Our trip from Tampa to Nakuru couldn’t have been better.
Our first flight left Tampa at 3:30 PM Saturday and arrived in Detroit at 6:15. We had just a hour layover in Detroit, so by the time we found the gate for our next flight (which they had moved without notice) most people had already boarded. The flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was about 7 hours. It arrived in Amsterdam at 9 AM their time, which was 3 AM to us. Again we had only about an hour layover in Amsterdam before our flight for Nairobi took off. But everything went smoothly and we made it through customs/check in just before they started boarding.
The flights themselves were great. It was difficult to sleep, but they fed us well and I read almost 2 whole books plus watched a couple movies. On the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi Jennifer and I had separated seats, but a flight attendant helped to arrange several seat swaps for various people including us.
After arriving in Nairobi it took a while for us to get through customs, but after that all 4 of our bags showed up on baggage carousel.
Speaking of bags. We ended up with so much stuff donated for us to take to Kenya, that we filled all 4 of our checked bags with those items. We squeezed all of our clothes and personal items for the 10-day trip into our carry-ons. They weight limit in checked bags is 50 pounds, so before we left we carefully weighted each bag. They ended up being something like 38, 43, 45, and 49 pounds. So, I definitely feel like we brought as much with us as we possibly could have. (We would have been charged $150 each way for each additional bag).
Joe, Molly, and their friend and driver, Daniel, met us just outside the baggage claim in Nairobi, and we took the 3 hour drive to Nakuru in their van.
I wish I could describe Nairobi or the drive to Nakuru in more detail, but it was dark. Two things that were surprising to me were how modern the part of Nairobi we drove through was and that all the billboard ads were in English. I guess the periodic armed check points between Nairobi and Nakuru were a little surprising too. But we were motioned
We arrived at Molly and Joe’s house shortly before 11. It’s very nice. I’ll try to give you a tour of their place later on for those of you who may be interested in coming here on a future trip.
Molly and Joe were very excited to see all the shoes, books, and other supplies.
On the drive to Nakuru, Molly rattled off the itinerary for our stay here but between the engine, the wind, and my tiredness I couldn’t hear much of it. I’m not even sure what we’re doing today. I just know we’ve got a full week ahead of us.
BTW, apologies for the quality of some of the pics. We’ll have some good ones taken with our Cannon XT, but others I’m pulling some of them off of the Flip video camera which is pretty low quality and resolution.
Pre-trip: Take Nothing for Granted <– Kenya 2009 –> Day 2: A Tour of the Bails
1 thought on “We Made it!”