Day Two

We finally arrived in Nairobi, having arrived on the tarmac at 6:30 am just as the sun was rising. It was a good thing I was well rested as getting the group through customs, baggage pickup and loaded in the vans proved to be very taxing. We must have counted the duffle bags 100 times and my Type A personality kicked in more than once. It seemed like every time a duffle appeared on the conveyor belt the stack was recounted, and after the first three or four times I believe I would have put the bags in stacks of five.

We were missing about 30 of the 60 duffle bags and you guessed it, once we realized the bags needed to be reported lost we had to figure out who's bags were missing. Maybe putting the bags in stacks of five wouldn't have worked.....we should have lined up all 25 volunteers and had them stack their two duffles on the ground in front of them. Anyone who did not have two duffles should report their duffle as 'missing.'

We started at The River, a series of squatter encampments with numerous children in various stages of dress and uniformly dirty. The objective was to entertain the children while giving the parents uninterrupted time with the medical staff. It appeared (and smelt) like we were standing on a landfill and my heart was tender as I saw the children digging through what appeared to be garbage to find something to hold onto. Africa, like most countries, is quickly becoming a country of 'haves' and 'have nots' with a disappearing middle class. Poverty is as apparent as affluence-If I was in Africa who would I be? Where would my station lie? Would I be the one on the side of the road selling home grown corn roasted over a charcoal fire? Or would I live at The River?

The view of the Great Rift Valley was even more spectacular than I remembered it on my last visit to Africa three years ago with Scott. In some places you could see heaven, in other places the clouds were very low and almost to ground with a small amount of mist everywhere. The terrain was alive with brilliant colors, deep red dirt with layer upon layer of dark green foliage. It took my breath away.