During
my fourth week I had the amazing privilege to go on an African Safari in Maasai
Mara, Kenya. Even writing that sounds so surreal. I distinctly remember writing
‘go on an African Safari’ on a bucket list during sophomore year when Meghan
and I stayed up all night making them and talking. And just a year later, I can
say I’ve already done that. And wow, what an incredible experience it was.
On
Monday and Tuesday I was at the office working with Fridah and Tabitha on blood
safety. They’re just starting to expand their outreach to online sources, like
Facebook, and I was teaching her how to set everything up, even though it was
also my first time creating and organizing a Facebook cause. I’ve seen other
organizations set up pages before, but I never realized how much work it is to
get the page more professional looking, and keeping their audience entertained
and engaged. It’s kind of exhausting. However, even though this isn’t the field
I’m most interested in, I think it will definitely be beneficial in the long
run. The way our society is going, it seems that the greatest forms of
communication are becoming something electronic and needing Wi-Fi.
Tuesday
night was my first chance to be able to hang out with the campus ministry at
the Nairobi Christian Church. I’d previously just been going everywhere with
Fridah because it was easier, but we finally arranged for me to find ways to
spend time with people my age and in my stage of life. There are around fifty
students in campus, which is around the size of the campus in Clemson, and
deeply encouraging me. It’s extremely overwhelming, and I feel incredibly rude
when I have to confess not remembering people’s names…but everyone has been
really patient and loving with me, and I’m extremely grateful for that.
After the devo on Tuesday night,
Fridah had asked Leslie to babysit me and make sure I got home safely, which
eventually led to me falling in a manhole on the way home. I’m so serious. I
fell into a manhole that was so deep, only my head was poking out when I was
all the way in. I was so shocked, I didn’t even respond until after Leslie and
another one of the guys pulled me out. I guess Leslie gets points from Fridah for
saving me. And apparently falling into manholes is kind of a problem here, and
it’s a lot more common than I thought. Oh Nairobi…sometimes you’re a little too
fast-paced for me.
Wednesday
morning I got picked up from the apartment by Marcus, our driver and tour guide
for the entire Maasai Mara trip. He works for “Bonfire adventures” and they
actually have a lot of sightseeing
and traveling opportunities. So if anyone is interested in traveling to some
part of Africa, I definitely recommend them. They work out of Nairobi, though,
so that’s something to consider as well. Here’s their website: http://www.bonfireadventures.com/
I
absolutely loved the people in my
group. There were six of us including me, and I was nervous about not knowing
anyone. The first two we picked up (Anna and Sam) was a couple from Switzerland!
Their German has a very different accent, and it’s strong, but they can speak
Hochdeutsch (what’s taught in the schools) when they want. On the first night,
Anna even spoke German with me, which was so encouraging! I hadn’t spoken it in
so long, I got really uncomfortable and my face turned red. It was
embarrassing…haha. Going back to Munich will be so awkward at first. Anyway,
the third person we picked up was a girl named Tian, who is from China, but
doing research in Uganda and studying in America. And I thought describing my
situation was difficult! She’s really nice though, and we ended up rooming
together since we both were singles. On the third stop we picked up two ladies
from Canada named Soni and Amenika. They both have Indian heritage and were very
fun to be around. Soni was especially cute because she said “Right??” after
everything.
When we
got to the Mara, we set our stuff in the tents and four of us went to the Maasai
village. It was so incredible to see the way they lived. They build their
houses out of mud, cow dung, and very strong sticks. They keep these houses for
nine years, and then pick up their lives and move to a new location to build
newer houses. Apparently after nine years, the termites start to decompose the
houses and they break down. The men can have as many wives as they want, and
the numbers of stripes they wear on their cloths represent how many wives they
have. I asked if the 2nd and 3rd wives were ever allowed
to marry anyone else and they straight up replied with ‘no’. Struggles. We also
found out that there are even women (from Canada especially) that visit their
village, and fall in love with their culture and eventually marry into their
tribe. I found that so interesting. I
could absolutely not imagine leaving my entire life behind to join their tribe
in the Mara. It’s not just two completely different worlds. It’s more like two
completely different universes.
The
chief’s son greeted us at the front and told us we were free to take as many
pictures as we wanted, and to ask questions. He introduced us to their homes,
and the men opened up performing a tribal dance. I don’t remember which occasion
they perform it during, but it was still really interesting. The noises they
made with their voices alone were really incredible. And they can jump SO HIGH.
While they were dancing, one of the men put his cloth around me to wear, and
they brought all of us into their dancing circle. Then they showed us how they
make a fire without matches. It truly is amazing how they live their lives in
comparison to the modern day world.
