Safe n Sound in Nairobi

Thus far my trip has simply been effortless. The 4 hour layover in Amsterdam went by in a flash...just enough time to pop by the world club to get online and do some walking through the terminal prior to my flight to Nairobi. The Nairobi flight was packed. I was thankful to have an aisle seat on the MD11. Especially thankful when my seatmates arrived and they had to smush in to the seats. There we were 3 pack sardines....it was set to be a very long long flight with hardly any legroom and tall people next to me trying to fold in half to fit into the seat. Thankfully, a seat opened up in front of me and I lept for it. Ahhh, an aisle seat with no one seated next too me. Quite deluxe indeed. I got some terrific sleep (when of course I should have been awake to adjust my body clock). It was good to be in Nairobi again. I think of Heidi's 2 trips in the past year and now Lisa joining in the crew next week. Surely my life is filled with people who have a love for this continent including Marc and his work in SL. I made my way to the world club where I was intending to spend the night (8pm until 8 am) prior to my flight to Rwanda. Unforturnately they said my world club card was not accectable as I was flying outbound on Kenya Air vs KLM. I assured them that if KLM had a flight to Rwanda, I would be on it. I stood my ground for about 45 mins with kindness, firmness and silent prayer. Eventually she allowed me to pass, for how long...I'm not sure. I immediately headed to the computer so I could begin my conversations with Sandy and Erika who were at their computers for our prescheduled chat. Signing onto .mac took about 30 mins. Opening an email 20-30 mins...so I gave up and told them I would blog for bit and try to sign on later. Ahhh, the art of slower than slow dial up. It's the perfect transition to a pace that will soon be slowing even more. Oh, I almost forgot about one important thing. I looked at the name on the KLM plane from Amsterdam to Nairobi, she was cristened Mother Theresa. It was kind of s silent affirmation for me. NOT that I would consider myself 1/100th of Mother Theresa, it was simply a reminder of her call to help the homeless and people in need. I turned around and saw a young woman from her order. We struck up a conversation and she was sheer joy. She joined the order 10 years ago at 18. She speaks 5 languages and has been most recently working in Poland. She was on her way home to see her family home for the 1st time in 10 years. Various members of her family had seen her thoughout the years but this was her 1st official vacation. She was delighted to say the least. When I was trying to get into the worldclub in Nairobi I met a young man who is doing a documentary of various things in Rwanda. He just shot a film of a bee farmer. A gentleman was trying to help them perfect their output. They put it on line and he raised quite a bit of money to help. What a wonderful world we live in. There are so many people doing so many wonderful things every day to help those in need. Perhaps it's with a neighbor, perhaps sponsoring a child somewhere or using their physical hands to make a difference. It's quite a world we live in. While I am a bit time warped, I am beginning to get a bit more excited to see the kids. I know they won't remember me but Chantal will have them worked up enough to make me believe that they do. Either way, I am so blessed to be on this journey.