Kenya, Africa

So again, I'm off for some adventures with South Suburban Parks and Rec's Carson Nature Center. This trip was a topic of a very short conversation, during happy hour drinks in Panama, 20 months ago, and it's now reality. 18 people are meeting up in Nairobi, Kenya on September 28th to take on an action packed 10-day tour of the country. I leave September 27th and travel through Atlanta, GA, Amsterdam, Netherlands, into Nairobi; roughly 25 hours. I cannot tell you how ready and excited I am to see this country and this continent (this will be #5 for me, leaving South Amer and Antartica). A series of HEP A and HEP B shots, tetanus booster, meningitis shot and now anti-malaria tablets are what was needed to get into this country, so I hope it was worth it. I'm also very excited to mention that we as a group thought it would be rewarding to share soccer balls with some of the children we meet along our rout. Well, thanks to a generous acquaintance of mine, who happens to work for Rush Soccer in Denver, we are taking 5 duffel bags full of deflated soccer balls AND uniforms to a group that has been waiting for this equipment for several months. It happens to be that when Rush Soccer ships these supplies to Kenya, customs feels it is ok to hold the items for ransom, they ask for hundreds, even thousands of dollars from these poor groups, just because they know how important it is to them. However, if a group of travelers transport these items in their luggage, we can get them through customs and give them to the kids ourselves! I love that this has worked out for all involved, it warms my heart to know that we are doing a good thing, not just selfishly traveling to a poor country to see what they have for the tourist. We are also taking some school supplies to a village in Southern Kenya. Keep your eye on this blog! Only half of the locations we are traveling to will have any type of internet for my iPad to connect to, but I will continue to write it each day and as I have a chance, I will catch up on the post. Thank you for always being involved in my travels! Love to all, Tess