Flight to Kenya

Today we started our day with breakfast at the hostel; some people had pancakes where others had cereal. Then we made the walk to the train station, which took us to the airport. Once at the airport we collected the microscope and miscellaneous items from the locker, we then proceeded to walk to our terminal. While we waited to go through security people went to get something to eat and drink for the seven and a half hour plane ride. During the first three hours, people watched movies and slept. Later on we congregated at the back of the plane taking pictures of the scenery as well as talking. This quickly led to playing games like Tetris, golf, Pac-man to just a few. Five of the contingent members used the travel blankets for capes and ran the length of the plane and back; surely reminding people of the importance of super heroes in our society. Afterwards Kevin initiated a pillow fight group wide. By the end of the flight our flight attendant had joined in.

After several hours of flying we came to the coast of Africa. The Mediterranean turned into land and it was one of the most incredible sights so far. The water became clearer and we could see sand, one road and a few ports; the rest was all sand. The difference between the shade provided by the clouds and the sun was amazingly sharp, even from 35,000 feet. The Sahara slowly turned into farmland and dense jungle. The jungle was covered by clouds and was an immense field of green that extended beyond the horizon. After dark a few of us noticed a flash from the right hand side of the plane. There was a thunderstorm fairly far away but it was spectacular. The lightning lit up the clouds and was blurred by them as well. The storm created some turbulence, which everyone handled quite well. The landing was disconcerting since we turned as we landed but luckily everyone was fine and there was no damage.

When we got off the plane we made our way to the check out and then proceeded to claim our baggage. The airport was crowded and had a feeling of both security and organized chaos with the drivers and passengers searching for one another. Once through, we looked for the Kenyan scouts but did not see them. Due to miscommunication they thought we were arriving August 1st at 11:00 and not on the 31st at 20:00, therefore we had to arrange a ride to the International Scout Camp. With patience our group made it through without any major incidences. We packed our baggage in the four taxis’ we then made our way to the camp and got there at 23:30. The taxi ride was interesting to say the least! We split off from one another, as each driver thought they ‘knew’ the best way there so there was a lot of stopping to wait for others. We worked together to unpack everything and debriefed on our trip on what went wrong and what we could have done better. We then had something to eat and got ready for bed; the girls set a wake up time and finally went to sleep at 2:30 am. Meanwhile the boys stayed up talking about the very ‘interesting’ electrical system. It turns out that the electric system in the boy’s room has no grounding so any of our electronics charging from the computer acquired a charge. If you touched any of them you would be shocked pretty badly. Overall arriving in Kenya was pretty shocking!

By Daniel W. & Kayla P.