First Trip to Kenya

   After multiple failed attempts to get to Kenya, due to a variety of threats and issues, I finally flew to Kenya on 2 January.  The flight was at 0330 in the morning, so me and 2Lt Kate Underwood planned to leave the base at 0220.  My LCOL roommate and I were awakened by knocking at 0210.  I was the unfortunate victim of that Ipod alarm clock bug that happened on 1 January 2011.  I rushed out of my CLU and we got to the airport later than we wanted.  The interesting part of some African airways is that if they have all the passengers, they will take off early, VERY EARLY.  We were rushed onto the airplane and were taxiing for takeoff at 0315.  A quick flight down to Nairobi and we were re-routed out to the coast to land at Mombasa due to the fog in Nairobi.  We fueled up and took off again for Nairobi. 

   Our second attempt was successful and we were quickly through customs, grabbed our bags and our driver met us.  He drove us through the bustling metropolis of Nairobi to the north side of the city where the embassies and nice neighborhoods are.  The house is an absolutely beautiful Victorian style home with a high walled yard.  We have full time guards and a caretaker that lives on site.  There are 5 bedrooms with bathrooms for the transient military.  We settled in and then went out for dinner in downtown at an excellent Italian restaurant called Tratoria. 

Below are pictures of the room I have been assigned, the courtyard, and at the restaurant. 

This is my bedroom at the house.  It’s so much bigger than my CLU I don’t know what to do with myself.  I only use about ¼ of the bed because I am used to the small beds in the CLU.

This is the bathroom, which is so much nicer than the shared bathrooms at Camp Lemonnier.  I forgot what it was like taking a shower without shower shoes on.  

 

 

 

Here are some of the flowers from the courtyard.  The late afternoon sun made the flowers just glow.  I enjoyed having a hour just to practice some fundamental photography.

This is the balcony table at the restaurant; downtown Nairobi isn’t much different than any US city, aside from people driving on the left side of the road.