Sunday, August 31, 2008

Leaving Today!

Well, after many months of planning, the day has finally arrived. I applied to this program back in October. In late December, violence broke out all over Kenya after the disputed election. When the dust settled in late January, over 1,000 people had been killed. For many months, there were talks that my program would be canceled. As I write this, I am finishing my last minute packing and will leave for the airport in 30 minutes.

I will be leaving O'Hare today at 5:30pm. Thankfully it's a nice, clear day so hopefully there won't be any delays. I have a 7 hour flight to London and then a 3 hour layover. I should arrive in Nairobi mid-afternoon Chicago time. Kenya is 8 hours ahead so it should be evening there. When I arrive I'll be taking a bus 3 hours to Lake Nakuru National Park for our week-long orientation. I will try to write as soon as I can but I am anticipating that it will be at least a week.

Thank you to everyone for your support. I know that I am bringing with me all of your thoughts and prayers.

P.S. If there are any topics/subjects that you would like to know about (ex. food, culture, music, etc), please feel free to send me an e-mail or comment on one of the blog entries.

Peace,
Dan

2 comments:

That's Not My Name said...

Hello, this is Ana. I hope you made it ok! Like I mentioned before, I'm interested in the type of food you'll be eating and of course the culture and people-any interesting/unusual things that you've noticed so far. Good luck avoiding the mosquitoes!

Anonymous said...

Hope you had a safe trip to the "Dark Continent"! Best of luck and Godspeed on your mission. Watch out for the rhino droppings! :-)