My Visit With Maruge Day 1

"Flight 1455 to Nairobi, Kenya, is now boarding." I yelped with excitement, and rushed ahead of my parents so I could board the plane as fast as possible. I ran full speed up to the ticket-checker, bags in tow, and by the time I got there I was completely out of breath. I guess I needed to run more often. There was no time to think about that, though, my flight was leaving! From the second we stepped on the plane to the time we stepped off of it, I was bouncing around in my seat with excitement. We were finally going to meet Maruge! This was a once in a lifetime experience, and it was all I had been talking about for the past 3 weeks.



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 "Ladies and Gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts, as we are preparing for landing in Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. We hope you had a safe and enjoyable flight." I sighed with happiness. We were finally in Kenya. As you might have guessed, the 10-hour flight was absolute torture for me, but I managed to get through it without dying from anticipation. However, we still had a small connection flight to actually get to the village of Eldoret. My heart sunk when I realized that my family would only get to spend a few hours with Maruge on our first day, because with the time changes of travel we would be getting into his village after dinner. That was okay though, because we still had a whole week to spend with him. We would even get to sit in on a few of his classes at his school, although he would be taking most of the week off for us



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When we arrived in Eldoret, we were greeted by a mob of running, screaming kids who must have heard of our arrival from Maruge's friends and Maruge himself. These kids had most likely only seen white people a few times, and the all wanted to touch our fancy clothes which we wore on the flight there. It broke my heart to see how little clothing they were wearing. However, there were a few kids who wearing uniforms. "Those must be the kids who go to school with Maruge," I thought.

I then saw a tall figure slowly approaching the herd of kids. Maruge! I ran towards him at full speed, my body feeling as light as a feather, and jumped into him, giving him a crushing bear hug that almost knocked him over! I then remembered that he was 84, so I eased off a little. My parents came next; they both gave him firm handshakes, and he invited us back to his home.

After giving us a little tour of his village, we settled in for a delicious meal of chicken curry and rice. It was delicious, and while I am known for being a picky eater, I would definitely have it again.

After that, we talked with some of Maruge's friends until about 11:00 at night, all of us telling stories about our childhood, and them about their culture. I have to say, their culture is much more interesting than ours. After that, it was time for us to hit the sack. We were so wiped out, that my whole family just fell into bed wearing the clothes we wore on the plane.