haha! yes I did!
today was amazing...or rather yesterday...?
I woke up early, packed it all, and headed out. I got a taxi for the whole day and I picked up my friend Frida to have one last GRAND AFRICAN ADVENTURE *said in a really bad australian accent*
Our First stop was the Giraffe Center. This place is awesome! it has a museum thing that shows all this 'pro-enviroment' art and some Giraffe facts, then you go out and there is a deck where you feed, pet, and take pictures of Giraffes. Yes, you even get to kiss them...seeing as they don't have hands, what you do is put a pellet of food between your lips and they come down and get it...it's quite funny, and a bit disgusting because half your face gets slobbered on in the process! although giraffe spit is actually antiseptic...bet you didn't know that!
Then we headed to the animal Orphanage, i thought we were going to the elephant orphanage, but apparantly you can't go there until the evening cause the elephants are...away? i just think that peter didn't want to drive all the way out there...anyway it was cool, because even though it seemed a bit of a zoo, they were actually nursing back most of the animals back to health and helping them grow before there were let go into the wild (which i'm not sure i believe) but i got to pet a cheetah!!! oh yeah! it was really dirty and i promptly got an alergic reaction...BUT...i can say i pet a cheetah, how many people can say that...that's what i thought!
Next stop was m____ village. It was a crocidile farm that houses 84 nile crocs ranging from 1-27ish years old...and i got to hold a 1 1/2 year old! it was a bit scary, but i held it's jaws shut so it couldn't bite me...they are only fed once a week because they don't chew their food and so it digests really slowly. They also don't have tongues, i couldn't believe it until the guide got one to open it's mouth! it was gross! i couldn't imagine kissing that! ew! also it's skin is waterproof so it has to open it's mouth to cool off
our last stop to the Grand Adventure was the City park, wait, first we ate...the only thing i am going to say about this was that i am pretty sure they killed the chicken when we ordered it, cause it took an hour and a half to get there...hmmm...
...then we fed the monkeys!!! they were so cute! well, some of them were. there was one that was afraid of us, one was carrying a baby on it's stomach, one was really aggressive, and one was the cutest thing on the planet! i feel kind of bad because the aggressive one didn't get much food cause it was mean! i have a lot of scratches from it. But the cute one was so gentle and waited until you held the peanuts out to it, i even got it on my shoulders and fed it from there. I have decided that when i grow up and have kids we are getting a monkey instead of a dog, yup! i really wanted to just take it home, and i think it knew it cause every time i started to walk with it, it would jump off...he didn't want to leave :'(
one of the best parts of this day though was what happened next. As we were feeding the monkeys, another monkey grabbed some kids popcorn and we watched as the kid chased the monkey all the way around the park trying to get it back...the monkey won though. anyway, that wasn't the best part. the best part was that we started talking to the kid, Gabriel, and his two friends, Alan and Omondi. they were such great kids, it was really nice to talk to them for the while that we did. Alan is a bright kid, really smart. I just hope he'll be able to suceed in this life. We found out that the kids lived together in a nearby slum, they didn't have any parents and one of thier friends got in an accident earlier that week...they were only 13. when we passed through the slum later i almost started crying. they were dressed in rags, the monkey had just stolen the rest of their food, and they had empty glue bottles, sniffing to get high. Frida and I took the bottles and made them promise to stop sniffing, then we took them to the nearest shop and bought them some food and something to drink. Frida is going to go back next friday and see them again. she is going to try and find sponsers so they can finish their schooling and perhaps have a future. I wish I were in the position to be one! It's so hard to think that i might never see these people again. I am going to have to come back, i just know it...
04 June 2009
02 June 2009
Masai Mara
So this last weekend I had the chance to go to Masai Mara Game Reserve...seeing as I have been on Two Safari's and have seen all the animals i really wanted to see except the Lion, i decided that i needed to go on one more.
Saturday started early as i headed to Nairobi to meet the Safari van and group. I got there early and was actually able to talk to a few friends online (at home it was 11/midnight depending where each friend was) this was really good because i hadn't talked to any of them since I have been here.
Anyway, at 9 i met the safari group and we headed 7 hours away to Masai Mara. The group consisted of Me, the American, Pernilly and Clause, from Denmark, Teejey from Nigeria, Asa, From india (who i was actually able to talk with about going to India and she is in charge of an organization that gets volunteers in India, D, maybe we should volunteer for a week or two on our GRAND INDIAN ADVENTURE *said in a really bad australian accent*) and Ignacio (sp?) from Argentina, but he has spent the last year living in England...I got major kudo points with him because i have an Argentinian friend :)
So the trip took a long time and we didn't get there until 4, but less than five minutes into our Game drive we saw Cheetahs!!! they were pretty cool. We didn't really see anything else that night (alot of gazelles and zebras, but those are everywhere!) we headed back to camp. the camp thankfully had beds and a porcline toilet, so it didn't really feel like camping, which was honestly okay with me :).
