Saying Goodbye and Starting the Next Leg

I am in Nairobi right now. I arrived last night...No one there to pick me up... No phone number to call... No idea where to go... And in by far the most dangerous town in Africa. So the adventure began the moment I stepped off the plane. Although, I'm lucky enough to have an old friend living here for the summer. Her name is Rebecca, we have worked together at Wilderness Inquiry for the last couple years. She is working for the UN focusing on Southern Sudan. They are in the process of drafting a constitution and moving toward autonomy from the rest of the country. That was about all my tiny little brain could retain from our conversations. But basically, she's living the good life in a gated house with a pool. We met the kids that are building the classroom in Naro Moru (remember the trip that i just decided to skip?). They seem very nice and I have a tremendous amount of respect for what they are doing. I know I wasn't capable of that when I was their age. But, I wanted to do something more crazy.

I have decided to start making my way out to Uganda, then hopefully to Rwanda by bus, or train. It would be pointless to lay my whole plan out, because then I would look like a fool when things turn out completely different. To be honest, I have no idea what will happen over the next 3 weeks, so wish me luck. I'm sure there will be plenty of stories to tell afterwards.

I just bought a cheap bus ticket out to the middle of nowhere and I leave tomorrow morning. There is a rainforest slab called Kakamenga where you can do some pretty cool hikes and see all sorts of animals. It sounds interesting and it's definitely off the beaten path. It's on the way to Uganda too. Harry will be my traveling partner for now. I purposefully omitted his last name because I don't know it. We met volunteering and he goes to the University of Michigan. So I think that would put him somewhere between 19 and 22 years old. That is the extent our our knowledge of eachother. I think it makes for a better story that anyways. His plan is to stick around Nairobi for a couple more days, then meet me wherever I am. So I'm on my own for a while... But I'm actually not that scared. I feel pretty good about traveling.

That being said, however, my last few days in Moshi were really tough. All 75 kids from Kilimahewa came together to send me off. They made me cards, wrote speeches and sang songs. Then we made the announcement that we were able to send all the kids that were eligible back to main stream schooling (8 kids in total). I was not expecting to get so attached to these kids. I spent about an hour fighting back tears.

Then I had to do the exact same thing at the orphanage that been visiting in the afternoons. This goodbye was even more difficult because the kids don't understand what it means to be leaving forever. They kept saying "kesho" (tomorrow). It was terrible. I heard recently that you can never come all the way home from a long trip and now I know that it's true. There will always be part of me that remains in Moshi. But now, It's onto to the next mission. It looks to be interesting, so I'll be in touch...