our trip! stories from Kenya. Thursday, Friday, Saturday

Thursday
Revival Baptist Church had a big party for us. We were supposed to be there at 11. So we had breakfast at Little Chef (rather than the free hotel breakfast), who has the best breakfast in town, complete with mango juice (in season). Then we went to pick up Rodgers' laundry from Agie's (his cousin) house, and got to the church early.

Rodgers sat me with the kitchen ladies, while they prepared veggies for cooking. They spoke English with me for 20 minutes or so, then switched to Swahili and kind of ignored me. I felt awkward butting into their conversation in English, especially when I didn't really know when there was an opportunity to do so, since I didn't understand most of what they were saying. So I went inside the church to change Nate's diaper and sat with Rodgers and Alistone, who will talk to me.

Rodgers sent me with Florence (in the picture in a black shirt) when she needed to go home to find a document for the guy doing the inspection on her truck. We talked the whole way there. She is very impressed by our church forming the partnership with theirs. She was also impressed by the activities we do. At her house, she fixed breakfast for the kids who were there, and I fell asleep on the couch.

Once back at the church, I took the opportunity to use the new restroom. It is not totally complete yet, but looks pretty good and is usable! One outside wall is painted:

RBC

We sat in front of the church while some men swept and prepared the inside for our lunch and a service. I left Nate there when I went home with Florence. Rodgers had passed him off to Esther. He took a nap, then she fed him his lunchtime bottle, and played with him till he was ready for some baby food.

Our lunch was fabulous! Clockwise, from the chapati: chicken, rice, stew from the chicken, potatoes and onions, and mixed veggies in some kind of sauce. Watermelon, pineapple, and bananas for dessert.

After lunch was a little worship service. I knew the first song that was sung (thanks to Rodgers playing it on YouTube nonstop), but not the rest. Then, of course there was speaking. Then Kenyans do love their speeches. I should have known we'd have to make speeches ourselves but I was totally unprepared. Naturally Rodgers made me go first.

When it was all over, we went home with Florence. She prepared a late dinner for us, and Rodgers' cousin showed up just in time to join us. He brought his wife and their 1 month old baby. Nate was already in bed, but we brought him out to meet George, then put him back to bed.

Florence thought it was too cold for Nate to sleep in our room with the windows open, but it was actually the warmest night we'd had since being in Kenya - probably about 78 degrees or so in our room when the breeze wasn't blowing through the windows.

Friday

We did a little more shopping before leaving. Rodgers wanted a Big Five shirt, and I wanted some kikoys for my family.

We went to Domians, to return the car. We intended to take him to lunch, but he and his wife offered to feed us there. Florence's husband was flying in from Afghanistan (he works with a humanitarian aide organization) that morning. His flight was delayed, but when he finally arrived, she brought him to Domian's to see us. Rodgers and Mwangome are both rarely in Kenya, but it's cool that the past couple of times Rodgers has been home, their paths have crossed for a day or two.

Nate made friends with Domian's two year old, Don

Then, Domian took us to the airport. We'd decided to leave at 3:30, giving us an hour to get there, arriving about 2 hours and 20 minutes before our flight. Turns out our 6:50 flight actually was scheduled to depart at 5:30, so we waited in the airport a much shorter time than expected, but we had forever to wait in Nairobi.

On our overnight flight to Heathrow, we had an extra seat on our row. I sat by the window and Rodgers on the aisle. Nate slept the whole way on the seat between us.

Saturday

It was a long day. Literally. We started the day in Kenya's time zone and ended in Texas, so it was a 32 hour day. We made it to Houston without incident, and Mom and Dad were there waiting for us. We stopped at Sonic on the way to their house. Nate fell asleep at 3ish central time, and only woke up a couple of times to eat before morning.