Touchdown

'The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it' according to Rudyard Kipling and the tag on the gift my mother gave me as I departed to Nairobi. When I arrived after the 9 hour flight to Kenya I was not struck by many smells, but by the fact that the plane had just landed in a car park. The taxi drive who greeted me at the airport went onto confirm that the airport was indeed previously a car park.

The first full day I spent in Nairobi was a slow paced one; unpacking my backpack and soaking up Vitamin D on the terrace and drinking cold Tusker beer. Below me, as I sat comfortably in Anna's apartment I saw approximately half a dozen white couples tenderly clutching little black babies in prom dresses or suits. This was adoption in action. Families would have to stay in Nairobi for 6 months as the adoption process took place, and they took it upon themselves to take up residence in some of the more upmarket regions or gated communities of the areas as this occurred. I got the pleasure to get to know Anna's family and boyfriend Roberto and accidentally embodied the Spanish Inquisition as I quizzed Roberto about his Italian family's chain of Casinos around Africa. After consuming my body weight in bread alongside dinner the jet lag which I shouldn't be suffering from, caught up with me and I took myself off to bed with a couple of mosquitoes to keep me company.