Kenya Arrival
This is a blog that I wrote on my computer the first day that I arrived in Kenya (about 2 weeks ago now) but had no internet to post. Hope it gives you a glimpse into how my trip began, and how it unraveled from there!
Adventure: An unusual and exciting, usually hazardous, experience or activity
Thus begins the Adventure of Kenya:
I flew out of Cairo late Saturday night and landed at the Nairobi airport around 3:45 am Sunday morning. The plans, loose as the were, were to meet my old friend Hellen Njoronge at the airport where she’d be taking me to her home to stay and from there we’d sort out the schedule for the week. So far the schedule looked like it would involve time with Hellen and her projects, time in western Kenya with Bishop Chunge and a visit to the fine folks at KIISI, which was our original reason for planning this trip (it had to be postponed until next year but we decided to still take advantage of our time here).
I climbed off of the plane and made my way through the process of getting my visa an being let into the country. Once I finished that, got my bags, and left the baggage area I came to a small crowd of Kenyan’s waving signs with people’s names on them, typical of most airport pickup sites.
If not for chance I probably wouldn’t have even glanced at the sign with my name on it; I was meeting an old friend who I knew quite well…no reason in my mind for a sign. But for whatever reason I did glance the sign and then the person holding it with my name in bold capital letters: STEPHEN DEVRIES.
I had never seen him before in my life. I quickly assumed that Hellen was asleep (it was at this point a little after 4am) and had sent a driver to get me. Wrong. I approached the man who I later found out to be named Peter, and asked him if he was picking me up for Hellen.
“Stephen!? Let’s get your bags and we’ll go to Father Lawrence’s home!”
Wait…who? I have no clue who father Lawrence is. In fact, I’ve never heard mention of his name in any e-mail or correspondence related to this trip at all. Still…it was 4am and this man knew who I was and looked kind enough…I had a good (and still slightly disconcerted) feeling about it.
We got into the van and started making our way through the early morning Nairobi streets. After stopping for a water (good idea btw…there was definitely no good water at my final location!) we began winding through roads that were less and less “city” until we were finally in the full blown country side. 30 minutes had passed and finally I said…where exactly are we going?
“To Father Lawrence’s house…he is my Cousin.”
Humm…turns out we were driving out of Nairobi into what is known as Kiambu Town, an area of Kenya notorious for it’s violence. It gets more interesting. As we approached our location I became less confident that Father Lawrence was going to be there, a hunch which turned out to be quite true. Instead, we were driving to an alcohol rehabilitation center out in the outskirts of the town run by Lawrence.
I arrived late (close to 5am) and was taken up to my room, a small room with a bed, no pillow. Then I finally talked on my driver’s phone to Lawrence himself and the adventure eased a little. We made plans to meet up in the morning and I made for the bed. And thus I arrived in Kenya unscathed…
I live for this sort of stuff…the next chapter of the adventure is coming soon!
