We woke early…no, wait, I never really slept! Argh. I woke up at 1:30 am and never went back to sleep. One warning, if you stay at the Millennium Hotel near the Dubai airport it is LOUD at night. Not from the planes, as you might expect, but from the people in the hotel that are coming and going at all hours. There was a happily screaming child apparently running all around about 3:30 this morning. Seriously, folks, like you can’t tell people are trying to sleep??
Anyway, so we got up early and went downstairs for the complimentary breakfast buffet. Like dinner the night before, it was yummy. Well, most of it. The Foul Madame (I kid you not, there’s some sort of dish called Foul Madame – I wanted to get a photo but our shuttle left early) was totally skanky. Tasted like toes. Post-marathon toes. It was, very literally, FOUL.
We scarfed down the other food and jumped into the shuttle bus to the airport where we waited for a couple of hours then hopped on our Nairobi-bound plane. This time I slept while Brad stayed up. And here’s an Emirates tip: if you fly with them (which I recommend) go online ahead of time to choose your dining options. There are maybe 10 out-of-the-ordinary options such as low-sodium, vegetarian, vegan, no pork, etc… I ordered low-sodium to try to head off any possibilities of a vertigo attack. The tip is that if you order something “different” you will get your food first. I was finished with my food by the time Brad got his.
So we looked out the window as we leave Dubai; the water was nice and greenish-blue. It really looked pretty. We were on the wrong side of the plane for the totally awesome view of Dubai with the Burj and the Palm and so on, but hopefully we’ll catch that on the way back. Kenya below us was relatively flat with some deep canyon like areas and a lot of brown field. It was way cool to think “I bet there are elephants and giraffes and all sorts of cool stuff down there that we can’t see.”
Nairobi airport tip – you’ll have to stand in line to get your Visa after filling out a bunch of forms. Don’t go to the first counters you see; there is another set of Visa counters allllll the way down the hall near the baggage area. And then tell the guy at customs that you’re on a medical mission. He won’t bother to check your stuff.
Nairobi is a very pretty city. There are a lot of hills and curves and big trees and parks. Oddly, it felt a bit like driving in Bermuda with its sharp turns to go up really steep hills, roundabouts, and left side of the road driving. We're staying in the Methodist House Guest Rooms for tonight and tomorrow night. After our tasty buffet dinner tonight we actually got to Skype the girls! It was great to see them. I think they've grown since Thursday.
Tomorrow we’re heading to the giraffe center and the orphaned elephants center. Yay! 
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