Leavin' On A Jet Plane...

I have just arrived at my hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. It is 10 o’clock pm local time and about 2 o’clock in the afternoon back at home. The flights went well, though very long. I flew with Avery, my cousin, and Ashley, a girl from my pharmacy class. We met up with Alan, our fourth pharmacy student, later in Nairobi. They are who I will be spending all my time with.

Our first leg from Indy to Detroit went fast and was easy other than having to say bye to my family and friends. Detroit to Amsterdam was a long flight but tolerable. We were each able to watch our own movies so I watched The Duchess to occupy 2.5 hours of the 8 hour flight. Being the pharmacists that we are, we were convinced we would get DVTs from the long flight and throw a clot so we made sure to get up and make regular laps around the 777. At one point Avery told us if he passes out to just leave him, which we told him we would.

By the time we reached Amsterdam, we were delirious of sleep deprivation (about 3 am home time) and waited half awake for our connecting flight to Nairobi (another 8 hour flight). I was able to sleep the first 3 hours then watched the movie Blood Diamond. It was really good but probably not the best choice on our way to Africa. It is the true story about conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone and portrays lots of violence and child soldiers. By the end of it I was pretty convinced I was heading into a war zone. We flew through Europe then over Libya, Egypt, The Sudan, Ethiopia, and then finally Kenya. It was incredible seeing the Sahara Desert. Then over the Sudan we passed refugee camps which were astonishing sights. Very heartbreaking, but another eye opener to what we may encounter in Kenya.

By the time Nairobi was in sight, the three of us were miserable and convinced we had pressure sores on our bums. Not to mention how dirty we felt after a full 24 hours of traveling. We gathered our luggage, purchased our visas and met our driver to take us to our hotel for the night in Nairobi. On the way I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me from the lack of sleep. I was staring out the matatu (taxi) window and next to us, on the road, a 15 foot giraffe was walking along!!! In the middle of downtown Nairobi! It was the PERFECT way to start out my African adventure as giraffes are my favorite animal! Our driver then gave us a mini Kiswahili lesson and rolled us out at the Fairview hotel…”the country inn, in town”. Or so they claim. The hotel was wonderful – all white and clean—and we met Alan there. After sending arrival emails to our parents we showered and hit the hay around 12am with a wakeup coming at 5am to catch our flight to Eldoret. A long, but very fun experience!