jambo (hello)

so...i'm in kenya! it's been quite the adventure!

so...starting with my flight from BA (british airways) being cancelled from the strike from london to cairo (i was rerouted though and it was ok)...but they exchanged (somehow) my tickets in eastern africa for the ticket to cairo. so at 10p in cairo for my flight at 1220a, i was surpised to find that they couldn't find my ticket because it had become unvalid. i worked for an hour there trying to get it figured out (adding to the fun bc my parents are in spain, it was a holiday-memorial day, and BA didn't answer bc of the strike, though it was about 2p in the states). i bought another ticket for a ton of money, and am trying to get it figured out still to get my money back from BA's mistake. i've spent hours so far trying to get it fixed because i don't have a flight to uganda now either. so...interesting stuff. apparantly it's almost impossible for a mistake like this to happen since BA cannot use kenyan airways flights (who i few from cairo with, and who i'm supposed to fly to uganda with)...but, it did happen.

besides that, and being really sick my 2nd day in kenya, stuff is awesome. i love it here. when we were flying into nairobi, i fell in love for real! kinda like the first time i saw the ship at night in nassau, i just loved it!!! i also feel GOD a lot here. i feel HIM a lil differently that usual, but it is increadible. i feel HIM in guiding me, and i can see him in people and children here SO MUCH! there is a lot of joy here, and i think for those people, it is rooted in GOD. even this person (david) i have made friends with the past 45 minutes in this internet cafe! (he works through campus crucade and is from here in kenya and he just has it in his eyes. it's cool).

so...cairo was good! brenna showed me around and i had so much fun! we went to the pyramids, saw the spinx (sp?), went to garbage city (prob my fav thing we did, along with the faluka ride), shopped, went to downtown cairo, ate egyptian food (i did!), and took a faluka (a sailboat looking thing) on the nile for sunset. the stahls (the family brenna lives with) brought amazing picnic food. i left, and the non existant ticket thing happened in cairo but...i made two friends with other travelers! one from sudan (our plane stopped off there). i ended up getting to sit near him on the plane! i landed in nairobi (after no sleep on my redeye flight) and got picked up by oliver! we are good friends now! (we stayed at his house my first night in kenya before we traveled to my placement. he is a driver for IVHQ and we are silly together!) then we did training (a long time of training with no break for lunch till 3p. but apparantly that's when we'll eat lunch here). i met a lot of awesome kenyans who work for fadili and lots of amazing people volunteering from all over the world. most being from the states, canada, and ireland. there were 50 volunteers at this training which is the most they've ever had. on the 15th at another training they will have even more.

my origional placement was to do homevisits to women who have hiv, and who do beadwork. this is what i'm going to be doing in uganda, so i asked if i could switch. ryan (a guy i sat near who was also signed up for hiv work) was going to work at a prevention clinic in nakuru so i asked to switch to that and live with cathy (also going to live in nakuru). so, they let me! thankfully! and...on the 2nd we drove about 3 hours to get here to nakuru! it's a big city, not as big as nairobi, and we live a lil outside of the city. we have to take a matatu (a white van that squeezes a ton of people in and used as a bus) for 20 shillings (about 25 cents) to get to town. um...best part. i live in an ORPHANAGE!!! most placements people live with a host family and a few other volunteers. i live with 3 volunteers (ryan from new york, toni from england, and bre from canada), pastor antone, his wife ann, and their almost 2 year old joy, and 49 beautiful kids ages 7-16. how sweet is that? and not at all what i imagined or expected, but so much better! our house is so warm and inviting and bright. there are 2 boys rooms on our end of the house and our room, along with a room for other workers there. then on the other end of the house are 2 girls rooms and pastor anotone's room. i loooove it there. we live right outside a reserve park and it is green and beautiful. lost of mosquito's though.

we walk through a field to get to the main road to walk to work (east) or to get a matatu to town (west). i only have been to work one day (since i was sick for training) but it's on the grounds of a girls orphanage/school. there is a clinic there people all around come to. we have one building where we have an hiv room, a wound dressing room, a doctor consult room, etc. they are limited on supplies and materials for patients, but they are doing well. it's very different though! i'll tell more about it later once i know more! we also drove 37 kilometers away up into a smaller town (i want to live there, it's called subukia) where we brought vacinations to give to babies in a small clinic. no alcohol suabes used before the shot, and no bandaid, and they just gave the shot in the same room everyone else was in. i did the book keepings which is in a HUGE book used for the government. people paid 10 shillings (13.5 cents) for shots. crazy right! i really like the women i will be working alongside! one reminds me of whoopie goldberg on sister act!!! :)

well, i could go on a lot more, but, this will be it for now. i know this is a lot. ha. hope you are doing well!