About Kenya....

So anyway, this blog is supposed to be about when I lived in Kenya, so I guess I will start with day one and move on from there.......

I was nervious as hell as I borded the plane and left everything that I knew behind. I cried as I left my parents at the Security check and boarded the plane for a dream that I was following. Being only the second plane ride I ever took, I tried to play cool on the plane and talked to a nice young man about the new security measures taken at the airport we were landing in. At the airport, I couldn't help but wonder if any if the young people whose faces I was looking in were going to be fellow PCT's with me. As I waited for the shuttle to the hotel and met some PCV's on their way to some latin american country, but still no one from my group. I checked into the hotel and was told my roomate hadn't arrived yet. The reality of everything was beginning to kick in. A wave a nausa and homesickness washed over me. But the excitement of everything was just to powerful. So I waited in my plush hotel room, which I must say for the Peace Corps, they know how to ease a person into the lifesyle that they will be living in during their time overseas.

Eventually my roomate, Tessa, came, an awesome girl from California. We spent all hours of the night talking, nervious for the next morning when everything would become real. That night I dremt of forgetting my luggage for the 100th time.

The next day, it was like some sort of college mixer in the lobby of the hotel. People were going up to each other and asking "Where are you going". The people going to Kenya grouped together, talked, and filled out paper work together. We were given games to play, that would help us get to know one another, and I am sure that we were all wondering...."am I gonna hate that person?" or "I wonder what that person is doing in a place like this?" and alas, I am sure most of us girls were scoping out any potential hotties of the group (I am sure the guys were doing the same).

So after a few days of lectures, videos (there was this one where the guy had kids throwing rocks at him in his bike helmit--so funny), and me stating for the 8000th time that I am deathly afraid of monkeys, we became familer with each other. We grew bonds that no one in the world would ever understand and started to get over the awkawrdness that we had on the first day. Granted, I think by the last day of staging, many of us wanted to just get the hell out of there and go, I know that many of us were also pretty scared (they told us stories to scare us about the evil city of Nairobi and all the bad things about Kenya).

That night we repacked (and somehow I lost all of my passport photos) and I am sure most of us didn't sleep at all that night. The next morning they loaded us in cabs and sent us to get the first of what would seem like endless shots. They gave us our Malaria meds and before we knew it we were heading to the airport. By this point we had already lost one of our fellow trainees because of a reaction to one of the shots.

I know that I have mentioned that the Peace Corps is nothing more that waiting and more waiting. The airport was no exception. There were 37 of us at that point, and we had to get us all through checking in and security. During checking in with the airline, we managed to lose another Trainee, bringing our number down to 36. So there it was, 36 of us, about to change our lives forever.

The plane ride was really uneventful, really it was just long. But I must say, it did seem like a party in the back of the plane. In Amsterdam, where we changed planes, I realized (with dread) that I didn't have my ticket to get my boarding pass to go to Kenya. But after I almost cried in the poor dutch lady's face, I was allowed to board. Then we waited, waited, and waited some more.

We loaded into what seemed like a much more crowded plane and once again began the party that I dont think has ever really stopped. We flew over the alps and I truely think that I have never seen anything more breathtaking than that. Soon, we came closer to our destination. The nerves were kicking in and many of us were wondering "what in the hell am I doing????". We changed into our "nice" clothes that were emphasized so much during staging. The plane landed, and I was filled with excitement, dread, fear, happyness, giddyness, EVERYTHING. We walked into the airport and were greeted by the APCD's, the CD, and a couple of PCV's. It was so surreal. After much insanity, we organized method of quickly retrieving everyones luggage and we were off.......................................