Getting Ready for takeoff

I am sitting in a Starbucks in SW London after doing some shopping to get ready for my trip to Kenya. I have all my flight details ready to go, have a reservation at the Anglican Guest House in Nairobi, am learning some basic swahili and reading two good books on Africa.

Last week I read a really great bridge book between the two parts of my sabbatical titled "Discovery Road" about two Brit guys who road across the three southern continents on their bicycles (Australia, Africa and South America) and a lady Brit who did the Australian leg with them. They were riding to raise money for development projects in Kenya near Lake Turkana, home of the sites where some of the earliest human remains were found. It is a great little read and I passed it along to Dave Brown when we did a pub crawl together here in London.

The main thing about the African leg of the journey was the tremendous friendliness of nearly all the people. There were some cranky border guards to be sure, but for the most part the local people were welcoming and astonished at what the stupid mzungu where doing. Nevertheless they greeted them with good humor and assisted them along the way. There must be magic in bicycle tours.

I decided today I need a few more "nice" clothes to be turly presentable there. So I am off to some discount stores to see what I can find. One more pair of slacks and maybe two shirts should do.

I will write more as I go along, Brit Air has hotspots in its terminals and I'll be in them a good bit on Friday!