Runnin from Lions’s Weblog

So I woke at 7:30 and we all piled into the car and went to the Hub to try their tacos. They were pretty good. We went to the airport where I sat for an hour waiting for my flight. The first flight was fairly easy, I slept for maybe half an hour or so before I just started reading my book. I arrived in NYC with fairly little fanfare. I went out to get my luggage rechecked through security as I was told. However, I apparently didn’t need to.  I had to go through security again, and annoyingly I had to be searched for bombs! Met up with the group in the airport and slowly tried to make friends. On the flight to Heathrow I ended up sitting next to Maya, and we talked a lot and watched in Bruges on the in-flight entertainment. After the flight (which I didn’t sleep on) I went this time to double check on my bags. About half the people on the flight left the secure area to get their bags.  We  were gonna recheck our bags and then half the people wanted to see London and the other half (including me) wanted to just sleep in the airport. However, they couldn’t recheck our bags until 3-4.  So yeah, I had to wait outside of security for like 6 hours. Luckily I met a lot more people. I had a burger and beer at a pub in the airport and tried to sleep. I got maybe an hour or so of a nap. When the London group came back (we had been watching their luggage) we checked into the flight and went through security. I ate a Starbucks sandwich for dinner and hoped the Nairobi flight would have food. It did, chicken curry with rice. It was good. I slept maybe an hour or two on the Nairobi flight and rewatched Indiana Jones IV. It’s not great.

This is a beehive filled with Killer Bees.  They use them like regular honey bees here.

We arrived in Kenya at like 6:20 and didn’t leave the airport until 9:30.  I got in a car with 8 other people and our awesome driver Charles and we drove to the site.

We stopped twice, once at a convenience store/restaurant and once at a curio shop.  I hate bargaining.  I bought a present but I felt it was overpriced.  I feel some guilt about that, but whatever, I’m only gonna be in Africa once.  Along the way we saw a bunch of animals including Giraffe and Zebras.  We finally arrived on site and it is gorgeous here. In the morning I can see Kilimanjaro perfectly.  I live in a banda with Manuel, Nick and Patrick.  First night I was asleep by 8:30 or so.

Woke up the next morning and we had orientation.  Basically here is a summary of it:
“Everything in Africa either has spines, poison, horrible disease or is so large it can kill you easily.”

They kept saying “that we don’t want to scare you” but everyone was wide eyed and freaked about this sort of thing.  For example, black mambas may come crawl into our bed at any moment in the day or night if we leave our netting untucked.  Also, scorpions are being found everywhere.  Not deadly, just painful.  We played some soccer and Frisbee and I started my running regimen.  1 lap is about .75 of a mile and I plan on running 1 lap for 3 weeks, and 2 for 3 etc until I get a good set amount (4 laps would be amazing?)  The altitude is really high so it makes running quite difficult.

Today we had our first Swahili lesson (Jambo means hello) and many words are similar to Arabic so I?m hoping I won’t struggle too much.

And that’s that so far, hopefully this will be put up soon for everyone.

To everyone back home I hope you are safe and healthy and I love ya’ll very much.

S, I love you.

Mom, Dad and Katherine just remember this is just like college except I can’t really call yet.

I’m trying to find a cell phone soon so wish me luck.

Adios,

Spenser