Made it to Nairobi!

What a surprise! I was told it would be two weeks before I could contact anyone but here I am at a cybercafe on the first night. First off, I made it into Nairobi in one piece and things are exciting to say the least. Here’s a recap of my last two days. Wednesday I woke up to several injections required for entrance into Kenya, including Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Polio even though I had those as a kid. Kenya requires a booster shot of these to allow entrance into the country, so I had to get stuck again. I also got a yellow fever vaccination and am now on Malaria medication. We lost a few volunteers on the way during the medical process. One of them was originally born in a foreign country and was unsure if she had had the initial Polio vaccinations as a kid. Since the first dose of polio is a three stage process that takes eight months she was “medically separated” and sent home. She was a great addition to our group and everyone was sad to see that happen. Another guy found out the day before he left that his girlfriend was pregnant. He had been dating her for a year and was friends with her long before that, so with an attitude that things happen for a reason he said farewell and is not joining us either. Finally, someone ran into complications with poison ivy and had to go through some hurdles to join us, but she was given the OK just in time to come along. After an interesting morning we took a five hour bus ride to the airport and then enjoyed a twenty hour plane ride to Kenya. The layover in London was short, but I had a chance to try Prawn Cocktail Flavoured potato crisps and Twirls at Sarah’s suggestion. I tried to change my sleep schedule to adjust to the new time zone but the American airline seats where I should have slept (JFK to Heathrow) were not nearly as comfortable as the British Airways seats when I needed to stay awake (Heathrow to Nairobi). So my body is out of whack but I know I’ll be fine in a few days with the jetlag. Flying over Africa was amazing. Small villages in a vast landscape of rolling hills and then as we went further the barren nothingness of the Sahara spread out for hours. As darkness came it was startling how black it was below the plane. No lights at all until we came into Nairobi, and even here it is splotchy. We landed and were greeted by host county Peace Corps employees, including the country director. The airport was very British with classical music playing and white people everywhere, so initially it did not feel like Africa. We were then expedited through customs and taken to a hotel we are staying at in Nairobi for the first few days. We have training and medical stuff here and then we are going to the village to meet our host families. I had a chance to speak Swahili with Sam, once of our trainers, on the way here. Sam was impressed with how much I picked up and I am too. I’m really looking forward to the time when I can speak it fluently. I also talked to a Peace Corps business development volunteer who is with us. He actually has a cell phone and have a nice mountain bike, so I’m excited but trying not to get my hopes up if things don’t fare so well for me. When we got to the hotel we were given a Kenyan buffet style meal with noodles, goat meat in a sauce, and some kind of blackened mystery fish with lots of bones. It was edible but nothing to write home about, even though I just did. That’s all for now, I need to try to sleep. Hopefully I can write tomorrow, but if not you’ll hear more from me soon.