Safari, Day 1!

Hello!!! We hope all are going great! We just got back from our safari, and it was incredible! We don't have a lot of time to post because the internet cafe is about to close. Therefore, I typed up an entry from the journal I've been keeping (This is Emily, by the way). We will finish writing about the safari, because believe it or not, it got even more incredible after as the days went on! As for Will's request for a baby elephant, we very much wanted to bring a baby size of all the animals home! Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us out of the park with one!

6/25, 6:45pm.

Wow! We just got back from our first few hours in the Massi Mara Park! It was absolutely breathtaking. On the way here, we stopped in Narok for a really nice lunch: rice With carrots, mashed potatoes, pasta, slaw, some beef and green beans. I would say that it is likely the most complete meal we have had yet. Then, we said farewell to the nicely paved roads and began our bumpy trek to the Massi Mara. It was remarkable watching the people and landscape transform from cityscape, populated with gas stations and people fussing their way around, fading into a strip-mall type markets in villages where people are much more casually dressed, children roaming free, escorting the cows or sheep or goat. Finally, the towns became sprinkles of small villages until they were taken entirely by Africans in expected, traditional dress with jewelry and pretty scarves for the women. Mud huts that guarded and faced an amazing circular structure replaced the cement brick huts. Almost like a town hall or a biblical traveling temple, the center of the Massi village centered around these inner structures with upright sheers of tree. I want to find out the purpose of these buildings. They have no roof.

We finally bumped and jumped into our campsite and were quite pleasantly surprised by how nice the accommodations are! We have a nice tent with two beds, mosquito nets included. On the other side of the zipper tent wall is a linoleum tiled bathroom, complete with flushing toilet, running water faucet and shower. We dropped our stuff and took a quick rest, a cup of tea and then hopped in the van – roof no extended. After about a five-minute drive, we were ready for Massi Mara Day 1.

It was magnificent! We entered the park and were quickly greeted by a single, towering giraffe! (This of the Massi variety) It walked right up to our van and passed just in front! I have seen giraffes, but never like this: in the wild, just feet away! From there, we saw wildebeests, Thompson Gazelles, and Impala. In a group of Impala, the males have hors and the leader is the male with the especially large and ornate horns. We saw loads of Zebra (Max,  you would have been amazed), mangoos, dikdik, and many more.

Then, as we were driving, one of the men in the group asked our driver, George, to stop for a picture. However, George did just the opposite. Something had come over the guide’s radio, and it put George on a mission! He charged off to another location. “What will we see now?” “I’m not telling; I want you to be surprised”. Believe it our not, our beginners luck was in FULL force! Excitedly, we cruised our way to a pack of fellow safari busses. When we were coming to a stop, we finally “spotted” the black painted end of a cheetah’s tail, sneakily waving with the tallest grass. As our driver artfully maneuvered for a better look the cheetah disappeared into the brush. He did hid himself right there in front of all the watchful eyes. We came back to a different vantage point and found the cheetah hanging out in the grass, within 30 yards. What a sight! I know that had Oscar been around, he would have shouted, "Eureka!". We learned from our fellow bus-mates that cheetahs are very rare to actually see, even on safari!

How do you beat a cheetah? We figured we should just call it a trip and go home; there was no way we could top a cheetah! On the contrary! It was not too long before George took off again. George on a mission! Soon we found an ENTIRE lion pride! Babies, indicated by their fading spots, lay together in a small hill. The mom was on the hill as well, and the dad was just beginning to find his own space. There were easily 10 lions, all within a 25-yard radius of us! We stayed there for a while and took pictures and simply beholding the glory of our tremendous luck! It was incredible! 

The things we learned today!

We went to bed last night with the best intentions: to wake up, do some stretching and exercise, come have some coffee and breakfast at our now favorite coffee shop (where we have done all of our corresponding) and come back in due time to shower and leave for our trip to see the baby elephant orphans and feed the wild giraffes. The day was to begin at 7:30. To our surprise, we awoke at 4:15 to some distracting noises and struggled to fall back asleep until about 6:00. Well, we were then woken up by our guide, Horence, wondering where we were and warning us that we will miss the baby elephants if we don't hurry. It was 9:46. So, in a rush, we get our clothes together and head out the door.

