Adventure is out there!!!

"Adventure is out there" and it found me only a few hours after boarding my flight to Kenya. I began this journey with flight delays, re-routes, and communication difficulties. I touched down in several countries including Switzerland, Turkey, and lastly Kenya. My flight from New Jersey to Switzerland was delayed causing me to miss my connecting flight to Nairobi. I was immediately re-booked on a later flight leaving me to spend four hours in the Swiss airport. It would not have been so bad had my technology made the proper connections to their operating systems. When it came to the conclusion that I could not bury my attentions on social media outlets, I tried making conversation with those around me. To my surprise no one around me seemed to speak English, so I settled for my music and thoughts.

I was originally scheduled to meet the rest of my team in Nairobi at 6pm, but I arrived at 2am to a tent constructed in place of the Nairobi international Airport terminal which had caught on fire about a month before my arrival. I had a few hours of sleep before attending preparation meetings for the work we would do at the clinic. While touring our host churches' facilities, we stumbled upon a group of students enjoying their study break.

We gained valuable insights about the community we would work with during our training session.  We were first informed about what's most important, "how to communicate with the natives". This was very important, considering I had just sat four hours in Switzerland with little communication exchange. English is well known by many; yet very generational.  Older adults spoke little to no English, but the youth did. However, the language of the land is Swahili along with 42 other languages specific to the various tribes/people.  It was sad to admit most of my exposure to Swahili came from watching the Disney animated movie Lion King.  "Asante San a squashed banana nananana".  Asante San  means Thank you very much or "Hakuana Matata" means no worries. I hated to admit that just now but it is what it is.  I did take the time to study and commit to memory proper greetings, numbers, time of day, exercise, and health related Swahili terms.