My Experiences Studying and Researching Abroad: Day 1 in Kenya

We arrived in Nairobi around 6:00am (Tuesday morning, Mom's birthday!), before the sun had even risen. A bus took us from the plane to the International Arrivals area, where we got our visas. Because we'd all filled out the forms beforehand, while most people rushed to grab the forms right when they got to the airport, we barely had to wait in line to get our visas. Which made waiting for our luggage not so bad. Once we had everything, we went through customs ("What do you have in there?" "Clothes. And food. Wait--I just mean like Clif bars." "OK, you can go through.") Our drivers were waiting right outside the airport, and we split into two vans for the ride.

Less than ten minutes outside of the airport, we were detoured from the main road because of an accident, and we had to drive over basically just hilly fields with lots of other cars and trucks and people on them. And puppies! That took a while to get back on the main road, and shortly after we did I fell asleep. Until we drove through a herd of cows crossing the road and I was woken up by the honking and the mooing. Then we stopped at a curio shop for a bathroom break. It had been mostly dry/brown until then, but after for a little while it was pretty green. I was awake long enough to notice that, and then I passed out again, until we were closer to Mpala. The final road in was incredibly bumpy--you kind of just felt like you were vibrating.

We got here around 12:50pm (so a 5 hour drive), just in time for lunch. We first put our bags in our rooms. Aubree and I are both staying in a dorm with 7 beds, but only 4 of them are filled with us there. It's really pretty. The bathroom and shower are right next door. Once everything was settled, we went over to lunch. There was salad, veggie stew and chapati, with fruit for dessert. It was so nice to be eating a meal not an an airplane, although the food was actually pretty good on the flights. Chapati is kind of a mix between pita bread and naan. It's the Kenyan version of those. After lunch there was time for a shower (which works wonders toward making you feel more human, even when you're still exhausted) and then we had a meeting with the administrator and assistant administrator at Mpala about food, rooms, safety, etc.

Tyler, the grad student who I'm going to be working with while I'm here, offered to take Eric and me on a game drive at 5:30. Which was so cool. Apparently there weren't anywhere near as many animals as there usually are, but for Eric and me (who had been in the country for less than 12 hours), everything we saw was incredible. There were some giraffes, elephants, impalas, hartebeests, water buck, and a fish eagle. There's an air strip near the center, which is used by trustees to get to Mpala so they don't have to drive from Nairobi. Apparently it's always covered with animals, and there were none there when we were there, so Tyler said we had a very unique drive in that respect.

Then some free time until dinner, and I learned to play fish bowl afterward. My mom had baked cookies before I left for me to bring and share with everyone. Needless to say, I made a lot of friends.