03.12.10 and 03.13.10

I'm starting my journal entries from the trip. I think this is the easiest way to explain what I did every day and make sure I don't leave anything out. So here we go with the entry from March 13 :)

We left Friday (March 12) at 1:25pm from Midland and flew to Houston. Our flight was late so when we got to Houston, we had to rush to the international terminal to catch our flight to Amsterdam. We left Houston around 3:40pm and got to Amsterdam around 8-something their time Saturday morning (12-something Texas time; it was a 9 hour flight!) We had a little less than an hour before we had to board our next flight. We went to a little deli and got breakfast (even though they gave us croissants on the plane an hour or so before we landed. They also served dinner - chicken and rice - on the plan, and we went through some pretty bad turbulence while we were eating.) The flight was long but I really couldn't sleep. Anyways, at the deli in the Amsterdam airport, we all got coffee and snacks. I had a "large" coffee (MAYBE 8oz) and a sausage wrap (a flaky pastry with a thin strip of sausage in it, but no cheese). Neither was very good. I actually poured out the coffee. They don't have any sugar-free sweetener in Africa or Europe apparently, and I didn't want to use a lot of sugar, so the coffee was pretty bitter tasting. We went through the gift shop and bought a bag of Bountys (for those of you who don't know, a Bounty is the greatest candy bar ever invented. It's like an almond joy with no almond. It's just creamy coconut covered in milk chocolate. It's DELICIOUS!)

Our next flight was from Amsterdam to Nairobi! It took 7 1/2 to 8 hours and I was able to sleep a few hours on this flight. We landed in Nairobi at like 8:45pm but didn't get out of the airport for at least two

more hours. First, we had to get our visas. The line for that was pretty slow-moving, and there were 12 of us that had to stay together. Next, we had to go to baggage claim. My family packed all our personal stuff in carry-ons. Joel and I each packed only in a backpack! But we checked 6 bags of beanie babies and tshirts for the orphans and widows. Becca Yocham also checked a bag of things to give away, and Tim Neale (our director) actually packed all of his clothes and personal things in a checked bag. Continental lost ALL EIGHT of these bags! It was weird, bc some people got their checked bags, but these ones got lost. We were picked up by Francis Mbuvi (more about him later) who was waiting for us at the airport wearing a Texas Tech jersey! We all piled into the Made in the Streets van (more about that later too) and headed for our hotel.

We got to the Gracia Hotel in Nairobi and split up into rooms. They cost 5000ksh per room for one night. Steph, Garen Glasscock, and I shared a room, so it cost us about $20 each for this room! It was by far the nicest hotel we stayed at. It had two twin beds so I shared a bed with Steph. I say it was a twin bc that's the closest American size to it, but it was bigger than what you think of as a twin sized bed. We weren't even crowded with both of us in one bed! There were these mosquito nets you had to pull around your bed too. You don't want to get malaria! These were also the nicest mosquito nets we had. It's the little things that you learn to appreciate while in Kenya :) I fell asleep right away, with all the lights on and everything. Those of you who know me well know that I can't sleep very well with lights on, so this shows you just how tired I was from all the traveling! I think I only woke up once in the night (again, unusual for me) but fell right back asleep.