Only 2 more days?!?

Wow. I cannot believe it has been a week since I last posted--the past few days have flown by and I have not been able to use an internet cafe in quite a while, so just a warning: This may be another long post. I'll try to keep it fairly condensed though!

I just got back from a four day safari which was absolutely incredible! We saw lions (some about 10 feet from our van!), elephants, zebras, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeests, gazelles, rhinos, and a cheetah hunt down a gazelle. The landscape was so beautiful--I think I would have been happy just driving around and looking at the scenery, but the animals were definitely a huge bonus.

We spent the first two nights camping outside the Massai Mara Park. It was a really cool place to stay, because the tents were very nice--they had cement floors, bathrooms with running water, and beds--and it was located just outside the park. The stars were amazing at night. Our first night there, we were woken up at 2:30 am by a parade of cattle. It must have lasted a half an hour and they were wearing bells so it was quite noisy. It sounded like they were just outside our tents, and we could hear the shepherds talking. They were followed by a pack of howling dogs. We asked Safari Mike (our guide) what the commotion was all about the next morning, and he explained that it is illegal for animals to graze in the park, so the Massai shepherds take their herds there in the middle of the night to avoid being seen.

Our first full day on safari we spent 11 hours driving around in our van! We left around 7:30 am, and didn't get back to the campsite until close to 7 pm. We saw tons of animals and covered about 160 km. In the evening we passed a herd of lions (about 15-20) tearing apart a zebra carcass. That night we showered, ate dinner, played banana grams, and then made s'mores over a camp fire.

Sunday we left our hotel at 6:20 so we could see the sunrise and hopefully watch a hunt. We were very lucky and got to see a cheetah catch a gazelle. We visited a Massai village after eating breakfast, which was interesting but felt oddly disney-world-ish to me. It was a bit strange to pay to enter a community to look and take pictures of people. It was really interesting, but it felt more touristy than authentic. We then had a long drive to Nakuru.

We visited Lake Nakuru Park today. It is a big bird-watching park and has hundreds of flamingos. At one point our bus got stuck in the mud so while some of us pushed it out, others stood on "buffalo watch" to make sure we weren't attacked. There were monkeys outside of the gate and two monkeys hopped into our vans. One was crafty and escaped with a bag of peanuts. The other one was less fortunate and got hit by someone's newspaper and left empty-handed.

I am now back in Naivasha. My host family moved over the weekend, so when I get home I should get to tour the new house. Apparently we don't have running water, which is a little bit of a let-down considering that that was one of the big incentives to move, but I am hopeful that it is just a glitch and we will be showering by tonight. :)

Last Wednesday we held a medical camp in the slum. It was a really long day and I was relieved when we were packed up and headed home, but it was a big success and I'm really glad I got to be a part of it. 388 people from the community received treatment, which was twice as many as we expected. The majority of patients were mothers and children. We had four tents set up: A growth monitoring and immunization tent, a family planning tent, a minor treatments tent, and an HIV/AIDs testing tent. We also had a pharmacy and seminars on HIV/AIDs and family planning.

I am a bit in disbelief that I only have two days left here. I would really love to spend a few more weeks, but I am looking forward to seeing everybody again back at home. It has been such an enormous blessing being over here for the past month and I can honestly say that I could not have asked for a better experience.

See you all soon!!!