Saturday

Breakfast was good. Albert and David came to our room with us after breakfast sat us down, told us that when we get to Kitale everyone will ask us for money because we're white. They told us the protocol for how to deal with this, then proceeded to tell us they can't afford to run this conference they we're here for and would we mind paying for it.

While this seemed a little dodgy to me. I don't mind paying for stuff, or trying to be generous. I do mind if it creates a bad relationship and dependance between us. If they'd asked me to pay before I came though, I probably would have said "No". But seeing as if we didn't give any money we would have had no conference to go to, I figured it might be worth bank rolling the endevour. I'm working at being gracious and generous about it.

Once we'd sorted out the dosh, it was off to Nairobi city centre to find a taxi van to take us to Kitale. Nairobi is full of people, everyone is trying to sell you stuff it seems, they're quite enterprising these Kenyans. We found one booking place, but they were full. Pastor David and I headed off to find money changers, came back, then moved to a new booking place. And inadvertantly while picking up our luggage, we picked up someone else's bag too.

I thought it was kinda ironic that I spend the whole time walking around Nairobi careful that no-one would pick-pocket me, or steal my stuff, and then I ended up stealing some poor person's bag. It probably contained all their worldly possesions and I nicked. David and I took it back to the booking office so that who ever lost it could come back and claim it. I hope they got it. I was praying that we did.

We eventually found a taxi bus (I've forgotten what they're called "Toki Tokis" or something like that) to take us to Naruku, from there we were going to get a bus to Eldoret and from there we'd get a bus to Kitale. It turned out things were going to be a little slower than planned. But as I've experienced, everything goes slower than planned.

We squeezed ourselves onto this dogdy Toyota van, prepared to leave and got our bus boarded by a bus preacher, who gave us a mini-sermon and a prayer before we left. I didn't understand much, except that the Bible promised that we would have an accident, because if God is for us, who (or what) can be against us. I am pretty sure that is a contextually accurate use of that passage. The Romans were often catching taxi buses.

The trip was long and squashy. We saw Zebra by the side of the road and those flat trees they have in The Lion King. We could tell we we in Africa.

Road rules here seem to be, drive in the middle of the road, try not to hit anyone, and overtake on the wrong side of the road as much as possible, especially if there is a truck coming at you from the other direction. If you try not to fear for your life, it's a pretty exciting trip.

Our first stop in Nakuru gave us top quality African Coke. African Coke tastes like Australian Coke, unlike UAE Coke. So it was very special.

Between Nakuru and Eldoret (which is in the north-west of Nairobi) we were to drive across the Equator. I was pretty excited. I often dreamt about seeing the Equator when I was a kid. I never actually thought I'd go there. It seemed somewhat magical.

Unfortuately I fell asleep in the van and woke after I heard Howie say "That's cool". I opened my eyes and found out I had missed the Equator by 5 seconds. Sadness.

END OF PART ONE

Gosh I write a lot. Well, good on you for reading this far. Have to go to random village again now. So I'll finish later. There's not too far to go. At least on Saturday.

I'm off to buy water and Coke.