The Farewell Tour

It’s Sunday night and I’m sitting outside my room in capris and a t shirt. I can only imagine how cold I will be next week. A week from right now I will on the plane waiting to take off. The flight leaves at 10:20 and every night I hear it fly over Nyumbani. I will tell the kids that, and they will know that’s me saying one last goodbye.
It’s been a great week, the start of the farewell tour. I went to the village on Thursday morning, we saw about a dozen giraffe in the wild! Nicholas, the director of the village and a great friend had arranged the official opening of the library. I shelved the last 2 boxes, it looks great, then the kids came in and sang and danced. They all thanked me and the kids from America. The good news is there was a photographer there who took a video and is putting it on my blog, should be up in the next day or 2. Enjoy! I won’t be able to see it until I get home. Later that day we distributed the clothes that Elvehejm School in Madison and Alpha Omega Epsilon had collected and sent. A big asante sana to Ashley who did all the work and got them here. We put them out and let the kids pick, they had never seen such an array and had great fun trying them all on. Later as I walked through the village they were already wearing them. It was hard to say goodbye the next morning, I love walking through there and hearing people call out my name. It is another place I get to call home.
Michael the photographer and Jen the journalist and I matatued back to Nairobi. That was quite an adventure. The Nyumbani driver took us to the road from the village, with numerous stops along the way. He then waited until the matatu came, and negotiated with the driver. After reaching a fair price and assurance that the matatu was indeed going all the way to Nairobi we went to get on. As we crossed the road they opened the tail gate and from a space no bigger than 6” wide out came a goat! At least it got out before we got in. We traveled to the town of Machakos picking up all sorts of people on the way, where we were informed that it was no longer going to Nairobi, we would have to take a bus the rest of the way. We were parked in a crowded open market area, lots of people, music playing, lots of vehicles. The driver led us to a bus and then proceeded to get into a fist fight with another bus driver who wanted us to go on his bus. After it was settled, and we chose the bus without the 70 live chickens tied to the top we were finally on our way. Only to realize that one of the passengers was a preacher who proceeded to preach in a very loud voice for the next hour. We finally made it to Nairobi 3 hours later only to sit in traffic. I pretty much crawled back into Nyumbani! To be greeted with a big hug and kiss from Sammy K. All the Kenyans here were very impressed that I had done it, they tell me that I am a true Kenyan now. All it takes is a long matatu ride and having at least one phone stolen!
More tomorrow, there is a lot more to say.Watch for the video.
Stay safe Officer Tim xoxoxo Little boy