Kenya Day 1

The first day was all about the travel. It worked out at 28 hours from when I left 14 Oldtown Rd and arrived in the office in Nairobi. Some confusion on my arrival left me stranded at ‘International arrivals’ for over 4 hours before I was able to email and call back to London in order to find an address.

As usual I made friends on the flights without much problem. On the Belfast – Heathrow flight I sat with a couple who were on their way to Goa, India and seem to be seasoned travellers. They explained to me how every year they went on SKI holidays (Spending Kids Inheritance) – I told them they were just right. The Couple who where from Newtownabby gave me some tips on making my way from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3. This was found to be a rather easy task as I took the bus. Heathrow is mad – I’m nearly sure the population of Northern Ireland was packed into the duty free Dixons alone, never mind WHSmith.

The Virgin Atlantic flight was through the night and although I failed to register more than about 4 hours sleep, I did watch ‘Adventureland’ and one hour of ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’. The food was surprisingly good and filling – hats off to Richard Branson. I sat beside an American girl, Blonde, Californian, who had worked 5 years for Google (two and a half of which were in London). As we chatted, I discovered she was a Christian and attended Holy Trinity Bromton. She was friendly and certainly made the flight a lot more fun. She had a Boyfriend who ran an online dating site. (I conveniently directed her to the headline from The Times Business Section, which read ‘Man makes fortune from online dating site’ – she just smiled). Her name was Alexa and was attending an International Malaria conference in Nairobi for one week.

After the flight I paid $25 for my visa because they refused to take my Northern Bank £10 note – needless to say I was offended before I had stepped through immigration. The atmosphere was noticeably more humid, however not that warm. The ground was wet from the rain showers, which came every 30 mins and I was left with the irony that no one was there to meet me with my name on a board like I had always suggested. I hijacked the internet in the tourist booth to tap into my googlemail account to notify Christine that I had been approached by 40 men to see if I wanted to get in their taxi. She called through on my new Kenyan sim card to offer an address that would take me to the Kenyan Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship office. 1500 Kenyan shillings and 30 min drive later I was there. On Arrival, John who is in charge of the office welcomed me with open arms.

I was beginning to feel incredibly sleepy and was facing a long journey to Kisumu in the next few days. Hence, I was falling asleep at my Mac… it was only 3 p.m.

I was eventually taken back to the parents home of John Swaka, the CLEAR advocate. We watched Kenyan TV and ate at 9;30 (chicken Dish). The family is huge and live in an ‘up-market’ compound called Diamond Park. At bedtime I was faced with a mosquito net full of holes. Hence, the stuffing of toilet roll into each gap and a poor nights sleep. (I would arrive home the next day to find the family had bought a new net…I felt bad…but only a little.)