Mount Kenya, Safari, other stuff

Hi everyone,

We ended up having to pay $270 (including everything) for the safari, but we didn’t mind because we couldn’t really find it cheaper anywhere else, also he picked us up from the orphanage and dropped us off there again, so that was good.

Current volunteers are: British: Me, Lara
American: Ann, Devin, Alena, Doug, Vishnu and Cassie
Slovakian: Jarka
Spanish: Ana
Canadian: Sabrina
German: Lara

Ben and Mila have gone to Rwanda for 2 weeks.

Last week, Friday 17th, me, Sabrina, Danny and John went to Nanyuki which is a town at the base of mount Kenya. Someone, I think it was Danny or John, had read in a guide that there was a place that did really cheap 4 hour camel rides, 1500 Ksh, about 11-12 Gbp. So that was our sole purpose of going really, Sabrina leaves soon and doesn’t have a lot of money so we tried to do it cheaply. After a really long matatu ride (in which a guy towards the end said he’d show us where the hotel was, I said we had a map, but he put his hand on my shoulder and insisted that he would show us. He pointed to it out of the window and asked for money for his trouble, we didn’t give him any) we arrived there and asked at the hotel desk what the cheapest way to stay in the hotel would be. This turned out to be room 409, a double room, with 2 biggish single beds, for 700 Ksh, 175 Ksh each, about 1.30 Gbp each. We took it, Sabrina and Danny shared a bed (mum and dad) and me and John shared a bed, it wasn’t comfortable. After we had checked in we went to a place recommended by the guide book for food. I got a samosa, fish and chips, and a cheese burger, and shared a pizza with Danny and John. The food was great, but at the end the bill was about 1100 Ksh over what we ordered, so dad (Danny) went and argued and sorted it out. They had added a few extra things to the bill, but then in the end had just made up the total anyway. We went to bed fairly early because we had to be at the camel place for 9am, but it was a Friday night so the street below us was very noisy and I was sharing a bed with John, so I didn’t sleep well.

The next day we got to the camel place slightly late, and two girls were just setting off on some camels, but they hadn’t booked ahead and there weren’t enough camels for all of us, so they had to get off. The camel ride was good, it was uncomfortable towards the end, and there wasn’t too much to see (a dead dog is the most memorable thing I can remember seeing), but it was fun to be on a camel, I called mine Henry. We left the camel place after our 4 hours and got some lunch, it was rubbish, and then we got a matatu back to Thika which was really good, because it only had 11 seats, and it had a TV, even though it only played rubbish music videos. It also didn’t stop until thika, so it was a much shorter journey than the previous day.

On Monday 20th ten of us went on safari in the Masai Mara, me, Ben, Mila, Jens, Melda, Lara (German), Cassie, Alena, Ana and Jarka. It took sooo long to get there, around 8 hours in total, but it was definitely worth it. We had lunch as soon as we got to the camp, and then went to the park. The first day was probably the best, we saw zebras, gazelle, buffalo, lions, then we saw some elephants, but as soon as we got there Stanley (the driver) got a message over the radio that there was a leopard near by, so we sped past the elephants (leopards are supposedly really rare, and we didn’t see any more after the first day) and headed towards where it had been spotted. We saw the leopard from the other side of a big ditch, quite a distance away, it was walking, unluckily for the leopard, into the path of a lioness that was waiting behind a bush. Stanley said in 7 years of safari driving he’d never seen a stand off between a lion and a leopard. Eventually the leopard got too close and the lioness chased it until it ran up a tree, then the lioness and a male lion sat around at the bottom waiting. At this point our safari bus (kind of like a fancy matatu with a roof that opens up and less seats) and around 10 others that were watching from over the river sped round to the tree to watch what would happen, along with vehicles from all over the masai mara, at one point I counted 50 vehicles around this tree, by far the most we saw at any point over the 3 days, I think the next most was probably around 7 or 8 around lions or elephants. I think all the safari drivers wanted to see what would happen just as much if not more than the people they were driving. In the end the leopard sat in the tree until the sun set and the wind changed direction (so the lions couldn’t smell him from where they were sitting) and then ran away.