After
the men performed, the women took their turn and sang us a song while standing
in a line. However, when they were finished, they left and continued on with
their activities. The men wanted to show us the inside of the homes. The inside
was actually not that bad. Honestly, if it weren’t for all of the small
creatures like spiders, termites, mosquitos, etc, it wouldn’t be that bad. They
had a section blocked off for their cattle. Another small room was for all of
the children to sleep in. Beside the children’s room was the kitchen, which
consisted of stones in the shape of a circle, with wood in the middle, and a
metal grilling rack on top to cook their food on. On the wall beside the ‘grill’
was a small hole in the wall, which was the only ‘window’ in the entire house,
and allowed the smoke from the grill to escape. On the other side of the
kitchen was the bed where the first wife and the husband slept. I have no idea
where the put the other wives.
They invited us to sit and talk for
a while, mostly to ask questions. I was mostly interested in how they viewed
their way of life, and they said they loved it. Some of them have been to Nairobi
and said they didn’t like it because it’s too busy, fast, and there is no
nature around them. But then again, if you have grown up only really knowing
one way of life, it would be hard to find an appreciation outside of what you
are comfortable with, or rather what feels like home to you.
After meeting the Maasai, we went
on our first trip out to the Mara! I was so
excited. They said at the beginning we would see the smaller, grazing
animals, especially the gazelles and impalas, and eventually it would get to
the bigger ones the further we drove out. It was late in the afternoon, and we
wanted to get back in time for dinner, so we didn’t stay out in the Mara too
long. The animals we were able to see were the impalas, gazelles, wildebeests, giraffes,
elephants, zebras, lions, buffalos, a few exotic birds, jackals, and hyenas. We
saw so many incredible animals, and I loved
being so close to them. It felt
safe in the vehicle, and I had no desire to leave (especially around the
lions), but it was so incredible to just be in the real environment instead of
a zoo. They were in the wild, doing what they needed to do to survive, and we
got to experience that with them.
At one point there was a large
group of female lions in an area that had already attacked a wildebeest, and
they were feeding on it. All of the Safari trucks began surrounding them from a
distance, and we just sat and watched. It. Was. So. Insanely. Awesome. And then
what was even more amazing was that a very large group of wildebeests (it
looked like hundreds) came running from a distance toward the lions eating the
member of their herd. They eventually surrounded the lions, looking like they
were going to attack. Our driver Marcus said that they were mourning for their
loss. All of these wildebeests traveled from afar just to mourn the loss of a
member of their herd.
The lions finally noticed the
wildebeest’s presence and confronted them. I thought they were going to fight,
but the wildebeests eventually ran away after one of the lions charged toward
them. We drove away toward the huge herd about 150 yards away from the feeding
lions, and while we were there, the wildebeests charged again! So we drove back
and tried to see the action. The lions actually walked away from the dead
animal and lay together as a group in the shade behind one of the safari
trucks. While they were there, the wildebeests just surrounded their dead for a
while and did nothing. Eventually the lions got tired of waiting, and
confronted them again, driving the herd away again for the final time. They all
ran off into the distance and did not come back again.
Seeing the animals on the first
evening was wonderful, and I loved it. But I would have to say my favorite part
of the entire first day experience was witnessing my first African sunset. It
was seriously like no sunset I have ever seen before. It was unbelievably
beautiful, and I tried so hard to capture its beauty through pictures. We parked our van on
the side of one of the paths, stuck our heads out of the top, and patiently
watched it set before us. The colors were bright, vibrant, and striking;
changing with each moment the sun sank further. And in a span of only a few
minutes, it had already set.
I think I took around 300 pictures
on the first day, which sounds successful….except for the fact that my camera
died and I had not brought my charger with me. I was so mad at myself. I even went around asking other people if they
had Canon chargers, but apparently Canon decided to make every battery in their
cameras different sizes, making each charger too short or too thin in width for
my battery. So I had to accept my very unfortunate situation and do my best to
remember everything I’d seen without pictures. However, everything was so new
and exciting; I highly doubt I will ever forget it.
The second day we woke up very
early to go on a day long ‘drive’. The plan was to drive all the way out to
where the hippos and crocodiles were, and eat lunch with the monkeys. The
animals we saw earlier in the morning were the same as the day before. The ones
I was really wanting to see where
cheetahs. I think cheetahs are so interesting. I love how fast they are—able to
run up to 70 mph when attacking prey. They literally deplete every ounce of
energy in their body to run that quickly, and have to rest for long periods
after, but the fact that an animal can move faster than some speed limits on
highways is beyond full comprehension for me.
The Hippo and Crocodile river was
about three hours from the gate and camp. Upon crossing over the bridge, Marcus
stopped the van and allowed us to look out the top, and down toward the waters.
We saw a few hippos bathing in the sun outside of the river. I saw this one
bump in the water directly below us that looked like a rock, but it also looked
like the back of a hippo. I said it was a hippo and Sam was adamant about it
only being a rock. All of a sudden the bump fully submerged itself in the
water, and immediately shot back up with the full, gigantic body of a hippo,
mouth wide open. Everyone yelled with excitement and Marcus laughed at us.
When we arrived at the shelter, it was time to
eat lunch, and we were informed of the Vervet Monkey manifestation in that area.