First, Linus, our driver, takes us to the The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust: A Haven for Elephants and Rhinos. We pull into the long, gravel drive to be greeted by a family of friendly monkeys hanging out in the trees. Once we pull into the parking lot we find small tribes of mzungu each escorted by their appointed Kenya leader. The feeding of the baby orphans started at 11:00. We were just in time to file in with the rest of the small groups and find a place along a roped off viewing area. In came six baby elephants. None taller than Katie and I. The were fed by their keepers, 24-48 pints of imported human baby formula from Great Britain. The elephant keepers than recited their information about elephant orphans, life in the wild, and unique features of elephant care. 


Elephants can become orphaned for many reasons, but the causes boil down to three main issues. Elephant poaching is still a problem and becoming an increasing issue as ivory and game mean has become more and more valuable. Therefore, as poachers kill off the adults for their tusks and meat, typically snaring them with trip wire, the children elephants become orphaned. Secondly, elephants have become endangered (as Simon Hoffer could likely tell you) because of the drought that Kenya has seen over the last years. In particular, a few of the orphaned elephants we saw were found at the bottom of dried up wells! Quite sad. Lastly, elephants have become orphaned due to trouble interaction with humans, fighting over land and resources. The Sheldrick Trust is then established to take these orphaned animals in and reintroduce the to wild. 


However, this reintroduction can be very hard and takes a couple years due to the wild life of elephants and their unique features. Clare Henry, this part is for you! Elephants are hard to reintroduce into the wild because they are very emotional and highly social animals. Firstly, becoming an orphan can be traumatic, and many orphans have been known to die in the first few days of coming to the orphanage due to the stress they have undergone in becoming orphaned. One elephant we saw was much more grey than the rest and had a blanket tied around it. We learned that this elephant was one of the newest and was very sad to be an orphan. He needed extra warmth to encourage him to stay well; the other elephants were also aware of his sadness and often huddled around him to bring him friendship. 


We also learned the these elephants have a hard time being reintroduced because of the strong, maternal connection that they have lost in becoming orphans. They develop much like humans. The females mature in their early teens and then begin to have babies. However, much like we do, elephants look to their family to find out how to act and how to raise their young. They have a very strong familial connection. Unlike humans, it is the females who establish leadership in the herd because the men leave the herd to establish dominance among the other males to determine who is the best to mate. Talk about natural selection! To find out who is the strongest, the males will play games that look aggressive, but the weaker elephant is quickly revealed and backs down. We also learned that, in keeping with the emotional nature of elephants, they are among a hand full of mammals who burry their dead and can often be found tracking back to those burial sites. 


Because of these emotional and familial features of elephants, the Center is careful to phase the elephants from human and individualized care to allow them build relations with other orphaned and wild elephants until they choose to become wild. This process takes from two to five years. However, they center has seen some great success! 


After this wonderful elephant interaction, we were excited to head to the giraffe refuge where we were excited to get to feed giraffes and see them interact in the wild. The refuge is set up as a learning facility to both care for endangered giraffes and teach native students and teachers about taking care of the environments. Feeing them was quite fun. Their tongues can be 18 inches long and feel like slimy sand paper. We fed them small pellets and got to hug and pet them as we did. At their feet, small wart hogs, like Pumba from The Lion King, were frolicking and play fighting with one another. 


We then sat and listened to a short seminar about giraffes, where we learned that there are three types of giraffes found in Kenya. The Reticulated Giraffes have whiter backgrounds and reddish spots are found in Northern Kenya. The Massi Giraffes are the most common in Kenya. They have an orange coat with dusty red spots that go all the way down to heir hooves. These are the giraffes that we will see on our safari tomorrow. Lastly, the refuge housed Rothschild Giraffes who also have red and orange coloring. However, the Rothschild Giraffes have spots only to their knees and whiter markings on their chests. The females have 3 horns and males have 5. They are found in western Kenya and Uganda. 


