Sunday, July 18, 2010


Day 2

Nairobi, Kenya

Team leaves for orphanage tour. Babysitter is not here yet, so I stay. I think (“ Maybe I will read or rest”)

Or…..

Alice needs to go to the Doctor. He says he can see her NOW. Babysitter arrives. I will go with Alice. (“maybe I will read or work on pictures while I wait at doctor’s office.”)

Alice: “Kerry could you drive, I’m not feeling well.”

Kerry: “I guess; should I get my license?”

Alice: “No, it’ll be ok.

Call to Tom. “WHAT? Your driving where? Take your license.”

(“OMG, we are in Nairobi, so much for my plan to learn to drive in 3 months or so in the much slower paced town of Nakuru. It’s Friday of course. Busier day of traffic, even though all days of traffic in Nairobi is CRAZY. Well, here we go, no lessons, no country roads, just masses of people and cars and matatus to swerve between.”)

We arrive at hospital. Parking lot is similar to elementary car pool line on steroids. Cars are parked on each side of me in 1 lane of spots and cars are parked parallel behind the parked cars. One line of traffic is driving between this garbled mess.

Alice: “I’ll jump out here. Go up and around and left and you’ll see a parking lot. Give the man your ticket and he’ll give you another. You’ll see it around the corner.”

I see nothing now but a jumbled mess of cars. I pull forward, I find "up and around and left and parking lot", Parking Lot Closed! Awesome. What now? I will just circle. I don’t know where I am so I can’t get out of parking lot. 5 very slow circles. I’m calling Tom now, what am I supposed to do. He says Edwin is close. He will come to help. A man knocks on my window. I’m nervous about opening it, I’m holding up the circle of traffic. He asks me if I need help; if I would like his parking spot? I say yes, so he gets a van parked parallel to move up, he moves his car and lets me back into his spot. (Did I mention back in? It couldn’t be as easy as pulling into a spot in this jam of traffic. J)

The van pulls back in front of me and I wait hoping I didn’t just trap my self in perfectly to this spot to be robbed. But the man was just a gift from God, who gave me his spot. We joke about praying for parking spots close at Wal Mart. I always think that’s lame, but today I have no doubt God had that man give me his spot. I think, what now. I look down, Alice has left her phone in the car, she has no idea where I am parked and I have no idea where her doctor’s office is. Edwin arrives! He gets out and talks to the guy blocking me in. Their conversation is in Swahili-this day is great motivation for me to speed up my learning of Swahili. Edwin finds out that the man will be there to move when we come out of the doctor, so we set off to find Alice in the hospital. Edwin finds out from the reception where his office is and we head to the elevators. We get on first; we are going to 5th floor. Other people get on. Edwin nudges me to tell me we must get off. I’m confused but I do. I then ask why. He says. “Too much Weight! This was definitely the highlight of the day getting told to get off the elevator because I weighed too much! I’m loving it. Seriously, it’s getting hysterical. How funny is that. Can you imagine if that happened to us in America, we would be completely humiliated and freaking out about it, but trust me it was just too funny for words. Day 2 in Kenya, get off the elevator your too fat! J Love it!

I managed to drive us several other spots to pick up prescriptions. So driving lessons complete. Nakuru will be like the difference of New York City and West Texas farm roads now. One obstacle accomplished!

2 comments:

  1. Kerry, I've been waiting to read this post, classic Kerry tone...I could hear your voice in every word. I'm sorry you had to be put into that situation so soon, but now you've conquered one of your fears! God is good all the time, even in parking spots! That's the voice I heard in this post. I love you and am praying without ceasing for you all. Give the kids a hug for me.

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  2. Sounds like You are adjusting pretty well. Just wanted to tell you we missy guys. Addison asked about Sydney and Regan just yesterday. We received a letter from oit rental management company dating we have to move by the end of August. As we attempted to explain to Addie that we have to move she asked if we would see Sudney and Regan when we do. Know that you are loved, missed, and prayed for. Tell the fam hi from the Shers.

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