Skip to main content

This is Africa

I'M IN AFRICA!

Now I've had limited sleep in the past 48 hours (I wont mention an exact number for my mother's sake...) and am pretty dead tired so I really will keep this post short.

Highlights from the first two days in Africa:
  1. Sleeping for 4 solid hours on our 8 hour flight from London to Nairobi and waking up to a hot tray of four-cheese tortellini airline pasta.
  2. Arriving in Kenya and getting my first travel visa! (A.k.a. a nice sticker in my passport)
  3. Meeting our drivers Joseph and Peter at the airport and figting the urge to respond to everything in Spanish... my brain was still stuck in the last time I was in a foreign country (Mexico).
  4. Getting a flat tire on the way from the airport to our "home base" in Thika and learning the true meaning of the phrase "T.I.A." or "This is Africa".
  5. Spending 4 hours in church (In two different services and one Sunday school class).
  6. Eating Ethiopian food for the first time.
  7. The moment I realized I was standing in an Ethiopian restaurant in Kenya listening to an Indian family speaking English...
  8. Having one of the best cup of coffee I've ever had in the "Yaya" Kenyan market, an Ethiopian macchiato.
  9.  Discovering a new species of frog outside our window: the squeaky tennis shoe frog.
  10. Learning some brilliant new words and phrases in Swahili:
    • Karibu = Welcome (Some of the first words I saw in Kenya: Karibu Kenya, meaning welcome to Kenya!)
    • Asante = Thank you
    • Sawa = Ok
    • Kidogo = a little bit
    • Choo = bathroom (pronounced cho with an "o" as in "own")
    • Matatu = public transportation minivan/bus (usually perilously stuffed with people and luggage) 
    • Took took = a three wheeled, canvas covered taxi-type thing
    • Picky picky = motorcycle
    • Boda boda = public transportation motorcycle (taxi)
And speaking of mothers, I am sending out a gigantic Happy Mother's Day all the way from Africa to my wonderful Momma and all the other amazing mothers reading. You are a true blessing to me! :) 

Tomorrow we meet the kids at Joytown school and begin data collections on the wheelchairs. Keep the prayers coming. I'm really excited about how close we are growing as a team. We have shared so many priceless moments and laughs together so far, I am blessed by each member of the team even more each day.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hello again Kenya

After 24 hours of travel to the other side of the world and two days of research work I've finally gathered enough jet-lagged energy (and strong enough wifi) to write this. On Monday, I escaped the thunderstorms, tornadoes, and flooding of Texas on a trans-atlantic flight to London. The team included Professor Rispin, Prof Sasaki and Danielle. 8 hours later, we arrived with time to crawl through layers of Heathrow security and wander, sleepy eyed through the airport to our next gate. By 11am we were on our final 8 hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya. My plane buddies included a Kenyan track runner who's said he's filled up three passports traveling and racing in countries around in the world (completely paid for by sponsors, by the way). And he hasn't even finished college. Why am I in school again? Kidding... sigh... Med school... My second plane buddy was a newly graduated Kenyan-born pharmacist living in Houston. He reminded me how much doctors are needed, especially in ...
4 comments
Read more

Ecuador!

The posts may have stopped for a while but the beat of a traveling heart continues!  This past December, a t the beginning of winter break, I traveled to Ecuador with my father, my head pastor, and another pastor from my home church: International Full Gospel Fellowship (IFGF) of Austin, TX.  My time in Ecuador was very beautiful very fast! Three different cities in three days plus a day on either side of travel time.    I never realized how diverse the country of Ecuador is! Imagine beach, jungle, and mountain climates scattered with villages, towns and cities that are filled with over 21 different ethnic groups. The capital, Quito, has a population of around 2 million people.  W e enjoyed some wonderful food on our trip, which included fire roasted tilapia wrapped in banana tree leaves, armadillo meat, and roasted palm tree weevil larvae. The purpose of this journey was not, unfortunately, to eat but to conduct training se...
1 comment
Read more

Apply yourself

Metal trays. Heat lamps. Serving spoons.   Each food scooped into it's own little compartment. All of a sudden I'm back in elementary school when my biggest worries were counting the ticks on the mysterious analogue clock till recess and who I would sit by for lunch. But I'm not in elementary school. I'm sitting at a table in the Rift Valley Academy cafeteria of Kijabe, Kenya with an orthopedic surgeon and his family for Sunday lunch, anxiously pushing my food around out of it's tray compartments. Reorganizing. I attempt to keep a calm face as I listen to the advice of a practicing physician who has spent several years on a medical school admission board and I feel thoughts race frantically around my head. Reorganizing.   For the past 6 months, I have been fighting with myself in a horrible ping-pong match of what to do with my immediate future. Team A: For better or for worse, apply this cycle to medical school. Team B: re-take the MCAT (the brand new, twice a...
1 comment
Read more