The next morning I was put with a different Safari group because i was only on a two day safari, so I was put with a group on their last day, it consisted of three women from...Poland? they didn't really talk to me at all because they, well, i don't know why, they mostly talked to eachother in polish...anyway, and there was Joe, from England. As we started the morning game drive we didnt really see anything but a few birds and gazelles...but then across the savanna the driver (joseph) saw a Lion. I was seriously scared for how fast he was driving across the bumpy plains, but it was worth it, cause the Lion seriously walked RIGHT BY THE VAN!!! i could almost reach out and touch it! it was Brilliant! and Beautiful! and Graceful! my friends, there is a reason this animal is King! the way he walked was just Magnificent, and graceful. He was so confident...seriously i have never seen a beast like that! also on this game drive we saw some more cheetahs and even a lepord. I had finally seen all of the big 5! After the Game drive we headed home, it was supposed to go smoothly from there, however, fate had different plans
On the way home joseph decided he wanted to show us the rhino sanctuary so he took off road and drove way too fast across some more plains. We hit water and a few minutes later we were stuck in the mud. after trying and faling at a few things we all got out and pushed the van until it wasn't stuck. we were off again...for a few minutes. We got stuck two more times and then on the third time we really got stuck...we all got out of the van again and tried to push it out, it didn't work. FOUR HOURS LATER joseph had gone to get a tractor but the drivers were unavailable, we had dug a hole around the wheel and tried to put wood underneath, it didn't work. Finally about 20 massai people had come to help and with ten people in front, ten in back, and a few at each of the sides, we pushed it out...we didn't get back to Nairobi until 9ish and my phone had died so i couldn't get ahold of my host family to tell them everything was okay.
When i finally got home Alan was so worried had had called my phone five times and they had no idea where i was. Ah, the adventures i am having!!!! :D
*again about the pics, i do have them but you need to understand the computers here...not exactly the best running or fastest... should have them on sometime thursday or friday...and another note, there will be A LOT of posts coming on Friday as I will be at the airport most of the day :'( my trip is coming to a close...sad
Saturday started early as i headed to Nairobi to meet the Safari van and group. I got there early and was actually able to talk to a few friends online (at home it was 11/midnight depending where each friend was) this was really good because i hadn't talked to any of them since I have been here.
Anyway, at 9 i met the safari group and we headed 7 hours away to Masai Mara. The group consisted of Me, the American, Pernilly and Clause, from Denmark, Teejey from Nigeria, Asa, From india (who i was actually able to talk with about going to India and she is in charge of an organization that gets volunteers in India, D, maybe we should volunteer for a week or two on our GRAND INDIAN ADVENTURE *said in a really bad australian accent*) and Ignacio (sp?) from Argentina, but he has spent the last year living in England...I got major kudo points with him because i have an Argentinian friend :)
So the trip took a long time and we didn't get there until 4, but less than five minutes into our Game drive we saw Cheetahs!!! they were pretty cool. We didn't really see anything else that night (alot of gazelles and zebras, but those are everywhere!) we headed back to camp. the camp thankfully had beds and a porcline toilet, so it didn't really feel like camping, which was honestly okay with me :).
The next morning I was put with a different Safari group because i was only on a two day safari, so I was put with a group on their last day, it consisted of three women from...Poland? they didn't really talk to me at all because they, well, i don't know why, they mostly talked to eachother in polish...anyway, and there was Joe, from England. As we started the morning game drive we didnt really see anything but a few birds and gazelles...but then across the savanna the driver (joseph) saw a Lion. I was seriously scared for how fast he was driving across the bumpy plains, but it was worth it, cause the Lion seriously walked RIGHT BY THE VAN!!! i could almost reach out and touch it! it was Brilliant! and Beautiful! and Graceful! my friends, there is a reason this animal is King! the way he walked was just Magnificent, and graceful. He was so confident...seriously i have never seen a beast like that! also on this game drive we saw some more cheetahs and even a lepord. I had finally seen all of the big 5! After the Game drive we headed home, it was supposed to go smoothly from there, however, fate had different plans
On the way home joseph decided he wanted to show us the rhino sanctuary so he took off road and drove way too fast across some more plains. We hit water and a few minutes later we were stuck in the mud. after trying and faling at a few things we all got out and pushed the van until it wasn't stuck. we were off again...for a few minutes. We got stuck two more times and then on the third time we really got stuck...we all got out of the van again and tried to push it out, it didn't work. FOUR HOURS LATER joseph had gone to get a tractor but the drivers were unavailable, we had dug a hole around the wheel and tried to put wood underneath, it didn't work. Finally about 20 massai people had come to help and with ten people in front, ten in back, and a few at each of the sides, we pushed it out...we didn't get back to Nairobi until 9ish and my phone had died so i couldn't get ahold of my host family to tell them everything was okay.
When i finally got home Alan was so worried had had called my phone five times and they had no idea where i was. Ah, the adventures i am having!!!! :D
*again about the pics, i do have them but you need to understand the computers here...not exactly the best running or fastest... should have them on sometime thursday or friday...and another note, there will be A LOT of posts coming on Friday as I will be at the airport most of the day :'( my trip is coming to a close...sad
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