We also learned a slew of facts about giraffes:: 

• Their lifespan in the wild is 10-15 years. 
• They are able to have kids at age 5. 
• Baby giraffes stay in their mom's tummy for 15 months. 
• Males, called bulls, can grow to be 16-18 feet tall. 
• Females, called cows, grow to be 14-16 feet tall. 
• Babies are born 5 ft tall. 
• At full grown, a giraffes heart weighs 25 lbs and pumps 20 gallons of blood every minute. 
• They sleep between 5 and 30 minutes every 24 hours. 
• Giraffes live with between 2 and 50 other animals. 
• Their most common predators are Lions, Hyenas, and leopards. 
• Their best defense is their kick. Because their legs are so long and strong, a single kick and kill an adult lion with one strike!

WOW!!!

It was quite fascinating! 

After all our learning, and again fawning over the beautiful school children that were visiting, too, We loaded up with Linus to head back to the hostel. But with some disappointment we checked out math only to find that the guide had overestimated our entry fee price by about 200% and we found that we had in fact quite overpaid our driver. Well, with great frustration we voiced our disappointment with both the driver and our guide saying that we felt quite taken advantage of! A frustrating way to end such a fun and learning morning! 

At this point, we did what any proper American would do, we sat down for a good lunch! Guess what, it did the trick!!! With full stomachs we met our hostel neighbor, a wise Swedish woman who had come five years ago and lived for a year at our hostel. With her, we walked to a guarded park and heard about Inger's life, advice, experiences and reactions to her time in Kenya. It was wonderful to hear about her cautions to us, her family values, and her hope for our future work in the Kibera slum! I greatly value the time she spent with us and wisdom she shared! 

All in all, another wonderful day in this friendly and slow-paced city! 

We are leaving tomorrow for our Safari and would love to hear questions and comments! We have learned to much over the past year working at the Logan School and hope to pass it forward by way of our time here! Please let us know of anything you may wonder or want us to find out as we head into our Safari! 

Hope all is well in Denver! 

We're in love with Nairobi....among other things

So we arrived in this lovely place at about 8:00 last night. Exhausted as we were after 25+ hours of plane riding, we were anxious to see if our bags would actually make it and if our driver that was supposed to take us to the hostel would actually show up. To both of our surprise, they did! We grabbed our bags and quickly found our way to "Otis" holding a sign with Emily's name on it. We hopped in his safari van and he drove us quickly to the youth hostel. On the way, though, he answered so many questions for us and made us feel immediately at ease.

We arrived at the hostel and met Joseph the night security man. He lead us to our room, which is the size of a prison cell, but clean and with a bunk bead/lockers/mirror. For $10/night, what more can we ask for? Joseph brought us water and left us alone for the night. We were happy to see that the bathrooms were clean and had showers, normal toilets, etc. We went to bed, a little nervous for what the next day and weeks would bring.

As luck would have it, I couldn't sleep but Emily was sawing some serious logs. The sound of mosquitoes buzzing in my ear kept me up. Luckily the kindle helped me pass the time (thanks Megan!) We were woken up by the strangest sounding bird ever, which we learned was hawk, and the calls from the mosque in Nairobi. We were supposed to meet someone from the hostel at 9:00 to talk about our week's activities. First, though, we went up to the roof of the hostel and did some stretches and yoga. We've got a goal of exercising 4x week here.

Eventually we went to meet with Horence, one of the hostel's guides. He agreed to take us on a walking tour of Nairobi. Thanks to him we got to learn so much about the history of Kenya and different places in the City Center. We got to see most every sight in the city and we even caught the motorcade passing by for the Kenyan president! We enjoyed lunch at a traditional African cafeteria where we met many of Horence's friends, tried roasted beef, ugali- a cornmeal mash, goat liver, and Tusker Beer. We even ate with our hands!

