Good morning Kenya!! This morning, I watched the sun rise over Africa. I can’t wait until that sunrise is accompanied by the sound of zebras calling and wind rustling through the trees. We have finally made it to Africa, but I still have one more day of travelling. Our luggage has been thrown on a truck and is on the way to our center in Tanzania. We are flying to Arusha and then driving several hours to the center but our luggage won’t fit on the plane/ is too expensive to check so it’s travelling without us! Our flight is leaving Nairobi for Arusha at 6pm tonight. We are staying over night in Arusha because we don’t want to be driving for a couple hours late at night. We arrived in Nairobi around 8am so we have been getting to know each other and playing games to pass the time (there are only 10 of us together so far). All 10 of us are past the point of exhaustion and can only be described as slaphappy. I’m pretty sure everything we are rolling on the floor laughing about right now, won’t be as funny tomorrow…

The flight from London was a little easier that the first because it was much easier to sleep. I woke up just in time to watch the sun rise and see the landscape as we flew into Nairobi. I could see Mt. Kenya in the distance lightly touched on all sides by fluffy clouds. The peak was just barely visible. I was surprised by how hilly and mountainous the landscape was in the surrounding areas of the city. I don’t really know what I was expecting but it was beautiful. I wonder if this area is volcanic at all. We flew right over a small mountain with a huge crater in the top. I’ll have to research more once we get to the center.

Arriving here was a breeze. Right when we stepped off the plane, I could tell that it was a balmy 80 degrees outside. It’s toasty but a nice escape from the Pennsylvania winter. We were greeted by one of our guides who helped us exchange our US dollars for Kenyan Shillings (Kenyan shillings are accepted in both Tanzania and Kenya and are actually preferred in Tanzania because they carry a little more value), get our baggage on the truck and get our boarding passes for the short flight to Arusha. I’m very excited for two things right now; flying over Kilimanjaro and sleeping in a real bed… I really hope it’s not too dark when we actually fly over the mountain. It would be so beautiful to see from the air. I’ll be in its shadow for the next 3 months and a different perspective would be refreshing.  Hopefully, the rest of our group will meet up with us very soon. I already feel so at home with the 9 others who are here (Christina, Erin, Allie, Luke, Liz, Elliot, Sarah, Emily and Julie). I can’t believe I’m going to meet 19 more!  We actually just ran into the Zimbabwe futbol team at the Nairobi airport. They were very friendly and asked us all about what we were doing in the country. I thought that was kind of fun. You never know whom you will see! Waiting for the plane to board, I got really bored and decided to break out my beautiful new binoculars. Just outside the windows of the airport, beyond the runway, I’ve already seen two giraffes!

It has finally hit me, this is really happening. I can’t wait to get unpacked, settled and started with classes. I’m ready to learn!!

<3

Location: Nairobi, Kenya