At last... day one...

Friday

I woke up earlier than 7:15, this morning... not by much... but earlier. I grabbed a shower, some clothes, and sat down to read some through the book of Acts. The bible can be confusing sometimes (read MOST of the time...)

I then stepped out of my room to find it a nice, crisp 65F.... very nice. Off to meet with a fella named Alvin, about MFI's (Micro-Financing Institutions), MED's (Micro-Enterprise Developments), and breakfast... (which for me consisted of COMPLETLY recognizable fruits.... you know... to be safe)

After a sickiningly long meeting, we headed to the airport to pick up the prodigal luggage.

After heading back to the airport to pick up Dougie B's missing luggage from Customs, we stopped by two areas very close to each other, "Pipeline" and "Quarry", to meet Pastor George, who pastors "Glory of Christ Centre" in the Quarry area.

Both of these areas used to be slums, but have evidently moved up in the world. This was my first expiernce with REAL povirty. I couldn't get the pictures that I wanted to get, as our escort wasn't with us. It's safest when in the slums, or really anywhere else around, if I don't keep my equipment in front of everyones eyes.

I also had my first run-in with Maasai Warrior, from the Maasai tribe, a nomadic tribe (one of 7 nomadic tribes of the 42 tribes in the area.) the Maasai are one of the only tribes left that maintain their heritage and culture. Everywhere you go, you will see them in their traditional coverings. The Maasai feel that they should be compensated for any pictures or videos that are taken of them, their belongings, or their land. They don't take kindly to tourists with clicking cameras and no money to give them. I'd like to get a good picture of one of the Maasai, but I need to wait until our escort is with us... If a Maasai Warrior gets pissed at me, I think I'll be a little bit more comfortable with an AK-47 on my side!!

Anyway... it was just terrible there. If this ISN'T a slum, I'm not looking forward to shooting tomorrow!

Later, we picked up Edward.

Edward is on the "Help the Least of These" commitee, the 'bean counter' as my trip mate has called him about 30 times.

Edward is a smart guy. Accountant by trade, youth pastor by passion. He's married, with one small baby.

We drove around looking for a bank that was open (banks here close at 3pm) whilst Steve and I tried to find a place to park. You'd think that'd be easy...

Check this out... since we've been here, I have YET to see A stop sign, or A stop light. Because there are none. There is also no such thing as "Right of Way" it is EVERY MAN FOR THEMSLEVES on the road out here. I've got a few VERY shaky videos that I'll try to up load. Laura, you'd HATE riding in the car here! Come to think of it, your mom might hate it worse!!

So, anyway... after we found the bank and a parking spot, we headed off to Trattoria, Dougie B's favorite African Italian joint.

Trattoria Restaurante - Pizza, Sea Food, Piano Bar
Definitely some of the best food I ever ate!! The service was rather strange... this was the first meal that I've eaten since the plane. I had some pineapple and bananas... So, this was a MUCH needed meal! After the weird service, where I found out that you can't order Diet Coke... why? Becuase it doesn't exist here. They have: Coca-Cola Light. It's actually about a thousand times better than diet coke, and comes in a 300ml glass bottle, with a non-twist-off top. Good times.

After the dinner, which cost just over 3800 Ksh (roughly $55, which fed 4 VERY hungry men and still had enough to feed to or three more left over,) we got the check which was printed on a full 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of triplicate carbon paper. We (Doug and I) were trying to figure out the tip for this diner, when our dinner mates, Steve and Edward explained that you don't tip in Africa.

Say what!?!

They said that the only people that tip are Americans pretty much, and in some industries it's actually disrespectful... which explains the dirty look from the "bell-hop" at the Guesthouse when I handed him a $1 for taking my bags to my room. Go figure.

Had a piece of their (what they call) pizza. It was pretty good actually. Nothing like REAL pizza... but pretty good. However, I didn't see ANYTHING on the whole menue (which was all leather, by the way) that had anything to do with seafood, nor was there a piano there.

Can someone say "false advertising?"

It's about 2:30pm, your time. 9:30pm "my" time. I'm sure that you're all at work, working hard... or not. As for me, I'm getting ampped for the first day of shooting tomorrow at 9:00am.

Wish me luck!

I love you and miss you all...

S