veering in all sorts of directions is common. And anxiety-inducing. But always an adventure.

The CFA house is in a gated community, and then gated outside the drive way of the house as well. CFA has owned this house for about a year now, and its great for groups like ours. There are several (maybe 5?) bedrooms with a large central gathering room and kitchen. Molly and I are sharing a room, so its just like college again. Complete were her stealing my shampoo....typical.

It took a few hours to settle down after arriving at the house and unloading. I took a shower...which was hot, but only because the water is heated in the shower head. The quicker the flow in the water, the cooler the water becomes. It was quite a comfortable shower, and then an even more comfortable bed. Being horizontal felt quite nice after sitting for two days. It was quiet outside, and you could hear all sorts of exotic bugs and birds outside. We slept with our window open and the breeze made it just the perfect cool temperature in the room. A much quieter nights sleep than what I'm used to downtown, thats for sure.

Tomorrow has a packed schedule....more to report later.

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