“Off we go”

There was a light knock on the day. It was five am Friday morning and I was lying in bed, awake as usual. I had already been in the bathroom, gotten dressed and was now just waiting for our wakeup call.

“We’re up,” I hollered to the unseen knocker, who I actually knew was Nate, getting us up early so we could be to the bus on time.

“Come on, girls,” I urged my roommates. “It’s time to get moving.”

Within a half hour, we were all in the dining room eating breakfast. Usually the kitchen staff was up before us and made breakfast for us of French toast or pancakes or the like. This morning it was cereal, toast and fruit. Well, then we all pretty much skipped the cereal because the milk had gone bad. At first we didn’t know if the chunks in the milk were because it was frozen, but one of the men unsuspectingly drank it and kindly shared the correct information with us.

I brushed my teeth for what would be the last time in a bathroom sink and headed to the bus. Our suitcases had been packed the night before with the rest of the supplies, so most of us carried on only our backpacks.

We left HEART pretty much on time - 6:05. We had to pick up some more people across town and got to the designated parking lot as scheduled, just as the sun came up. That’s when we remembered that we were in Kenya and on Kenyan time, which meant the people we were meeting didn’t arrive for another half an hour. After we picked them up, we picked someone else up at the Compassion center and then had to stop at the pharmacy for something.

Finally we were on the way and heading for the massive Rift Valley.