After a day and a half of travel, we've finally arrived in Eldoret, Kenya. For the most part, our travels were uneventful (besides the screaming boy next to us on our way to London). We arrived in Nairobi at 9 pm Thursday evening and after navigating the long passport lines and rushing through customs, we were greeted by our cab driver. Needless to say, driving through Nairobi at night was an experience of its own. To start, our cab was inspected via flashlight by armed police officers as our driver turned up the radio and knowingly kept his foot on the gas pedal. We passed through the industrial sector of town, which was packed-full of homeless, barefoot people who occasionally darted in front of our cab. There are no speed limits in Nairobi, and passing other vehicles occurs whether your blind spot is clear or not. When we reached the Heron Inn Hotel, we were pleasantly surprised by the open-air appearance, despite another armed guard at the front gate. Our room was simple – it took us both working together without success for 10 minutes to turn the light on (turns out, we had to insert our room key into the light switch…who knew).
Friday morning started early at 4:30 am to ensure we had plane tickets to Eldoret. We did indeed get seats, and we made it safely to Eldoret, which welcomed us with children lining the gates of the airport runway. We proceeded to the IU House, which is a 15-minute drive from the local airport. On the way, we barely dodged cows, goats, sheep, and people competing for pavement space. When we arrived, we were given a tour of the compound and the hospital – more on that later. We’ve also already taken our first Swahili class – turns out “pole” means “sorry,” but “pole pole” means “slow down.”
That’s it for the day; we’re going to bed early to try to overcome the jet lag. Let’s hope we can sleep through the chorus of wild dogs outside our window.
Today was a pretty low-key day. The rest of our group of seven arrived this morning and got a tour of the IU compound. It's made up of five, two-story houses. Each house has 4-5 bedrooms, a couple bathrooms, and a common area on the ground floor. Our room has one twin bed and one double bed with, of course, a mosquito net. The bathrooms are better than expected, with running water and clean towels...but we're lucky to have luke-warm water in the morning.
The best feature of the IU house, according to Erik, is the extensive sports collection. There is a basketball net, a whiffle-ball "court," and even a place for dodge ball. The elevation in Eldoret is about 9,000 ft; it's an understatement to say that Erik was out of breath during all of the sporting activities. There was a lot of keeling over and panting during the two-hour basketball game. Lindsay, on the other hand, has religiously been taking her doxycycline for malaria - one major side effect is photosensitivity. Lindsay is a little sunburned today.
We finished the day by walking to a local restaurant called "Mamma Mia." Interestingly, it had just as much Indian cuisine as Italian. We enjoyed the curried chicken and pizza.
Big day tomorrow - we're finally getting a tour of the area and seeing some local scenery!
Thanks to everyone for the support!!
