Welcome to the Jungle

Greetings from Eldoret!

Three flights, one crazy hotel stay, and several time zones later (FYI, we are 7 hours ahead of EST), we have arrived. The flights themselves were pretty unremarkable. We got through security and customs without any hiccups, and, obviously, our plane did not crash--I've never flown before, but I'm told this is a good thing.

So first, Nairobi: it is the capital city, and where we flew into from Amsterdam at about 9:10 or so last night. Between getting our visas, exchanging money, and getting through customs, we still didn't end up making it to our hotel until about midnight. Nairobi International Airport was much less modernistic than O'Hare or Amsterdam to say the least. The floors were cement, and if not for the advertisements and swahili greetings on walls I might have mistaken it for a parking garage. What it really reminded me of was the Metro in Washington D.C. Even the security was much more lax than I anticipated, despite the fact that we would occasionally walk by a military man with an assault rifle cradled in his arms. Our drive to the hotel was interesting. I, along with a couple of my colleagues, was slipping in and out of consciousness, exhausted both from our long flights as well as the prospect of having to be back at the airport in about 5 hours. There wasn't much to see during the drive anyway; it was midnight on a Tuesday night, not exactly hoppin'. The hotel we stayed at was unbelievable. I roomed with two of my classmates on the second floor, but our other two classmates struck gold. The hotel staff felt bad because they had to wait for their room to be prepared--they maybe waited ten minutes tops, by the way--and so they were upgraded to the presidential suite on the eighth floor. It was the most lavish room I've ever been in. It had a living room, a dining room, a walk-in closet, four flat screens throughout, and the bathroom was complete with standing shower, jacuzzi, and a sauna. What a shame we would only be there for about 4.5 hours and desperately needed sleep.

At approximately 7:30 am Kenya time we arrived in Eldoret. We received a ride to the IU House where we will be staying for the next two months. I'll briefly describe the two aspects of Eldoret that have stuck out to me most so far:

- Green: everything is growing, it is abundant with trees and bushes and flowers and the grass and all of it. There is also a lot of mud, which can be attributed to the fact that we are here during the rain season.
- Traffic: I couldn't possibly drive anywhere in Kenya, or I would be at risk for cardiovascular events. Bicyclists, motorcycles, pedestrians, matatus (taxi-vans that you do not want to take unless you have a fetish for getting robbed and/or risking your life), cars, runners--imagine all of these, and then imagine them imagining they are literally the only ones on the roads and that they can do whatever they want. That is Kenyan traffic, not to mention that they bought into Europe's ridiculous drive-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-road mantra.

Well I'm still exhausted from flying and barely sleeping, so I plan on turning in early tonight before we get a tour of AMPATH tomorrow and dip our toes into the pharmacy at the hospital. If you ever want clarifications on something or if there's a topic you're curious about, feel free to comment on these posts and I'll do what I can to bring it up in my next one. Kwaheri for now!

"To get lost is to learn the way." ~ African proverb