A great first day on the ground

 Today was an early rising after what was for most of us a good night’s sleep after a long travel day.  We have found that a 13 hour-long direct flight is hands-down better than an 8 or ten hour flight with a 3-9 hour layover and another 6 to 8 hour second flight, any day. Although the flight is long and tiring, we get in at a reasonable hour vs. 1:00 am, get a good rest and are ready to hit the ground running the next day. 

Since we have a half day trip by van to get to Nakuru, we fill up the morning with a fun activity and use the afternoon for the drive. We were up for a 6:00 am breakfast at out hotel and were in Nairobi National Park for a game drive by 7:30. The animals are active in the early morning and we got to see plenty, including three of “The Big Five” - lions, white rhinos and Cape Buffalo. We also saw Eland, gazelles, lots of native birds, including Ostriches. We exited the park at 10:45 through the entrance into the Sheldrick Elephant Rescue. There are no elephants in the Nairobi National Park but these have been rescued as orphans from various areas in Kenya and are released back into the wild once they’re old enough to survive. 

After a stop for lunch, we left Nairobi and headed northwest for the normal 3 & 1/2 hour ride (85 miles!) to Nakuru. With so much road construction going on for the new expressway running between Nairobi and Uganda, the traffic backup was significant. It took us a little bit over 4 1/2 hours to get here. But we all arrived safely, which is no small accomplishment in itself!

We got settled into our accommodations at Tumaini Conference Center and Cottages, which will be our base for the next ten days. We had a late dinner and group devotions before unpacking all of our team supplies and getting organized for tomorrow’s start to our mission work. We’ll be conducting both a water filter training and distribution as well as a vision clinic. A lot of SWOK staff and education students will be pitching in to help augment our team and to act as translators. We are all looking forward to a good nights sleep and to get ministry work started!