The next day we set off to the park around 8 ish I think. I forgot to mention that Jens missed the first day safari because he was sick. Unfortunately Melda was feeling unwell on the second day, came along anyway, and started to feel worse and worse as the day went on. At one point we were watching elephants and Melda really needed the bathroom/bush so we had to go through the herd of elephants as fast as possible but there was a big one on the road, Stanley was driving at it really fast and it was running away making loads of noise, then it turned around to face us, looking quite angry as if it might run at the bus, but then it turned around and carried on running, eventually doing the sensible thing and just getting off the road. Melda made it to the bush in time, for anyone wondering. This day we also saw some of the wildebeest migrating, although the river that you see them crossing on TV was dired up, so we didn’t get to see any eaten by crocodiles. We did see crocodiles though, and hippos, and some vultures eating a dead wildebeest, a couple of hyenas, cheetas, giraffes and warthogs. At the picnic site that we stopped at for lunch there were lots of monkeys, they stole food off women, they weren’t afraid of white men, but they didn’t steal food from them. They were afraid of black men. Stanley demonstrated that they were afraid of spears by picking up a small stick and threatening a monkey with it, it ran away. We also crossed the border into the Serengeti plains in Tanzania, so that’s another country that I can tick off. Jens and Melda went back to the camp after lunch as Melda really wasn’t well. The rest of us carried on in the other bus.

On the final day of the safari we left the camp at 7 am, did a couple of hours in the park, saw lion cubs and two lions having sex, a picture of which I have now set as this computers desktop. The only animal of note that we didn’t see on the safari was a rhino. After we left the park we had the option to pay to see a Masai camp, but I didn’t because it all seemed a little bit staged. Some of the others did and they said it was good, so maybe I missed out, I don’t know. We then had food and set off back for the orphanage.

That’s it for trips out that I’ve done over the last couple of weeks. Me, Cassie and Lara (German) are going to Lamu (an island on the coast) in a couple of weeks, and I’m really looking forward to that. It’s meant to have a relaxed atmosphere, good food, nice beaches.

At the orphanage things are moving along “pole pole” (slowly slowly in Kiswahili, even though they speak Kikuyu here, but whatever). Devin told me the other day that the biogas is fixed, I asked him if Francis had been, annoyed that I’d missed a chance to question him on the torch, he said “no, that’s why it’s fixed” so I don’t think I’m going to see Francis again. The animal enclosure is moving along nicely, a week and a bit ago me and Devin spent all morning carrying buckets of concrete and pouring it into trenches, very tiring. Then a few days ago I spent all morning shoveling dirt from one place to another, also very tiring. But it has poles now to hold up the roof, so it’s coming along quickly. Ana and Doug took Grace to Nairobi yesterday (not sure if I’ve mentioned Grace before, but she’s 21, does all the cooking, and hasn’t had a single day off in 4 months) she said she had a really good time.

Oh, on the day we went to Nanyuki John shaved my head (I needed a hair cut before I left for Europe but didn’t have time, now almost 3 months later it’s finally been cut) and I shaved my beard (first time since Berlin I think, it wasn’t a good beard, still very patchy, with that weird bald spot under my chin). So I look vaguely human now. It was funny seeing the kids reactions to how different I looked. I had a conversation with Moses as a new volunteer called Jack, and he kept saying that I sounded like another volunteer called David who had longer hair. Lots of them didn’t recognize me, but I’ve asked them all and they say it looks better short.

My left big toenail has come off because I hit it with a shovel a couple of weeks ago, it became loose so John pulled it off with pliers.

I think I’m loosing weight too, I think I was 195 lbs when I got here, I’m now around 181.

Not last night but the night before a dog ripped open one of the rabbit hutches and we lost 4 rabbits.

I’ve not been sick yet, and I’ve been drinking the water in lots of places, eating sausages from street vendors and showering around twice a week.

Things are going well.