saturday and sunday: lions, leopards, and wildebeest (oh my!)

It was difficult to pull out of Mama Robi's home on Saturday morning...at 6:00. As I have previously mentioned, I had fallen in love with Felix and EVERYONE was in love with Boniface, and of course Dee Ann has developed a very special relationship with George during her two journeys to Nakuru. Mama Robi's orphans (James, Mary, Maryann, Sarah, Lillian, Brian, George, Boniface, Felix, and Zachariah) crawled out of bed at 5:30 to express their gratitude and watch us pile into the vans. David and John, our incredibly friendly and talented cooks, prepared our favorites while dressed in their very own Kenya Project t-shirts: doughnuts! Yep, deep-fried goodness with coarse sugar for dipping.


We straggled. We pulled out of the gate late. We leaked a few tears. And so our second journey began...

Gideon gave us a stern warning the night before: while he expected the drive would require five hours plus a stop for gas and restrooms, he could make no guarantees. "Do not be upset if it takes eight hours to arrive at our camp. I have not taken this path since 1989." Boy, we were lucky! During our first stop, Julius (the driver-tour guide-walking animal encyclopedia extraordinaire) commented that the roads were in the best condition he had seen in 15 years.

We passed the vibrantly-dressed Maasai tribesman as we pulled deeper into Maasai territory, always in brilliant red or orange. We learned from Julius that the Maasai speak 32 dialects and for a period of months during the year, the men leave their wives to herd. Keep in mind that we are in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE-- no grocery stores or markets in sight to pick up a soda or a loaf of bread. How do they survive, you ask? How do they protect themselves from the wild game in their migratory paths? Answer 1: the men have perfected a technique of opening a vein in the neck of their livestock, siphoning the blood, and mixing it with milk for their sustenance. In dire situations, they will kill one of their livestock and eat the finer cuts (without fat) raw. Answer 2: the men sleep at the center of their herd. The animals intuitively know to circle their leaders when resting-- not that the Maasai men need protection. To become a Maasai warrior, you must leave your village and not return until you have a tooth or claw of a lion in your possession. However, contrary to popular belief, the Maasai are not a violent or aggressive people. The Maasai are simply steeped in tradition: strongly patriarchal, semi-nomadic, monotheistic, and an apology through a payment of cattle is usually sufficient to settle disputes. So that's your cultural lesson for today... : )

We were all blown away by our accommodations at Siana Intrepid camp. After off-roading for what seemed like more than the seven kilometers marked by the sign, we made our way to the reception hut where we were greeted with juice and dutifully informed that there were no keys. "Zipper only," the host said. That comment was followed by, "The monkeys here are very smart. They know how to unzip the tents. You must tie a knot. They do not know how to untie a good knot...yet." Awesome. We quickly trekked to our pod-- the "A" group. My evaluation is that luxury tents are the coolest thing...ever. With any luck from the technology gods, I will have more photos of our accommodations from Amy in the next few days.

The camp grounds and grazing area

The macaroni-and-cheese-colored bark of the Acacia tree

The lily pad pond on the trail to our pod of "A" tents

Instead of narrating the details of our extended game drives (then making this post 20+ pages long), I thought I would post the animals we spotted during each, with captions. There is inevitable a story and exciting details behind each...

Day 1: The Evening Game Drive

Zebra, of course. They have the natural knack to show their rear sides whenever you pull to the shoulder for photographs.

The first pod of lions we spied for the safari, four total and one of which was pregnant. The male showed absolutely no interest in the parade of vans at all. He eventually rose to sit on his haunches and show off his mane. That one is on Amy's camera...

I chose to spare our audience a telephoto glimpse of the lion-eating-a-zebra photos. This cute little fella on the right was the first to eat. Stuffed and satisfied, he was dozing on his back, feet in the air, just like roadkill. We were lucky to get within 15 feet of her hunting partner...

A Maasai Mara sunset as we make our exit...

Day 2: The Twelve-Hour Safari Drive

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that these guys are impalas. Those with horns live in bachelor pads where they spend their days in training to fight. If you want to live with the ladies, you must be able to defeat the one grand male that rules their group. If you lose that bid, you are rejected from the group...and most likely eaten by a lion in your solitude.

We spotted three Maasai giraffes in the early morning. Unlike the Rothchild giraffe we spotted at Lake Nakuru, the Maasai giraffe does not wear the ever-stylish white stockings. These two males were engaging in a "battle" of sorts. In what looked a lot like necking or a mating ritual, the two males were attempting to throw the other off balance using their necks. Whoever won the balance contest also won the right to the female (who was nowhere in sight).

It's an ostrich! Later in the day Julius spotted another with babies in tow, no taller than the high yellow grasses.

