March 18th 2005 also known as – Day 1

“You’re walking into a burning bush” Neha says… ‘great, we think ‘what have we got ourselves into now?’
So there we are, no expectation, and honestly a little scared. We had no idea what we were doing, but we knew we were going to do it, and do it great!

Good thing we had lots to keep us occupied on the 20 hour journey, like watching two Hindi movies, eating “muslim and lactose free” meals, spending $30 on 2 sandwiches and two waters at schiphol Airport. The fun begins on our way to Kenya from Amsterdam.
After almost boarding a flight to Houston, we find our proper gate, board, sit. Ahmed and I are split up, he’s stuck beside some weird old frat boy, and me? Well I have Mr. IT guy. Besides the severe abrasions on this face and hands, (looked like bad sun blisters) he was actually pretty good company, I ended up doing a full marketing call for AIESEC with him, and he is excited to get in touch with AIESEC in the UK, it was a blast. In front of us, little did I know - Was one of 7 AIESECers from Netherlands. Needless to say, we had a little AIESEC reunion party. Gotta love AIESEC for that, instant friends, from complete strangers.

So we land, Nairobi airport looks just like any other airport, not too big, the VISA line up was… well there was no line, more like a mob of confused tourists looking to gain entrance to a theme park. Sylvia was there to pick us up, oddly enough I totally missed her at IC 2004 in Germany. We then say our good bys to all our new AIESEC friends and walk through the gates to see about 200 Kenya’s each holding a different sign up for someone, (although there were no immediate flights after us, I guess they’re patient)
Ahh that smile, it was Dan and his crew for Community Support Group and Helping Hands Travel & Safari’s.

I do not know if anyone has experienced meeting a long lost relative, but the reception I got, it seemed like I was already family. Dan’s story is so great, I swear no one could understand unless you heard it from him. I know we all know people who say we know people who tell stories about how they walked 30KM each way to school, barefoot. But, when you hear it from the source, it changes something.
There we were, enjoying Tusker beer, and I was filling my face with Ogobi (sp) and meat stew, very delicious, and he starts tell me everything about his past like we had been friends for a life time, and I listened, and couldn’t help but think that wow. The measurement of a man is not his pride or not his power, but how much he has sacrificed for another. This world needs more Dan Ogola’s. I knew from that moment on that this experience was going to transform me forever; all I kept thinking was, bring it on.Tomorrow, we walk through Kibera.