How far is that?

Just getting to Kenya is a major endeavor for our travelers. Nairobi is about 9,700 miles from Los Angeles, but there are no direct flights. The most efficient routes are all Eastbound through Europe or the Middle East. Most of our group will have the opportunity to fly directly over the North Pole on one of the longest commercial flights in operation today (clocking in at over 16.5 hours)--and that's just one of the two flights needed to get all the way to Kenya.

One flying route into Nairobi.

No matter when or on what flight each of us arrive in Nairobi, we are greeted by friends from our sister parish who so generously give of their time to come out to the airport just to welcome us.

That might depend on the seat assignment.

The one advantage of such long flights is the opportunity to get a head start on handling the time change. Kenya is in the East Africa Time Zone (GMT + 3) which during our daylight savings time in Los Angeles puts Nairobi at 10 hours later than California. Making that big of a shift typically takes a couple of days and since we travel for typically 30+ hours from start to finish, we can use that time for a good portion of our adjustment. So when you wake up in LA, it's about dinner time for us in Nairobi and when you are getting ready to sleep, we're already up and starting the next day.

-- Christopher Bell