David Nawrocki at Maseno, Kenya - Chapter 1

Day 1 Nairobi   This is the beginning of a three week journey to the Maseno Medical Mission in Maseno, Kenya, East Africa.  Arrival into Jomo Kenyatta airport in Nairobi was at approximately 9 PM on Sunday October 4th.  The flight from Boston to Nairobi ,Kenya is a 14 hour with a brief layover in London.  Boston to London is 6 hours.  London to Nairobi is 8+ hours.  The flight from London due south takes you past the coast of Sicily.  As you approach the continent of Africa, you fly parallel to Alexandria, Cairo and Luxor, Egypt and the Suez Canal  at an altitude of 33,000 feet at approximately 870 mph ground speed.  Continuing south the flight then takes you over the Sahara desert past Khartoum.  The Boeing 767 we were flying in dropped its altitude to around 12,000 feet.  You could look out through the cabin windows and see this vast white ocean of sand that reached into infinity in all directions.  Prior to passing over the desert we flew over mountain ranges in north Africa that looked like they were going to reach up and touch the plane at times.  The mountain peaks were gray, snow and ice covered reminding you that it was 50 degrees below zero outside the cockpit of the airliner we were flying in.    We landed in Nairobi at 9:00 PM Sunday October 4th.  The actual time in Nairobi, Kenya is GMT +2 hours or seven hours ahead of EST time in Boston.  On the London to Nairobi connection I met other physicians, public health workers and a film crew that were on their way to Mali for the building of a health clinic for women with HIV and a pediatric clinic.  I mentioned my concern for getting and avoiding the confiscation of the 60 lbs of medical supplies I had in my bags with local customs officials.  I asked for their advice since they had been to Nairobi several times before on medical mission work.  Brad, the medical director and lead physician for the group asked me to join their group as we made our way through the customs area.  They encouraged me to be firm, respectful but persistent if the customs officials attempted to impound the medical supplies.  I mentioned to my newly discovered Mali medical missionary contingency that there were many people at home praying that the medicine would make its way through customs inspection and eventually to where it was needed most.  The medicine made its way through customs uneventfully.  God and prayer have a way.  Proceeding through customs in numbers also helped.   My new found friends at the airport were traveling in a different direction so we went to say good bye.  One of them asked Brad, the medical director, why he continues to travel to Africa to work in a medical missionary capacity when he has a successful medical practice in Kansas City, Missouri.  He simply said,"it is in my heart.  I do not know why God put that feeling there, it just lives there so I keep coming back".  We all shook hands.  Brad gave me a big hug and wished me luck on my continued passage to Maseno the next day.   Kenya is still considered the Cradle of Mankind, the adopted home of seventy different groups of African migrants each with its own distinctive cultural identity.  In parts of Kenya, the searing wind still scours the waters of the Jade Sea of Lake Turkana, hippos wallow alongside crocodiles, and nomadic tribes people still live a life essentially unchanged from that of their ancestors fifty thousand years ago.  Kenya is a land of miraculously harmonious contrasts: tropical ice, teeming wilderness, vibrant culture, and gentle tolerance.  A place where despite the burdens of poverty, drought and famine, the phrase Hakuna matata  ("no problem") embodies the national attitude, and a smile is the most valuable currency.   I met my pre-arranged cab driver for the drive to the Anglican Guest House to spend my first night in Nairobi before making my connecting flight the following morning to Kisumu, and then Maseno.  The minute you walk into the night air in Kenya, the smell and crispness is unlike any place I have been before.  The sky was remarkably clear and so close it looked like you could reach up and touch the large moonlit cumulous clouds. We made our way along the main highway from the airport to downtown Nairobi.  In the shadows of the headlights of our cab on the side of the highway, I saw the unmistakable movement of giraffes and antelope (at 10:30 at night!).  John, my cab driver said that the animals come in off one of the  game preserves located near the airport looking for food since the short late summer rainy season does not provide enough in their local habitat.  I was speechless over the wildlife discovery while John referenced the sighting like I might describe seagulls along the beaches back home.