I still cannot get over the fact that I am in Nairobi, Kenya. Kenya!! I have had friends throughout the past years at LeTourneau go on trips like this. I never pictured myself as one of them. It has been a looooooong past couple of days. I left Longview around 1230 CST, for a 4:50 departure out of Dallas. My INCREDIBLE old roommate Laura cancelled a flight block to take me. Both 9 hr flights I had an aisle seat with no one next to me, which was ideal for stretching out and getting a little more quality sleep than I would have otherwise. But there is only so much quality sleep that one can get when sitting upright trying to sleep when one would normally be procrastinating on homework, and incredibly excited about traveling to a new continent. There weren’t any good movies on, either.

We landed in London around 7:30 (GMT) Thursday morning. Now that it is 1:30 in the morning in Texas, I feel like I can finally sleep. Except that I have to navigate London’s Heathrow airport during the morning rush hour. For a while, I felt like I was in a rat maze. I followed the crowd, making mental note of the reverse route in case I needed it. Unfortunately, there was no reverse route, as the escalators descending through 2 floors only went down, the train was designed to get on one side and off the other, and the next escalator was again a one way trip. We had to go through security again. Apparently going through security once and never leaving a secure area isn’t enough. I guess the Brits don’t trust other countries’ security measures.

I finally sat down at my gate about an hour and a half after landing, and was able to sit for about 15 minutes before they opened the gate for boarding. Now, I am unclear as to WHY they do this, but there were about 5 gates down at ground level. As I entered, I got on a fairly full looking bus that was prepared to drive us… somewhere. I stood there for another 10 minutes as about 30 more people, along with their carry-ons, packed in. I now know how sheep feel when packed in the back of a truck for the trip into town. We drive around for a good while before pulling up to our ride. We had to walk up the steps to get on board. Seriously, London? You can’t park an airplane at a real gate? It really didn’t bother me as much as it did not make sense. I slept for about half the flight to Nairobi, no matter how hard I tried to remain conscious and get ready for the new time zone half a world away. I landed around 9:30, got through customs really fast, and met my ride, a LeTu alum and his wife.

I couldn’t see much of Nairobi on the way in. Something about not being able to see well at night… I didn’t know, I had been on a plane the past day and a half. We passed a mosque on the way here, reminding me that I might not be a part of the dominant religion anymore, and certainly am no longer in the Bible belt of the US. I got settled and went to bed around 11 (local, GMT +3), complete with a mosquito net around my bed.

It still feels like a whirlwind, even after a full night’s sleep in a real bed. I am still trying to convince myself that I am really in Kenya and it is not a dream. The heat is helping, the crazy outlets help, and the birds that don’t shut up are a good reminder. I keep telling myself I would never be able to imagine this, so of course it is real.

My schedule is light the next couple of days, so hopefully I will get a chance to get settled, organized, figure out the (wireless!!) internet, maybe get a chance to chat with a few of you, and yes, the ever favorite homework. Today involves breakfast at 7:30 (prompt), swahili lesson 9-11, and matatu lesson at 2 this afternoon. At least I know what Swahili is… Then Saturday morning Lesa will be stopping by to let me know “the schedule.” Who knows how in depth that is going to be, or what it will cover.