Saturday, February 19th

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The gruelling 9hr bus ride turned out to be an 11hr bus ride...

The last of the Patch Adams group arrived on time. We were all to be ready and waiting for the bus at 8:30am but now dealing with typical African time, we ended up leaving at 9:30am.

Todd (Dad) started out with a great plan for the day, although, we all know how plans work out in regular life, try having a plan in Kenya. We drove by the Great Rift Valley instead of stopping for pictures as there was supposed to be a better viewpoint down the road, but turns out that was on the other route. So was the Italian-built chapel that had all the Italian clowns excited. There are always baboons to be seen along the road, but apparently they decided to take off. Some other things went a little amiss, but we did see two herds of zebras, so all was well.

Lunch was at Lake Elementaita, famous for flocks of pink flamingos, but we couldn’t find a single one today. But the food was good and the beer was cold. On to Kisumu, supposed to be 3.5-4 hours, but it turned out to be over 5. There was a lot of construction, which will make the drive great, next time. Full bladders and restless legs were relieved when we finally hit Kisumu. Then it was another 2 hours, mostly in the dark before we reached the Western Ambience Hotel in Bumala.

Luckily we had kept the hotel up to date, so supper was ready when we arrived. Morris (previously thought to be Myron – hey, Kenyans are too polite to correct you when you mess up their name so it’s not our fault it’s been Myron for 2 years) made a terrific meal and everyone enjoyed our first meal together. Although we hadn’t done anything but sit in a bus all day, it was an early night for all.

Whitney

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