Mikinduri Children of Hope

Written by Phil Handrahan, a member of the Mikinduri Children of Hope Tour Group, November 2006

Kenya believe it! We’ve finally arrived…safe and sound.

On behalf of the group I will attempt to provide a brief over view of our travels. So this is the morning report, I will give you the long and the short, bet you guys are glad you can’t hear me sing (Lion King…did you get it?) It’s Saturday and we are on the road to Naro Moru, however I will start at the beginning of our journey and try to bring you up to date.

As most of you recall, we had some interesting discussions at the Charlottetown Airport particularly with regard to luggage. Well safe to say the luggage issue continues to be part of our discussions. Approximately half of our luggage arrived in Nairobi, a combination of suitcases, and cardboard boxes. Some of us are still with any or our personal luggage and toiletries but all are willing to share. We are expecting the rest of our luggage to arrive tonite (Saturday). When we were looking to clear Customs, Ted had to sweet talk the Customs folks and after a brief episode of ripping and tearing the duct tape off some boxes we proceeded to leave the airport with all of the boxes and suitcases that arrived with us.

In regards to our travel, many of us were dog tired when we arrived in London at 8:30 am local time. We wandered around the airport, back and forth between terminal 3 and 4 trying to settle into a Lounge, but we were unsuccessful. Several people traveled into London on the “Tube” and got to see the sights of London. The Queen was not available for tea. Security at the airport was relatively uneventful, and Ted and Phil traveling in the wheelchairs were treated like royalty both by all airport personnel and their fellow travelers.

On the flight to Nairobi from London, most everyone slept on the plane, either British Airways is more comfortable than Air Canada or we were simply exhausted and could have slept standing up. 

After leaving the Nairobi Airport, our first stop was the Keserin Orphanage. Fortunately the suitcases that we planned for the Keserin Orphanage arrived with us so we were able to bring those to the children during our visit to the orphanage. What a wonderful program. Leah gave us a tour of their facilities, and we met many of the children. The children were very interested in meeting us and were very appreciative of the small toys and gifts that we brought to them. We had the opportunity to see the benefits of the Threads of Hope and are keen to have Mikinduri partner with this program as well.

After leaving the Orphanage we traveled to Lake Nivasha for a late afternoon lunch and then onto Lake Nakuru Lodge for dinner and bed. Along the way there were many small villages with roadside markets to sell their goods. We had brief stop at one place and quickly learned that we will have to hone our bargaining skills if we wish to purchase local goods.

Lake Nakura Lodge was a very nice facility and we all went on a safari tour at 6:30 am for a couple of hours. We were on the look out for Kenya’s Big 5…lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffalo. Well we were fortunate to see leopards, rhinos, and buffalo. The elephants do not exist at this park. Leopards are considered to be the most difficult to see as they sneak and slink thru their habitat whereas the lion cares less about where he is or who may see him. We also saw giraffes, hyena, water elk, pumba, impalas, gazelle, zebras, pink flamingos, eagles, …wow!  

Weather has been nice with some clouds and pleasant temperatures. Apparently it is still raining in Mikinduri. We have just left Lake Nakura and now travel the rough roads of Kenya to Naro Moro.

At this point we are well rested, well fed, and have enjoyed an incredible stay at lake Nakura. Knocking on wood…all are healthy, and hearty. We just received a call from our travel agent who advises that more luggage arrived but not all.

Until the next time, this is the morning report from Phil and all traveling the roads of Kenya to our friends in Mikinduri.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 19th, 2006 at 10:31 pm and is filed under Dispatches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.