TIA (this is africa)

daniel has a saying: TIA

it means "this is kenya", and it's his way of saying life here is very unpredictable. he is soooo right.

michelle and i are here safe and sound, and our travels were super safe. i've never been overseas, so it was a great time to experience even the sucky parts of traveling, like waiting... and waiting... and waaaaaiting for flight, baggage, etc. good times for sure, and always fun meeting new friends.

on the ride from SFO to London, i sat by a girl named kate, and she was going home to london after visiting her man in san fran... he just moved. she and hit it off, and she became my first friend in london. she heard i was gonna travel around the city for a day when we landed, and wanted to show me around, but her parents already had her day scheduled since she missed Christmas, so she and i and michelle are going to have dinner together on our return layover in london. she was a doll, and so fun to talk to! i love all the different accents of people we heard and talked to during our travels.

i'm in an internet cafe in kitale right now, and it costs around 1 shilling per minute for internet. keep in mind that 78 shillings equal one american dollar, and you get around 78 minutes for one dollar. super cool!

to make the most of this email, i'll give you little TIA (this is africa) blurbs from my travels:

- zebras, baboons, goats, dogs, pigs, and cows are only a few of the animals you will see along the road here

- men do relatively NOTHING compared to women here. they sit on their butts and the women are like little flies buzzing around doing everything. its really interesting, and makes me want to throw rocks at the guys until they at least shift over a few inches on their well-worn patches of sand they keep indenting with their butts. ugh.
- there is a stand selling potatoes, fruit, bottles of recycled tea or soda, or something equally scary, about every 1/4 mile here
- i had lunch at a restaurant (or "hotel) and had my first african meal of somosas, chapati and bananas, which is pretty decent... i'm gonna have to get used to onions being the choice flavoring for food here. its not pleasant to my palate. blecht
- we went throught he rift valley

- crossed the equator (twice)
- thought the shuttle we were on for 3 hours was going to literally vibrate apart from its hinges, but miraculously it did not disintegrate under me (unlike my emotional stability while nearly dying 3,000 times in 3 hours)
- daniel thinks is "rocked to sleep" by his head pounding against the shuttle window, because his tolerance for kenyan travel is unreal
- tailgating is not a word here... it is the way you drive... along with cutting people, semis, and buses off just because you can
- everyone wears beanies, hats, scarf, or sweaters, just because the can
- 70 degrees is cold to africans
- a thin kenyan mattress feels like memory foam crafted by Jesus's very hands after 48 hours of traveling, and only 5 hours of random sleep

thats just a portion of the things i remember from our 9 hour trip on taxi, shuttle, and kangaroo (small minivan), to the TI compound. the compound is beautiful... lush and green, although i want to buy a slingshot and shoot the bird that are obnoxious in the morning.

michelle and i are not alone here. we have company in daniel, lauren, ina (who is in mombasa visiting with her family who came to see her, but should be back in the next couple days), and two families with little wee ones, along with mark and derek, two new TI staff members.

we all sat around and talked and sang this morning for a good hour or so, and it was soooo relaxing and familial. this is my second day, and it's been amazing.