FLIGHT TIME: the journey there

Boarding the plane today was simple. The luggage was underweight by about 2 pounds so that was nice. I opened up some letters that CarolAnn and my Mom gave me to read on the plane. They were quite encouraging!
I’m reflecting a bit on what’s all happened so far.
Jim bought me starbucks. Free drinks are always nice. The starbucks people gave me a caramel frapp and not a mocha one. No big thing, but chocolate is always better.
Saying goodbye to my family was a little hard. I’m very much ready to start this journey, but watching my sister be in tears (and knowing that she’s been crying every night for the last month) was quite heartbreaking. My mom and dad are trying to be strong. I know I’ll be fine, but I can pretty much they’re still worried, and will probably break down when they get home, So, much of my flight was spent praying for my family.
Flying out to Georgia was cool! It was a stellar thing to look out the window and see crop circles everywhere. The clouds were really awesome to look at; I completely understand why my grandpa loved being a pilot!
Georgia is beautiful from up top, but I kind of lost that joy knowing that our plane was an hour late and the plane to Dubai boards an hour before takeoff. At least the plane is nice. We’re in one of those jets that seats 9 new a row… 3 on the left, 3 on the right, 3 in the middle. As silly as it sounds, I never thought I would be on a plane with this kind of seating arrangement. I’ve only ever seen it in movies and up until this flight have always perceived the “movie planes” as being fake…. Anyway, I’m sitting in the middle row. So no window for me.
I guess I’ll be babbling a lot about nonsense things because this flight to Dubai is supposed to be incredibly long (13 hours? REALLY?) So pardon my uh…. Nonsense babble. Dinner was served on the plane… manicotti.. Veggie pizza…. Couscous (cold rice thing that was incredibly gross)… fruit cup… Milano cookies. Eh.
So far, we took off from Vegas on the 16th of June, crossed a time zone sometime after Atlanta (over Europe I think?) and watched the sun come up on what is now the 17th…. We’ve lost 12 hours on the plane. 12 HOURS. Now I’m at the Dubai airport, and it’s 2 in the morning (local time) on the 18th of June. This is freakin crazy…. Let me also remind you that throughout this time I’ve still yet to sleep. It’s like I have some kind of anti-sleeping-on-planes disease. Drew a bunch of crazy pictures……..went to starbucks in Dubai. I don’t technically know if this is day 2 or 3... That’s kind of creeping me out. Jan and I ate McDonalds while the rest of the team (who are Mike, Mark, Jim, Brad, and Sharon) ate at some crazy pizza place. Jan fell asleep on the table so I took a picture. She can kill me for it later ;)



{In DUBAI}
So, this has been my first time being segregated into the holding area to get on a plane. The airport security people put the men in one line and the women in another, checked our tickets, and we proceeded to the holding area to wait for the plane, and the women were once more allowed to mingle with their manly counterparts. Craziness. My bag had to be checked, because apparently it’s too big to Kenya airways to handle as a carry on. No big thing. I’ve been informed by Jim that it’s quite likely we will miss our flight from Nairobi to Kisumu, meaning that it’s quite likely we will be staying the night in Kisumu before venturing onward to bungoma. We’re not even in Nairobi yet, and I’m freaking exhausted tired and {still} unable to sleep, so at this particular moment I don’t really care if we have to stay in kisumu or not.
Moving on….
I’ve spent 6 or so hours now just reflecting. I’m no longer crying for my family, but I’m quite proud of them. I know that my leaving for Kenya is putting them through a lot, and I’m thankful they’re supporting me with this. I’m also happy that God has revealed to me what my testimony is. I was actually quite worried about what my testimony would be, I should really learn to trust God a bit more.
As I was sitting in the Dubai airport, I noticed it was quite beautiful. They have 2 story high palm trees (fake, everyone.) elegant chandeliers, and an overall lovely, almost Arabian themed airport. Seen a lot of Muslim women around here. It’s pretty nifty to see them in those long black dresses and headscarves so you only see their eyes. Nifty but creepy- I turned around one time and only saw this big black thing with eyes staring at me. It was a fun time. People watching at this airport has been killer!
Speaking of people, the team has been pretty cool so far. Everyone is hysterical! I’ve loved listening to the stories that they’ve told.

