Mayfield Guest House

George showed us around the AIC Mayfield House which included an eating area, sitting room, and our room along with the communal toilet room and shower room. The kids were thrilled to see the bunk beds (sorry the picture is blurry)! Jet lag did get the best of us our first few days. We were told for every hour time change to expect a day of recovery. This proved to be true for us(8hrs=8 days!). Our first night in Nairobi, we were all wide awake (especially the kids) at 2am. We put a movie in for the kids and tried to sleep ourselves. Of course we all fell asleep great by 6am and slept past breakfast at 7am!

We felt very welcomed and enjoyed visiting with other missionaries during our meal times. The food was very familiar and the kids both ate good.

The short-term missionary coordinator led us threw a brief but very informative orientation. While the kids napped, I went with his wife to the local super-market to stock up on first week essentials and a few items we wouldn’t find in rural Litein. I was so thankful she guided me through the isles with her list because I was somewhat overwhelmed and not able to focus on what we needed. I was surprised to see many familiar items by different names. Thankfully, she made sure we had dish soap and toilet paper! Their milk comes in small bags, meat was very expensive, and crackers were hard to come by. Otherwise, I was surprised by dress in Nairobi. Kenyans are very formal with their attire but you can very easily notice the Western influence on dress codes.

After dinner, we went to bed early as the coordinators were picking us up at 6am to drive us to our final destination, Litein. The drive can take anywhere from 5-8hrs depending on the roads and traffic. We of course fell asleep right away but woke at both 12am and 2am. Again, we fell asleep great later in the morning but were shocked to be woken up at 5am by the local Muslim mosque’s morning call to prayer broadcasted out our windows.

We were excited to be on our final leg of the long journal to rural Kenya!