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Welcome to my blog! Here I will share with you my experience in Kenya, Africa over the summer of 2014.

I hope that by reading about and viewing pictures from my trip, you will be able to live the experience with me in a way.

A few notes I would like you to keep in mind as you read this:
1. I kept a written journal during my trip and have transcribed it for this blog. In order to keep it as close to the original as possible, I have transcribed it character-for-character. As much as this pains me in some situations, this will mean there are some (many) spelling, grammatical, and structural errors. I think that leaving these intact add to the authenticity of the blog, though, and show that sometimes I had so much running through my head that I just had to get it on paper in any way I could. Also, it is somewhat telling about the environment I was in while writing it.
2. I have left out some details intentionally. If you would like to talk about any of my experiences or have any questions for me, please reach out! I love to talk about it :)
3. There are some opinions which I have chosen to share, which I will hope will be respected. I acknowledge that I do not know everything about some topics I breach, but I chose to share my opinions on them anyways because it shows what this experience brought me to contemplate and recognize, which I may not have previously. If you would like to share your opinions or experiences as well, I would love to hear them. Please feel free to leave all the respectful comments you'd like.

I hope you enjoy reading this! Thank you to everyone who helped me to make this amazing adventure a reality. If any of the stories you read about make you want to get involved, please visit the "Contribute to the Cause" tab to donate to projects underway, or contact me to learn about other ways to help.

Sam

July 10th, 2014 Part 3


10:20 AM (Kenya) 12:20 AM (PHX)

I am now sitting in the Nairobi airport, awaiting the flight to Kisumu.  Thankfully I was able to have 15 minutes of wi-fi, so I texted/chatted my mom, Dave, & Connor and Facetimed Connor, & by effect, Andy, Zach, & Jenna! :)  I miss everyone so much, but time is flying by (no pun intended.)  I just wish they could be here with me instead of me being home.  Soon I will travel with them to cool places like this.

The landing here went pretty smoothly.  Flying in was somewhat surprising.  The city has more infrastructure & is more developed than I expected.  It pretty much looked like a normal city- from that far up at least.  There was A TON of traffic going into the city at 6:45 when we flew over.

The airport has been a neat experience!  We exited the plane via the stairs on the tarmac, which was pretty fun.  Then we took a bus that looks like a bug, which was wider than any bus I've seen, to the airport building.  We walked in and had to go through customs.  This was like nothing I've seen.  It was't terrible conditions, but just definitely not what we're used to.  The whole inside was cement with thick columns and low ceilings.  It was extremely crowded with people speaking so many different languages and sitting anywhere they could find room.  We found the counter that had the form we had to complete and sat down to fill it out.  Once we were done we had to go to a counter where they took the form, checked our passports, and took scans of our fingerprints.








Then we picked up the checked bags from the carousel and exited the building.  We got cash converted to Kenyan Shillings.  $360 --> 30,600 shillings (1:85) Outside was-

Sidenote I forgot to mention! It was very striking & quite intimidating to see a military man armed with a machine gun when we got our bags!

Outside was interesting also.  There were lines of taxis, but then also many men, dressed in suits, looking to do many different things: push your cart of bags, lead you to where you needed to go, take you on tours, etc.  Some were hustlers too- haha!  One wriggled his way into pushing Daniel's cart, then expecting a tip at the end.  We walked to another building, where we were screened by security.  We then got our boarding passes & checked our bags.  Then went through another security checkpoint to get to the gates, where we now wait!  My first purchase w/Kenyan Shillings was a bottle of water, fruit danish, & mandazi- a pastry that tastes exactly like sopaipillas, but is just more dense (550 ksh total.)







The airport announcement system.



Now the group is going to play Uno to kill time until we leave!

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