Angie in Kenya Day 3

I hope you are all well. So the driving yesterday from Nairobi to Malindi was intense. We left around 9 in the morning, while still in Nairobi, James went to get a couple they brought when they came, to bring them back with him. We went on to the gas station and got some snacks for the trip. Kenya braved a last minute potty break before James arrived- I should have too. They were thinking that the place they prefer to stop at would be about halfway but later at the halfway place we found out it was further about 3/4 of the way there. Needless to say the Lord impressed me with his creation, the bladder. The driving motto apparently is "It's ok if I don't have enough room to pass, they will get out of my way." The big trucks and the van taxis would pass coming from the other direction straight at us (well at James in front of us) and you would know they were not going to have enough time to make it but they would just keep coming at you and just run you off the road. This happened many times. It was crazy. I think that in this country if the car in front of you dodges you better dodge too because the car coming at you is not always slowing down. It was very dangerous. Fortunately on the road we were on we had a shoulder to get off on everytime this happend. The worst time was once when I could see the truck coming but James wasn't getting over. There were pedestrians on the shoulder so he had to be very careful- slam on the brakes, dodge, avoid the pedestrians. Kenya honked at them- she said it was for therapy. I agree. They say that driving is the most dangerous thing they do here. Oh yeah, they have speed bumps, pretty big ones but they are not always marked. Of the maybe 40-50 speed bumps we went over I only saw one sign. Usually they just put a big rock on either side of the road to warn you. It was weird because we would go over the bumps and I would think to myself, "Is this a populated area?" The lack of "houses" kept surprising me. As we neared Mombasa I kept waiting to see the "suburbs" but they never came. We stopped briefly in Mombasa and saw Jen and Davis, former students of ours at the language school - that was so great to get to see them again. Davis asked me how I ended up in Kenya. I told him and he said that since I can come to Africa so easily that I should come see them in Congo. I said that I have been told a lot about Kenya and that I would have to begin to be educated on Congo before I think I would really really want to go there. After a short but sweet visit we parted. Already having been on the road more than 12 hours we just had 1 and 1/2 hours to go. When we got to their house they we were greeted by a nice layer of dirt all over every surface. We had to wipe down the counters and table before we could eat. they were having strong winds which surprised them because this is the first time they have been here during this time of year. It was cooling things off here getting ready for the rains. It has been nice, otherwise we would be roasting, especially today when the power went out for a few hours. This morning Kenya got up early and cleaned. Then when I got up we made breakfast. After breakfast we went to do some grocery shopping, pick up the mail, and have the tire patched. Oh yeah we also had a flat tire on the way home yesterday that James had to change. I just watched 8 kids play play-doh while Kenya had her Swahili lesson and now we need to go to church. ANGIE