We left the Calgary airport sunday around 3:30. It took just over 30 hours and now we find ourselves in a gated area in Nairobi Kenya. Wow is it different!! Part of our long trip included a 13 hour layover in Amsterdam. Rilla and I were able to leave the airport and take the 20 minute train ride into town. I was blown away by the number of bicycles everywhere! They are everywhere!! We really had to stay on our toes to not get hit by any cars, trains, bikes, mopeds or people which each have their own lanes but sometimes cross over into the others. Especially the cars and trains, I was sure glad to not be driving!
We spent some time walking to Dam square, saw the palace, walked over a few canals and saw the Anne Frank house. We did not go inside, but it was neat to be in a place with so much history. We also took a boat tour that went around some of the canals and gave some information about how they were built, and about the 2500 house boats that are located along the sides of these. We took a tour of the Heineken brewery, which was quite fun. We got to 'be the beer' which involved us standing on a platform that moved while watching a video of the brewing process. We explored the red light district and had chicken burgers at a small pub. Amsterdam was fun and really beautiful. It was neat to see some of the houses with the water right up alongside them. We were pretty tired though and ended up missing some of the information due to passing out on the boat (just to clarify, this was due to jet lag NOT the Heineken brewery!). Luckily we woke up in time to get back to Amsterdam Central station, and back to the airport with plenty of time to make our flight to Nairobi.
Nairobi has been pretty crazy so far and we have not been here long. We arrived this morning and were picked up from the airport by Chomley, who drove us to the Fadhilli Community office to drop off some donations, and then to the volunteer house where we are staying. It took us awhile to find him after walking out of the departure gate. There were so many people with signs and it took us awhile to find the one for us! We left and drove along the Nairobi National Park. Chomley said he saw two zebras! Rilla and I, try as we might, could not see them. I did spot a giraffe though which was AWESOME! The driving here was crazy!! It was rush hour and so we drove along with lots of other cars, trucks and vans. There were people sitting in the back of trucks. Nobody uses their signal lights, or really shoulder checks. When it got to busy on the road, no problem, we drove along the side of the road (The picture is of us heading back up from the ditch to join the traffic again). There are people everywhere! They run across the road even with cars driving at 80km an hour. We didn't slow down much for them to pass. Chomley said though that there are very few accidents there. It was not scary driving, just so different. And I would never want to be behind the wheel...which is on the wrong side of the car!
We arrived at the house where we are staying and had breakfast and then a good long nap. More volunteers are staying here as well so it should be fun to get to know them. The weather was pretty cold this morning but now it is hot! I am glad to be here and am looking forward to the next few days!!
