Africa

Where do I even begin...

We just got back last night from a three week trip to East Africa. We are exhausted, jet-lagged, itchy (from mosquito bites), dirty, and very, very happy. The trip was great. We all had a wonderful time together. It's kinda cool that Rob, Jasper, and I, my own little family, just traveled to Africa! It's something that I've dreamed about for a long time. If you come back from Africa and your perception of the world hasn't changed, then you missed something. If you go to Africa and spend your whole time on safari and in lodges, then you've really, really missed out. If you are the same person you were before you left, then you need to go back again and spend some more time letting Africa soak through your skin. I'm so thankful that Rob has now been to Tanzania and was able to see the village I lived in, Chekereni, and meet many of my friends. As Rob and I lay in our own bed last night we both agreed that this trip had brought us much closer to one another. We are both so grateful to live in this wonderful country. We have been blessed beyond measure and I hope I never, ever take that for granted.

Jasper did amazingly well. He's just really easy going and made the trip so memorable and enjoyable. Everyone loved him! He got so much attention I afraid he's going to have some attention withdrawal now that we are back. The only really tough part was administering his malaria medicine to him. He really didn't like it. He cried for about an hour the first two times we gave it to him. Other than that, everything went really smoothly. Rob was, and always has been, an incredibly fun traveling companion. We are both spontaneous and adventuresome, and it makes traveling together very exciting.

Since we have a ton of pictures and tons to say about our trip, we are going to just post a little at a time. So here's from the start of our trip:

Link to airport photos

August 27th: Flew from Seattle, to Amsterdam, to Nairobi. We spent two days in Nairobi. We were picked up at the airport by George, who is the owner of the Ngara Youth Hostel. It was a great place to stay and very affordable. Originally, we were only going to stay one night, but we decided to stay two, so we'd have more time exploring the city. By the time we were left, Rob and I had both decided that Nairobi wasn't our favorite place in the world. It is a very big city with somewhere between 3 and 4 million people and there just isn't enough room or the infrastructure to properly support all those people. We saw a lot of things which were really hard to see. We saw three boys, around the age of 10, who were drunk and lying in the dirt. We saw huge rats in the streets because of all the garbage and sewage everywhere. We saw a couple of people wading through the river that runs through the city, which was thick with garbage and sewage. Because there are either no sidewalks or sidewalks that have huge holes everywhere that lead to the sewer system, we saw a number of people in wheelchairs using the street to get around. This doesn't sounds too bad, except for the fact that the roads are absolutely insane. Every time we crossed a road, we sprinted across to avoid being run over. We had many close encounters with the mini-buses (matatus) as they whizzed by, nipping at our heels.

Link to Nairobi pictures

Anyways, there were some neat things about Nairobi too. We saw the very old, historic railway station. We saw the August 7th Memorial Park, which now stands in the place where the old U.S. embassy stood. It has a museum inside that talks about the bombing and the people who were killed. The park is a symbol of peace, now, and we were very moved just being there.