Monday, November 30, 2009

Jambo!

My next trip is taking me to Kenya and "Jambo" is how you say "Hello" in Swahili. My 4 week adventure starts tomorrow, December 1st, and will bring me back home on the 29th.

People are curious as to why I'm going and who I am going with; most people assume it's some kind of mission trip. It's more of an African Holiday on a budget, but I'll explain: I'm traveling with Jill Francke and Kristal Flaming. This will be Jill's 4th visit to Africa, and Kristal's and my first. This past june, I overheard Jill and Kristal discussing their Kenya plans, I then asked if they needed a third person. Lucky for me, these girls are awesome. And that is how this trip got started. At least that's how it got started on my end.

Jill has developed a strong relationship with members of a community in Ol'Nagura that is outside of Nyahururu. (she and our friend Jake have also started their own nonprofit there, but that's for another blog post). We will be staying with Jill's friends, Iassac and Joyce. We will be spending the majority of our time in the village hanging out and helping out as we are needed. We also have good friends, Austin and Sarah Pedersen that are volunteering with the Peace Corps in Malawi and they will be traveling north to spend the entire 4 weeks with us.

We will fly into Nairobi on Wednesday night, hopefully not being too jet lagged and then falling right asleep in our hostel. After a day or two, we will take an overnight bus to Mombassa (on the coast), and then one more bus to Lamu (an island) where we will meet with Austin and Sarah and spend 10 days hanging out in a rental house and enjoying the beach. I'm hoping we will put our frisbee to good use on the sand. After we have our fill of Lamu we are going to go back to Nairobi and then to the village to stay with Iassac and Joyce for the remainder of the trip. At some point, we will be going on a safari. Iassac owns his own safari company and I'm so excited to see all the animals that an American can only find in a zoo.

My Kenyan visa came and I've gotten all the recommended vaccines, and even a few extra, just in case. As long as I remember to take my malaria pills everyday, then I should be fine. Mosquitos aren't too bothersome at this time of year. It's Kenya's summer and it's hot and dry right now. I've done my best to pack as light as I can and only taking the necessary items. I'm sure that I have overpacked a bit, but I'm feeling very prepared for whatever Kenya throws at me.

I've had great resources to talk to when it came to trip preparations. Three of my friends went this past summer on a trip with a similar itinerary, their advice has been invaluable and I want to give a shout out to Miss Megan Hershiser for being awesome and answering all my questions.

Oh, and I packed 4 days in advance for this trip and it has made such a difference. Usually, I pack the day before and stress and overpack. I'm definitely doing this more often.

I'm so excited about this trip. I don't know what to expect, but I know good things are going to come of this visit.

Well, there are last minute things I must attend to. Like making sure all my liquids are in ziploc bags.

I'm happy to say that the next time I post, I will be in Nairobi!

Lala Salama! (goodnight)