My high school friends and I have gotten together at least once a year for as long as I can remember. It only happens once or maybe twice because Jaclyn lives out of the country most of the time. Her husband works for the State Department and they moved every 2-4 years. For many years now we have talked about how we want to celebrate our 40th birthdays by going on a trip somewhere together. We thought beach somewhere like Fiji or Bali. But when Jaclyn found out she was going back to Kenya, she offered to have us come see her there. "You know, Africa has beaches..." It didn't take much convincing. All of us thought that sounded awesome!
It's pretty amazing that it all actually happened. I had researched tickets and was ready to purchase but I waited until all my friends had purchased too just so it didn't fall through. Sunny was the only one who refused to travel. She doesn't like to travel I guess, and she's scared of flying over water I think. Anyway, I met Amy on the way to Salt Lake, then we met Marci at her house in SLC and Joe drove us all to the airport. Karlee flew in from Denver and met us at the airport.
There was a lot of talk about airplane food, Karlee loves it, Jaclyn hates it. It was not great. Most of is anyway. The other countries' food was better than the American.
We had a layover in London for our flight there. We had to hang out there for quite awhile actually. We had fun shopping and I bought a little chocolate. But mostly just took pictures.
On the flight from London to Kenya, we had to wear masks... Ugh. But I wasn't going to pick any fights since I didn't have a vaccination card like everyone else. It wasn't that bad actually. I spent the whole flight trying to get some sleep. Both flights were almost 9 hours long.
We arrived in Kenya at 5am, but of course we were very jet lagged and my body had no idea what to think. But the sun was up and it was all very exciting so I just wanted a quick rinse off in the shower and I was ready to go!
This wasn't on our first day, but this was all in Nairobi so I'm just putting it all here. Jaclyn lives just a few hundred yards from the entrance to this really cool forest trail. I loved running it! We only did it twice but it was awesome. I was running while my friends were walking and I came into a dense area and realized there were monkeys EVERYWHERE. It was kind of creepy actually. They were not very spooked by me at all. It was cool though. I love seeing nature in different areas and ecosystems.
There were a bunch of times when I said, "nobody comes to Africa for the food." Most of it was just okay, some of it was not good. This restaurant was pretty good. The appetizers were a little weird but my salmon salad was yummy! Unfortunately, this was the last meal I ate before getting sick... Jaclyn at the same dish and didn't get sick. Amy ate the curry and she also got sick. My theory is the appetizers, and/or just weak immune systems in our stomach. It was crappy! But it's a risk you take when traveling to countries like this. I did get vaccinated for Yellow Fever, Typhoid and Tetanus before I left. I'm sure it wasn't Typhoid, but they did say even with the vaccine you have to be careful not to eat raw veggies or fruit unless you can peel it yourself. We were a little loose on that. Jaclyn says she's never had a visitor get sick before. A little diarrhea here or there maybe, but not fevering and such bad stomach/diarrhea like we had.
This little cafe was cute and the food was not too bad. The shopping was awesome though! This is where I got most of the gifts I bought for others. They are all made by refugee women and they write their name and country of origin on the tag. I loved everything.
The weather in Kenya was perfection. It was a comfortable temperature the entire time. I mean, it did rain on our safari but otherwise we were able to eat outside all the time and just enjoy the beauty. It is very green and full of life. Back home it was still over 90 every day so the 75 degrees felt amazing to us.
No comments:
Post a Comment