Apparently these monkeys like to live in areas near water, in bigger bushes to
accommodate the larger groups they stay with. Marcus so disliked these monkeys
that he chose to eat in the van haha. We sat by the bush of monkeys, holding on
to our plastic food containers for dear life. Marcus had given Sam a rubber
whip to scare the monkeys if they got too close to our food. The entire time we
were eating, the monkeys stared (some were babies as big as my first and so cute!), only a few feet away, waiting
to pounce on our food if it was left unattended. I asked Marcus the Swahili
word for ‘no’, and he informed me that it was ‘hapana’. However, it never
occurred to me until later that if the monkeys knew any human language it would
be Maasai and not Swahili. Either way, they took the hint, and I learned more
Swahili. Win.
At one point I had dropped my
napkin on the ground, and leaned down just for a second so that I wouldn’t
litter, and the next thing I know, Sam was cracking the rubber whip and I
screamed after looking back and seeing one of the more persistent monkeys
grabbing at my plastic container of food. The monkey squealed, dropped my food,
and ran back into the bush, still staring at us. Immediately after, Marcus
yelled out, “Jessica, why did you just scream?” and all I replied back with
was, “Why would you assume that was
me?!” and he just laughed.
After an eventful lunch, one of the
men gave us a tour of the Hippo and crocodile river, which was nice to be able
to walk around instead of sitting the van longer. When we were rounding one of
the corners, I saw a hippo floating on its side by the shore. I had just
assumed it was relaxing away from the hippo chaos in the middle of the river. I
mentioned it, only to realize right after that it was actually dead. It had
scratches down the side of its belly and on its face. The tour guide said it
looked like the hippo had gotten into a fight and lost. The hippos will compete
for male honor and control of the area, and apparently hippos are just really
aggressive. An extremely large hippo was staring at the smaller dead one, with
scratches down his side as well. I guess we know why the baby hippo died now.
Seconds after we all saw the dead
hippo and the tour guide explained what had probably happened, a crocodile
lashed out of the water and tried to bite into the dead hippo! It was so crazy!
The guide said after about three days’ time, the crocodiles will have finished
off the dead body of the hippo. Normally crocodiles in this river grow up to
about nine feet, which sounds extremely
terrifying, but in comparison with the hippos weighing over one ton a
piece, the crocodiles don’t stand a chance. And they know it.
On the way back from the Hippo/Croc
river, Marcus was called about CHEETAHS nearby. It was a baby and the mama
hanging around near a bush, right beside a large open field. They were so beautiful, and sat perfectly without
moving or walking away. We probably stayed there for thirty minutes just
watching them. I wished so badly that I’d had my camera with me.
Those were one of the last animals
we saw as we ventured back. There are the “Big 5” that are promised to be seen,
like the giraffe, elephant, lion, zebra, and…something else, and then the “Big
2” that are not promised, which are the rhino and the leopard. Leopards are
actually more prevalent than cheetahs, but they tend to be much shyer. We also
never saw the rhino, but I’m okay with that. They are honestly not that
interesting to me, and they probably could have taken down our van if they’d
really wanted to.
When we got back to the camp, we
had a two hour break before dinner, so I grabbed my quiet time stuff, my
Digestive biscuits (which were the BEST cookies ever until I had a bad
experience with them a couple of days ago), and sat out in the dining area,
facing the beautiful Mara. After I finished, Sam and Anna came from their
tents, got beers from the bar, and we all sat, drank, read, and talked for a
while. Eventually Anemika, Soni, and Tian came from their tents, and we all
lounged and laughed until dinner. I seriously don’t think I could have ended up
with a better group of people.
The next morning, on our last day,
we went for a short drive to see the sunrise and see the animals one more time
before heading back to Nairobi. We didn’t see any new ones, but every time you
see any animal, it’s always doing something completely different and
interesting because they are in their real environment. My favorite part was
when we saw two male lions sitting in one of the pathways. They were so
gorgeous. I’d only seen female lions up close until that moment. There is
something about male lions that are just amazing. Fridah and I were talking
about lions in general, and she was saying the only thing lions are really
afraid of are the Maasai. And honestly, I don’t blame them. At one point there
were also two German girls leaning out of their Safari truck and yelling at the
animals in German. I kind of thought it was hilarious.
That is
basically the entirety of my first (and hopefully not last) African Safari. It
was seriously one of the best trips I’ve ever taken, and would hands down
recommend to anyone who comes to Africa. Make an effort to go, no matter how
far it is! As far as safaris go, I promise it doesn’t get better than Africa,
although Animal Kingdom in Disney World did a really good job mimicking the
African lands. But seriously, go. You won’t regret it.
I’m
sorry this blog is so late; I started it right after I got back from the Mara, but then I got a little lazy as the week went on. I’ll be sure to
start Week 5, the last week and few days, very soon.
Until
then, have a great week, and to my family and friends in Munich, I will see you
soon!!
Love,
Jessica
Here's a link to my Safari Pictures from Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151466959925235.840905.654390234&type=1&aft=10151467031875235&l=b5e8e65b91
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