Karibu - Jambo

So its day one of my stay here in Kenya and I’m sat underneath my mosquito net in my room writing out my first ever blog. It’s 3.16pm Kenyan time on Wednesday May 16th 2007 and the rain has just started to hit the ground faster than an Italian football player at his best. I have just finished having some lunch with Matthew in the guest house but before I go any further I would like to start at the very beginning, from even before waking up to find out I still needed to jam at least 3 more items into my suitcase, which already weighed well over the suggested limit.

The night before was pretty great. The guys and I went for a nice meal at Asia to act as my last supper before I hit the road to start my mission, or as I like to call it my K Tour. I was late, which made Stevo late as I was his usual driver for the evening, and as I hadn’t finished packing my stuff because I can be lazy sometimes, I had to keep the guys waiting for my arrival. We stayed out for a final drink then I left and went home for a sleep to prepare me for the long journey ahead. I woke up at 8am and got my stuff together and left for Leeds City station where I was catching a train down to London at 11.40am, to fly on my jet with Kenya Airways.

So I left my Mom to shed her tears in Halifax and I took the train down with my Dad. He knows the score more than I do on these routes so I thought it was best to take a friendly face along (if you can call him that) (only kidding), so he could give me the guided tour of the London Underground. We took the train to Kings Cross. Then took the circle line and ended up at Paddington, then finally hopped on the Heathrow express train to Terminal 4. Hours before I was due to board I was ready and waiting in the Terminal, so I handed my luggage in early and went and discussed my trip with my Dad over a coffee.

After leaving my Dad I got through security relatively easy. Only had to take off my belt, almost lose my trousers and empty my fluids into a bucket, and by empty my fluids I mean, dispose of any bottles of water, juice or items like this that I may have on my person and this was all a safety precaution for the airport. I then head over to the fragrence counters where I sprayed some Sean John - Unforgivable which is an aftershave one of my best buddies now wears and then grabbed some food before I went to Gate 8 where I would be boarding.

On the plane I was surrounded by a large group of American students, the majority of them female, from San Diego. Nate, the guy who was sat in the seat almost next to me told me they were heading to Tanzania where they were to be doing some mission work also for a month which sounded really cool. I then watched an on-flight movie and got a bit of shut eye while the rest of the flight continued onto Nairobi.

8 hours or so later at 7am Kenyan time, I arrived in Nairobi Airport with not much time to catch my next flight to Kisumu. There was a slight hickup at passport control concerning my Visa, but I rushed down to collect my luggage and then across to the domestic flights building to catch the 8am flight to where the guys from IcFEM were going to be waiting for me. I made it through to the departures lounge after having to push to the front of a queue and once again remove my belt and almost lose my trousers. I got on a smaller plane with a flight journey of one hour and landed in Kisumu where I was greeted by four friendly faces, Matthew, Dennis, Edgar and Hosea.

In the main town of Kisumu we stopped off at a small supermarket for me to purchase some bottled water as the water here isn’t safe enough for me to drink. I purchased 2 bottles and Matthew collected some writable CD’s for the cyber centre and some gloves for when they were doing their building work. We then walked around the corner from the supermarket, up some stairs and into a small room used as a mobile phone centre. There were two guys sat trying to fix some mobile phones for the mission but they really didnt look to be having much luck. One or two of the phones successfully unlocked but some appeared dead so we left for another mobile store in search of a new battery. While being stood waiting for Matthew and the guys to discover the problem with these mobile phones, I was harrassed by two little street children for money. I dont know if this was a usual thing or whether it is because I am a white person, but it was definately something I have never experienced before.

