Greetings from Nairobi

The past ten days since leaving Vancouver has been a blur. The marathon trip to Nairobi via London was a bit gruelling and it was nice to overnight in London in order to rest-up for the second leg of the trip. As the sun rose during my flight to Nairobi and I got my first look at sub-suharan Africa and even a good view of Kilimanjaro. Wow, I'm really here!

We were picked-up at the airport by VSO representatives. There were six in our party: Frank, Tom and Heidi from Holland, Cindi from the U.S and Hilary from the U.K. I had gotten to know all but Hilary at the training at Birmingham so it was great to hook-up with them again. We were later joined for our one-week in-country training with 3 folks from the Philipines, and others from India, Uganda and the U.S. The training was quite good and the lessons in K-Swihili were a lot of fun.

I haven't seen all that much of Nairobi as our training has been held at the hotel we're staying at out in the suburbs. We did one afternoon trip into the city centre for a bit of a look around. Ironically, I have bought a cell phone which is funny since I managed to live without one at home. I'm looking forward to leaving for Kisumu tomorrow as I'll be able to see some of the countryside during our six-hour bus trip. It will also be nice to get settled into my new home and stop living out of a backpack.

The timing of my arrival at The Tropical Institute of Health & Development is perfect as on Monday I'll be able to attend a two-day senior leaders strategy session, involving the college's trustees and senior management team. Everything that I've heard about the college has been positive and I've been able to read some research material on health and development issues. I think I'm going to learn a lot.

The people I've met so far have been really nice. Its mostly been people who work for VSO Kenya or with the employers who will be taking on volunteers. However, what I've noticed about people in general is that they are happy to let you be and you don't attract a whole lot of attention which is nice. I'm told it might be a bit different once I get out of Nairobi. People certainly seem to be more expressive and love to laugh. This is my kind of crowd.