Tuesday, October 13th, 2009: London bound

Left Calgary, cold and snowy, on Air Canada Flight 850.  Excited and nervous-but ready!  Nice flight over, had a row to myself which comes in handy when you know you will be up for 2 days.  I knew the crew too.

Denise and Hillie had lots of stories to tell me about Kenya, as we sipped business class wine in economy.  They warned me about how the people ask all the time to help them.  How the vendors on the beach in Mombassa are pushy, and how the power is likely to go out when we are visiting, and that the flashlights will come in handy.  I have no idea what to expect.  I have never been to Africa.  I have been to China, Japan, Australia, Europe, and Carribean and perhaps it is a mix of all them?  I do imagine it warm, and I hear there are droughts right now.  The farm area is supposedly colder and that is why I brought my fleece jacket and sweater.  What a mix of clothing I have packed.  Everything from shorts and tanktops, to jeans and sweater.  I know that in Embu and the farm area I need to wear more conservative clothing.  Higher Christian population.  So I have packed a lot of capris since I am not really a skirt girl.

My suitcase is also full of items/donations from many flight attendants.  From school supplies to soccer jerseys.  I have about 75 lbs between the 2 suitcases.  I plan to leave one of the suitcases behind at the orphanage (since I bought them both at a thrift store) and they can use it for storage.  Denise has even more suitcase and even heavier. 

I also know that I need to just go with the flow.  Basically I told the girls to point me in the right direction and I will do what ever they need done.  Flunky!!!  But I like that idea for my first time over.  I am really relying on them to lead the way.  I am a good painter...so atleast I know that won't be a problem.

I have no idea what to expect with the children either.  I have never dealt with an HIV person even before.  I have a feeling the girls may tug at my heartstrings the most, and maybe the younger ones.  I haven't seen many pictures of them, just a few from Ruth.  I have seen all their names and ages but out of the 21 on the list I have no idea which ones live at Toto Love and which ones are fostered out.

It was hard to leave my family too, I cried when they said goodbye.  2 weeks is the longest time I will have been away from the family. It will be even harder because I won't have as much contact with them.  Denise has a Kenyan phone, and I hope to get to an internet cafe at some point.

Decided to take a short nap, which was about 4 hrs long.  Before you knew it, we were landing in London.