Blogs 4 & 5

Tuesday, June 17, 3 p.m.

We just finished a marvelous lunch and are preparing for our next
outing to spot animals in the Maasai Mara. We are anticipating big
cats, wildebeest, elephants, and many others. My head is so full of
info that I can't process it all. I will backtrack and try to be
brief(er).

A question regarding lost luggage. I can't tell you all the names, but
I can tell you that it has (at last) caught up to us and those
travelers are extremely happy to have clothing and other necessities.
They were amazingly good sports about it all, and they will have
special tales to tell when they return.

Just some quick info about recent stops:

June 14-16

After Lake Turkana and the windswept tents, we head on to Maralal and
a night at a camel club. It is a bit rustic, but the toilets flush and
there is a shower. The fire for the water heater is right outside of
our cabin, so we have a nice hot shower. This is just a one-night stand.

The next morning we head to Nakuru. The other roads in Kenya, while
superior to the road to Lake Turkana, are not the smoothest. It is too
hard to describe the road conditions -- one must just experience it to
believe it.

Nakuru is the 4th largest city in Kenya, and it bustles! The taxi cabs
I mentioned earlier start honking their warnings at 5:15 a.m.
Everywhere we look there are people walking and biking and in cabs.
There are bicycle cabs -- a padded seat over the rear tire. There are
no bike lanes and all the streets and highways are two lanes. Our
driver takes it all in stride. I am holding my breath every time we
pass a biker.

(Did I mention that Kenya is left-side drive? I should have realized
that from the British influence, but it still catches me off guard.)

Everyone walks in Kenya. In the countryside someone comes out of
nowhere, walking down the road to who-knows-where. Children in school
uniforms, women carrying water and wood, men with walking sticks --
they are everywhere.

We enjoy the park at Nakuru but we are disappointed that there are few
flamingos on the lake. There are, however, lots of pelicans -- and do
they ever stink! We get close up and personal with a young male lion
here. This makes our day.

Most of the group went to a disco in Nakuru. Darrel and I opted out.
The dancers were impressed with this outing.

We have two schools and an orphanage to visit here. One of the schools
is the post-secondary skills training center that Br. Chuck started.
It is an amazing institution with beautiful landscaping in the heart
of the city. The other is an agricultural and technical secondary
school where Br. Francis, our other great safari leader, runs the
show. It is a huge farming operation. Lots to tell here, but just
quickly, we saw two large pigs get into a fight!

The orphanage -- a heartbreaker! I guess for those who are there, it
is the best option for their lives, but they are street children with
no other hope for survival. At the Lasallian institutions we visit we
are given tours, usually by the students or residents, entertained by
them (you should hear their voices!) and fed a wonderful meal. Last
night, at Rongai Agricultural and Technical Secondary School, we had
some fresh pork and turkey, right out of the barnyard!

We also attend Mass here with the young men of Rongai. It is a new and
beautiful experience. We definitely recognize the ceremony and the
prayers, but they add wonderful touches, including dance. Some little
fellows from the community danced along outside the door of the church.

Another attraction in the Nakuru area is the crater which we went to
see yesterday. At first we were afraid we would not get to see it
because a very large truck was blocking the "road". This was more like
a single-track road so there was no way around this big truck.

Aha! A man sitting by the side of the road has an alternative route to
show us. After some questioning, we opt to trust him and he leads us,
walking up a path. We are still in the vans. Alas, when we get to
where the path intersects with the main road, there is a washout. We
think our visit to the crater might be a washout when the man comes up
with another idea. Oops. No go either.

Our drivers are not about to give up, so they make other attempts. And
we make it to the crater! It is an awesome view and well worth the
trip. A Rotary sign at the top of the crater points to various cities
and tells us how far (in kilometers) we are from each. We are a long
way from home!

By the time we make our descent, the truck is repaired and is
continuing its climb upward.

Just about everything we do, someone says, "That's one for the blog."
It has happened so often, I can't remember them all. Perhaps I will
gather them all later and include them in the blog.