We must give thanks to the wildebeest for our stay at Siana Intrepid-- it was the only camp that we could afford considering it is the wildebeest migration period! This photo is a very small snapshot; we saw hundreds of thousands of wildebeests spotting the rolling plains. According to Julius and the Mara guidebook, the wildebeest arrive in June to graze in Kenya and leave in late October to return to Tanzania to mate.

These monkeys were vigorously digging through the trash bin at Hippo Point. While we walked to the edge of the Mara River where at least 10 hippos were bobbing in the water, one brave monkey soul jumped through the window in my van. Gideon had left the window cracked, which in the monkey world is o-p-p-o-r-t-u-n-i-t-y. Fortunately, no damage was done, there was no theft, and Gideon and David sprung into action.

This baby elephant stole our hearts, especially the heart of Lynn who thinks baby feet (no matter if they are human or animal) are God's greatest creation. I know this to be a fact-- I attend family reunions with her. : ) This little guy (or girl) could not have been more than two months old-- he was constantly tripping over himself as if those things were just too heavy to lift and his mother was still carrying milk. Again, thanks to the prime driving skills of Gideon, we were able to get within 20 feet once the group crossed the road...and then Mama Elephant noticed and expressed her discontent.

The cutest little heinie I've ever seen!

A final note:

Amazingly, after nearly two weeks of driving on roads that created a roller coaster effect in the vans, we managed to get TWO flat tires during our final hours of the safari. I did not add "tire changing whiz" to Julius's list of talents, but he got that baby off and new tire on in less than ten minutes. I also did not add "tire changing whiz in the middle of a herd of highly dangerous animals" to his talent list. Yep, he did that too. Our second flat occurred dead smack in the middle of a herd of cape buffalo, who happen to be the most dangerous animals on their plains because of the impulsiveness, aggression, and horns. While Julius and Bernard/Ben/Benson (we never quite got his name right) worked on the tire, Lynn stared down the herd and rebuked them with powerful telepathic signals. All listened except one-- one lone buffalo whose nostrils flared within 30 to 45 feet of our tour guides.

I hope that everyone enjoys the photos and the brief narration. I will plan to write a parting note some time this week, as well as throw up a few more photos as they trickle in from various sources. It has been an absolute pleasure to share our journey and my journey with you-- I deeply appreciate your encouragement through posted comments and compliment through the grapevine. Please keep checking our blog periodically. While we may no longer be in Kenya, we are still doing good work here.

Love, love, love!

tnick

(last) friday: joy and tears and flamingos...and a little shopping

Hello again to everyone! Now that I am somewhat readjusted to the eastern time zone, I plan to post on every remaining day of the trip. While many of you may have already been absorbing the many stories and unique details from your friends and families that were lucky enough to be in Nakuru in person with the team, I will continue to post for the benefit of the rest of our organization, sponsors, and donors-- and well, for myself. It is nice to have a written record of these events for a non-journal-writer...

Friday:

Part of our goal on this trip was to uplift the teachers of Mountain Park Academy. It is simple enough to fall in love with many, many children when you visit Nakuru and provide them the basics-- our $20 per month goes a l-o-n-g way in their lives. However, behind those children are twenty-four BRAVE individuals who are doing amazing things in the classroom with minimal, minimal resources while fighting with the undeniable circumstances of living in a developing country: how difficult is it to teach a room of forty-two children who may not be properly nourished, who may be ill, who may be without family support, or who may be experiencing abuse in the home?

Anyhow, as I previously mentioned, part of our project was to serve as tools for the teachers: we delivered jam-packed bags of school supplies to each class Thursday (think about all those crayons in our earlier packing meeting post!) and we also took up a collection among the team in order to leave each teacher with a hand-written note and about five hundred shillings. After meeting for our final assembly at Mountain Park Friday morning and fawning over the few young children who trudged to the meeting place in bright rainboots, the teachers surprised us with their own gifts: traditional lace tops for the ladies and polo shirts for the men. Mama Robi was tickled, so much so that she demanded we all change into our new outfits for the dedication of the children's home fifteen minutes later.

After another arduous climb up the hill, we changed and headed to the children's home to begin the ceremony. It started with a bang! We had a full program of performances: the teachers kicked us off, followed by Ms. Waweru leading the 16 orphans to live in the new home in a chorus, followed by Mr. Ndichu's (Anthony, quite possibly by favorite) girls choir. And then I hit emotional meltdown stage: the first of eight homes was dedicated and named in honor of my grandfather who passed in January-- Hutch's House. I will not give you the long story, but my grandfather loved his nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren more than anything on this earth. That is not debatable. I am so proud that he will be shining love and maintaining his usual watchful eye over those children. The blessings continued: the house parents greeted the audience and shared their vision for the home and their new children, Pastor Francis lead a powerful, powerful prayer that yielded dripping tears among each of our orphans, each child was given a Bible and pillowcase embroidered with a verse on which to rest their heads in their new beds, Mama Robi was brief in her address yet striking carrying her stylish new black and white purse received from us the day before, and we were again entertained by the talented students in our audience. The final acts were an energetic dance troupe again lead by Ms. Waweru and a play addressing AIDS put on by a small group of older students. Amazing, stirring, and joyous-- and the clouds parted just long enough from the previous day's lingering rains to burn the crap out of my left ear (I really think my sunburn might be second degree burns) as I snapped photos.







