24 Hours

There are 24 hours left until I leave for Kenya.  I will use these last 24 hours to pack, clean my apartment, eat spaghetti, go for a run, and finish reading Amy Poehler's book, Yes Please. To me, these last hours are actually the worst part of the whole trip. All of my planning and coordinating and purchasing and questioning is finished, and now all I can do is wait. In these last 24 hours I will get a lot of things done. But in many ways, I'll just be waiting for takeoff. And then, of course, I'll just be waiting to land.

There are about 42 hours left before I land in Kenya. Once I land, Nairobi will be my city for 10 weeks. I predict that these 10 exhilarating, terrifying, adventurous weeks will teach me more than I've learned in the past year. Though I've not been to Nairobi before, I have heard that the city is an amazing, vibrant place to live and work. I can't wait to meet all kinds of people, shop in local markets, and relax my life's pace back to Africa Time. I'm sure I will love getting to know another one of the world's great cities, and I am particularly excited to start contributing to Catholic Relief Services' great work through my internship.

In about 96 hours, I will officially join the CRS Nairobi team as the CIRCA Project Intern for the summer. In many ways, this is a dream come true for me. CIRCA works to reduce communities' vulnerability to conflict and extremism by improving inter-religious relationships. I really believe that this job is perfect for me. I love learning about other cultures, helping folks understand each other, and writing personal stories. And I get to do that all summer! I am so grateful to CRS for giving me this opportunity.

I will spend roughly 1,680 hours in Nairobi this summer, and though I am so excited for this adventure, I also recognize that 1,680 is a lot of hours to be away from the people I love. I hope to use this blog to stay connected with the people closest to me in addition to chronicling the work I'll do with CRS. 1,680 is definitely a lot of hours to be gone, but I've still got 24 more before I go, and I want to make the most of them. Time to get started!