What a welcome to Kenya! After two eight hour plane rides which resulted in 24 hours of travel, we arrived in Nairobi on May 12th - only to greeted with a traffic jam that we were stuck in for 7 hours! Never in my life would I have imagined such a thing happening, but what an experience it turned out to be.

At first, it didn't seem that bad- just a long line of cars moving slowly, stopping and starting. Normal traffic jam business. And let me be clear, Kenya has a lot of "normal" traffic jams (according to our guide). Traffic jams caused by accidents, careless driving, etc. Reasons that you would expect in the United States. However, after sitting and hardly moving for over two hours it became clear that this was not a normal traffic jam.

I am not going to lie, the longer we sat there the more annoyed I got. We were supposed to be heading to our lodging arrangements, to settle in for the night. I had hardly slept in the past 24 hours; so collapsing in a bed was my number one priority. Instead, we were all stuck in another situation where it was difficult to sleep. Not to mention the fact that I generally despise traffic, no matter the context. At some point though, it became apparent that there was nothing we could do. Cars we packed into the road, bumper to bumper for miles. And really, there's no point in being annoyed when there's nothing you can do.

I think the group in my van made the best of it. Unable to sleep, we spent the time chatting. As a result I think we all got to know one another better, and also learned a lot more about our trip and its creation. We ventured to the sides of the highway to pee, dug through our bags for snacks, and observed all the people and cars trying to get out of the situation we found ourselves in.

Eventually we made it to our lodging at 5 am, thanks to our amazing guides. We found out the jam was caused by the downpour of rain earlier in the day, which washed away bridges and cars-, which then obstructed traffic. What a lesson in Kenyan infrastructure, as well as the delivery of emergency and support services. What are the concerns about having an undeveloped system? I saw many of those last night. What are some of those benefits or strengths? I saw those as well. In a way the whole thing just reinforced my idea that often the best experiences end up being unplanned.

Today, May 13th we got to sleep in a bit- thank goodness! We went to the supermarket and the ATM, and then to a giraffe sanctuary. I got to hug and pet a giraffe, and see warthogs. What a bonus!