Tuesday, June 17

We leave Nakuru early in the a.m. for the 6-6 1/2 hour trip to the
Maasai Mara, once again being warned that the road is long and bumpy.
However, after the first leg of the trip, Edwin tells us that the road
is much improved from what they expected and that we will arrive much
earlier than expected.

And then ... a flat! Normally, we are at the head of the pack because
Edwin is the senior driver on this crew. This trip, however, we are
bringing up the rear. Edwin notices the left front tire is flat, so we
radio the troops and tell them that we will be a bit late meeting up
with them at the gate.

As soon as the van stops, people start coming -- Maasai men in their
colorful garb, including hairpieces, necklaces and ear holes, show up
to help us. They are eager to see what we are doing and they seem to
know how to secure the tires and work the jack. It is interesting.

Pete and Liz strike up a conversation with a young man and they head
up to the village where they meet with a young woman and her baby. It
is amazing to us that all of the people have Christian names. The
Maasai woman was named Mary and her baby girl was Linda. All of the
young people we have met are the same. They have tribal first names,
Christian names, and tribal last names. Br. Chuck says the surnames
are not very reliable. In the schools alphabetizing is done by
Christian names.

Edwin tells us that we are staying at the best safari resort in
Africa, the Mara Serena Safari Lodge. We believe him. Our room
overlooks a magnificent valley. We are told to close our veranda doors
when we leave so that baboons cannot get in and destroy the place! I
TOLD you those critters are scary! But these are luxury accommodations
and we will greatly enjoy the next two days. We are heading out in a
few minutes for our 4 p.m. tour.

Looking through the binoculars we can see giraffe, elephant, zebra and
hippo nearby. I still can't believe that we are having this
experience. It is just surreal!

Wednesday, July 19, afternoon

Before we even arrived at our resort yesterday, we saw hippos. This is
one of our top animals to see so we are happy. The Maasai Mara is a
huge expanse of land. Mara means spotted, and this grassy prairie is
spotted with trees. Darrel got some good landscape photos.

Yesterday we saw cheetahs, a mom and one of her babies and a couple of
lazy male lions. I won't go into the list of other animals we see --
we are getting repetitive. However, the zebra migration from the
Serengeti (the continuation of this area into Tanzania) has begun and
there are thousands of them. The wildebeest will be joining the
migration in a few weeks. They are heading to greener pastures.

We continue to enjoy great food and the comforts of our rooms. Ten of
us have signed up for a hot-air balloon ride early today (5:45!) The
ride takes about an hour and culminates with a champagne breakfast. We
were all so excited about this activity that sleep was a bit difficult
last night.

Once again, it is almost impossible to describe what we experienced,
but if I had tons of money I would take this up as a hobby. It was so
quiet, except when our pilot, JP, turned on the burners to keep us
aloft. We could see our shadow on the ground and the trees, watch the
animals scurry around, see forever! Landing was a bit of an adventure,
but we all loved it.

JP is a young man from Montreal who assured us he was highly
experienced in balloon flight. He was excellent! After landing we
boarded the vans and headed to our breakfast in the field. There, in
the wilds of Africa, were our chef, Mercy, our waiter/host, Daniel,
and a feast of crepes, omelets, bacon, fruit, danish, coffee, tea, hot
chocolate, mimosas. Unbelievable! Oh, yes, there was also a gift table
so we could make purchases if we wanted.

The rest of our group went on the morning drive and had another
amazing experience. They sat for nearly an hour observing a gorgeous
male lion crossing a river to get to his family on the other side.
Swimming nearby in the river were crocodiles. We saw pictures of this
and they were great!

Some people are heading out to visit a Maasai village this afternoon,
but we feel like we already had this experience and are choosing to
rest this afternoon.

Forecast for tomorrow -- roadtrip. We have about 12 hours of driving
to our next stop. Ouch! The roads are so rough we can't even read and
sleep is almost impossible. This may be our last post for awhile.

I am trying to send pictures. Hope it works.

Kathy O.