Safari!!!!!

I have now experienced a safari. And it was AMAZING. Animals walk right up next to the car - I actually had to zoom out with my camera. Pretty insane. We saw everything, except for rhinos - those are in Lake Nakuru I guess. Zebras, elephants, wildebeests, buffalo, many different types of antelopes, a cheetah, leapards (which are really rare - often people don't get to see them), tons of lions (even an adult male one - they aren't usually out either because they don't do the hunting. Pretty lazy, hmmm?), hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, wart hogs, some sort of small cat that I can't remember the name of, gazelles - anyway, a lot.

And no, I did not end up with a bunch of Chinese tourists, although there were plenty there with HUGE cameras. Ridiculously huge - I took a picture because I could not believe it. Literally every car with them had at least two of them - the lens was probably a foot and a half long and they were all camo-colored. So funny. My group had four girls who were volunteering in Nairobi together - 3 from denmark and one from Switzerand - 2 Americans who had been volunteering for about a month in Western Kenya and a couple from Sweden. The girls were great - especially the four from Denmark and Switzerland. They were so funny - some of the animals they only knew what their names were from the Lion King, so they would say, "We want to see a Pumba!" meaning a wart hog or "There's a Timone" meaning a meerkat. It was hilarious - their english was perfect, but who ever has the cause to learn the word for warthog in another language, right? I thought the Lion King speak was pretty effective.

The couple from Sweden - kind've obnoxious. She was super demanding and every time we'd see an animal, she'd practically scream at our driver to stop (as though he didn't see it and needed her guidance) - which is very uncool because it either scares the animals or makes them mad. Neither is what we were looking for. Her husband would sometimes shush her, but he was annoying too - he was about 6 and 1/2 feet tall and they always took the front seats and then proceed to stand the whole time, completely blocking the view from the front of the car. Which most of the time didn't block the most important shots, as our driver would pull up alongside things, but still, so annoying. He had this huge camera that he would whip around, back and forth, to take every shot you could possibly take, not caring if he happened to whip it into our shot. And really, it wasn't as though he was going to miss it - we saw everything about 2 or 3 times. One time, Maria, one of the girls from Denmark, asked him if he could just move over real quick to she could get a shot and he said okay. So as she's edging forward to get the shot, he suddenly whips left with his camera (it was a bird - really??) and it collides with her head! And he definitely took the picture first, then said, "Oh, I'm sorry - are you okay?" and then didn't really wait for the answer before continuing to shoot pictures. Oh my. Everyone thought they were obnoxious, though, so there's consolation in that!

Our accomodations were pretty sparse, but fine. The tents were basically tents on cement platforms with a cement, circular-like room attached at the back with our toilet and shower. Hot water was a little short - had to keep asking the people at the camp for it. It was literally heated in a big tin holding tank over a fire and was actually boiling when it would come out of the shower head (we could turn on some cold to mix it, so we did not get boiled alive). Pretty awesome, though, because the mornings were a little cool - kind've a nice change from Mbita, though!

The drive out there and in the park was a little crazy - we got pretty used to being tilted totally sideways in the car, holding on to anything we could to keep from sliding into each other. The safari I was on was on the cheaper side for sure, which really on meant the accommodations were a little sparser and that maybe we would have gotten a better lunch than fake ham on white bread, but everyone gets to see the same things, right? There were other tours you could tell were private, with the big land rover/jeep looking cars with open sides, lots of cushions and blankets - I don't even want to know how much those cost.

Now I'm home - Michigan is pretty great. Sunny, relaxing, getting to hang out with my mom - loving it! This trip has been incredible - I am so blessed for having gotten to experience it. I am definitely still processing a lot of it and probably will be for a while, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Before I left and even the first few days I got there, I was feeling all this doubt as to whether it was where I was supposed to be. Now, I have no doubt of my purpose here and can't believe all the crazy and amazing experiences I've gotten to have. Thanks for all of your support - the small notes and comments have been so encouraging and much loved! Looking forward to catching up with everyone.