Out of Canada, Into Kenya - Danielle's Journal

The Tale of Four Lost Bags

Once upon a time, two weeks ago, two weary travellers made their way through London Heathrow airport. They waited in line for hours, trying to get on a flight to Paris. The airline, British Airways, had a broken conveyor belt. This caused much mayhem and frustration for everyone. The two travellers finally arrived in Paris that evening. When they waited for their bags at the airport, none showed up. The airline had lost all four of their bags!

In case you didn’t already figure it out, we were those two weary travellers. That was two weeks ago. Since then I have gone into the airport twice to speak to the British Airways people about them. To make a long story short, they sent two bags to Canada that they were supposed to send to Chicago, and they sent one bag to Chicago that they were suppposed to send to Vancouver. We have had to buy all new stuff in one of the most expensive countries we have ever visited. Hopefully we will get reimbursed.

By the way, on the flight where our bags went missing, only five people got their bags. That’s 5 out of an entire flight of people. So here is a warning to all you who will be travelling on British Airways THEY WILL LOSE YOUR BAGS!!!! Perhaps you will be one of the lucky five who got their bags in Paris, or perhaps their conveyor belt will be working, but for the record, we warned you! :-)

Our trip has been full of adventures, but none nearly as exciting as the adventure our bags have been on. Hopefully next time we’ll get to accompany them.

On a happier note we are SOOOOOOOOOO excited to go home!!! We have been away for a long time (76 days) and can’t wait to see family and be in familiar territory. (Not to mention having some of our stuff again!)

August 20, 2004 | Comments (3)

France

France is amazing. I love it way more than I thought I would. I love all the old buildings with shutters painted every color under the sun. The streets cobblestone. We have seen fields of grapes, sunflowers, wheat and hay. We’ve slept on a farm in the country and in a medieval era city center. We have also slept in a ski lodge in the middle of the French Alps. We have been having so much fun.

There are some strange adjustments we have had to make. It is totally wierd to me that Shawn can’t speak the language. There have been many times when nobody speaks english except us.

The other adjustment that has been interesting is the driving. We have often seen street signs that are only pictures and we have no idea what they mean. I’ve lost track of how many times we have gone the wrong way on a one way street.

Meals are interesting. We go to a boulangerie each morning for a pastry. Around one or two in the afternoon is when we stop for our lunch of baguette, cheese and fruit. We usually have our dinners at a cafe or at McDonalds. As terrible as that sounds, McD’s is the only fast food restaurant chain in the country side and we haven’t had it or anything like it in months.

One week from today we will be in the air, heading home. I love France and want to come back but I’m so excited about coming home.

August 14, 2004 | Comments (2)

How can I beat Shawn?

Our whole time in Kenya, Shawn and I have basically been racing to see who has more posts. Well I’ve come to the conclusion that I will never beat Shawn. I personally think that this is because he is always on the computer (or at least he’s on a lot more than I am)! All I can do is hope that some of my posts are more interesting ;) Well, today I have failed in all of these areas. Shawn’s last post was a perfect summary of our feelings both good and bad. He expressed what I am feeling much more eloquently than I ever could at this point.

And so now, I must go and back, because in typical Kelley fashion (at least the younger generation of Kelleys) we have procrastinated. We are leaving in 30 min and we only have a third of our stuff packed. Don’t worry Mom and Dad, we’ll make it to the airport in plenty of time :)

Thanks again to all who have been supporting us and encouraging us on this journey. Gotta run!

August 06, 2004 | Comments (1)

Food in Kenya

We’ve had a few questions about the food here in Kenya, so I thought I would show you a few pictures. The picture above is of nyama choma being prepared. This meat just happens to be a goat! We have had goat several times and neither of us are too fond of it, although we will eat it if that’s all there is. Kenyans believe that the meat closest to the bone is the sweetest, so often as you eat, you will get a mouthful of bone with your meat. For those of us who are used t cold, boneless, prepackaged meat, this comes as a shock. We have also had ostrich (which is one of our favorites, it is better than chicken!), crocodile, lamb (which was a first for me), beef and chicken. The crocodile was one of the worst things I’ve ever tasted in my life. It’s really rubbery and it tastes really fishy.

The second picture is a plate of chipati sitting outside in the shade. Chipati is kind of like pita bread or tortillas except very different. I don’t know how to describe them but they are really good. We have also had ugali, a dish eaten by the pound by many, made of flour and water. It is a pasty dish that doesn’t really taste like anything. One of my favorite things is fried spinach and cabbage, it’s sooooo good.

All in all, our favorite meal is mexican at Marcia and Dennis Felkner’s house. We have fresh salsa, homemade guacamole, homemade sour cream and chipatis for the tortilla.

Java House is a very western eating establishment. One that has the best icecream and coffee in Kenya! At least according to us. When we are at hotels and resorts we have buffets galore. These usually consist of different salads; carrot salad, onion and tomato salad, and cucumber salad. There is also potatoes, two or three kinds of meat, rice, soup, curried vegetables and cooked veggies. However, we have found desserts to be lacking. Most of them are very British and are not very sweet (no offense to those who love British desserts?).

When we get stateside, the first thing we want to eat is Chili’s, a great restaurant that has the best chicken soft tacos in the world. My mouth is watering as I type!

August 03, 2004 | Comments (0)

4 more days!!!

We hope there are only four more days. After talking to the travel agent this morning, our chances of getting on standby may not be that good. But we will try, and that’s all we can do.

This morning we came over to the head office of World Vision. After talking with people, I had no idea what I was going to do this week. However, I am now working in the Child Sponsor area. Everytime a sponsor sends their child a gift, letter, etc. someone over here has to open it and document what was sent and make sure that it is appropriate (no guns, rotten food, etc.). That is what I am working on this week. It’s cool to see how many sponsors send stuff to the kids, although I laugh at the impracticality of some of it.

It’s going to be a good week here. I’m excited about it. It will end our trip well!