Coming to Kijabe
The trip was no doubt long and tiring - but I'd say we are a pretty good looking bunch for having spent almost 2 days traveling. The team is safe in the Cure Guest House and we are all enjoying our first night of real rest in days.
Our plane was a double decker MONSTER from Dulles to Frankfurt :) First class was upstairs with beds - we were crammed into economy class with limited leg room - but we made it work. Most of us chose to sleep on this flight and stay awake on the flight from Frankfurt to Nairobi so that it would be easier to adjust to the time change.
We were well fed during our travels. We got two meals on each plane - dinner and breakfast from Dulles to Frankfurt and lunch and dinner from Frankfurt to Nairobi.
Once we arrived in Nairobi, we did not have any trouble getting through customs (despite Nathan forgetting his yellow card). Dan managed to talk his way out of having one of our bags searched. We exchanged our money and bought burner phones before loading into two vans that took us to our accommodations for the night.
Below is a video showing our drive out of Nairobi and into Kijabe. We landed around 9:30pm Saturday night and spent the night in a Methodist guest house before waking up and making the drive to Kijabe. The Methodist house was very nice, although it was my first time sleeping under a mosquito net.
Nathan mentioned how amazing it is that some things can be so brown and dry here and at the same time there are some of the greenest trees and grass we have ever seen. The drive into Kijabe was absolutely beautiful - the video of the Rift Valley does not do it justice. We were lucky that the sky was so clear and we were able to see for miles.
We have an amazing view of the Rift Valley from our Guest house which is only a 5 minute walk away from the Hospital.
Some of us walked up to the hospital later in the day once we were unpacked and settled to visit the ward and hand out get well soon cards that Cure sent down with us. It was so great to be able to sit down and talk with some of the children that we will be helping while we are here.
After visiting the hospital we sat outside - Emma in her hammock :) - and talked for a hour or two and then ate dinner. We had meat over pasta with vegetables and pineapple.
Tim shared a verse with us as well as some words of encouragement:
Isaiah 6:8 - Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
We also talked about how the Lord didn't command Isaiah to go, He asked "who will go?". How many people heard God's call but didn't follow it? We, like Isaiah, must be willing to follow God's call.
More updates to come tomorrow! Time for us all to get some rest. By the way, we all seem to be doing rather well with the time change (which is 7 hours later than in the U.S.)