After lunch, we walked around some more seeing the City Market place where you can barter for anything from fruit to African carvings. We feel that by the end of our trip we may just be good at this whole bartering thing. Horence proved to be a fantastic guide. He answered every question we had including those he thought silly like, "Is it ok to wave with your left hand?" We got to know him well and learned all about his wife and son, who is the cutest baby ever. Emily and I are seriously plotting how to bring an African baby back with us (sorry mom!)

After taking a little siesta, Horence helped us book our trip for tomorrow to an elephant orphanage and giraffe center. He then helped us with our safari which will be this upcoming weekend in the Masai Mara/Lake Nakuru. Apparently it's a perfect time for a safari as the wildebeest are migrating and therefore many of the other animals are too! We managed to barter for all of these plans, which we feel good about. Our plan is to stick to about $50/day and so far we're sticking pretty close to this (minus the whole safari thing).

We are, so far, in love with this place. We decided we even like the smell here. People are so extremely friendly, though they stare at us a lot. We saw about nine other "mizungu"-white people today. Oh well, we love it that way! We've noticed that around the streets of Nairobi, we see mostly men dressed well and hardly any children. We also learned from Horence that if he wasn't there, we would be getting hounded by people on the streets to take this safari or that trip. We got to experience it a bit when he was walking in front of us. It wasn't so bad, but we've decided to go into the city only when we have a guide.

Can't wait to see what these weeks have in store for us!

Day number 0 and the Beautiful Silver Lining!

"Good morning! Let's go to Africa!": texted message received from Katie Bolger at 8:01 AM. How exciting!

The timing worked out perfectly as we found one another at the airport in the check-in line. Hugging our parents goodbye we promised to take lots of pictures, check in often, and not drink the water. After a cup of coffee, we were boarding our aircraft bound for Minneapolis/St. Paul. Time to settle in, so Katie and I bust out the in flight magazines. Did you know this particular airline had just invested about 2 billion dollars in their airline for improving planes and terminals.

I was reading about this when ... a molding strip from the overheard compartment a few rows back had fallen off! Yikes. But don't worry, the guy put it back, made a funny joke and all was great.

Until...about ten minutes later we hear a breaking noise from just above our overhead compartment. The plastic door to the compartment had broken off from the metal latch. Yikes, again!

Oh well, everything settled back in just before... the pilot came over the intercom to announce that the landing gear was not retracting so we needed to circle around and land back in Denver so that maintenance could look out it, and,

oh yeah... we hadn't burned enough jet fuel so we had to fly around for a while until the plane was light enough to land. After landing safely, we find out that there is no way we are getting to St. Paul in time to catch our flight to Amsterdam. Africa, maybe tomorrow!

However, the quote of the day, and where the silver lining comes in, is, "It was appalling!" We had quickly called the airline to book our next flight and the customer service representative was completely rude! After asking him to look into some different options that we had come up with for ways around the maintenance delay, the man said, "Ok, so are you done?!" What a terrible way of saying that leaving tomorrow is the only option! Thankfully, when we asked to speak with the ticketing supervisor at the airport, we told her of our story and the man we spoke to on the phone. "It was appalling", I said. We were quickly upgraded to first class for the first leg of our trip tomorrow, also compensated with meal vouchers for all meals until we leave, optional hotel vouchers, and future flight vouchers.

Tomorrow.... Day 1 ... First Class!

Let the Countdown Begin

Hello! Welcome to our blog about our trip to Kenya! Katie and I are both quite excited to be going on this great adventure in just a few weeks and hope that you will join us on our adventure. After a wonderful year at The Logan School for Creative Learning, we thought it would be fun to find ourselves a unit and go on a little field trip just like our bright and wonderful students. So, here it is: KENYA! We wonder about the people, animals, food, culture, and history of a country far away from ours. However, given all that we have learned from the Logan students, we would like to continue learning with them. Wendy Hoffer had this amazing idea for make our blog like an interactive field journal. We will take pictures, write questions, record facts and post our notes and reflections as we go along. We would love for you to join us in this investigation! Please feel free to post questions, add your own knowledge and understandings, and contribute your thoughts. We start our journey on June 20th when we take off from DIA and land on June 21st in Nairobi. Let the packing begin!!!!!