Nairobi, Kenya

We have arrived in Arusha, Tanzania and will begin our trek up Mount Kilimanjaro tomorrow morning. We didn't get much sleep last night. Our flights were 3 hours late leaving Abuja and 2 hours late leaving Addis Ababa (our connection) and then we finally arrive in Nairobi last night at 2:30am. We took a cab to our hotel and checked in by 3:30am. We brushed our teeth, put on our pajamas, and then there was a disturbance in the street outside. The reviews of the hotel said it was mediocre in cleanliness and usually noisy, so we were just agreeing but it caught our attention when we heard someone screaming "FIRE"!Once we realized what was happening we could definitely smell the smoke and then looked out the window from our 6th floor room and saw flames in the one story building below. So, we stuffed our items back into our suitcases and began knocking on all of the room's doors and then hightailed it for the stairs. Klunk, klunk, klunk, went our suitcases down the flight of stairs as we hollered "FIRE"! So then we were one of the first people to exit and the management was all confused and told us to calm down that there was no fire! We were like, um, look outside! There was one family outside, half dressed, and panicking. We lent them some clothes and found a observancy a safe distance away. The flames were now reaching the height of the 2nd floor of the hotel in the building next door, and growing. There was still no alarm or fire engines within hearing. So, we began screaming and whisteling to try to wake the people in the hotel. After about 3 minutes the fire alarm sounded and this really roused the people and they started pouring out all dazed and confused. After about 10 minutes the fire trucks came and the fire was under control after about 2 hours. Luckily, no one was harmed and the hotel had minimal damage, some fire damage on the outside of the building and a lot of smoke damage inside. We were taken to another hotel and had breakfast and napped in their lounge. Those who were staying more than Saturday evening were given a room. But we just decided to go to the bus station at 8am to get our shuttle to Arusha. It was a rough trip to Arusha, the road is absolutely horrible. The border crossing was very simple, but there were several people trying to scam us at the border, between Kenya's departure and Tanzania's entrance. No bank statements or copies of round trip tickets necessary, just a C-Note, passport, and a completed blue slip of paper. We are so excited for tomorrow and the few weeks! Merry Christmas to everyone, we hope to be able to upload our movie footage from the fire as soon as possible. Love, Dusty Rose and Gordon