Habari!

This post is from January 18th: Habari from Kenya! I’m writing this post on January 18th, but I don’t know the next time I will be able to get internet access, so I will post this as soon as I can. I hope that you are all doing well.

I flew into Nairobi this morning, and an adviser for my program was at the airport waiting for me with a taxi. As soon as I walked outside, I immediately felt the heat and enjoyed the fact that everything is green! Parts of Nairobi National Park extend to the road near the airport, so one of my first images of Kenya was seeing a group of giraffes eating and walking in the park as we drove by! It was amazing!

I stopped over at a cyber café to send a quick e-mail to my family to let them know that I arrived in Nairobi safely. After that, the cab driver took me to where I am right now, the Wildlife Parks of Kenya, where my group is staying for the night. Upon my arrival, the host took me to my room, and I set my things up. After not sleeping well most of last week because of time differential and being uncomfortable on the plane ride last night, I took a nap as I have some down time until everyone else from my program shows up somewhere between 8-10 pm.

After my nap, I found the host and she got a student who is studying at the hostel we are staying at tonight to show me where to get some food. As we were walking, I had my first interesting Kenyan experiences. First off, the hostel I’m staying at is near Nairobi National Park. About 5 minutes from our hostel, we walked by a warthog lying in the grass. Trying not to look overly excited like a stupid tourist, I just walked by. Later, I asked the student I was walking with about the commonality of animals in the area, and learned that animals may be around in this part of Nairobi as there is a lot of green space and we’re close to the park.