karibu!

Karibu! (welcome, in Swahili). I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya about 24 hours ago. Flights were uneventful, and I'm a new fan of British Airways. I was mysteriously promoted to 1st class for my London--> Nairobi flight. I was greeted with a choice of champagne or orange juice, had a lunch of lobster with mango salsa, roasted duck, a tasty sauvignon blanc or two, and tea time with scones, jam & cottled cream on the flight. The only thing better about economy class is that you had more control over what movies & music were available on your mini TV, a small price to pay for a fully reclining seat.
We (Dodie, the two boys & I) crammed all of our luggage into one small-ish sized sedan taxi before driving to the Muthaiga Club where we spent the night. We took a van to Nanyuki near Mt. Kenya which was about a 3 or 3.5 hr drive. It's beautiful up here. Not as hot as I expected, and it's actually chilly now that it's night time. The sun sets at 6:30pm. It's mostly farming land up, so we took the boys to see the cows, donkeys (one named Cheech, the other Chong- see below), chickens, turkeys, cats & dogs.
My first impressions of our drive up here reminded me a bit of Dominica last summer with the packed transport vans. All the billboards & signs were in English near Nairobi. Up here, they're more in Swahili although most have English listed. We had to slow down for a number of road blocks (the ones with spikes in them!) where the police can stop you to check your license & registration. They don't have cars to come chase you, though.
We cracked acacia seed pods (they taste a bit sweet)- they'll get boiled then planted. The juvenile trees have some serious thorns on them.
It's just about 9pm here (we're +7 from EST) and it's time for me to go to study my 1st Swahili lesson then go to bed. Tomorrow looks like more of the same with a run at this altitude scheduled in as well. We're about 1 hr away from where we'll run the 1/2 marathon at the end of the month. I did a 10.3mile run in Belfast this past week, but we'll see how the sea-level training holds up. The absence of paved roads (at least immediately around here) will be welcomed by the knee.