I AM IN KENYA, FOLKS

I woke up this morning almost oblivious to the fact that I am in another country...until I noticed the huge mosquito net canopy covering my bed. You're not home. My phone only operates on WiFi and luckily icipe has a solid internet connection for me to write this blog.Truthfully, I didn't get much sleep last night. Whether it be from just not being comfortable in my surroundings to not knowing what to expect, I only got about 5 hours of solid sleep. It didn't help that Joey and I were texting, since it was only late afternoon/early evening in Missouri, when it's the wee hours of the morning here. It was good to talk to him, so I'm okay with it.I woke up, met the other BR Intern Rico, and we decided to go eat breakfast at the guesthouse cafeteria area. We started walking around confused, but then went into a very nice lady's office and she was more than happy to help us and show us how to get our meal. Her name was Ruth I believe and she's been a friendly familiar face ever since our encounter this morning! They asked us what we wanted and so many things sounded good; however, we weren't sure what was considered "safe" to eat and hadn't cleared it with Lisa so we both stuck with the scolding hot tea and toast with jam. But the toast was so good! It filled me up until lunch and I was excited to have my first official Kenya meal.I've drank more tea in the last two days than I have in my entire lifetime, but I am not complaining! It is one of the things that we know is safe to consume, so I'm taking advantage of it!After breakfast, we decided to walk around icipe and explore before our official tour.My first impressions of icipe-Nairobi:

1. This place is huge. The campus is much larger than I had anticipated it being; however, it is not too big that you feel that you are lost all of the time. It's the perfect size and definite has a lot to offer. We went walking and there was always something new to see!
2. It is very nice. I'll post my living arrangements and the Guest Centre before we depart on Thursday, but it is much nicer than I expected. If I had to live here, in one of these houses, it wouldn't be that bad! There's a mosquito net that deals like a curtain that drapes over my bed and so far the food has been pretty good and safe!
3. Kenyans are very friendly! Many of the people we saw today said hello to us and that was comforting. It was nice that icipe and their staff/visitors acknowledged us and were welcoming.

We're getting ready to see what the plans are for today, so I'll keep you posted.