By the time the program was finished, we were running quite late. Lunch was set for 11:30 so that we could leave promptly for the city to shop at the markets. Amy and I rushed to the school to complete some last minute administrative work and also seek out the child who my mother sponsors. Upon bringing her to the office, introducing myself, and explaining that my mother was her sponsor, she gasped and then giggled. We also had the pleasure of connecting Gwen with Jane, a young girl in the One Purple class. Still in our matching lace tops, Amy and I rushed back to the house to grab a bite with the rest of the team, and then we were off! As we pulled down the drive (i.e. dirt/mud road) that passed the school, the children rushed to line the fence and wave. It was quite a sendoff.

And then the sky fell open-- MASSIVE raindrops as soon as we stepped out of the vans to peruse the local goods. After about five minutes of that, Gideon corralled us back into our respective vans and directed us to an indoor shop (thank goodness!). With bags of souvenirs in hand, we were in for a surprise: a game drive in Lake Nakuru Reserve! Less than twenty minutes from the chaos of town we witnessed the majesty of TWO MILLION pink flamingos, four black rhinos (one of which we saw progress to full speed across the road), baboons, larger-than-life pelicans and storks, cape buffalo (the most dangerous beast on the plains), dickdicks (think about a deer, but chihuahua-sized), a Rothchild giraffe (they were the white stockings) and tree leopard from a distance, and a breathtaking view from the lookout.




The sheer beauty and grandiosity of the game reserve was an odd juxtaposition to our ride home through the packed city streets of Nakuru-- after all, it was a Friday night! Gideon explained that all of the randomly scattered young men were referred to as "packing boys" and that the bottles they were ALL carrying was not in fact alcohol, but glue. They were huffing to get a cheap high. One seemed to apparate next to Amy's window; her head nearly hit the roof while simultaneously letting out her signiture squeal. That was some of the only 'ugly' we had seen during our entire beautiful week.


I'll be headed out of town this weekend for my cousin's wedding, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for Internet access. Certainly by Monday I will post a summation (and awesome photos) of our safari in the Mara...

Love hard and love this fall weather,

tnick

hot stuff

Before I begin blog-o-mania later today, I wanted to share this link with everyone before I forgot. The kaleidoscope that was given to the house parents to share with our orphans was a donation from me, purchased from a fair trade shop-- meaning that it was handcrafted, a fair price was paid for the product and for the labor (i.e. no sweatshops), and the health of the environment was a priority in the production process. Fair trade means dignity, respect, sustainability, education, hope, joy, and a fairer world.

Because I know our team members are BIG shoppers, I thought I would direct you to my favorite fair trade retailer. Keep Ten Thousand Villages in mind for this year's holiday gifts-- not only will your friends and family be receiving a unique handmade piece, but you will make a strong, socially conscious statement in the process.

Also, keep checking the blog for the "Kenya Project Collection 2008." I hope to have a limited quantity of holiday ornaments (crafted from my Kenyan soda bottle cap collection), necklaces and earrings (created by our Standard 7 students at MPA), and prints (from both Amy and me) in various sizes available within a few weeks and just in time for Christmas!

Thanks!

tnick

we are alive.

Greetings!

We apologize for our extended blogging absence, but as always, things do not always run smoothly in Kenya. Friday was our busiest day yet-- dedicating the first of eight children's homes, saying our final goodbyes at Mountain Park Academy, going into the city of Nakuru to peruse the markets, and a visit Lake Nakuru Reserve for a surprise game drive to catch a glimpse of 2,000,000+ flamingos.

Saturday morning we left for safari expecting to arrive at the base camp with amazing Internet access. Sadly, we were mistaken-- no computers, nada. We are now in Nairobi finishing a meal at the Methodist Guest House and will be headed to the airport in the next 45 minutes.

Thank you all for your patience! Please expect a flurry of posts detailing our last four AMAZING days in Kenya, photographic illustrations, instructions on how to access the thousands of other images we captured during the trip, website updates, and some very cool gift offerings that we will use to benefit the project (spearheaded by Roz, Amy, and me).

Love hard, and see you soon States-side!

tnick