Our first week in Kenya

Our family left for Kenya a week ago, and I still haven't written more than a few words to our friends and family back home.  I have been wanting to write, but we've just always been on the move since we first arrived, and we haven't really been able to catch our breaths long enough to sit down and write more than a few words.

Unfortunately, waiting a long time to write brings problems of its own, like feeling overwhelmed by the burden of summarizing the first week of the trip before relating any new adventures.  So, I hope it's okay if I punt here and just give a whirlwind summary of everything that has happened so far.  Ready?  Here goes...

* We arrived at DFW two hours before our flight left, which should have given us more than enough time to board the flight, but after waiting in long lines at check-in and security we just barely got into the boarding tunnel before they closed the gate.  

* Our two traveling companions, Alice Caughfield and her granddaughter, Lauren Harp, beat us to the airport by an hour, and as we walked into the plane we saw that they had been upgraded to luxurious business class seats.  I guess the early bird gets the worm.

* Hauling five heavy carry-ons, a five year-old, a three-year old, a two-month old, and two Britax Marathon carseats onto a fully-loaded plane wasn't particularly easy, but we did it (thanks to some very helpful Emirates airline staff).

* Emirates did an excellent job of entertaining our girls during the fifteen hour flight to Dubai, so it wasn't nearly as bad as we had anticipated.  I had to deftly vault over a couple of Indian guys every two hours to take Anna to the bathroom, but other than that, the flight was kind of fun. Bethany didn't even join the chorus of screaming children during takeoff and landing.

* It would have been nice to have had the opportunity to see more of the Dubai airport during our layover, but we were in such a rush to be the first ones on the plane this time, we just raced to our gate. Anna led the way through the crowded airport on her puppy-dog leash.

* The five hour flight to Nairobi was much easier than the first leg.  A lot of it had to do with the fact that we got to board first and get settled in and get our car seats installed before everyone else started boarding.

* All seven of us (the Wilhites, Alice, and Lauren) arrived safely at the Nairobi airport, but not all of our bags made it.  By far the most significant item we lost was Bethany's infant seat (which we had checked at the gate at DFW airport).  We still haven't received it.  Last we heard, it's somewhere in Detroit. 

* After spending an hour with the lost-luggage guy in the Nairobi airport, we finally got to leave the airport and step out into the city of Nairobi, Kenya.  There we scanned the line of 100 taxi and matatu drivers to find our very patient drivers, Barno and Peter (PEE-tuh) who had been waiting for us for almost an hour.

* Our very helpful drivers shoved our mountain of luggage into one of our rented matatus (11 passenger van), and we seven passengers rode comfortably in the other matatu.  Since Bethany's car seat had been lost, we had no other choice but to let Bethany ride through the crazy streets of Nairobi in Katherine's arms.  Fortunately, we all arrived safely at the guest house.

* Our missionary friends, Larry and Hollye Conway met us near the guest house and gave us all a warm welcome to Kenya (which was very much appreciated).  Hollye even offered Bethany her (25-year old) infant car seat to use until the airline found ours.

* We got our kids bathed and into their PeaPods as quickly as possible, and they were asleep within seconds.  Katherine and I hoped to follow them quickly since we had been awake over 24 hours, but then I heard it...a mosquito in our room.  Malaria is very rare in the city of Nairobi because of its altitude, but even so, we still couldn't really sleep peacefully without a mosquito net.  The guest house had provided the room with some kind of chemical mosquito repellant device, but because there isn't a big malaria risk in Nairobi, they didn't have a mosquito net hung.  So, Katherine and I had to get ingenious at 4am and build ourselves a little tent out of bed sheets and suitcases.  It kept the mosquitos out just fine, but it didn't really let the oxygen in very well. We made sure we bought a mosquito net for the next night.

* The next morning Hollye Conway picked us up early to take us to the Nairobi Animal Orphanage.  There we got to see a bunch of wild baby elephants standing on their heads, sliding down mud slides, and generally acting silly.  One elephant got a bit frisky with Anna and tried to shake her hand with his trunk, but all that came of that was a very muddy (but only slightly shaken) Anna.

* Hollye had packed a picnic lunch for us all to eat there at the animal orphanage.  Our main entertainment was  watching a dung beetle working diligently to role his ball of dung across the street.  He entertained us all for a long time until a passing Land Rover brought him and his dung ball to an untimely demise.  Rest in peace, little friend. 

