Leaving for Kenya - July 17, 2009

Here I am waiting for the airporter to take me to Seattle to catch the plane to Amsterdam and then on to Nairobi, Kenya. All the rest of the travelers are already in Kenya. I had to stay a day later because of a concert with Juba Marimba at Elizabeth Park last night.

After a few days of free floating anxiety about returning to Africa, the trip itself was very smooth. Long flights (two 9 hour legs) in uncomfortable seats, but decent food and enough movies on demand to distract me.

When I landed in Nairobi, I sort of expected to recognize a smell or the feel of the air, but Nairobi just seems like a big city.

I found Shearlean, Tim, Kristi and Doug at the LMS Guesthouse, and we went to a late dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant with wonderful food and a great bottle of South African wine. It was a good way to start this adventure and to begin to get to know my fellow travelers better. Shearlean Duke is a faculty member from Journalism, Kristi Tyran from Management, Tim Costello is the Executive Director of the Slum Doctor Programme and also the Director of the Center for Service Learning at Western. There are also four young people along on the trip. Kathryn Bachan is a photojournalism major, Douglas Herrin just graduated in Anthropology/Biology and Julie Lynch is a Business major with a specialty in international business and microfinance. Heather Henderson, a friend of Tim's who works in a 'cell phone company in Bend, OR, also joined us.