Made It To Nairobi

In case you didn't hear, Kofi Annan requested that the rallies scheduled for today (Thursday) be called off and thankfully, the opposition party did just that. I am so thankful for that because it meant that my drive to Eldoret to catch my plane to Nairobi was very uneventful (minus what I'll mention below).

For those of you who know Jared, he made it safely to Nairobi as well and will be spending the day tomorrow in the Soweto Slum visiting a school that we are assisting in with a feeding program as well as sponsoring 4 children from there and beginning a new widows micro-business project with.

I am staying at my friend's Jonathan & Sharon's house here in Nairobi. They are amazing and so hospitable to let me stay with them. Tomorrow we're supposed to be going to visit an area that has some displaced people. When Jonathan mentioned that to me, I was immediately excited about the idea. Just to spend time with these people, to hear their stories, to pray for them, would be so amazing.

It was an emotional day for me. Leaving Kitale and then Eldoret; hugging Amanda and Daniel at the airport, knowing that this could be the last time that I ever see Amanda again. Knowing that I won't see my kids for 4 weeks; it was tough.

This was the first trip to Eldoret since the whole Kenya election/rioting began. It was devastating to see what I saw on the drive to town. There is this little town called Soy, which is close to Eldoret. The buildings, so many of them, burned to the ground. It was the remnants of a war zone; it was utterly heartbreaking. Tears welled up in my eyes, saddened by the so many lives that would forever be changed because of this.

Then we hit another little town en route to Eldoret, burned matatus and a car, so severly burned. We approached the gas station that my friend Tony works at; I knew he was working and I had told him that I would come to say goodbye to him before heading off to the airport. It would be the first time that I had seen him since the all this chaos had started in the country. As soon as I saw him, I felt relief, knowing that he was truly okay, seeing him in the flesh. I went to shake his hand but instead we just hugged, relieved friends seeing each other again. I was so thankful to see him.

We, as in Daniel, Amanda and I, spent a few hours in Eldoret before we headed to the airport. En route, we got stopped by a police officer, us wondering what we had done wrong. We pulled over and he asked if we were going to the airport, we said yes. So he asked for a ride. Of course we would. So here we were, driving to the airport with a policeman in the backseat with Amanda....with a really big gun in his hand. Amanda asked if she could have a picture with him, so I took their picture...so know that her blog will be better then mine because she will have a picture of her and the policeman and his big gun. But know that I took the picture for her. Right Amanda? :)

I fly out of Nairobi tomorrow evening at 11:20 pm, which is 3:20 pm EST. I will be arriving at Pearson in Toronto on Saturday at 2:50 pm EST. I will be heading straight to Windsor. For those of you in the Newmarket area, I will be there on the 30th. I'm so excited to see everyone and to especially meet my new nephew Ben whom I haven't gotten to meet yet. He is now 8.5 months old. There is so much going on: newspaper interview, tv interview, speaking engagements, etc. So pray for me; I can get a little nervous.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, especially for our travel time today. The prayers were answered and Jared and I are safe.

I look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Love you all!
Meredith
xoxoxoxo