Day 1

Long journey to get here. When we landed, we discovered Sandra’s bag had made its own way somewhere, on an adventure of its own.  I really appreciated the sense, once we got on the Kenyan Airlines plane in Amsterdam, that we were moving into a space of Blackness, where we had become the minority. It’s something I’ve noticed on our travels, this movement into a space of stranger-ness – though we normally arrive with a level of backstage pass, by dint of bringing something with us rather than taking, not tourists, but not locals.

We got here early morning, around 7am, and Syowia and Ciaran were here to welcome us with breakfast and hugs. We caught up a little, and it was easy to slip straight into comradeship – I know you, we’re our people. We took a walk around the compound, being introduced to the different spaces, led by the friendly dog pack that resides here, them excitedly showing us around as much as the humans and us drinking in the familiar/unfamiliar that we’d only ever previously seen on a screen.

Presently Kibe joined us, and we sat on the deck, looking over the gorge at the over-abundant bird life and packs of colourful butterflies, chasing each other through the undergrowth. We told them of our recent good fortune, and we toasted together, with some far-too-expensive whisky we’d picked up on our journey, and we laughed, until, heavy-lidded we excused ourselves to rest, before later being awoken by the rain.