24 hours after touchdown

I arrived in Tana yesterday around 11 am, and promptly headed – with ALL my baggage will wonders never cease -- to a pizzeria with Al (my boss/host) and Nick (who is running the field expeditions in Andavadok). The 39 hours in transit were as painless as they could be - including 8 hours on a bench in London Heathrow, where I slept for a while clutching my precious backpack. I wasn't the only one waiting the whole day for a plane, so some of us bonded as we occasionally awoke to loud announcements (and watched each others' luggage for trips to the loo). Another long flight, another layover in Nairobi, and I was on my final plane (hurrah!). I loved the layover in Nairobi – fours planes were all departing from the same gate, but you could tell who was on each plane: one for Oman, one for Sudan, one for somewhere else I’d never heard of, and ours.

I jumped right in to the NGO/development community here. Al and Chris (or Kris? his BBC-correspondent girlfriend) brought me along to all their social events. After a much needed shower and nap, we headed downtown to meet friends to see Home, a French film with wonderful aerial images of the earth and French-language narration explaining how we are f***ing it up. Needless to say, I fell fast asleep (nap #2). We then went out to dinner at a French restaurant. A couple of glasses of red wine and a full belly of soup later, and guess what? I was ready to go back to sleep.

Miraculously, I slept for 7 straight hours before the sounds of the street in front of my room roused me. After a cuppa tea, Al, Chris and I drove in their Toyota 4x4 to another part of Tana to meet up with a large group of runners. The host, Eric, looks like all he ever does is run, and when I realized the truck’s engine was straining to reach his house as the top of a mountain, I knew my sorry self was in trouble. He explained “la route” which took us about 6 km across fields to “La Panoramique”. Never a good thing to hear when you haven’t run in months, you are suddenly at altitude after having sat still for 2 days: La Panoramique. I made it back to the house, but barely. Luckily, a very nice French embassy staff hung back with me (trying to convince me that running in small steps was better to keep your heart rate up than my walking – exactly the point, I replied: my heart is about to jump out of my body!). And the view we got was worth the struggle, as was the journey there, through villages and flood-irrigated fields. Upon return, there was an incredible spread of breakfast (and COFFEE!!!!), including croissants and pain au chocolat and, shockingly, tiramisu (who can eat that after a 10 k run?!?).

It is a holiday weekend (Independence Day) so the streets and stores have been relatively quiet. Tomorrow I plan on walking down the very long hill from Al and Chris’ house to wander the streets, stop in some markets to see what’s what, and get myself a cell phone. I borrowed a street map and now that I know what hill to climb to get back, I am excited to explore. In terms of safety, there is still of course a political crisis going on, but it is far from the minds of most locals here who are focused on their daily lives. I haven’t stopped at many street stands, yet, to see what is in season, but I’ve noticed piles of papayas, a very lovely sight. (Although the piles of meat sitting in the sun are less delightful.)

Tonight I am having dinner at a friend’s, someone I used to work with in Peru. I’m really looking forward to catching up with him and his family.

I am off to make myself some lunch; I’m trying to eat at appropriate times to thwart the worst of jetlag. Love to everyone! I can receive email for the next week, so feel free to email or comment here (I can read those too for now). Love, K