Oh what a crazy ride this is!!!

Oh goodness, i dont even know where to begin...the last 48 hours have been insane. We made it to Nairobi at 6:30 am on the 31st. The flight was pretty good seeing that Alie and i were both pretty much unconcious before take off. (secret recipe: tylenol pm, benadryl, dramamine and melatonin). speaking of take off...we were delayed a little while on account of a crazy lady on the plane who was screaming and yelling and making a huge scene. they restrained her (literally tied her down, strapped her to the seat)...everyone was standing up staring at the situation with expressions of "please just get this lady off the plane so we can leave". after a good 20 minutes of her going crazy, the flight attendant finally just punched her in the face and knocked her out...the flight attendant got a standing ovation. ok, maybe that's not quite how it went...but they did take her, kicking and screaming off the plane. yay for that.

So we landed in Nairobi at 6am after 8 hours of flying. we then stood in the line to get our visas for almost 3 hours. that was fun. by then i had come to the realization that i had completely run out of my own strength and now must rely on God's strength to keep me going. It's been a little rough figuring out exactly how to do that and it's not really easy but at this point it's all i have. Got to baggage claim, fully expecting our bags not to be there and mentally preparing myself to live in these sweats and blue hoddie i had on. But praise the Lord, all 4 of our bags were there!! Next, we had our first experience with driving in Kenya...mr. toad's wild ride x 1,000. first, sitting in the front seat, on the left side of the car, where the driver sits in America...whoa!! soo bizarre!! i kept trying to grip and imaginary steering wheel and stomp on a nonexistant break. seriously...it was nuts!! we almost hit like 8 people and barely avoided at least a dozen accidents! people sprint accross the highway, in between cars going about 80 mph! it's like a human game of frogger! terrifying! Gosh, words just can paint an accurate picture of Nairobi road rage. We made it to the Mayfield guest house and immediately fell asleep for a good 3 hours. a much needed rest. Michelle (one of the nurses we will be working with in the village) picked us up and took us to Java House (an American food restaurant) for lunch. Thoroughly enjoyed my turkey sandwich, knowing my coming days would be filled with tons of ugali and cabbage. So, from lunch, we took another crazy ride back to the airport for out 4:30 flight...or so we thought. to make a long a very complicated story semi-short...our flight was cancelled, like months ago, and they moved everyone's names to a new flight, but our 2 names somehow didnt make it onto that new flight which of course was now full. sooo...trying to go with the flow and know that God was in control and we clearly were not, we just waited patiently...the next flight out to eldoret was not for 24 hours. so the final decision was that we were gunna go back to the mayfield inn for the night and go out on the flight the next day. The airline agreed to cover our cab ride back to the inn and our accomodations too. A man loaded our bags onto a cart and followed us to the cab...or so we thought. when we got to the car, he was nowhere to be seen, and therefore, neither were our bags. We ran back to the check in area and he was nowhere. The customer service people told us they don't know where he went and then proceeded to ask us if we had anything of value in our bags and if they were locked. Good question mam...actually no...1 of my bags is full of toilet paper and the other is full of tooth picks so no worries if this man just stoll them. Come on lady. I asked her if we were going to see our bags again, and she just looked at me and shook her head in "i dont know". That's when the reality set in that our bags may have just been stolen. Wow...God, what is going on?! Tears were welling up in my eyes. Turns out he was in the parking lot looking for our cab...so we found him after a few scary minutes and loaded our 4 bags into the car. As we got into this little car with some man who was a complete stranger, in a foreign country with no phone or any contact to anyone we knew...the fear of the situation started to set it. It was friday afternoon traffic in Nairobi so the drive took about 2 hours. All the cars were burping out this terrible thick black exhaust and i was breathing it all in, quickly becoming nauseated. As we wound through unknown streets, not knowing if this man was good or bad or if he could be trusted or where we would end up, etc, i just began to pray...i prayed for the entire 2 hours..."God, please get us there safely. Protect us from harm. Give me peace. Please keep me from bursting out into tears in fear....etc" I cant explain the feeling of relief as we turned the corner and saw the inn. it was like coming home. Bwana Asifiwe!! (Praise the Lord!) They only had 1 room left, with 1 little twin bed & a floor mattress but at this point, that sounded like 5star accomodations! We rested and kinda debriefed in our room, thanking God so much for his protection all throughout a crazy day. God really becomes so real when He is all you have to rely on. We had dinner at 7 with all the missionaries at the inn...was nice to sit and chat with other americans who were on a similar mission. After dinner, the exhaustion really set in. I was physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. I missed home and all my comforts that had been stripped away. I tried to hold it back but it all just came pouring out in tears. My first breakdown of this journey. The tears just kept coming and i couldnt stop them. Alie began to pray for us, as we sat in our tiny little room. After we prayed and i had gone through a whole pack of tissues (thanks for packing those for me mom!! you knew i would need them!) we talked for a whole hour about this journey...about God's purpose for us in it and i came to the realization that part of this journey is about God working in me and changing my heart and in order to do that, He must first break me down...through exhaustion and hunger and tears and fear...until i had nothing but Him. It is such an uncomfortable thing to know that God is breaking you down but the knowledge that He is doing it so that He can build me up and change my heart is awesome. I've never felt so surrendered to Him and so dependant on Him for everything. It's scary but also amazing.

With some help from the people at the inn, we got my Kenyan cell fone working (thanks a TON to the Bechlers for that great gift!!) and i was able to call home and talk to mom and Davis too. They were very short conversations, as i didnt know how many minutes i had or how long the service would last but it was so so wonderful to hear voices from home and encouragement. Speaking of that, i dont think I've mentioned yet how amazing it was to open all those letters from everyone at home that stacie had gathered to send with us. I can't thank all of you enough for that...it really meant so much to me. To know how much I'm loved and how covered in prayer i am was so comforting. Ok, tanget...anyway, we had a great night sleep and woke up rested today (saturday). We had breakfast with everyone again and even got to take showers!!! I don't think there's been a time in my life where I've appreciate a shower more than this morning. I hadn't had one since tuesday!! We are now fresh and clean and lookin fly in our skirts:) We will be heading off again to the airport and, hopefully this time without much trouble, will be flying to eldoret. The airline, FLY540 seems pretty sketchy so were a little nervous about this last flight but God has shown up in every situation and has brought us this far, so we have to trust that He will get us there safely!

Once we get to Kipkaren, i dont know when the next time that i will have internet access will be...hopefully soon. As you can see, i LOVE to blog. It's comforting and fun to reflect on this crazy ride and share it with you all at home. If you got this far, thank you so so much for reading it and for thinking about me and for praying for me. I've never needed it more than right now and i really do feel covered in prayer. Thanks also for all the love on facebook. It's great to hear from you at home. Until my next blog...sending my love home to America!!

Love, Somerlyn