road trip part II

17th of December, 2009

Kenya is an absolutely beautiful country. Sure, its kinda smoggy, and full of trash and sometimes has some weird smells going on, but most of it is just gorgeous. We had been trying to get a passport for one of our students so she can travel to the UK this winter for a fund raiser (which has since been canceled-boooo) and it proved to be a lot more work than we originally thought. On Tuesday I found out that in order to get her birth certificate and passport we had to travel to the village where she was born and get a letter from her area chief. No problem right? Ummm, sort of, since we actually needed SO much more than that. So on Thursday we set off to a small rural area in the country called Machakos. I wont bore you with specifics of getting everything together but suffice it to say we ended up having to leave her brother there and he wasn't able to return with everything to Nairobi until the following Tues. What they say, is true though. It isn't always about the destination. Its the journey that counts. And this one was fun. Because most of what I know about Kenya is the craziness of Nairobi, its easy to forget the pockets of paradise that lay around the city. As we drove we came upon hillsides covered in lush green vegetation, small farming communities, waterfalls, and clear clean blue skies. At one point we stopped somewhere to ask for directions and there were a bunch of grandmothers just hanging out on the side of the road. I was startled to suddenly find one standing right outside of my window smiling a huge toothless grin and waving vigorously. After I responded with a “mambo” and smile of my own she ran back to her friends giggling!! It was a long and tiring day but I am glad that I once again got an opportunity to see more of this amazing country that I am for the moment, calling home.