After a fun day of getting back together with the squad and a 6.5 hour flight from Istanbul, we landed in Nairobi, Kenya at 2:30 AM. I was exhausted and dehydrated, wanting to do anything but fill out my Visa paperwork or even be standing upright, but something in my spirit told me that my race was about to change. After piling our bags onto the top of a janky-looking bus and piling aboard, we were whisked away towards our temporary home at Milimani Backpackers hostel and immediately I had an uncontrollable urge to smile.
Up until this point in the race, I’ve felt mostly useless, depressed and frustrated (to be the most brutally honest). These feelings came about mostly because this entire race has not been anything like what I anticipated. Back in August, I thought I was coming to save the world and after five months, I can count the times I’ve FELT useful on one or two hands.
It began to rain pretty hard during the ride and the bus drove right past the entrance to the hostel, onto a mud-pit of a road. We drove over one pothole after another and another smile came to my face… the bus was about to get stuck in the mud, it was raining all over our packs that were safely atop the bus and it was now 4 in the morning.
We finally got backed up and pulled into the driveway of the hostel. The men on our squad unloaded the packs into a tiny lobby that quickly filled up, so a lot of our bags got laid in the rain (mine included). After picking up my muddy pack, I subsequently got my jeans mud-soaked from bottom to top. I was directed to sleep in a tent with 3 foam pads already inside. The rain had leaked in and my pad smelled like cat pee. I was so exhausted that I just laid down without changing my clothes. Before I fell asleep, I almost got frustrated at my uncomfortable situation. Then I remembered how I had just been praying for my time in Africa, praying that I would have to sleep in a tent, take bucket showers, not be able to do laundry, live without internet and electricity for at least a few weeks and especially praying to LOVE EVERY DAY HERE. Since I found myself lying on a cat-pee bed in a leaky tent with muddy clothes after only a few hours in the country, I could do nothing but smile – I was finally in AFRICA.
Some of the tents outside the backpackers hostel… notice the plastic covering… that’s because they leak!