* We visited another place in Nairobi where we could feed the giraffes.  This time it was Katherine who got frisky with the animals.  I didn't think anyone back home would believe me if I told them I caught my wife making out with a giraffe, so I got some video footage.

* Our first Sunday in Kenya we went to worship with Larry and Hollye Conway and all of their street friends who gathered at their Made In The Streets ministry in Eastleigh, a Nairobi slum.  Most churches have ushers; this church had bouncers.  And it was a little bit exciting watching Larry Conway carry a belligerent drunk guy out of the worship service.  Kerith, our social butterfly, really shined in children's church, and she instantly made about 27 new friends.

* Larry and Hollye treated us to Sunday lunch at Java House, about the only place in Kenya where you can get a salad, a hamburger, and a milkshake.  On the whole, the Conways did an amazing job of helping us gradually adjust to Kenyan culture before we headed out to Rongo (real Kenya) on Monday morning.

* On Monday morning our matatu driver performed a small miracle by fitting four adults, three car seats, and an enormous amount of luggage into only one matatu for the long-haul trip to Rongo.  This saved us a lot of money.  We had to stop for lots of potty breaks along the way, and we quickly realized that there is no spot in Kenya where no one is watching.  I took Kerith for a bathroom break in what I thought was a very secluded spot beside the road, and while we were in the middle of doing her business we looked up just in time to see a little naked Kenyan boy jump into the river.

* By the time we finally arrived in Rongo, the evening rains were starting, and we had to take shelter with some Catholic nuns until there was a enough of a break in the rain to carry our bags into our guest house.  These nuns in this very rural part of Kenya were hungry for anything we could tell them about life in America.  They thought it was especially funny to hear us speak "Texan".  Een oh-duh to be un-duh-stude een Afreeka, we moost speak vedy slowly, lee-meet our vo-cob-u-lah-ry, and use an Afreekan accent.  When we speak Texan, no one has a chance of understanding us.  Katherine is jumping right in to speaking Afreekan English but I snickered a bit today when she tried to say "y'all" in Afreekan accent.

* Our guest house here in Rongo is very rustic.  We are staying at Cardinal Otunga's Pastorale and Development Centre.  This is where the Sam's Place team usually stays when I come with that group, but there is a three-bedroom house in the back that we rented for our entire stay.  It has concrete floors and no hot water, but it is just right for our team of seven.  Lauren and Alice each have their own rooms, and our family of five are all sleeping together in the largest bedroom.  That leaves us with a sitting room that is perfect for debriefing and getting to know each other better at the end of the day.  We are very fortunate to be traveling with Alice and Lauren.  They complement our family well, and we are having lots of fun getting to know each other.

* Our friend, Kim Gress, from Abilene is currently working as an intern at Sam's Place. She has been there since March, and she was so excited to hear that we had arrived in Rongo that she took a piki-piki (motorcycle taxi) in the rain to come see us as soon as we arrived.  Kim is an amazing person, and she really seems comfortable living here in Kenya.  It has been so nice having her here in town with us to help show us the ropes.

* On our first full day in Rongo, we had plans to arrive at Sam's Place by 10:00am.  We thought we could just walk down to the end of the road and get a taxi to take us all to Sam's Place, but the taxi driver we found there tried to charge us four times the normal fare because we are wazungu (white people).  Fortunately, our friend Simeon at Sam's Place offered to come pick us up.  Later that day he put us in touch with Duncan, a taxi driver friend of his that will ferry us to Sam's Place and back anytime we call him.  Duncan gives us a reasonable fare, 400 shillings (about $5), to take all seven of us the two-mile drive to Sam's Place.  Of course, the girls have to ride in our laps (which we would never dream of doing in the US), but it is by far the best form of transportation we have here.

* We are quickly learning that everything in Kenya is about relationships.  To get anything done you really need to have a friend in the business, and Kenyans have lots and lots of friends.



The events of this Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday directly relate to the main purpose of our trip, and I'm going to dedicate separate posts to those things, but I really felt like I needed to get all these travel-related events out of the way first.  Now that we are mostly settled in to our new home, we should be able to post more frequently.   Watch this space.

Lord, when we complain about muddy roads and muddy shoes, open our eyes to see the watered crops that feed the hungry children.  Give us divine strength to "in everything, give thanks".  Amen.