I had a great week in Nairobi with mom and dad, dining out, showing them around and going on adventures. It was so nice to finally show them what I'd been telling them about for so long, and wonderful for them to have a chance to talk with Lucy again, and meet George and a couple of other friends. I think they had a good time (I hope so, anyway!). There were a couple of "Nairobi incidents", but nothing too disastrous. However, yesterday I had a hairy encounter with Kenyan bureaucracy that I won't quickly forget.

Crossing over the border into Tanzania was a nightmare for me, due to an encounter with an overzealous border guard on the Kenyan side who refused to give me the exit stamp. I won't go into the details here because of the incredible sketchiness of the entire situation, but suffice to say that the shuttle left without me, and I was stuck in Namanga, the border town on the Kenyan side, for about six hours before managing to scrape my way through. I may not be going back to Kenya for a little bit longer than expected -- my plan at the moment is to stay in Tanzania until early November and hopefully work with some of IIN's partners here or maybe do some writing for the upcoming issue of the Nomadic News magazine, and then head down to Cape Town. I found out the day before we left that some of my fundraising efforts for the women's movements conference were finally successful, so at least I'll have the chance to go to South Africa and take part in the forum before returning to Nairobi.

In any case, last night I rejoined my parents in Tanzania at last. We begin in Arusha, the town where the UN Tribunal on the Rwandan genocide is located, and where most safari companies are based. I haven't seen too much of the town yet, but so far it seems quite laid back, and very green. Lovely big plants everywhere. I've also noted the pureness of the Swahili here compared to Kenyan Swahili, which is mostly Sheng, all mixed up with English and slang words. Here it's all just Swahili. There are also an astounding amount of dogs barking and howling away during the night. Tomorrow we depart for our tour of several national parks.

At last, my vacation has truly begun. After the crazy time I had getting here, I couldn't be more thrilled.