Amazing in Africa

Dubai:
The first leg of our journey was not lacking in excitement. When I arrived at USD I was a big bundle of nerves and I kept telling myself that I did not “have to” go to Africa if I didn’t want to. Looking back I realize it was because I was afraid of the unknown, but in the moment I thought that my gut was protecting me from some unfortunate disaster and that I was being stubborn by ignoring it…. Silly nerves. The sixteen-hour flight to Dubai was AMAZING! I watched 3 movies, slept for 6 hours (thank you Ambient!) and felt great upon arriving in Dubai. In Dubai I saw the worlds tallest building, saw my biggest real castle, largest aquarium, most over the top water park, most expensive hotel ($100 just to have a cup of coffee!), and the most people on the beach at 1:30AM. Needless to say, Dubai was nothing like Africa…

My First night in Africa:
I thought I had gotten over my nerves during my stay in Dubai, but as we flew in to Nairobi and I looked down on the openness of Africa they came rushing back. Seeing the waterholes and realizing I was about to land in Africa made my stomach rumble once again. Oddly enough Africa reminds me a lot of Hawaii. The humidity, the weather and something about the style of the airport reminded me of home. Aside from the fact that everyone was African and not Hawaiian! The sense of aloha and welcome we have been received with is so comforting. Our driver (and the pastor of the school we will be teaching at) lead us all in a prayer & blessing prior to driving to our home away from home. We listened to reggae music as we wove our through the CRAZY streets on Nairobi. People were cruising everywhere, it was wild! They were biking, running, walking, waiting and driving in very direction on the unmarked (to me) dirt roads.
On our way to the Rusam Villa Guest House I sat next to Ishmael, he is a friend of Donna’s from her previous visits to Kenya and we will be visiting his family in the slums on Sunday. As we were conversing about his family I had to interrupt him because there were Giraffe cruising around in the pastures next to the road! It was so great!
Here is a quick rundown (with the help of my roomies) on Africa so far:
Plane ride: Long, nauseating, redundant and exciting!
Weather: Warm, humid and Hawaiian
Food: Simple, rice beans and greens
Lodging: Humble, cozy, quaint “our home away from home”
Shower: Sprinkley, cold, low pressure, but still a shower.
Animals: Nocturnal.. The roosters here are a little excited about morning and crow every hour on the hour from 3AM on…
Sleep: Still working on it.