{Plane to Nairobi}
What day is it? I don’t even know. I think it’s still technically the 18th but I’m probably wrong so don’t listen to me. Uh… coffee, orange juice, bread and butter, mixed fruit yogurt, some spinach thing, potatoes, scrambled eggs with avocado and tomato, and turkey sausage. That’s NOT all one meal, people.
{IN Nairobi}
We have FINALLY arrived in Nairobi…. Made it! In Kenya! We missed our 7:15 am flight to Kisumu by a half hour. The next one takes off at 5:30. In the mean time, we decided to take a tour of Nairobi to pass the time. We went to the Nairobi Historical Museum. They had an evolutionary exhibit (of humans… creepy looking too). They had the “Then’s and Now’s” of artifacts used in Kenya. There was a school there at the same time we were, and the kids seemed to enjoy the museum so much! The museum worker people decided that the “Mzungu’s” (white skinned foreigners) needed to view the exhibits on their own and NOT with the mass crowd of children… so they held the kids back from entering the rooms we were in until after we had left them. Kind of a kill joy, but we’re not here to change their policies. For the first time on this trip, I desperately wish I had MY camera and not the janky throw away ones I brought. I found this gorgeous staircase that wound up to a second story, and hanging down from the staircase was a huge (possibly 8-12 foot long) PICTURE chandelier! It had pictures of different people, places, and things in Kenya!!! They had it blocked off for whatever reason, but a guard saw me looking at it and let me up the staircase anyway to get a better view. That really made my trip to the museum, the pictures were beautiful! And the room the staircase was in was filled with windows; I could have taken some amazing shots had I brought MY camera with me. Instead, I convinced myself that not taking my camera was the better idea. What was I thinking? I don’t even know.
Moving on…
After leaving the museum, (and running into a shopkeeper that was terribly upset that Jan and I didn’t buy anything from him) we spend a good 10 minutes searching for our Van and driver. We weren’t thrilled that he moved the van where we couldn’t see it, because he had all of our luggage with him. When we did find him, and the van, and our luggage all intact, we ventured onward to a zoo. The Kenyan’s didn’t call it a zoo, actually. Its correct name is the “Animal Orphanage”. While there, we saw alligators, lions, cheetahs, leopards, monkey, an ostrich, and a few other animals. It was so cool! They have no real fences in the zoo (the San Diego Zoo and SD Wild Animal Park kind of spoiled me on the fence thing, I imagine.) They have chain link fences to separate smallish children from lions and chimps. It was pretty stellar. As Mzungu’s, we were once again given special treatment when most of our team {minus the ones who decided to venture off on their own} got to go see the big lion up close from where only the zoo keepers are supposed to go. The lion was sleeping right in front of me, I could have pet him! (Alas, I wasn’t brave enough to wake a sleeping lion that could easily make its way through the chain link fence. That, and I don’t think the guard would have appreciated it.)
After that adventure, we got to go visit the Cheetahs. And, by visit, I mean we got to go in their cage and pet them!!!!!! It was thrilling!!! As it is, I think “big cats” like lions and tigers are cool. I never imagined in my life I’d get to pet one! That really set the tone for my trip! Soooooooooooo worth the 30 hours of flight time!
>>>>>Fast Forward:
We’re eating dinner… I had pasta, and tasted some Kenyan chicken. Had sprite. And when the table felt like it was moving to the right, and my world seemed to be tilted to the right, and when I stood up and things started spinning in the best way, I realized- I haven’t slept in 48 hours. Maybe more. I had the craziest vertigo. I felt like I was trying to stand still on a moving boat! When we got back to the airport, and were on our Nairobi-Kisumu flight, I slept the whole way! (Disregard that “the whole way” is only about an hour long. It’s the first hour I’ve slept in a while.) When we got to Kisumu, we got hotel rooms at the Sunset hotel. Went out to eat, and I got to know my teammates a little better. After that, it was la la salama for me!!! {Good night}.