First day in Nairobi

Hi all,

So this is my first blog post from Africa. I landed in Nairobi after a very speedy non-eventful flight and was met at the airport by Alexander, one of the Vetaid logistics team. We drove through Nairobi, past herds of cattle and goats...on the verges of dual carriageways, and past lots of Kenyans working on the side of the roads. I got to the YMCA, which is right next to the main Nairobi university campus, and, absolutely shattered, went for a sleep before meeting Gabriel to chat about our plans. In the afternoon I met Gabriel, Dr. Kisipan - a lecturer at the university, who is coordinating all of my work at Nairobi University, and Dr. Saitoti, a vet who graduated from Nairobi a couple of years ago, and who will be accompanying me for the Kenyan part of the project. Everyone is extremely friendly and helpful, and we spent a good couple of hours chatting about our plans, and discussing some of the fundamental differences between UK and African ways of life, over an African beef stew. After our chat, Dr. Kisipan, Dr. Saitoti and I went into town to get a sim card and some cash - and encountered a few technical hitches. My bank card didn't work - apparently the overly helpful HSBC had blocked my card despite me forewarning them of my trip, and the android phone, which I was depending on for e-mail and phone contact is being more than a little difficult, so I may not be in quite as much contact as I'd hoped if we don't get it working! After trawling round what seemed like most of the banks in Nairobi trying to get cash out, we gave up and went for a cup of Chai - the Kenyan version of tea...basically a very sweet cup of hot milk, that you dunk a teabag and plenty of sugar in! Delicious! After meeting some of the first year students briefly, I ate a quick dinner of rice and vegetables, in the pitch black YMCA dining room, courtesy of the powercut, and then had an early night! I woke up to find hundreds of dead winged termites tha had come under the door in the night - in the heavy rainstorms, very strange! Today I have spent the day at the preclinical campus, and have met a number of lecturers and technicians, who I have interviewed, and had some very interesting off camera chats too! I also attended a histology lecture with the first year students - very strange being at lectures again, especially lectures on the structure of collagen! On the walk to the University with Saitoti, we came across two huge (about 4 ft high) birds - I think they were marabu storks - very impressive, and just wandering around in the city - I was amazed! We spotted some vervet monkeys over another cup of the much loved chai at the university- its amazing seeing wildlife like this on the universty campus! It has been raining hard for most of the afternoon - and everyone is very excited about it after the ten year drought....so I mustn't moan! I am off to do some more interviews now, before heading over to the clinical campus tomorrow. Hopefully will be able to post again soon.