Sunday March 2nd (Day 2)

This morning we woke up with an amazing view of Tsavo West. Three buffalo's were enjoying a nice cool drink at the pool and a large herd of impala's and a few zebra's joint them soon.

After our third farewell party we continued our journey to Nairobi. A big part of the road was in a very bad shape and it took us 5 hours to drive the 250 km. We started with just the noises from the boxes but a squeaking sound came up halve way the bumpy road (it appeared to be the hinges of the hood of the engine).

In Nairobi we stayed at Helen (Julia's colleague), were Stanley and Niels did the first nightly check of the car: one of the rear shock absorbers is leaking and needs to be replaced tomorrow.

Saturday March 1st (Day 1)

After the doors were closed of the house in Mombasa and the last photos were taken at the beach, we headed of to the Gender Based Violence and Recovery clinic (with a delay of half hour) were we started our journey to Ven-Zelderheide (Netherlands). At the clinic a large group of ICRH friends were waiting for us to flag us off. After a visit to the clinic we officially started the 9K Km trip. We drove off in a 5-car-ICRH-convoy to Mariakani for our second farewell! A 4.5 hour drive to Tsavo West for our first stop. We "mislead" Julia to go camping near the NP entrance gate. Suddenly Julia said:"STOP THE CAR! Sander is here!" Indeed, the trird farewell party was to start at the Kamboyo Guest House in Tsavo. Nine friends consisting of Elodie, Dipesh, Maya, Sarah, Sander, Helene (read "LN"), Davey, uncle Bob and Sarah were there for us.

Friday February 29th

An unforgettable farewell party was organized by the ICRH colleagues. It started with a visit to the Baobab boys orphanage which needed to be cleaned. All 85 ICRH employees (and Niels)  worked with great motivation to clean the compound, cook lunch, wash the walls and floors, clean the bedrooms, and scrub the toilets. What a difference!

After a few hours of work, a donation was given to the management of the orphanage consisting of beans, meal, cooking oil and other supplies.

From the orphanage, the busload moved on to the Bamburi butterfly farm for lunch and speeches. More compliments than earned where given to Stanley for his 3,5 years of work at ICRH by Dr Marcel (incoming Country Director ICRH), Mama Ruth (Family Health International), Dr Waudo (Provincial AIDS and STI Coordinator), Dr Othigo (Chief Administrator CPGH), and Dr Mandaliya (Secretary to the ICRH Board). As SUPER-SURPRISE Dr Joseph Vyankandondera came from Kigali, Rwanda just to celebrate the day. It was unforgettable and I (Stanley) would like to thank all my Friends at ICRH for organizing this incredible day. I will miss you all!

 

Stanley.

Friday February 8th, 2008

Three weeks till departure. I just bought 2 spare tires and some of the last small bits for the car. Besides installation of our safebox in the car, I feel the car is ready for take off. The storage boxes (12 in total) are filling up with carparts (3), jerrycans (2), food (1), camping gear (2) and pampers (1). Amazing how quickly it fills up. Most of our paperwork such as visas, car papers and insurances seem to have progressed nicely. We are currently only waiting for the visa for Syria and Sudan. Each having 2 passports was a good decision and has helped us to obtain the necessary.

I have now started working on preparing a medical emergency kit. Quite scary if you go through all the things that might happen and that we need to prepare for. Do I need to bring a surgery set or just a stitching set? Do I need rabies vaccines? What about adrenaline injections? How much I.V. fluids do I take? Ringers Lactate or 0.9% NaCl? Eowyn seems still at ease and probably has no idea of our departure from the beach. I wonder how she will do during all those long hours in the car. I also wonder whether there are any drugs against “the terrible two”!

 

Stanley.