May 2nd In the morning we had the usual breakfast, some tea with milk and eggs before we started the day. Paul, Victor, Maria and I headed for the city center to make our way to Nairobi National Park. After arriving at the bus station we met up with Victor’s daughter Yunis and his girlfriend Gladys. Yunis and Maria get along very well and it was nice to see how the family got along, they made me feel so part of it as well which made it really nice. After getting snacks and drinks for the day we got on a matatu (a minibus transport) and headed for the park. The drive was nice, on the outskirts of the town from the look of it, and we passed by the stadium we had been at the ... read more

April 30th I woke up pretty early, despite not having an alarm, must have been my biological clock that woke me up thinking I had slept in too long. The plan was to get up at a decent time to get some photos of the town before I left, and also get some souvenir shopping done. Before that was possible I had to return a couple beer bottles to get my deposit back, that’s how it works out here, like in Latin America, when you buy a bottle of beer you have to pay a small deposit and when you return the bottle you get your money back. It’s not a bad scheme and it really helps out with trash and cost of recycling if you think about it. After that mini mission was accomplished I ... read more

April 28th Victor and I woke up at a decent hour, about 8am if I remember correctly. We promptly headed out for breakfast, chai tea with milk and a samosa for me, black coffee for Victor. It was during this breakfast that I realized that I had lost the first of a few items that I had brought with me. My Swahili-English dictionary, given to me by my friend Melanie had gone missing. I either left it on a stoop while waiting for Victor’s cousin the night before, or on the bus, but I deduced it was on the steps. I was after all on 6 hours of sleep and 20 hours of jet lag, plus 9 hours by bus. After breakfast we headed for the bus station area to get the next one to Lamu. ... read more

April 26th Never underestimate the power of jet lag! I barely got any sleep on the flight to Amsterdam, and that pattern didn’t change on my way to Kenya. So when I landed at 5:30am at the Nairobi airport I was practically sleep walking. On the flight over a met a Norwegian girl named Susanne that was traveling with her aunt and uncle to Ethiopia, with them was an 8 year old boy that they had adopted from Ethiopia 4 years ago. They were going back to adopt another child, from what I gathered it was a long process, and it’s not like they can pick the child out. It’s more based on the need of the child, I imagine. Bless their souls, someday I’d like to adopt as they have. Susanne was really nice and ... read more

April 22nd This morning Dad and I woke up at a decent hour to get some last minute shopping of mine done. I needed to get some batteries for the trip, as well as an external hard drive. Nothing too exciting, until lunch time. We went down the street from the apartment and ate what Dad called “Hospital Thai”. This is the nickname he gave the restaurant because it is right by the hospital, as well it is only open for lunch and lots of the Kaiser Permanente employees eat there. After a delicious lunch I made my way to Union Station to get the Metrolink to San Bernardino. That’s where Lerina picked me up before we made the drive “up the mountain” to Lake Arrowhead. That’s how awesome she is, she’ll come down the mountain ... read more