When I had gone to bed early on Thursday night, the plan was
to sleep in, have breakfast, then leave for the site around 10 am. However, the next morning Josh and Ali woke
me up around 6:30 saying that our driver Phillip had heard on the radio that a
pride of lions were stalking some zebras (I think it was zebras) and they could
watch it be killed (or at least eaten).
After the day before with the cheetah dying and everything else I saw, I
did not want to see anything else die. Yes,
it’s the circle of life, but I don’t want those images in my head forever. I slept in.
I had breakfast about 8:30 (bread, pancakes, eggs, watermelon,
and mango juice) and hung out til everyone got back. I packed up my bags and took a nap by the pool
on a lawn chair while the cleaning crew cleaned my room.
Around noon I decided that I wanted a beer (who am I?) so I asked
what kinds they had. You may or may not
know that I am not a beer person…I am a margarita person (when I do drink). I wasn’t sure which beer to try and I had
only heard of one of them, which was Heineken.
Later in the day (at lunch) Josh had gotten a Kenyan beer called Tuskers
and let me try some of it. It was good,
but I am still not a fan of beer!
While I was relaxing I saw this pretty butterfly. Butterflies are beautiful!
Around 12:30 I was about to eat lunch when Josh and Aly got
done packing and joined me. I had cream
of spinach soup, rolls, rice, Indian dish with okra, vegetable salads, fresh
fruit, and a bite or two of banana jello <--That
was cool and I don’t even like banana flavored stuff!
Since I was already packed, I hung out with our server
Stanley (Hey Stanley!) and he told me all about himself. His resort name is Stanley because his Masai
name is hard to pronounce (I didn’t catch it though). He is part of a Masai tribe (different than
the one we visited) and has one wife. He
technically picked his wife, but he had to beg his parents to let him marry
her. Normally, the parents choose your
wife, but he met her at school and pleaded with his parents to let him marry
her. He stayed in her village for a
month to ‘test things out’ and then his parents negotiated with her parents on the
terms of the marriage. Two months later
they were married. Now they have two
children a girl and a boy. He goes home
to see them every few months, but he has to walk there, which takes about 2
days. Sometimes the staff are able to
catch a ride with drivers who are leaving the grounds. We exchanged email addresses so we can stay in
touch. He was really sweet, I’m glad I
got to meet him.
Server tips: I know
when I was googling the trip I couldn’t find much about tipping so I will tell
you what I did. They had told me it was
customary to tip $1 per breakfast and $2 per dinner for your server, and $1 per
day for the person who cleans your room.
Honestly though, they did such a great job that I tipped way over
that. In America you would never find
that sort of service and just because the wages are lower does not mean it’s
right to not tip like you would in America.
Yes, they expect to be given less, but if I would tip a server in the US
for one meal what I would tip someone who has treated me very well the same
amount for three full days, that isn’t right!
I was told I tipped him and my room person way too much, but I felt
better about it.
Around 2 pm we left the park in a van loaded with all of our
stuff, plus we took a staff member’s wife and baby and dropped them off. The baby didn’t make a peep the entire way
home!
When we made it to the gates of Masai Mara there were tons
of people selling stuff on the side.
Phillip told us to close our windows and keep telling them no so we
wouldn’t be pressured into buying anything.
On the way out we saw tons of baboons, zebra, buffalo, gazelle,
etc.
The drive from the safari to Into Abba’s Arms (IAA) was
about 6 hours. We stopped a few hours outside
of the safari at a huge gift shop with really nice bathrooms. They were selling tons of stuff, but it was
all stuff that I had no interest (and no suitcase space) to buy. They had beautiful carvings for chess games,
but I have never played chess in my life so I wasn’t interested. While they were shopping I went outside and
saw the coolest tree with the prettiest yellow birds on it. Apparently, the male birds make these nests
and the females choose who they mate with based on how well their nests are
constructed. There were probably about
60 bird’s nests in this tree. Really
cool!
We passed through lots of towns on the way to IAA, and saw
lots of people selling on the side of the road things like coal, cabbage,
potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes. We also
saw several people who were trying to hitchhike for rides. (No Mom, we did not pick anyone up…we were
safe). I also saw a BMW while there,
which was rare. I asked Phillip what the
guy did for a living since he drove such a nice car; he said either a doctor or
a preacher. A preacher? In America preachers aren’t paid very well,
but in Kenya there are some very well paid preachers, especially mega church
preachers.
We made it to the site around 8 pm and some of the kids were
asleep, but a lot of them were eager to meet us. The kids helped me bring my suitcases
upstairs and I choose a room. Upstairs in one of the main dormitories of IAA is
where all of the mission teams sleep.
The guys on one side of the building, and the girls on the other side,
each side has its own bathroom. There
were two rooms available and Aly choose one and I the other. My room had three beds in it, a two queens
and one twin. The most comfortable bed
was the twin size bed and I had brought new twin size sheets with me to leave
behind (plus I have a queen at home so I couldn’t use it anyway) so I choose
that one.
I fell asleep around 10 pm, very excited about the next day
which was my first full day at IAA!
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