Clayton and I got back to Kenya on Wednesday March 18th and instead of flying on to the coast we stayed in Nairobi to look for a vehicle. We started our vehicle shopping the day after our arrival. We had to use taxis, motor bikes, matatus, and buses to get around but we managed. Clayton test drove several different types of vehicles, but settled on a Land Rover at one of the first lots we went to. The vehicle was good, but needed several small repairs that the dealer agreed to do. Ibraham was the salesman we worked with and he did a great job except on his estimation of time they needed to fix the vehicle. He said all the repairs could be done in two days...
We were able to come to an agreement on the Land Rover by Friday evening so we just had to wait and let the dealership work out all the bugs. We thought we would just be staying the weekend then back to the coast on Monday or Tuesday, but that is not how it turned out. I am getting ahead of myself. Saturday we decided to take a trip to the Rift Valley to climb Mt. Longonot since we were free and Clayton had never been there. We had a taxi pick us in the morning and we spent the day climb up Longonot, which is a dormant volcano, then walked around the entire circumference then back down. It was a 7.1 mile hike and we knocked it out in 3 hours 8 minutes. It was a lot of fun and was so beautiful. Pictures do not do the Rift Valley or Mt. Longonot justice, but I hope they help.
On Sunday we attended services at Silanga Landmark BC in the Kibera slums. The pastor Julius Ayugu is a very good friend. It was so good to see him, his wife and two of his four children. His daughters Jessica and Susie are in western attending secondary school be we were able to see his twins James and Kenya. Our history with Julius is rich and it was an honor to preach for him in services. He is doing good work in Silanga. It is obvious he loves his people and they love him. It was a good experience for Clayton to go down into the slums and see the inner city life of Nairobi.
Monday Clayton and I did office work in our room after Ibraham told us the vehicle would not be ready. We went in to the dealership on Tuesday and Wednesday and on Thursday. By Thursday our window of opportunity was shutting to get the vehicle. Kenya and the kids were scheduled to arrive in Mombasa on Friday night and I needed to be there to get them. We worked out a deal with the dealership that Clayton and I would fly to the coast on Friday and fly back on Monday to get the Land Rover in order to give them a couple more days to finish up the "two days" of work. : ) We had it all worked out and the dealership was going to compensate us for some of our tickets.
Just before we left I called Kenya to see if she was getting ready to board her plane. She informed me that she had misread the tickets and missed their flights, but that they could get a flight the next day and that Brother Jack Story was still working out the details. This gave us at least one more day to stay in Nairobi so we went back into the dealership after our passionate negotiations and gave them another day to work. They assured us...again... it would be ready.
Longs story short the dealership did come through and we got the Land Rover on Friday. We celebrated by going out to eat at the Carnivore in Nairobi. It used to be one of the the top 50 restaurants in the world. It is all you can eat meat including game meats. We had a great celebration and were satisfied that our trip was profitable.
Kenya and the kids ended up getting in on Saturday night in Nairobi. They could not get another flight to Mombasa so Clayton and I picked them up in Nairobi in his new Land Rover. We loaded all 14 pieces of our luggage on top of the Land Rover and headed out on Sunday morning at 4:30am for the coast. Clayton's Land Rover did great and we made it to the coast with no problems. We finally got in to Malindi Sunday evening.
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