Safari!!

Wow it’s been a really long time since I wrote. I’ve been very busy. In January I worked with some of the groups to plan for this year. I also distributed the money from all the beadwork and bags that mom & dad sold for me over the holidays. The groups were so happy they haven’t made this much money since back in 2007. Thanks to everyone who bought things! I’ve taught the bead group some new techniques so we’ll have some new things to sell too.

My parents and Lauren and Jane (friends of ours) came at the end of January to visit. We hung out in Nairobi for a day while they got un-jet-lagged. We went to a giraffe center where you could feed the giraffes right out of your hand! We also went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, which I was really psyched about but according to the rest it was mediocre. Guess my taste buds have suffered since coming to Kenya, I now think any resemblance of pizza is amazing, haha.

We went to Loitokitok and I showed them where I did training and the VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) where mom, Lauren, and Jane (being the medical people they are) were all very interested in how testing for HIV/AIDS is done here. We also visited my host family. It was so good to see them again; I was worried Esta, the 3 year-old, wouldn’t remember me but within 5 minutes it was as if I had never left. We had brought bubbles for the girls and boy, did those go over well. Esta squealed with joy every time we made a bubble and Esta and Winnie (the two eight year-olds) were having a grand-ole time too. Turns out my host family had gotten presents for my family too. We ate dinner together and then went back to our hotel. I’ll definitely have to go back and visit again, they were such a great family to live with.

The next day we went to Amboseli, a park near Loitokitok. Within maybe 300 ft of passing through the gate we saw an elephant walking around. It was so cool to see animals walking around with Mt. Kilimanjaro in the background. We saw elephants, zebras, giraffes, hippos, wildebeests, ostriches, a hyena, and tons of different types of birds. Our hotel was really nice and had monkeys all over the place. One rude monkey was drinking from a tap. The hotel put out food at night to attract animals so we went to see if there were any cool animals. There was a bar overlooking the area, but unfortunately there were no interesting animals to see, just some domestic house cats. I did see a guy who looked like David Hasselhoff with a mullet though. I had stubbed my pinkie toe really badly earlier in the day but since I didn’t want to miss a drink at the bar with Lauren and Jane we brought the medical attention to the bar. I had mom giving me Arnica to stop swelling, Jane elevating and putting ice on my toe, and Lauren buying me a drink. That’s all the medicine I needed, my toe was better the next day.

The next day we traveled through Nairobi (and its horrendous traffic) to get to Lake Naivasha where we took a boat ride. Honestly, the actual boat ride wasn’t that great. We saw a ton of hippos, but the highlight was when we got off at a little peninsula and walked along with the wildlife. We got within feet of a giraffe, zebras, waterbucks, and wildebeests. The best was when dad sneezed really loudly and the herd of zebras started running. He stood still and whispered, “do you think it’s because I sneezed?” Haha, apparently he has a sneeze that can start stampedes. The hotel we stayed at in Naivasha was really nice. We were told we had to get an askari (watchman) to walk with us after dark to get around. We realized the reasoning behind this when a waterbuck scared the crap out of us when it ran right in front of us on our way back to our rooms after dinner. Mom and dad had an interesting adventure with a bat flying into their room, you should ask mom for the story she’d tell it better. The next morning after breakfast we walked around the grounds of the hotel and followed a giraffe for a while.

We went to Lake Nakuru, which is famous for its flamingos. We saw lots of baboons and flamingos of course. We also saw a black rhino and a white rhino. After the park we drove to Maasai Mara (about 7 hours of bumpy dirt roads). The next morning Jane and I woke up at 4AM to go on our hot-air balloon safari (the others are afraid of heights or get motion-sick). We had a driver and an askari taking us to a hotel where the balloon left from. On the way we saw three lions sitting by the side of the road. The askari let me sit in the front seat so I could see them better and take a picture. I noticed he carried a huge AK-47. I asked “so, have you shot many animals with that gun?” He responded “no, it’s for humans.” Apparently there used to be a lot of poachers in the park so the government made it a rule that anyone traveling in the dark have an armed askari. I hope he hasn’t had to shoot any humans… Jane and I met up with 15 other people for the balloon ride. We all fit in one balloon and went up in the air just before sunrise. We watched the sunrise and saw the park and some animals from the air. We were hoping to see more animals but it was still amazing.

After landing we went to a breakfast where we ate in the bush and drank champagne. A large truck then took us back toward the hotel we left from. However, we got a puncture in one of our tires as we were out in the middle of nowhere. We had a spare tire but no jack (it was in Nairobi). We had to wait about ½ hour for the truck with the balloon in it to arrive with a jack. So there I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere, with elephants in the distance, buzzards circling above our heads, perfect cell service and a little tipsy from the champagne. So what did I do? I giggled with Jane, texted my friends about the situation, and peed in the grass with a bunch of German tourists watching me.

We met up with mom, dad, and Lauren and saw some lions and a bunch of other animals. The next day we drove through the park searching for leopards (one of the only animals we didn’t get to see) but unfortunately we didn’t see any. We did see a cheetah stalking a warthog though. We then drove to Oyugis where they stayed for a few days. They met my organization and we took them around to some of the groups and the clinic.

They brought me lots of stuff like chocolate covered pretzels from Trader Joes and parmesan cheese! It was great to see them, I wish Chris could have come though. Since they’ve left I’ve been busy also. I went to a workshop with the Peace Corps for a week and we had some donors visiting last week so I’m just getting back into the swing of things. Guess that’s it for now.