Flight complications = one more day in Kenya

I thought yesterday was my last full day in Kenya, but I was wrong. I arrived at the airport this afternoon to find out that my original flight from Ethiopia back home had been post-poned for a day, and I would be spending the night in Nairobi. The airport said they would provide me with accomodation since I hadn't been notified. To be honest, I was a little nervous I was going to end up in downtown Nairobi in a hotel that might be a bit sketchy. I've stayed in two hotels with other volunteers since arriving in Kenya that were nice, but I probably would not feel 100% comfortable staying in them by myself. I planned to go to the hotel, grab an early dinner while it was still light out, and then hide out in my room until tomorrow.

BUT, I was incredibly surprised and so blessed to discover that the airport has put me in an amazing five star hotel! I feel so spoiled. It is really incredible. First of all, it doesn't just have running water, but a very nice bathroom and my room looks right out over a game park. I will recieve all my meals here and I have a feeling that it will not be rice and beans tonight. It actually feels really wierd being here--I don't feel like I'm in Kenya right now. It would have been nice to get home on Thursday, but since that is no longer an option I could not imagine a nicer place to stay. (Apparently Joe Biden stayed here last year!)

Yesterday was my last day at the KCC school. It was a good day--I worked on a final poster and got to take a bunch of pictures with some of the kids. There is this one little boy, Calvin, who is adorable, but very quiet. At the end of the day I was walking back to the slum carrying a sack of donated shoes and he came up and grabbed my hand and walked all the way back with me. It was such a nice way to wrap things up there.

Sweet little Calvin

While we were walking a group of girls from another school down the road came up and asked me the standard, "how ah you?" We all walked back towards the slum together, and every now and again I would feel someone briefly stroke my hair and then dash away. I figured the girls were all curious how my hair felt, so I knelt down and told them they could touch it. They didn't skip a beat. All of them rushed around my head to feel my hair. It was pretty funny.

After school, Jono and I went to Smiles Cafe for a wonderful last meal of Githeri. We had talked about trying to walk to lake Naivasha from our house, and we decided we better do it since this was our last chance. You can see the lake from our house, but it is a bit of a walk and there is no pathway to get there. We wandered through some neighborhoods and lots of crops. We had to turn around a couple of times and refigure our route, but we finally made it to the lake and it was beautiful! It ended up being a 3 1/2 hour long hike round-trip, and it was quite an adventure. At one point Jono got stuck in sinking-mud, we both stepped on thorns, we wandered through some communities, we walked through a herd of sheep, and we crossed lots of fields of farmers. It was really fun and the scenery was gorgeous.

The past two nights we spent in the new house. It was a bit chaotic as lots of stuff is still in boxes, but the house is nice. The only major problem is that we had no electricity, which meant no running water. I think I am still a bit in disbelief that I am staying in this hotel now.