I’ve been saying to people how I’ll be able to stay in contact while in Kenya because the Internet connection at the centre where I’ll be staying is excellent. Well, so far, I’ve not been able to get a connection at all. Hopefully it will improve.
The trip out here was fine. At Heathrow, I bumped into Janet, a friend who works in Mali, and so had someone to talk to while waiting for the flight. I had an aisle seat fairly near the front which is always useful in African airports as the queue for visas and police check can take a long time. The Kenya airways 777 was fairly comfortable. They plied us with a nice chicken korma and the there was quite a good selection of flims, though I’m always divided as to whether I should try and stay awake and watch a film or try to sleep. In the end, I generally do both – often at once. I suppose I got an hour or so’s sleep. We landed at six-thirty Nairobi time (four-thirty in the UK) and were taken to the Bible Translation centre for the morning before coming up to the conference centre in the afternoon. The day was spent in ‘hi! how are you-ing’ and ‘what are you doing these days-ing’. It’s good to meet up with colleagues.
I had to start work in the afternoon, briefing people who will be leading small group discussions over the next few days.
The Brakenhurst centre is high in the hills above Nairobi and the mornings and evenings can be very chilly. The people who have come here from hot climates are felling decidedly cold, though it isn’t too bad for someone who has just come from England. The altitude is a problem though, there isn’t as much oxygen to be had as one might normally wish for. I went for a run this morning (who’s a good boy then?) and it hurt far more than it should have done.