Well, hello again! I know it's been quite sometime since my last post...in fact, it was this time last year that marked the half-way mark of my time in Kenya. But in preparation for my next adventure (which I will share more details on soon), I started reflecting on my last long-term travel and thought I'd share some thoughts with all of you!
My blog ended with a fun experience (the last time I had internet, actually), but there was more fun and more drama that came in the week or two following that post. First, I had a unique opportunity to see inside the special customs of the Luo - one of Kenya's many ethnic groups - as I was invited to a family road trip with my housemate, Achieng, and some of her cousins. The experience was a little crazy so I won't put too many details in, but I'll give you a few hints: rented van with kooky fun driver, age range from 5 years old to 40-something years old, empty boxes of wine by arrival time...Perhaps what was most exciting, though, was that I had the opportunity to travel to a different part of the country where Obama's grandmother is from (unfortunately, she was not at the same events I attended). We went to the wedding of a prominent Kenyan human rights/international figure whose daughter was getting married, and what an experience that was!
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| My housemate, Achieng, and I |
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| Me and Achieng's cousin |
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| Achieng dancing with the village women at the reception |
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| The whole group! |
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| This, I was informed, is typical of a proper Luo celebration. (The grandmas in the picture above drank more than anyone else!) |
My last adventure was a 3-day trip to Masai Mara, the most coveted tourist safari experience in Kenya, and in the spirit of my tourist tendencies, I embarked on this trip with my six German friends. The trip started out rocky with the overheating of our vehicle and accommodation issues, but on the bright side, we made it safely to our destination and had the opportunity to see lots of wildlife (with the hundreds of other tourists)...It truly was a spectacular nature experience.
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| Sophie, Jan, and I eating an early breakfast before heading off |
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| I guess I'm not as tall as I always thought... |
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| Giraffes |
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| One of the big five... |
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| A lioness (it's funny when you realize just how close you are...) |
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| Papa lion enjoying some delicious zebra |
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| Night number one at the lodge |
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| Largest camera I've ever seen! |
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| I asked the driver to get out of the vehicle to capture us (there's a wildebeest migration happening in the background)...I don't recommend that |
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| Mommy and baby elephant leaving after mommy's angry charge at us! |
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| Hippos!! |
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| Wildebeests (we missed the rush of the migration by one day!) |
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| We visited a village of the Masai people, known for their height, dark complexion, and amazing hunting ability... |
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| Oh yes, and their ability to jump.... |
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| Not quite like that... |
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| Like this! |
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| The women do a different dance |
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| Goodbye Masai Mara |
What prevented me from blogging was actually the near death experience that ended my time in Kenya. In short, the vehicle had more problems than overheating. On the way back to Nairobi, as we were all relaxing and dozing in and out of sleep, we heard a loud "pop!" Before we had the opportunity to finish saying "What was that?" the vehicle started swerving around on both lanes of the open road (thank GOD there were no other cars around). Having seen an overturned, bloody bus on my way to the coast just weeks earlier, all I kept saying in my head was,
"I'm going to die. I'm going die." A few people screamed, others just held on for dear life. Miraculously, as we pulled over on the wrong side of the road, the van got caught on a rock, which prevented the car from tumbling over into the nearby lake. This is the first time I've mentioned the experience in months and it still makes my breath stop short.
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| Before.... |
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| After |
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| This was our miraculous stop, since the breaks didn't seem to help much |
But, as you can see above, we survived, and made the last few days in Kenya an experience to never forget! It only makes me wonder how I'll top this experience in Malawi, where I'll be in just a few short weeks! Be sure to keep up with my latest blog: yoedivainmalaw@blogspot.com!
