Jambo! Hello!

I am back from my Kenyan safari. I thought I would describe each day in Kenya in a separate blog entry. I had an awesome trip. The wildlife was unbelievable. The people were fantastic. The trip had lots of problems at the beginning. I almost had to cancel for health reasons. We almost had to cancel due to political strife. It's like we did all of our suffering ahead of time because once we got going, all was smooth sailing. I did tell my son my sister would give me a ride to the airport and I told my sister my son would give me a ride to the airport. Thanks to my nephew, I got there on time. I met my tour guide and a fellow traveler on the plane so that made for a less stressful trip. We had an 8 hour flight to Amsterdam. Did you know they have an art museum in the Amsterdam airport? While I was there I heard many times over the loudspeaker, "Passenger (Fill in name here) going to (fill in destination here), you are delaying the flight, Please report to Gate F9 or we will proceed to offload your luggage." The announcement sounds polite but it's really a threat. We had 4 hours to kill there before we started the 8 hour flight to Nairobi. It's hard to be so confined for so long. Movies help. Going to the bathroom every couple hours to brush my teeth and wash my face helps too. I slept a little on the second flight. The screen shows us where the plane is on our flight. For me it is a huge thrill to see that plane image cross the equator-the belt of the earth. I am no longer a southern hemisphere virgin. I got my visa with no trouble. When we arrived we were greeted by Muthoga and Migwi - two men who would take wonderful care of us for the next 12 days. We arrived about 9:30 p.m. and drove through Nairobi to the Methodist Guest House where we stayed. Now all 4 of us on the trip were together. The other three are all related- an aunt and two cousins. One cousin has been working in western Kenya volunteering on a water project. It was fun to see her reunite with her mother. They visited but I had to crash. The mosquito net was explained and demonstrated for me. I will be using mosquito nets for the next several weeks so I don't get malaria. Tomorrow I start taking malarone, also to prevent malaria.