journey home..

1-18
Today started out very relaxed... we didn't have to leave till 10 :) then we went to a giraffe petting zoo. When we got there they were all out of food so they let us go in the park for free, but they said don't be disappointed if they don't come over because they know there is no food. It was pretty cool to see the giraffes, one came over and got really close. We climbed up to stand on a platform to be eye to eye with them, they are massive animals. Allie found a little bit of food on the ground, and got to feed one out of her hand and so did a couple others. Very cool to see it walk right up to us. Since there wasn't any food and they wouldn't stick around long we quickly took off for an elephant park where we got to see 6 baby elephants playing with a ball in the mud. They are very playful animals, and somewhat onery. They were so funny and blew some mud out into the crowd, some of our people got free souvenirs :) we only got to see the end so we weren't there that long. After that we went to a Mediterranean restaurant for lunch in downtown nairobi... after lunch we went to do a little bit of last minute shopping, one of the places went went was a souvenir hot spot where the vendors are very aggressive, their prices are high and they will do anything to try and get you into their shop. They wanted to trade for everything we had...this one guy wanted my sunglasses so bad but wouldn't give me a good deal so we moved on, it got very intense in there, but the challenge to barter was really fun. We left there and headed to the airport... the traffic was unbelievable, we wouldn't move for 20 minutes then traffic would go about 100 feet and stop again. We finally made it to the airport, unloaded and when bro chuck and sis terry made it(due to some car problems) we said our goodbyes which were very rushed. I think that is exactly how they wanted it in order to save the tears. We got checked in and all ready to board the plane, we hadn't eaten in a while and I took one of my malaria pills, big mistake, once we got to the gate there was no way to get out. As we were boarding I knew it was not going to be good. My stomach started to hurt like I was getting sick, I was sweating so much... looked like I just played a whole basketball game. After taking some anti-nausea meds my stomach finally settled down. And we took off on our first 8 hour flight to Amsterdam. Me, allie, bro Russell, and bro Gary were sitting next to each other on the second to last row and they all fell asleep. We made it to Amsterdam and we were pretty hungry. Me, allie, kristan, and lindsey headed out to find something to eat and the golden arches were calling our name. It was about 6 something in the morning and we all chowed down on some mickeyD's :) then after looking around in the airport it was time for our second 8 hour flight to Minneapolis. We made it, it was -3 degrees when we arrived... then we had to go through customs and recheck our bags. All our bags made it and we went and got ready for our next flight to san fran. All checked in and ready to go we found out the flight was not full so we had some extra room to spread out a little. We made it into san fran at about 5pm and were so happy that all our luggage made it. We had our final group prayer :( said our goodbyes and headed out. We were so tired and dirty... we were looking forward to food and a nice hot shower. We finally made it to our house around 11ish. What a couple of days... so worth it to experience God in the way we did. All I can say is we serve an amazing God... a couple more blogs to come :) night all!!
c&a