Into Africa

4/5/08 – After 18 hours of total flight time and 28 hours of travel, I have arrived at the Mennonite Guest House in Nairobi. It’s nice to be in a bed. The trip started fairly interesting as I had the pleasure, shortly after take-off from Sea-Tac, of caring for a gentleman who had a brief loss of consciousness. Amazing that with all the travel I have done that this was my first in-flight “emergency”. He was doing well by the time we arrived in Newark and I hope he is now enjoying his vacation with his lovely wife on the outer banks of N.C.
Here in Nairobi I was met at the airport by Chris and in the brief drive to the guest house he was able to relay to me that the struggles of parenthood (he has a 10 years old son and 8 years old daughter) are similar and in fact the same as in the states (there goes my plan of moving to Africa to be a better father). Also unemployment of 50%, recent civil unrest which has led to inability of farmers to get their crops planted as well as poor rainfall has meant this will be a challenging year for the Kenyans.
Well, got to try to get some rest, tomorrow we drive to Kijabe (approx 1 and a half hours) and hopefully start work.