Getting Set...

Two more nights in my own bed...and then life changes for three weeks, with the first night spent on a plane winging its way over the Atlantic to Amsterdam. Then, after a layover for breakfast and walking, back on a flight to Nairobi, Kenya, where we'll finally get to sleep about 11p.m. Kenya time (about 5 p.m. here) after spending nearly 40 hours mostly awake (I don't sleep on planes. At best, I fitfully doze.) By the time I fall into bed on Wednesday evening, I will sleep! And with nothing special on the agenda for Thursday, sleeping in a bit is a definite possibility. Hah! Fat chance! We'll be in Africa, in Kenya, so how could we waste the time sleeping any more than necessary?

The smells will be different. The sights will be different. The sounds will be different. And I plan to immerse myself in the total experience, being as fully present as possible to all that is taking place around me. Even as I close my eyes now I can "see" the people...the incongruous juxtaposition of traditional dress and modern business attire...women carrying computer cases alongside others bearing baskets of fruit on their heads...can hear the traffic...the lilting music of the speech patterns...smell the strange but uniquely memorable odors of diesel exhaust and burning trash and food cooking over charcoal fires.

I am homesick for a place that has never been my home...no explanation...it is just so. And I return with an eagerness of heart and spirit which is beyond my understanding. Karibu, Kenya, back into my life.