Jambo from Kenya! After a semester of preparation, two weeks of packing, two days of traveling, and approximately three hours of sleep, I am happy to say that I am safely in Nairobi. My journey started in Nashville, where I said goodbye to my mom for 12 weeks, the longest I will have ever gone without seeing anyone from my family. I took a short flight to Detroit, where I met up with two other girls like myself who are working with AIM (Africa Inland Mission, our sending agency) in Nairobi. Olivia has one semester left at Moody Bible College in Chicago and her parents are AIM missionaries in Nairobi, and Tamara recently graduated from Moody and will be spending 6 months here. Tamara and Olivia will be living and working together in the city and I hope to see them when/if I come in for a weekend or two.
We arrived in Kenya's capital city at 9p on Thursday. The flights from Detroit to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Nairobi were uneventful, besides meals being served at times when my body was not hungry and rather thought I should be sleeping. I got super antsy at times--8 hours twice in a row is a l o n g time to sit still. Peter, an AIM employee who looks after lots of "short-termers", spotted us amid the crowd exiting the airport and said in a thick Scottish accent, "You three looked lost enough."
We've spent Friday and Saturday at Peter's home on a compound for AIM missionaries right in Nairobi. His wife Katy is also Scottish, but her accent is quite different and Peter explains that she grew up "posher" than he did. They have three sons who are 4, 5, and 7, and who all have unique accents that are the result of Scottish, Canadian (from AIM team members), and Kenya-English influences. My favorite quote from the youngest explaining his afternoon nap: "I had to go in for a wee sleep." Needless to say, as a Covenant Scot, getting to learn about Scottish culture this weekend has been an unexpected bonus.
Peter showed us a bit of Nairobi. On Friday the plan was to leave the house around 9a, so I set my alarm for 8a. When Olivia woke me up, I was shocked when I realized it was already 9.10a. But my body definitely thought it was 1a and probably could have kept on sleeping for another six or seven hours. Jet lag has not been good to me.
We made it to the AIM Eastern Offices at 10.30a, just in time for chai. (Everyone breaks for mid-morning tea.) Introductions, orientation, etc. Then we went to Yaya Shopping Centre, a commercial mall that was surprisingly western with eateries and boutiques and even a Mac store. We got phones and sim cards and pre-paid minutes, so now I can call home for KSh3 a minute (Kenya shillings; US$1 equals roughly KSh84, to give you some perspective). There's also a grocer there, so we picked up some dinner rolls and lollipops for the boys.
The weather has been overcast, but a much brighter overcast than back in the States, and the temperature has been between 65 and 72 degrees with some rain. It's fall here, moving into winter. The heavy rains are over for the most part, but light rains follow.
I'm still recovering from jet lag. Normally, I'm a morning person, but about twenty minutes after I wake up my body tries to fight being awake at what is normally the middle of the night and I get extremely drowsy. This afternoon, to fight the drowsiness, I ran around the missionary compound with a whole clan of small children, jump roping, playing tag and football (soccer), and reading stories to the youngest.
I am grateful for this time of transition before I am completely shocked by what life in the bush is like. Rachel Sang, the Kenyan woman I will be working with, comes by bus to bring me back out to Litein (a 5-6 hour trip) on Monday morning. I'm trying to take advantage of running water (sometimes hot), electricity (most days), and wireless internet here on the compound before I head out into the unknown.
Asante (uh-SAWN-tee; Kiswahili for thank you) for all your love and prayers and support. There's no way I would be here without you. Holla at me--I'd love to hear about life and summer in the States. Our God is good.
Love from south of the equator,
Hannah
