Hell's Gate, indeed.

I'm back in California!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to everyone who has been praying for my safe travels, especially while I was alone in Nairobi this last couple of days. I was staying at the Mayfield Guest House run by AIM, which was great. If anyone ever needs a place to stay in Nairobi I'll get you their contact info.

The funny story I have from my last day there involves me trying to get up to Hell's Gate national park via Nairobi public transport. I managed to get to the really sketchy side of town to catch a matatu, which is a mini-bus of sorts, out to Naivasha. The matatus are hilarious in that they try to get as many people on board as possible, and are contantly making stops to try to get more. So I get up to Naivasha, in the Rift Valley (where all the violence was last year!!! And I'm alone and white. :) ) and finally get another matatu to go down toward the park. I was within 10K of the park and all of the matatus start pulling over to the side of the road. I speak VERY little swahili but finally figured out that none of the matatus have working seatbelts, but that by Kenyan law everyone must be belted. There was a police stop up the road and no one wanted to get fined for the belt issue. By this time it was getting late and I didn't want to miss my flight back home so I hitched back to Naivasha and took another bus to Nairobi. An adventure with no fun in the middle.... I guess I'll have to go back.

After a LOT of flying and some sleep I am safely at home, in the land of drinkable tap water and beds without mosquito nets. Beautiful.

Out of Africa

Well, after 2 long days riding around in a Range Rover looking at animals in Tarangire National Park and in the Ngorongoro Conservation area, Brian and Megan and I bummed around Arusha for a day before Megan headed home. Brian and I did very little last night, though I did find out a little too late that the Guiness here is 7.5%. Brian has now left me as well and I am spending the night here in Arusha before heading back to Nairobi in the morning.

I have very little idea what I'm going to do by myself in and around Nairobi for a day and a half, but I'm sure I'll find a way to amuse myself.

I'm flying back to the US from Nairobi on Wednesday night, hopefully arriving back on Thursday if all flights go well. Then it's back to my exciting life at Thornton Hospital first thing Friday morning.

Thanks to all of you still reading my updates in here and I promise that we'll catch up when I'm back in California!!!

Jambo!

Well, the two ER docs and I have made it safely to Uhuru peak on Kilimanjaro (5895 meters!!!!) and back down safely. Megan and Brian both said that they are not going to listen to any ideas of mine anymore.

I found out that while I adapt quite well to altitude with some time and some acetazolamide, that I really, really, really do not like to be cold. On our summit day there was some worry on my part about frostbite on my toes (I prioritized the fingers due to my profession of choice and kept them warm at all costs) but when Megan and I got back to the tent and warmed up all 20 of our toes appeared to be viable. None have fallen off to date.

We are off to do a bit of safari action before I am left to my own devices for a couple of days, then I will be back in the US (and back at work... )

I will leave much more detailed, exciting tidbits about my Kili adventure (with pictures!) at a later date for those who are interested. Right now I need to go figure out which of my clothes are the least nasty.

Travelling in Style

I am safely in Arusha, Tanzania. Here is a brief list of the events of the last 2 days:

1) I survived the infamous Lagos airport-twice
2) Through some mixup during the long, painful adventure of booking my Kenya Airways flight from Lagos to Nairobi, I bought a first-class ticket. So I sat in the Lounge area until boarding, then had my very first first-class flight. I had a glass of champagne just because I could.
3) I avoided getting scammed by the crooks working the Kenya-Tanzanian border pretending to be "officials." The Irish girl next to me on the bus apparently lost $50 to them. That's my reward for never trusting anyone.
4) Due to nausea from travel and/or unavailable meals, I have survived for 2 days off of diet coke and british-style "digestive" crackers. Nasty.
5) I sat around the night before last watching BBC with a bunch of ex-pats who were much more concerned with the baseball playoffs than the Wall Street crash.
6) I finally got to read a newspaper and found out that Haile Gebrasallasie (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) just broke his own world record at the Berlin Marathon. Awesome.
7) I had to have a friend tell me via email that Lance is coming back. That's how out of touch I am.

I will write once I get off the mountain!