(From Monday)

We were ready to get off the plane. We left from Dallas early Saturday morning, and we didn’t arrive in Kenya until early Monday morning. We almost didn’t make onto our first plane. We arrived at DFW at 6 a.m. and promptly got in line to check in. They had one attendant at the computer, and the going was slow. Our plane was scheduled to leave at 8 a.m., and at 7:55 there were still nine of us in line. Thankfully, they held the plane – and miraculously, we made it to our next destination on time thanks to the wind, and thanks to God.

We spent 12 hours in the airport in Accra, Ghana. Some men were handing out little flags to passerby, and I picked one up. It had a picture of the Obamas on it. We had to stay inside the airport the entire 12 hours. During that time, many of us slept, ate, played hacky sack and played cards. We also made a friend, a little boy named Christopher. After a while he got a little rambunctious, so we were glad to get checked in and go through security.

It was about 5:30 a.m. in Nairobi when we landed. We picked up all 60-something bags and headed through customs – which was basically walking through the doors to go outside.

We filled two matatus with our luggage and rode through Nairobi on a bus. We were delighted to see huge storks nesting in the trees in town. Their wingspan must have been about six feet. They were huge!

It took about an hour to get to Limuru and to Brackenhurst, the Christian Conference Center. Once we got out of the city, everything was very green, and there were tea farms stretching over the hillside. Brackenhurst is very pretty and pedicured. There are so many flowers here! We will stay here for the entire week.

We were all exhausted from sleepless travel, but the medical team still went out and worked at a clinic for about an hour and a half. One team member, Justin, is on the water purification team, but he decided to tag along with the medical team. He brought $200 in donations that had been collected to give to a needy church, or some other worthy cause. It must have been in God’s plans, because the medical team ran out of medical supplies. They used the $200 to buy more medications. They saw 40 patients at the clinic today, and used half of all the supplies. They are planning to see 400 people on Tuesday. They don’t think the supplies will last more than two hours.

If you are interested in donating any money to the medical clinic, send me an e-mail at ikeyda@hotmail.com.

The rest of us got to rest today. We ate breakfast: toast, sausage, eggs and fruit. Then I went back to the room and took a nap for a couple hours. The water heater had plenty of time to heat up, so I had a nice hot shower. Then I went walking around Brackenhurst. I met up with Jess, who was taking pictures, and we headed down to the classrooms of the Kenya Baptist Theological College to see the students take tea time. But before we saw the students, we met up with some other team members who were headed into Limuru to buy cell phones and some anti-malaria medicine.

We took a matatu into the city, and that was an interesting and fun experience. They crowed as many people into the van as possible. And whenever a new person would get on, they would make the children move to the back. It took about 15-20 minutes to get into the heart of the city, where we met our friends at the market. It was kind of dirty there, but people were pretty friendly.

We also saw a Kenyan use a bike tire as a hula hoop! We had a lot of fun exploring the city before heading back to the Brackenhurst compound. We had dinner and then met for a group meeting. It’s surprisingly cool here, and I have to wear a sweater and a jacket outside to keep warm. So it was nice to sit for a while in front of the fireplace here.

Tomorrow our teams spread out through the area and begin work. I am part of the evangelization/home visitation team, and we meet at 8 a.m., so I’d better go to bed! Good night!