BY APRIL BERESFORD

January 27, 2011

11:00pm - Nairobi time. We landed safely in Nairobi. No more plans for April for another 11 days! It is 3:00 pm Michigan time, a difference of eight hours. It's dark and quiet here at the Methodist hotel in Nairobi. I just showered and have on clean pajamas and that feels great. The hotel is very small, and our roon is about 18 feet by 20 feet: two single beds, a toilet and a sink/shower. We have mosquito nets but I haven't seen a mosquito yet. I can hear a dog barking in the distance. My head is still dizzy from traveling over 24 hours straight with sinusitis. My roommate, Jennifer, is a office manager for a pediatric surgery office in Grand Rapids. She's great! She has three daughters, so we have a lot in common. On the bus ride from the airport to the hotel we saw zebras crossing the road. Zebras! I was sitting on the wrong side of the busto get a good look, as it was dark, but there were enough people who saw them to confirm it. ZEBRAS! holy cow - I'm in Africa!!!

From what I could see on the dark bus ride, Nairobi reminds me a lof of rural southern Mexico, but with cars on the opposite side of the road. And people here drive crazy! I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. After some sleep. :o)

January 28, 2011

11:00 pm - What a day. I woke up feeling quite ill at 2:00am and couldn't get back to sleep. There were dogs barking all night next to the hotel in Nairobi. I knew it went on for quite a while when I was able to identify the four different dogs involved without every laying eyes on any of them. So I arose feeling congested, dizzy, delirious and dumb. After breakfast we went to explore a bit on foot as a group. Then onto the MCF bus to a local shopping center for an hour, then to lunch at a cafe'. After lunch we began our 3-hour bus ride to the Mully Children's Family (MCF) campus in Ndalani. I was feeling overheated (it's at least 90 degrees outside!), sick, and close to passing out at that point but stayed glued to the bus window, absorbing as much as I could of what I saw. In Nairobi we went by the Kenyan Presidential Palace, Nairobi University, and several different local neighborhoods. On the way out we passed the Kiberi slums. It looked like a scene from "Slumdog Millionare". It was hard to believe I was seeing the real thing; a first-hand witness to total devastation. We saw loose goats and cattle trying to find anything to eat, school children, street vendors, and different style homes. We saw homeless people, rich people, broken down cars and bling'ed out Land Rovers, and everything in between. Life here is so very different than my life in the US. It's wild to see it all in person. It's hard to put into words.

When we got to Ndalani we settled into our rooms in the guest house. We then sat down in the patio spot outside of our building and met some of the MCF family and staff. We haven't talked to Charles yet, but Esther and some of the MCF kids were with us. They informed us about the beginning of the Mully Children's Family, the kids, the rescues, and facilities and the rules. I am humbled. This is such an extraordinary place. Dinner was amazing, and totally vegetarian. Hooray! By sunset I was feeling a bit better, but still far from 'normal'. And tonight I'm using my mosquito net and leaving the windows wide open.