first impressions

The first thing we noticed when we got off the plane was the smell.  What you find is that the vast majority of 'kitchens' are not attached to the living area and use wood and charcoal as the fuel.  The smoke simply enjoys the same air which you breathe...every breath...all day.  Then there is the trash that is just burning, unattended, over on the side of the road.

Then there are the streets.  We did not see anyone die on the streets while we were there but, seriously...people!  Oh my goodness!  There are people everywhere.  Buses, cars, motorcycles (piki piki), three wheeled taxi thing (tuk tuk), bicycles and bicycle taxis (boda boda) - notice the double word thing goin here - and then people pulling and pushing carts with all kinds of whatever on them, people walking, kids walking, dogs, goats and cows, to name a few things, were all over the road.

Amazing.

 

Don't remember seeing much in the way of traffic signals.  Everyone just goes where they need to go.  All together.  All at the same time.

Amazing.

 

After a several days of almost awkward absence of horns and shouting, I asked James, one of our hosts, if anyone gets angry.  He said they did not. 

Amazing.

 

Apparently, everyone gets that everyone else needs to go there, too.  Just happens.  All together.  All at the same time.

Oh, and did I mention the roads?  Uh, they need just the tiniest bit of attention...

Bicycle repair shops just over there, along the side of the road.  With all the bikes on the streets this makes all kinds of sense.  Anywhere and everywhere, there are misc. little stands along the way, selling their wares.  This includes everything from fruit to minutes for your phone, to clothes, to maze (look it up if you need to) - they just set up shop and try selling whatever they have to sell.

All of this is very new to the eyes.  Most of these are as seen through the windshield of a moving vehicle. This world is so diverse.  This is not a surprise.  Even so, it is very interesting to me.

getting there

For those who do not know the details. 

We left Seattle and flew 5 hours to Washington D.C.  After a couple hours of layover, we headed to Brussels.  About 8 hours.  This was through the night.  We arrived Brussels in the morning, Belgium time. After a trip through the Duty Free shop (for the requisite Belgian chocolate), a swing in to Starbucks (I know, kinda sad, huh?) and a short bus ride we were at the other terminal awaiting our longest leg of the journey.

This was a 10 hour daylight flight only one time zone farther, south to Nairobi.  We landed about 10 p.m.  At customs we were exposed to our first Swahili...karibu means 'welcome', asante means 'thank you', asante sana means 'thank you much'.

We were the last to clear customs before they closed for the night and were now standing on African soil.  We were supposed to meet Nick, Larry's nephew at our gate.  He was not there.  Our first safari ended up being trying to find him.  We looked everywhere and spoke to the local constabulary for help.  Ended up, he had fallen asleep in some room.  In the end, we were all connected.

While all that was going on, we were trying to get our monies exchanged.  This was all more intimidating than I had anticipated.  We felt very exposed during this process.  Being the only mzungus (white people) within sight and the only activity to speak of, all eyes were on us.  We had a very large pile of bags and a very lost look in our eyes!

When changing money you end up getting a fairly significant stack of bills back.  We were getting everything we needed for the entire twelve days in country.  Between us, there were several thousand dollars exchanged for specific projects and costs along the way.  We stepped away from the window trying to figure out what to do with and where to put all the shillings we had received - all in plain view of the locals waiting to 'help' us and take us to our destination.  Fortunately for us, we were headed to the other terminal to settle in for the night.

There was really no place to sleep.  Some chairs and a tile floor.  So, rather than sleep, we stayed awake all night organizing all our brought goods, making them ready for delivery.  Finally, our short flight from Nairobi to Kisumu was ready.  Final approach was out over Lake Victoria.  Pretty cool. 

We landed basically two days after leaving Seattle, not having slept much, ready to begin our 'mission'.  Maybe not really ready...

...uh, ok. Finally.

So, sorry to all you who have been checking for updates. Many of you have already seen pictures and read stories from others who were on our trip. Aren't you glad that they are on it!? This will begin our catch up...