Headed for Kisii

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

We planned to leave this morning at 8:00am for our trip to Kisii. We went down to have breakfast at around 7:00am. I am not a big breakfast eater, but I have to eat something because we never know if we are going to have lunch or not. So for breakfast they begin by bringing out fresh fruit. They have small bananas, pineapple, watermelon, and pawpaw (papaya). They also have a fruit juice called passion juice that is really good. They also serve either coffee or tea. Russ and Bruce get coffee and I get tea. We have been here so long now that the waiters know exactly what we want even before we order! They also offer eggs, served any way we want like. We all usually get Spanish omelettes. The eggs come with a sausage and either bread or toast. It is a pretty filling breakfast!

Charles arrived at around 8:00 and we loaded all our luggage. By 8:30 we were on the road headed northwest out of Nairobi. The land coming out of Nairobi is pretty barren. But the further north and west we came the more rich the land became. The land is used for many crops like corn, and tea. These are the main cash crops, but the people also have other smaller crops as well like potatoes, onions, and other foods. The land is very beautiful and almost every square foot of land is used for something. It’s also increasingly hilly and you can see the crop sections going right up the side of the hills. It’s amazing to see how profitably this rich land is used.

Things were going very smoothly, when Charles suddenly pulled to the side of the road and stopped. He said that there was a problem with the car - it was pulling to one side. We got out and found out that we had a flat tire! AAA to the rescue! Russ and Charles got the jack out and started taking the bad tire off, while Bruce and I unloaded the trunk to get to the spare tire. The bad tire was changed in record time, the trunk was re-packed and we were back on the road again! Nothing to it the way we do it!

We stopped for lunch at the Tea Hotel at around 2:30 in Kericho. While we ate Charles took the spare tire in to get fixed, in case we had any trouble. The roads are pretty good, but there are some bad sections with potholes everywhere and we want to be ready! We also found out that the car tires here use tubes just like our bicycles in the states. The reason for this is because of the poor rads. It seems that the potholes would be very hard on the seal of a tubeless tire, so the tubes work much better. To have the tire fixed cost about $15. That doesn’t sound bad, unless your are changing them all the time!

After an hour delay for lunch and tire repair, we were on the road again. We made it in to Kisii around 5:30pm. It was not a long trip in comparison with much of the traveling we do in the states, but it sure feels long because of the roads and the slow travel. It sure felt good to get out of the car!

After signing in to the hotel and getting settled in we took a little walk around to find a place to do some e-mail checking. After a late supper and some cards in the dining room, we retired for the night. I usually take this time to work on upcoming meetings, and presentations as well as writing reports on our visit.

Tomorrow will be our visit to the orphan school. We are all looking forward to it.

In Christ,

Nathanael