Travel day 2 (home that is) part 2...the last

Day 31 – Monday, March 1, 2010

So I watched four movies from London to Phili – yes! Wow! Talk about being back in the real world! I would have done database work but my comp died 5 minutes into the 9 hour flight. Oh well. Had a nice layover in Phili (went through security again…that makes 9). Got my flight moved up to an earlier one and was even upgraded to first class for free! I slept the majority of that 5.5 hour flight, but took advantage of a glass of wine and free dinner. Then I thought about how much I had eaten over the 48 hours of travel….I had 3 breakfasts, 3 lunches, and 3 dinners. I’ve always said the only problem I have with switching time zones and sleeping patterns is all I do is eat. It’s so true! The best part is all the food was free because of international flights and stuff, so that’s okay. J I got in, LInds picked me up after a bit of terminal confusion and since I didn’t have my phone I had to turn the computer on to email her a text message, ha! How awesome is that!?! We went through all my touristy things and had a great chat. I’m so happy to be home with her! Here are some fun stats for the month I was gone:

Books read: 12.5

Time on a plane: 44 hours

Time on a train plane or combie: 103 hours (4.3 out of 32 days…that’s 13%)

Friends made: 100+

Memories made: 1000 (I counted)

Times cried: 5 (pretty good I think: once after the first week in Africa b/c I was exhausted, once when mom left, once for Lina, twice because I was leaving)

Hours spent entering data: 100 (see work people… in addition to having fun, I was working while I was gone.)

Thanks all of you who read these or prayed for me. Your prayers were answered in so many ways! It was nice to write home like people were listening, as it really kept me connected. If you haven’t done so, please drop me a line if you read any of them. I’m curious…. I'll send a link out once all pictures are uploaded. There are thousands!

Summary: The end! I’m home!

Travel Day 2 (home that is) part 1

Day 31 – Monday, March 1, 2010

I had a great sleep last night on the plane. I was out for the entire flight, and funny enough, I got more hours of sleep than I averaged during the trip. (Yes that means I didn’t sleep much during the trip. I didn’t want to miss any of the socializing or fun activities, so I did the data collection late into the night. I don’t regret this at all as God was clearly on my side with this. In no other circumstance would I be able to operation on 5 hours sleep while going all day long. Only by His grace and approval). But since I finished the collection, we saw over 4500 people in three weeks! Many of these people saw multiple clinics so the count is actually much higher.

Funny thing about adjusting to real life, as London is when I realized real life is starting again, I keep trying to do Kenyan things. Everytime I go to say ‘thank you’, ‘asante sana’ tries to pop out and I have to suppress it. I want to smile at every person and say ‘jambo’ as that’s what you do in Kenya, but not every person I pass really wants to say hi. London is an especially bad place for this too, as people are so rude here that even if you catch yourself smiling at someone staring at you, they just keep staring. Huh. Also, you know you’ve been in Kenya too long when the airplane stops for a minute and you automatically look up to see what people are trying to sell you through the combie window! Oh boy…too many hours on a combie!

I got off the plane and decided to find all the folks that were on a different plane but connecting through London too. Instead of going through immigration and customs at Heathrow, I switched terminals from Terminal 5 to 4, where their flight was supposed to land. By the time I went through security, the fight had been landed for some time and no one was in sight. Then I jumped on a bus from Terminal 4 to 3 as this is where their next flight should be, and this had a much longer security line. Once through, I saw Jean and John who were supposed to be on the same flight as Ted, Karen, Greg, Greg B, Cheri, Tracy, and Shawna. However they said the group never made the flight. Aww! This means I don’t get to say goodbye at all! It was especially sad because we were in such a group environment where there is so little autonomy or personal time, that to suddenly be cut from the group with no transition shocked me. Thanks to the marvels of technology though, I know I’ll be able to email them all, but that didn’t stop the rush of emotions.

I went back to terminal 5, (security checkpoint), got through immigration, found my lone bags (2 hours has passed since when I was supposed to get them), and I switched to terminal 1, where I went through one more security checkpoint. If you’re keeping a tally, since I got to Nairobi, I have been through 8 checkpoints – 4 in Nairobi and 4 in London! There’s only one left in Philadelphia (hopefully!). While on my way to my gate for the next 3 hour layover, I found out since I’ve been traveling so much over the last year, I got bumped up to the first class lounge! There’s really fast internet here (first time it’s been fast in a month!), free food, comfy chairs, quiet, and no airport smell! Also there’s a chance I can catch an earlier flight in Phili! Also I got to talk to the group that missed their flight and apparently they were put up at a nice swanky hotel in Nairobi, and they are out shopping today. Sounds swanky! More to come later….