So after having a quick drink and finishing up quite unsuccessfully on the mobile front in Kisumu, we head back hitting the road in a small van as our taxi. The roads were so uneven and there were more gaps and holes than anywhere I have been before.
We drove from Kisumu through many other towns on our way to Kimilili. It was amazing to see such a difference in culture. I think other than myself Matthew is the only other white person I have seen all day but to be honest it’s not really that big of a deal and believe it or not its not even that noticeable. On the drive to Kimilili I was just trying to take in the scenery. The land was either green or red on either side of us as we raced down the longest and uncoordinated roads I have ever been on in my life. Overtaking was like a common thing and the sound of a horn was to let pedestrians and cyclists know that there was traffic around. We passed groups of school children dressed in their colourful uniforms, they all looked so similar. They were walking barefoot down by the busy roads but they all seemed to more or less have smiles on their faces from what I saw. We weren’t on the road for an hour and I had already had the excitement of seeing monkeys just hanging out by the side of the road, ready to run and collect any sugar cane that may be dropped by vehicles passing by. The amounts of cyclists were unbelievable and this is a common mode of transport here in Kenya. Bicycles are actually used as taxi’s and with people sat on the back, the ride looked like such hard work. I began getting sleepy throughout the journey to the IcFEM centre so I closed my eyes and miraculously I managed to have a little nap despite the uneven surfaces and being thrown around in the van. I woke up for about 30 minutes left of the journey where all we had left to do was to pick up some gas and make it back to the guest house.

We got to the IcFEM centre and I saw where Matthew was living. It was very small with no luxuries compared with back home but it was nice and looked to have everything he needed for his stay. The rooms had Christian pictures on the walls and he shared this small house with the two others, Dennis and Chris. I was then taken to where I would be staying which was just a few metres away from Matthew. It was apparently Matthews’ original room from his first stay and I guess if he stayed for 7 months and has returned it must be comfortable enough for me to live in for my duration.

I dropped off my things in my room where I then went for lunch with Matthew. On our way I met some of the other people who worked at the guest house. Helen, who was going to be one of my mothers for the next 3 months, Rose who again would be helping with my feeding and Mark and Peter who are also workers here. For lunch we had toast with tomato and omelette or a fried egg as they call it here. Considering I am a slightly picky eater it was beautiful. I ate it all up like there was no tomorrow and had a banana for desert. I then came back to my room to where I get to at the beginning of this blog.

It has now taken me all afternoon to finish this first part of my blog. After I began writing I started to unpack and took an hour and a half nap while Matthew went to make some phone calls and do some paper work. I also had my Dinner (tea) which was once again beautiful. I had spaghetti, carrots, cabbage and peas in gravy which I was amazed I enjoyed. Things here some how seem different from back home, no offence Mom. For desert I had some fruit called Paw Paw which apparently is easily collected from Mount Elgon and is like a melon with a creamy taste to it. After eating I sat in the lounge with Matthew and another member of the mission, Richard. Solomon the director came and greeted me also and he seems like a happy guy who has already made me feel very welcome. Infact everyone I have met has been lovely, another one of the ladies who works here, Mary she seems like a fun person as she has already had a laugh with Matthew and me. So we sat and chatted for a while till around 8pm discussing in brief what I may be doing over the next weeks, then me and Matthew decided to go our separate ways. I headed to my room, while he left for his and we arranged for him to wake me at 7am as I have not yet got an alarm.

So it’s now 10.30pm and I am just about to wrap this thing up and go to sleep, but before I do ill just leave you with some of my thoughts and my conclusion for the day.
It’s been a long two days and I’m drained. Until today the whole idea of this experience hasn’t really felt real, but let me tell you now that the whole thing is beginning to kick in to place and kick in fast. I slightly expected it to have the same kind of feelings attached as you get when you go on holiday. I don’t mean you are in for a big chill out session and all you do is relax, I mean the fact that you leave your friends and family and take a bit of time out from you life. But let me get one thing clear right now, this is certainly not the case. This is my life and unlike when you go on holiday when you actually feel like your old life stops as soon as you get on the plane, right here my life carries on going and I have left everyone behind at home doing their own thing and living their own lives. I never expected to miss things so soon and I don’t know if it’s just because I am tired and in a new place and really don’t know what to expect but it’s slightly lonely. It’s not even because there is no one around or I don’t know what I’m doing, it’s more of the fact I don’t want to let anyone down or the fact I might not enjoy it. I’m going to stick it out as long as I can though, its early days yet and this is a big thing for me. I just hope that everyone at home looks after themselves so I am not the one that has to do the worrying. No one needs to worry about me that’s for sure.

So keep in touch everybody and let me know how you are but please don’t leave me anything that will make me miss home haha. I’m cursing these things my Mom and Dad have packed, every time I seem them it makes me think of home.

Anyways I'm sure things are going to be ace and I’m looking forward to it all. I’m off to sleep now and ill keep you updated over the next few days.

Take care and god bless. x