Coast to Kisumu

Yesterday (Sunday) we transitioned from the Coast to Western Kenya….mmmm, quite the little transition!  We traveled via unair-conditioned car from Diani back through Mombasa, where we hopped out to the RX to load up on more antibiotics, just in case, and then out to the airport—a journey of about two hours.  Even though it was grossly hot, we were both thankful and THRILLED to feel healthy and energetic to continue our work here.  Poor Roger, we had two plane rides to go and then the fun of finding our place to stay for the night and his face was tomato red, his shirt was dripping and his jeans were stuck to his legs…and we hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet! Ah, the excitement of traveling….we held sweaty hands, smiled at each other and said, “Is this the best or what?”  So, after the Mombasa Airport and then Nairobi Airport, we boarded our plane to Kisumu…a region we’ve never been in before.   I looked out of the plane window and we were slightly above the clouds.  It was like a storybook heaven—the clouds were like giant pillows all around us for miles and miles and miles.  It was absolutely enchanting, like a Michelangelo painting…I just waited for all the little cherubs to suddenly begin appearing!  But then, as the pilot started speaking in Swahili, the plane started to descend and the whole plane started rattling and rumbling and swaying and swerving – it only lasted for a few minutes, but then we broke through the clouds and there it was:  Lake Victoria, the second largest fresh water lake in the world and the town of Kisumu.  It was easy to tell everyone aboard was relieved as the plane quieted down!   The landing was interesting, too, as it was a one-strip landing field, so we had to do a U-turn as we neared the end of it to go back to the “terminal”. I actually got to go into this “terminal” where I had a nice visit with a Police Officer who was helping me find out how…well, that’s a whole other story…way too long to go into…anyway, I looked on his desk and I couldn’t believe it, there was a quote on his desk…the very same one that I have on mine at home right now… …mmmm, maybe these are my people!