Well, I officially had one of the most amazing, memorable weekends of my life. Sara Beth had told me that I couldn’t skip doing a safari at Maasai Mara, and now I understand why. It is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Africa where you can see the big 5 and many other animals living in their natural habitat. The Dutch girls and I joined 11 other volunteers who are living in the Kakamega area to spend the weekend in this beautiful place. And as much as I hate to admit it the volunteers from Duke were a blast and I loved getting to hang out with them (sorry Mugge!). The road driving to the park and our lodging was by far the worst road I have been on since I have been in Africa, which makes absolutely no since because it brings in so much money from the tourists. I have constructed a detailed plan in my head of how all of Africa will benefit when the money is raised to improve already existing roads everywhere. The cars will last longer, there will be less travel time, less gas bought, and less accidents…but I won’t get started on this right now! Another problem I discovered while I was away this weekend is that I am a little bit scared that I am going to be racist against white people when I get home! It was so weird to see them everywhere! There were some who had on cargo khaki shorts, spaghetti strapped tanked top, and the most typical safari hat you can find; despite the fact it was cold enough to wear long sleeves and pants. Yes, I am being far too judgmental, but our entire group had a hard time seeing these monzugus who were picked up from the Nairobi Airport and taken immediately to their safari, and when they were finished, were probably going to go right back to the airport or the next biggest tourist destination. But next week when they are back in the states, they will be telling their friends over dinner how they saw the poverty in Africa, leaving out that it was through the window of a vehicle while going 60 mph.
At Maasai Mara you really will see every type of person imaginable. Almost every van of Caucasians is speaking a different language, but there are also people from all over the Middle East, Asia, and North/South America. However, the most peculiar of all these was the Asians. I’m not sure if it is all of them in general or a specific country that does it (if I was guessing I would say China), but most of them we saw were wearing long sleeves, long pants, gloves, large brimmed hats, glasses, a mask covering everything but their eyes and foreheads; and if they were outside of the vehicle they also carried umbrellas. Of course I wear sunscreen and take my malaria medication, but I think this might have been taking it a little too far. Every time I saw a group who looked like this I wondered if their tour guide was a little offended that his passengers found it necessary to take that many precautions in order to be in his country! Again, I am being too judgmental so I will get to the actual animal seeing part of the safari. But in all reality it was really neat to see so many nationalities gathered somewhere because no one can deny the magnitude of seeing such beautiful animals in their natural habitat.
So the first day we arrived it was raining and we were all a little bummed thinking that would put a damper on our afternoon safari ride. Wrong! Because it was rainy it was cool enough for the animals to want to come out in the open in the middle of the day, so within five minutes of being in the park we encountered our first lions! Originally it was just a gang of teenage lions hanging out around a tree playing with each other, and then from across the fields the lion king (literally the head of the pack who looked exactly like Mufasa) comes strutting up, walks between the safari vans and joins his group! It was surreal to see him strut up in the same manner of a house cat and not even acknowledge the twenty plus vehicles surrounding his family. Although I have seen lions and all these other animals at the zoo, it was like I was taping my own experience that was going on the Discovery Channel. It is one of those experiences that I could describe to you 1,000 times, but you will never truly understand how amazing it is until you see it. During this two hour ride through the park we were able to see 3 of the big 5 animals!
On day two we were out exploring by 7:30ish and stayed in the park for nine hours, soaking it all in. We again got to see lions, but this time they were all lounging on huge rocks waking up to yawn and lick themselves and then go back to sleep. Although they are one of the toughest animals, they never seemed to be in any hurry to do anything. We were also able to see 14 elephants (they were my favorite), several being young ones that were intertwining their trunks playfully. Eventually we had to leave the area because the elephants were in “charge mode” and walking on the trail we were using, as our tour guide put it, “the elephants want to use the rode, and they have the right away!” Next, we were able to see cheetahs, giraffes (a mom pooped on her baby), gazelles, buffalos (which I never realized looked like fake cartoon animals), and thousands of zebras and wildebeests. The wildebeest are in the season of their migration, known as the Great Migration, when they come across the Serengeti through Kenya into Tanzania. I realized two important things about zebras; one, I never get tired of looking at them; and two they have the nicest butts out of any animal or human I have ever seen! Really, next time you see a zebra pay close attention to how attractive their rear is! I think Sir-Mix-Alot would even approve. While we were driving back towards the exit of the park we were all still standing with the roof of the van lifted to take in the beautiful view. The best way to describe the feeling is to compare the way you feel on the lake when the wind is blowing as the boat speeds over the calm water and no one is paying attention to each other, just how amazing all the surroundings are. When we were all feeling this was when we had our near death experience. Most people would think that a near death experience on a safari would mean you were attacked by a vicious lion, or maybe stepped on by an elephant; not necessarily. We were traveling on a trail at a normal speed and had not seen another car/van/truck in at least 15 minutes when out of nowhere a van comes flying across the path hits a bump, almost flips (making like a 30 degree angle towards the road), over corrects itself almost going off the road in the opposite direction, somehow corrects that and is flying directly at us (and we are all still standing with our heads outside the roof!). So aside from seeing this all happen in slow motion I am somewhere between realizing that I should probably dunk down and preparing myself that we are going to have to jump out to save the people in the other van. I don’t know if I realized until the van actually stopped less than five feet in front of us that we were going to be hurt badly if the vehicle wasn’t able to stop. Rather than saying sorry or looking concerned they immediately hit the gas again, the two people inside the van just casually waved and went on their way! I think the shock of the entire situation and that we almost had a car wreck on a deserted rode caused our entire group to do nothing but hysterically laugh the rest of the ride. After this we were able to visit a Maasai village and learn about their culture and they performed some of their traditional songs and dances for us. The Maasai tribe in Kenya is one of the most famous tribes and they live in the region where the park is. They are famous for still keeping many of their traditions and still dressing in the tribal fashion (extremely bright red), and they have the huge holes in their ears that you see in pictures from National Geographic!
Day three was just a morning ride through a small part of the park, but was probably my favorite day. We were able to watch the sunrise over a group of five beautiful giraffes. And then after we saw it rise once our driver wanted us to experience it twice, so he moved the van in front of a mountain, and we saw it again, lol. After this we found more lions who had killed something (most likely a wildebeest) shortly before and were now enjoying their breakfast. But for the first time we got to see lion cubs! They were probably the most adorable creatures I have ever seen! Some were about three weeks old, and some were over 6 months, but they all loved playing with each other and stealing each other’s food. Remember the scene in The Lion King where Simba and Nala are playing and they say, “Pinned ya!” “Pinned ya again!” I got to see that scene happen in real life with two cubs! It was unreal. Then we drove through a wildebeest stampede in order to watch another lion that looked like it was about to pounce on a wildebeest that was left alone, but it never did. Although after this we endured a 14 hour matatu ride back to Kakamega, it was an amazing weekend! I probably have over 1,000 pictures and about twenty videos (literally), so I promised I will try to get them posted sometime!
Things are going great back at Tumaini! An amazing American named Rosalie was here for a week and took the children on a trip to Kitale, which is something they have never done! We also were able to fix the projector at the orphanage so we got popcorn and drinks and watched a movie! I have also learned the history of how Tumaini began, but that is worthy of an entire blog. Also an American team will be here in a few days to do great things with the children, so I am looking forward to working with/meeting them! Stay tuned to see how it goes!
Also just a side note, I won't be starting my master's program until Fall 2012, so if anyone has any job opportunities or ideas for when I get home please let me know!