Monday, Mar. 12

I had planned to try for my first run in Kenya on Monday morning. Kate suggested I might run up to the escarpment and then along the road that goes to the school because there’s not much traffic on that road. There’s not much traffic because it is a terrible road, lumpy, rutted and uneven with lots partially exposed buried as well as loose rocks. So I hit the road about 7 am - apparently the time the road is at its busiest with kids going to school and people going to work. That run convinced me I’ve got to find something else to do for aerobic exercise. I ran for 40 minutes (btw, it’s about 6500 ft altitude here and I felt every foot of it!). I fell once, once tripped and nearly fell, had my foot slip off the side of a large loose rock, sprained my ankle, sprained my wrist, and came back to Hekima Place with road rash on the palm of my hand. Kate said, “You have to watch your feet.” The trouble is, I WAS watching! Fortunately, the sprains and road rash weren’t too serious. But since I really don’t want to end up here in Kenya with a serious sprain, or, worse, a broken bone, I have decided to use the jumprope I brought along in lieu of running.

I spent the day working with Kate in the office.  Lorraine’s flight home left Nairobi at 10:30 pm, so Kate and I took her out to dinner at a restaurant in Karen associated with Karen Blixen’s historic ranch (Karen Blixen of “Out of Africa” fame). Dinner was very good and I enjoyed the first wine I’ve had since I’ve been in Kenya. We sat at an outside table in the garden and enjoyed being serenaded by the tree frogs. At about 7:30 Sam showed up to take Lorraine to the airport for her flight and Kate and I got in the car to return to Hekima Place. The traffic was really heavy - but I think that was a good thing. I’m not ready to take over driving on the left side of the road and don’t know where I’m going anyway. And Kate has bad night vision and suffers from seeing large halos around every headlight. So, good thing we had to go slow!