picnics and pantries: international.

today I have managed to: sneak in an early morning workout in kitsilano, watch the canucks win while sitting in yvr, enjoy lunch in london and rode in a van with 20 africans into the town of kisumu, kenya. 

several flights and timezones later we arrived in the small, beautiful town that we'll be calling home for the next 7 weeks.

our seamless day of travel continued all the way to buying tickets on the last flight from nairboi to kisumu this morning.

too good to be true you might ask? yes. 

oops, our tiny little airline had given us not only the last spot on the plane, but had sold us a ticket without a seat.  

this girl + 3 bags + jetlag + 0 seat = no longer as cute as a button in her rumpled canucks t-shirt.

there are no problems, only solutions, right? jumper seat it is!

the next thing I knew, I was getting ready for take-off, in the cockpit of a tiny african airplane. after telling me not to touch any of the buttons or switches in front of me, the pilot took an incoming call on his blackberry, checked his mobile facebook one last time, and the next thing I knew we were cruising over kenya.  oh, and did I mention that at this point we are still trying to get in touch with the airport we'll be arriving at to see if they're still open?  it's okay though if they aren't, he assured me.. I can always come to his bbq tonight if we have to reroute back to nairobi.

all is well that ends well, and the charming pilot (just think, the bachelor: kenyan style), has me in one piece at my final destination.

and I am here to tell you that I haven't been here for 12 hours and I am already smitten.  my body is melting from the heat and my heart is melting from people.

the perfect combination.

if I don't want to leave I can always call my new friend with the phone number he gave me and take him up on his offer to marry into a kenyan family.  don't worry though, friends.. he's a pilot.  I'm sure he'll fly me home for visits on the weekends.