Arrived!

After two 7-hr flights, and a layover in Amsterdam, we’ve finally arrive in Nairobi. Everything went very smoothly – both flights were comfortable and without incident. Luggage arrived, taxi was waiting, hotel was a short drive from the airport. It’s hard to give much of a first reaction to Nairobi since we landed at night, but it reminded me a bit of Panama. The only odd thing was when we turned off the main road, it seemed like we were going onto a fairly small road. We passed a few official looking building, and I think I might have seen the word “prison” on one of them. We went through something called a “friendly checkpoint”, which was basically some large concrete blocks in the road that made you slow down and swerve around them. I wonder what an “unfriendly checkpoint” is. A few yards later, we turned into the hotel’s compound. There were no less than 6 guards standing behind the large metal gate. When we pulled up, one of them came over with a serious look on his face. He looked at us and with a huge smile said: “Welcome – a very warm welcome to you”. We (at least I) breathed a sigh of relief. We checked in, bought some water, and both went to our rooms to collapse. We have a 5am wakeup call so we can make the 7am flight to Kakuma.

During the flight, I continued to read What Is The What by Dave Eggers. It’s the slightly fictionalized version of the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Sudanese Lost Boys. It’s incredibly moving, but what’s most interesting is that the IRC plays an important role. Not only is he resettled by the IRC in Atlanta, but the person who finally tells him his parents are alive is a midwife employed by the IRC. Also, he spends 10 years in the Kakuma refugee camp, which is exactly where I’m headed tomorrow. I’m very glad to have read this book before this trip – while I can’t imagine being fully prepared for what I’m going to see, at least I now have some understanding of what at least one refugee went through. This really should be required reading for anyone working at the IRC, particularly anyone working in a support role (hear that IT staff?).

OK – off to bed now – very early wake-up call tomorrow. Didn't really have a chance to take many pictures, but I'll try to post a couple.