African Adventures

OK so I need to write something about Africa. 

The first words that come to my mouth are "Incredible" and "Out of this world" (literally). Being there felt like it was another world. So much so that it almost doesn't even seem real. It's been 6 days since I got back into the US and it already feels as if Africa was just a dream. You know when you have dreams that feel more real than real life? That's what it feels like. The difference with this dream though is that I know it was real because I still talk to people on Facebook that I met there. Or are they part of the dream too? 

I'll attempt to walk through my visit to Africa..

My first flight left Chicago and landed in London at 8am (London time) on the 4th of July. I booked my flight purposely this way so that I could spend the 4th of July in London for the irony. 

I only had about 13 hours in London. It was time to find some epic shit to do. Of course my first step in finding something sick to do was to start asking security and the people around me what I could do in 13 hours. My most common response was to take the Express Train from the airport to downtown Paddington Station. So that's what I did. Come to find out later, I took the most expensive route ($55 American) but it was the quickest. Only 15 minutes. For some reason that day 13 hours didn't feel like much time. Once at Paddington Station I started asking strangers for the nearest attraction. It turns out, the closest cool thing to see in London from Paddington Station is Buckingham Palace. By using worth of mouth directions from strangers, I made my way to Buckingham Palace. Luckily I brought my iPhone, which by the way was only good for music. Jamming some sick tunes, I hiked my way there. Here are a few things I saw on the way..

It was a long ass walk, at least a few miles. Anyway, I just so happened to walk up on the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. I almost even turned around and didn't go once my feet and back started hurting from the walk. Good thing I went because I got the whole thing on film?:

[INSERT 'CHANGING OF THE GUARDS' VIDEO]

After the changing of the guards and making my way back to the airport it was time for a beer! It was the 4th of July in London and I bet there were more people out at the bars for lunch than in America. It wasn't even a holiday there! 

At 9pm my flight was to leave for Africa. I killed some more time in London before heading back to the airport. Once back at the airport, I found myself a VERY comfortable place to kick up my feet and recharge myself and my electronics. My lucky feet had a nice fire to post up next to as I napped on the couch. (The fire isn't real)

Once I woke up from my nap I met some awesome Aussies on the couch across from me. They told me all about how they traveled all of Europe in 35 days. He also filled me in on some sweet tips for world travel. (I should post those somewhere on my blog too)

After saying farewell mate to those folks, I made my way to the plane. Itwas time for another 8 hour flight to Africa. This time I tried to sleep as much as I could. Which I did after meeting a cool guy from the UK who sells designer shoes in Nairobi. This was the plane I flew on. Not a bad way to travel Virgin Airlines style!

Landing in Nairobi there was no one there to get me! I was alone in a crazy airport. But luckily I wasn't afraid one bit. Some very nice man was helping me find my friends. He gave me a computer so I could log into Facebook and get Edwin's contact information. Edwin is Amy's (Ashley's older sister) boyfriend. Edwin was also our chauffeur for the week. OK I'm going into too much detail so I'll cut back a little. 

Edwin is the man by the way. I couldn't pick a better person to be taking us around for the week. It was better than having a driver because he was also Amy's boyfriend and an awesome person to have showing us around.

[INSERT GOPR2516.MP4 OF EDWIN'S CAR]

Day 1

I landed in Nairobi yesterday just before 8am Nairobi time. Ashley and Amy were supposed to pick me up at the airport but they were nowhere to be found. Some taxi driver showed me to a computer so I could get on Facebook to get Edwin's (Amy's boyfriend-who we're staying with) phone number. Finally they showed up to pick me up. Ashley with a large sign reading "J.T." in hand was excited to see me. I was relieved to see some familiar faces. I then proceeded to hop in Edwin's car (he's a chauffeur) His car has a GIANT video screen for the back seat and a smaller one on the rearview mirror. He's also super cool. (I'd be friends with him if he lived in the states.)

Our first stop was the KICC (Kenya International Conference Center) building. It's the 2nd tallest building in Nairobi. Edwin took us to the roof where there's a heli-pad. We took some awesome pictures up there. Here's a few.

After that we drove out towards Embul-bul (where we're staying) and stopped by Giraffe Manor to pet some tall-ass Giraffes! One even licked my face!

From Giraffe Manor we drove by the Vice President of Nairobi's house. It became very clear to me where all the money goes in this country. I took a video as we drove by (even though you're not supposed to film in that area.) Edwin held the camera to be discrete about it. I'll post that video later or put it in the video I make. 

Day 2

So far this has been an incredibly eye opening experience. My first day was full of touristy stuff but today we got some work done with the women that are working with the project. I got a lot of video and did some interviews with the women. Ashley, Amy, and I almost shed a tear when some of the women were telling their stories. It was crazy how smooth everything went when we filmed. Tall who is one of the young men who runs the sewing machine. He also helped translate for one of the women who told her story. Since we don't understand Swahili he sat in and translated it for the video. It was a bit moving to be honest. Really makes me realize what we have in the states. Some of these people have had and still have very rough lives. Rather than trying to convey this here in writing, I'll let the video tell the story.

After making beads for bracelets, sewing bags with the women, and filming all day we went outside to play soccer with a bunch of kids. It was a blast and I've never experienced anything like it. I even got to put on a jersey and join one of their games. A ten year old named Phillip schooled me in soccer. I have video of that as well. 

After that we had a little pow-wow with some of the kids in the football pitch. That means soccer field in English. Ashley just corrected me as I was typing this. There was a kid on the field who ran in the Olympic qualifiers. I played soccer against him. Ashley and Amy went for a run with him the other day but had to give up when he started going up hill. It was cool meeting him today, he invited us to run with him again tomorrow. Fortunately, we already have plans. I also got some really cool video with the kids in this picture and a bunch more. They were walking around with my camera too. It was crazy how amazed they were with it. I'll write more about all this later but Ashley needs my computer real quick. The picture below was taken from a video of our little pow-wow. I'll post more of those videos of those later as well.