We Have Arrived

We arrived last night around 7pm in Nairobi. What a long trip....

We started out in Cleveland and were slated for a flight out to Detroit at 11:51am but due to 'equipment issues' we didn't have a plane and the flight got pushed back to an uncertain time later that evening. This immediately caused an issue given we were set to leave Detroit for Amsterdam at 4pm. So we got things rebooked and were headed out on a 5pm flight to Detroit and on a 7:10pm flight to Amsterdam still making our original flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi. Well our original 11:51am showed up at 4:25pm so we asked to take that one instead of our rebooked 5pm flight and to our delight we were 2 of the 3 people total on the flight. It was a former private corporate jet and we enjoyed a few cocktails on the house - thanks NWA! We arrived in Detroit and made it over to the KLM desk to ensure we could get seats next to each other; when we were rebooked our lovely seats Brian worked so hard to arrange got reassigned. So Brian took care of the seats and we were good to go. The flight from Detroit to Amsterdam was 8 hours overnight so we tried to sleep as much as we could but the screaming baby nearby kept us up. Brian and I are pretty sure we do not want any children in the near future.... So we arrived in Amsterdam where it was pouring down rain and immediately headed over to the gate where our flight to Nairobi was just about to start boarding. We had to go through an additional security check, and fortunately I was able to hold on to that small bottle of wine given to me by the flight attendant on our way over to Detroit - save that one for later!

We boarded the flight and I was pretty much out like a light. I think at this point it was about 3am local time back home and about 9am in Amsterdam. Here is where I started to loose sense of time. All I knew is that I was tired and wanted to sleep. Luckily Brian gave me the window seat so I went down for a few hours. He ate and then napped. The flight went by pretty quickly and was quite uneventful except our flight attendant was caught fooling around with the flight attendant from business class by the girl sitting in the aisle seat in our row. Every time she was gone for a while kept us wondering.....

We landed in Nairobi at 7pm local time and headed straight to the visa line knowing it would quickly fill up. We got our single entry visits - good for 90 days and then headed to baggage claim. But there was no luggage to claim - ugh! Our 2 checked bags did not make it over with us. We went to the baggage claim desk and filled out the appropriate paperwork, identifying a picture that most closely resembled our bags, XL version of #22 black, basically it looks like everyone else's! They told our bags would probably arrive on the next KLM flight from Amsterdam which would arrive at 6:30am the next morning. They'd give us a call by 10am if they had them.

It is now 2:37pm local time on Wed 7/8/09 and they have not called. Fortunately the people here at the Technoserve office, where I am currently writing this, have been quite helpful and have offered to follow up with the airport for us. They sounded hopeful but we'll see.

After looking for our luggage for more than 2 hours after we arrived at NBO, it wasn't until about 10pm that we arrived at our new home in Nairobi. David Mwauri (a TechnoServe driver) picked us up at the airport and drove us to Volker's Garden Apartments. This is a highly secure apartment complex owned by a local Kenyan woman named Nancy. She met us there and showed us our new apartment, Room 2, which is on the upstairs level above a shared living room and kitchen. The apartment office is in the same building below us and to the right is another attached complex part of the same building. Those apartments appear to be completely private with no shared spaces. I think we'll look into those later this week.

Nancy showed us around and then made us tea which we chatted over for about 45 min. She's a lovely woman, married a man she met on a plane on her way to Germany and they have 4 children. The apartment complex is named after her husband, Volker.

It is winter time here in Kenya and that means it's cold! It's much colder than we had imagined and last night we were freezing in the apartment. The good thing is that given the altitude and weather conditions the mosquitos are not out. But because we plan on taking weekend trips to malaria prone areas we'll continue taking the malaria meds.

This morning a TechnoServe drive named Tom picked us up at 9:30am to take us to the TechnoServe office where we got a tour and met all the entire staff including the other TechnoServie VolCons (Volunteer Consultants). We were looking and feeling a bit rough so Ana suggested one of the other drivers take us to a local breakfast place where we could get a bite and some coffee. Jesse drove us nearby to Java House a very nice coffee shop with great breakfast foods. After some good java and hearty eggs and toast, the color came back into our faces and we both felt much better. Back to the TechnoServe office and Ana continued to give us some orientation on logistics and safety. Basically we'll need to take taxis everywhere we wish to go for which they've already arranged during business hours. For any personal trips, they have the necessary contacts to aid us in getting transportation.

So far so good. Everyone we've met is super friendly and the people dress up in such nice clothes, I'm so impressed! The food we've had has been delicious and we're looking forward to getting over jet lag and making plans for future weekends.

I can't believe it, but we're here on the ground in Nairobi. What an exciting time in our lives :)