My arrival to Karungu.

I made it to Kenya! Traveling here, all 25 hours of it went fairly well. The whole process could have started off on the wrong foot when I was supposed to fly from Duluth to Minneapolis but found myself in a car rushing 160 miles south. I spent 2 ½ hours driving with Diane, who was in the same situation. We had a great ride and I made it to my gate just as people were boarding.

Father Julius picked me up in Nairobi and we spent the night at the St Camillus Seminary. The next morning we headed to Karungu, my house for the next year. I used the word “home” at first but was quickly corrected by locals that “home” means where I am from. Father Julius said we should get on the road by 8:30am but true Kenyan style we didn’t leave Nairobi until 11am. We really did have some errands to run before leaving though. So off we went on our 8ish hour journey.  I say 8ish because it is 8 hours if all goes well…

The drive started through the beautiful rift valley and a stop for my first Kenyan meal. We finally made it to the last lag of our trip- the dirt road. Father Julius warned me that it was bumpy but I wasn’t prepared. Not only was it REALLY BUMPY you were dodging motorcycles, vans, people, cows, donkeys and other various animals. Have the image in your mind? K, now think even BUMPIER. The thought went through my head that it was amazing that we didn’t have a flat tire up to this point. Well, wrong thought because shortly after the left front tire was out of commission. Father Julius and I were working on getting it changed but the jack would not go high enough to lift the car. Problem. Eventually we found some help… and some more help…and some more help. Finally we had the jack on a rock that was on a piece of wood that then lifted the car. An hour later off we went. So 9ish hours later we arrived in Karungu.  

So I made it to Karungu and my last thought until next time… It will take some getting used to driving on the left side of the road!