Travel Day 1 (home that is)

Travel Day 1 (home that is)

Day 30 – Sunday, February 28, 2010

We were up at breakfast and on the road by 9am, expecting a 6 hour drive. As usual in Kenya though, that really means 9 hours, which was about right on. One of the reasons for this is the road, though paved, is only two lanes, so you had to pass the massive trucks into oncoming traffic. Trucks also passed trucks, so many times you have to nearly stop because there’s a truck heading straight for you trying the pass the guy in front of him. The drivers here are nuts! At the beginning of the trip I thought it was controlled chaos, but boy was I wrong! I now think it’s just bedlam and by the grace of God (all our angels must be working overtime) that people don’t get in more accidents than they do.

The drive was very pleasant as Karen and I shared the 3 seats in the back, so there was room to stretch, and the conversation was pretty awesome as well! We even saw a giraffe on the side of the road! For dinner (lunch was the typical banana stop), we went to a Brazilian steakhouse near the airport. I’ve been to a few of these, where they serve you 10 different kinds of meat off the spit until you burst, and this was one of the best. I tried camel meat (very fatty but the one bite of meat sans fat tasted like turkey), goat (very tough but have sampled this many times during our trip), chicken, beef, turkey, alligator (very fishy, not like the deep fried stuff served in the South), and I passed on the sausages. It was a great meal with a wonderful red wine (Thanks Greg-b!). We then headed to the airport and unloaded our many bags. I was under the impression that I was on the same flight as the PEI crew, but when we started walking separate directions, I quickly realized I was wrong. Sadly, I got a ‘just-in-case’ ½ hug from Karen, Greg, and Uncle Ted as once we were in the terminal we should be able to say a real goodbye. Unfortunately, after a number of circumstances I didn’t get to say goodbye. I have to say this jolted me as I was not prepared for goodbye. I thought there was 12 hours of hanging out time ahead! I boarded my flight and thus ends day 30. We’re really close to the end here, but someone I suspect there will still be things to write.

Some memories it will be hard to forget…(and don’t want to so maybe it’s nicer to say, some memories I would like to keep)….Riding a camel down the beach while playing hookey from clinics, then stiffing the poor camel driver because of miscommunication (both Karen’s doing). Sweet Joyce and Lina, a sad memory that became sweet once Lawrence enlightened me. Feeding starving children in secret. Going bathing suit shopping with Karen. (That didn’t make the blog, but let me just leave it at it was hilarious to see this little muslim girl covered from head to toe trying to fit us for bikinis.) Teaching the teens how to play blackjack and poker then seeing their mom’s reactions. Greg’s picture of Karen on the pirate ship where she thought she looked like a warewolf so she deleted it from the camera without knowing I had already downloaded it to my computer (I giggled for two days!) Dancing on the boat. My first soda in Africa – oh it was sweet and such a luxury about a week into the trip. Seeing the watering hole like in the lion king and all the animals milling around it. Being underwater with fish everywhere completely at peace with me invading their space. Seeing a million stars and mars in Meru and Mikinduri. Savoring the few moments of internet available. Getting an email from home or finding someone online. The tusker room and all the folks chatting in the evening. Seeing so many people’s face light up after fitting them for a pair of glasses. Handing out dolls to the kids. Holding sweet round babies that smelled not of Johnson’s like in the states but a different smell. All that fantastic South African wine courtesy of Greb B, Nancy, and Karen. The evening nightcaps where everyone decompressed, laughed, and shared. Hours and hours and hours in the combie on bumpy roads. Seeing the kids in school so happy singing and sharing their customs and joy with us. Dancing with them….not an enjoyable memory, but it was funny. The nuns. All the people on the trip that made it enjoyable. Every morning I would come down to breakfast in Mikinduri and get a great big warm ‘morning libby’ from everyone individually. That surprised me. The people on this trip are not fake. Everyone is legitimately caring and nice, and just wants to do good things for the world. Sure a few people got on my nerves a bit, but I have never been around a group of people who cared so much and were genuinely friendly and interested in how you are. This has been a fantastic trip and I just hope I can come back next year. Also, I want to bring everyone I know that too is genuine and friendly so they can experience all the amazing things I have. The best part of all of this, is that I got to share these experiences with my mom and uncle. Fantastic!

