Sunday May 2,2010

We have been travelling since Friday afternoon, although we are now at the Sheywe Guest House in Kakamaga. On Saturday night, we arrived in Nairobi at 10:00 pm. After considerable delay, six out of the eight of us were re-united. It took awhile to get the10 bags (to date), and eight persons, including Aggrey and our driver, into the van. About 45 minutes later, we arrived at the Rosa Mystica Spiritual Centre for a night’s lodging. It is a very simple place, but clean and very quiet. For those of you with a Catholic experience, looking up at the transomed windows and sleeping on very firm mattresses, brought back memories of youth.
Morning came with a good breakfast and our last two nurses picked up from the airport. We left Nairobi at 10:30 am after trying to defeat the laws of nature, ie: two objects can not occupy the same space at the same time. Our rented Toyota van has a year or two on me, but with ingenuity,14 seats, 10 persons and roof rack, we left the city and headed west toward Kakamaga. Our 12 hour trip to this huge city, the third largest in Kenya, consisted of stops to see roadside baboons, zebra, and the glorious Rift Valley, long thought to be the Garden of Eden. The twelve hours also consisted of squats, monsoon rainstorms, a large sliding door, which would open unexpectedly, our passenger’s mirror looking a little worse for wear, and fumes from the diesel engine. Of course, they were periodically dissapated by the sliding door erratic actions.
All smiles aside, we are happy to be at the Sheywe Guest house in Kakamega. It isn’t the Hilton, but it will do nicely. We were warmly greeted by the Kenyan nurses, who had dinner with us and spoke very warmly about our arrival. We all headed to bed after the meds were sorted and the three of us had hung our wet clothing up to dry. Did I mention the monsoon rains?

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