A Kenyan adventure

We landed in Nairobi, Kenya (to a beautiful sunrise) with 45 minutes to make our next flight! Our "To-Do List" was very lengthy before we could board our next flight! Feeling completely exhausted the three of us had to find our way around the airport, get our Visa stamps, and go through security! This is the first time I realized the smaller blessings in America, such as organization! The airport was a zoo and there was no authority or security...we breezed through everything in record time with many hold-ups, however, we were joyful when we saw some of our team waiting to board the same flight to Kissumu! We walked out to our next plane, I have never done that before so it was a big deal! feelin' a little celeb status in that moment!

When we landed in Kissumu, I was pretty confused on if I really landed at an airport. There were shacks everywhere but no main building with a baggage claim, or cafe, everything was outside. From there we met up with a few members, and our leaders. We found out that alot of our team wouldn't be joining us until later that evening. While sitting in a circle chatting, waiting for two team members, our leader told us that we were going on a 3 hour hike that day. First thing that went through my mind:......he has to be kidding...


He wasn't! Hiking in Kenya is different than hiking in Florida(not that I've ever done that). However, Everything is uphill, and there's boulders everywhere!We walked and walked to this hill. It was a great time of fellowship, getting to know our team, and some people from Shangilia orphanage that joined us! We came to recognize what the culture was like on this hike because we walked by so many people, and so many homes. Check this out: We walked by a home and this lady came running out to us with a white baby in her hands!! she kept saying "gift" "gift""beautiful""beautiful"with some Swahili mixed in there, we agreed that it was a beautiful baby, but all of us were so confused. We later found out from our translator that the baby was albino! How crazy?!?...one of my first Kenya experiences was of an albino baby! hah! anyways, that made our team giggle on mile 3 of our hike! So we encounter this hill..it has boulders on it that we have to climb up to reach the peak! We get to the top, and are able to overlook the beauty of the entire city!...then all of us noticed that the city had an African rain storm hovering! It didn't take long for it to hit! The climb down was slow..very..very slow. The rocks got really slippery, the mud wasn't promising, and pellets of rain hit my face. I was getting frustrated with myself, and kinda scared. One of the boys at the orphanage was so kind to lead me down the hill! Him and all the other people from Kenya that came along could fly down this hill, because it is normal ground to them, so it meant so much when he slowed down to help this nervous American girl! When I got down, I heard Alana yell from inside a house, "bri, we're in here!" yep, some lady that lived at the bottom of this hill opened up her home to 20 wet strangers to sit and wait in for the storm to pass...gotta love good ol' Kenyan hospitality!=)can't beat it! Once the rain slowed down, the cold weather came, and we still had 3 miles left to walk back. I was so cold, that a sweet woman from the road wrapped her wrap around me and called me friend. We sang songs with her before deciding to run back to the orphanage! Alana and I ran back with Colbi , and Naheme right behind us! We were running down Kenyan roads and people just started to join in with us...so everybody out there who joked about running with Kenyans...IT HAPPENED!! Upon arriving back to the orphanage I took a very cold shower, got ready for dinner which was (beefy and delicious) and worshiped with the orphanage! After that I went to sleep in a bed hadn't seen one of those in awhile!

Let's play a game...Guess who gets cankles from traveling???

Bri does!...gross

Bye for now!=)