July 18, 2007

Today was an extremely long long day-7 different taxis, one $50 Kenyan visa, 4 ½ chipattis, and 14 hours of travel. It was all worth it though because now I’m in Kenya!

We woke up at 5am and caught a very full taxi (26 people and all our luggage) into Mokono. From there we caught a taxi to Jinja and then from there we caught another taxi (after waiting for two hours for it to fill up) to the border. We filled out an exit form for Uganda, crossed the border in a shuttle, and then filled out an entry form and Visa application for Kenya. I only had $100 bill from 1996, that had previously been rejected by all Ugandan banks, of American money, but I was determined to use it. The border guy didn’t want to take it because it was so old and weathered, but I told him it was the only American bill I had (which is completely true, although I probably had enough Ugandan shillings to pay for it). So he gave me a brand new $50 bill, stamped my passport, and sent me on my way.

Once on the Kenya side we caught another taxi. After a while they all sort of blended together-trying to sleep, being squished in between smelly strangers, dancing and singing to songs that we knew, eating Chipattis that Lydia made special for the trip (and was our only food that was brought), looking at the beautiful scenery as it passed, waiting for taxis to fill up or unload, and repeat for 14 hours.

We came into a city called Kisumu and caught our last taxi to Kisii. Once we got there it was late and the taxi park was pretty abandoned although it was right next to a busy street. Festus forgot the contact information for the people we were staying with and so he had to track down an internet café, find the number, then find the people who were waiting for us. We were all really tired and really hungry. So while Lydia, Julie, Erin, and I waited we made bets on how long it would take until we got there and whether or not there would be food. Lydia won, it took an hour and 1/2 , and there was plenty of food (although it took three hours to prepare it because they had no idea what time we were coming-the people that had been waiting for us had been waiting for 6 hours). We are staying at a Pastor’s house that helps with the orphanage we’ll be working at. It is a super nice house. The walls are painted, there is indoor bathroom, they have a tiny t.v. (that is broken-but still!), a radio, a living room, AND an indoor kitchen area (no stove or anything, but still it’s indoors!). Although they don’t have running water, the toilet is manually flushed western style, and they have electricity! Definitely the nicest house I’ve seen since I’ve been in Africa. I took a nap until dinner was ready and then we had a feast. I think I’m going to like Kenya.

at the Pastors house we stayed at in Kisii (from left to right its me, Lydia, Festus, Vincent, and Julie)