Summary: A fun day in the combie looking forward to heading home.

Books read: 12 (lovely bones …boring! Mr monk and the blue flu … silly and fun)

Hours in a combie: 50 (That’s over 2 full days of the 3 weeks in Kenya!)

I found nemo!

Day 29 – Saturday, February 27, 2010

Saturday started out with a nice breakfast, something I’ll have to start doing that at home. Eating regular meals is certainly a new concept for me. Our hotel is beautiful. It sits on the white sandy beach. At night little crabs scuttle over your feet. There are monkeys right outside my window. Birds are chirping everywhere. Geckos run all over the place. There’s a lovely pool with a swim up bar. There are palm trees everywhere so you can lay out and be in the shade almost everywhere. The rooms have nice comfortable pillows, big ‘princess’ beds to keep the mosquito net away from your face, a huge flat screen tv, and all three meals for a ridiculously low price. If you’re looking for a fantastic vacation, Kenya is the place, it’s just the flight that’s atrocious. Our hotel even has a dive shop! Unfortunately, I forgot my certification. Well, forgot is not the right word. I had no idea what to expect with Kenya, and my thoughts were definitely more along the lines of long drops….not the pristine getaways we stayed at on the two relaxing weekends. Anyway, through the marvel of technology and living with your sister, Lindsey found my certification and scanned it over email, I took my computer to the dive shop and I was on my way! The rest of the group headed off for a snorkel trip on the reef. I would have liked to go with them, but scuba was so much more enticing!

This was my first scuba trip without my family. A bittersweet realization as I was getting in the water with all my gear on. To enter the water here, since the current is so strong, you sit with your back to the edge, and roll in backwards, then swim to the line and hold on until everyone is then. Then to descend, you just go down the line. This is the first dive that we didn’t just submerge, we followed the line down to the reef. Once we got there holy cow! The reef was like little mermaid and finding nemo all rolled into one! There were so many fish and the colors were so vibrant! This was especially surprising because the water visibility wasn’t as clear as Cozumel or Cancun, but the colors were brighter! There were little Nemos (clown fish), bright pink ones, florescent ones, every fish from finding Nemo, including the one with the scar, eels right out of Little Mermaid, blue spotted sting rays, some crazy shaped brown fish that were very round and then they turned and it was paper thin! Also, I attributed some human emotions onto some of the fish. There were ones that I decided were stuck up because they always swam above the over fish and had a long nose. There was some fish with very big wide eyes that were scared and always hid. Schools would just swim around you like you weren’t even there – bright yellow and blue schools. I saw anenomies everywhere with baby clown fish in them. (none of them had one big fin and one small one though). The reef itself was bright and so diverse; Finding Nemo didn’t do the vibrancy justice! At one point I started singing to the fish. I think they liked it because they all turned and looked at me. The coolest part was there were only three of us on the dive: the instructor, a man, and I. The small group was so cool! We got to see so much more! When we had exhausted our tank, we put a boey up and the boat came and got us. It was fantastic! Sadly we didn’t see any sharks, but then we wouldn’t have because I didn’t see lions or cheetahs either.

The rest of the afternoon was spent lazing about and shopping. Danelle and I had a blast wandering around. She even got a cocoanut as a drink! We retired for an aperitif on the patio, and I swear a monkey walked up within a foot of me! We went back to our rooms to dress for dinner and I got to wear my black dress for the second time. It was fun the night before – Danelle and I switched clothes. She wore my black dress and I wore her skirt and shirt. Even though they were dirty, just knowing they were different was awesome! We had a nice dinner though many of us were missing as they were so sunburned! They (Greg B) were back in their rooms, lying on the bed with cold towels to cool them down. It was hilarious! We met up for our last nightcap, and retired to our rooms. It was a beautiful day, though I have to admit it is bittersweet. I miss being at home and my family, but there’s so many fantastic things to do and people here in Kenya, I could stay another month! Things I don’t miss: cell phones, a job, tv, movies, driving, so many things. I’m sure I’ll snap out of it when I get home, but this has been great!

Summary: I found nemo while scuba diving. He says hi.