Getting here is half the fun

Blog.
6/13/10
Well, we have arrived in Kenya, as the matching t-shirts of the missionaries on the plane said “48 hours, no shower” which was sort of true, I don’t think that baby wipes and clean clothes in the airport in France really count. The trip was pretty straightforward, though it took on the odd character that we flew through 2 nights, and I just can’t sleep on planes, so that made the days a bit more interesting. When we arrived in Paris, we decided that with no sleep and only a few hours to see Paris, that our best option was to check out the Louvre and then head back to the airport, which we accomplished. The Louvre was really cool, not just for the amazing collection of art, but for the amazing museum itself, I wish I knew more about it, but if you are interested I’m sure Wikipedia can tell you stuff. Claire tried a bunch of new foods, I think that Katie wrote all about it, but she really like the raspberry gelato. Our flight to Kenya was equally non-mentionable, though we were treated to K’naan and Shakira’s World Cup songs on a loop. Katie told me that between that and the in the 80s temperature inside the plane that it felt as though she was being tortured. It was fun in the airport though to hear all the cheering going on in the airport.
We arrived in the airport and got through passport control eventually. Someone ought to tell people that you can just get visas in advance, there were maybe 30 people spread out between every line (except Kenyan & East African citizens where we got to be since we had visas) who were all lined up with paperwork and cash. The whole transfer of baggage between Air France and Kenyan Airways hadn’t happened and our bags were still in Paris, but they are supposed to be coming today.
We arrived at Ridgeville Garden Guest House on and are very happy with it; the people are super friendly and helpful. There is a you man named Newton who is the one who pretty much takes care of everything here, he cooks, makes sure all is well with us, overall a great place. Very recommended for people looking for a reasonably priced place to stay in Nairobi, I only wish that they had internet here, but they have only been in business for 6 months, so maybe when they have a steady stream of visitors, they will install it. That and a lack of overhead fans, which seems strange to me as they also don’t have air conditioning. This isn’t a problem right now of course as it is cool and perfectly comfortable right now, but might not be so good if Nairobi gets hot.
Other than that, we are headed out to the Mzungu mall to find Katie a skirt and are going to the internet café soon after so I can e-mail my work contacts to give them the new cell phone numbers. Katie’s is up and running now and I will have mine going as soon as the bag with the phone in it gets delivered. I asked Newton what his favorite Kenyan dish is, and then asked if he could make that for us for dinner. So I’m pretty stoked about that. Okay, well that’s about it for now, it’s been a Oh, I think that is the cab now. Bye people!