The 1st week of March we started our spring break with a team retreat at a missionary retreat place in Kenya. Mary Beth and I roomed together in the small cabin. It was a good, relaxing break. From there, Jennifer, Julie, and I went on to Nakuru to begin a safari. After some frustrations, confusion, and miscommunication we eventually arrived in Nakuru with an unspoken agreement to never hire that taxi driver again. He was and hour and a half late (even for Africans this is bad) and tried to rip us off once we arrived… in a somewhat distressed state we started out at Lake Nakuru National Park. Right away we saw monkeys, zebra, cape buffalo, all kinds of deer like animals (DLA), and TONS of birds that were mostly flamingoes and pelicans. The park and lake were beautiful! The van we traveled in had a pop top so that we could stand up inside and see better and take pictures. Later in the park we saw a giraffe, rhinos, and warthogs. On our second game drive there, the evening one, we passed a large herd of buffalo outside of our camp. Our driver said that you can only drive through there because they would attack you if you were walking. Nice to know. Then we saw a few baby baboons which we then realized were part of a really big troop of baboons. We watched them eat, groom, and play for a few minutes making up dialog to go along with it, especially while watching a small one and an even smaller one fight. Later we drove up by the lake and got out to take some pictures. That was really neat. There were birds all over the place near the water and in it and then there were DLAs, zebra, and buffalo all around the trees. George, our driver/guide, later saw the rhinos; which was way cool and way lucky. We saw one male lying beneath a tree far away from all other animals; he really looked sad. George later spotted a whole group of them, but they were far off the road, where we were not supposed to go. Being the great guide that he was, though, he took us over there anyway, but we had to be fast because he would’ve gotten a pretty hefty fine if he’d been caught. Later on we went back to our really nice tented cabin at a really nice lodge. Being there was a nice break. They’re used to people who travel to Africa to holiday. It’s hard to explain fully why it was such a nice change for us without sounding really negative towards the people here, so I won’t explain. It was just a nice change of atmosphere.
The next morning we set out for Masai Mara National Park, which borders Tanzania’s Serengheti National Park. A lot of the road there was really bad. It’s also the dry season there so it was also really, really dusty. Julie and I were often sliding our windows closed since we had to quickly shut them whenever another car would drive by slinging up lots of dust and it was way too hot to leave them shut. After a long drive and a questionable “road” to our lodge, we arrived at our lodge in Masai Mara for lunch. After lunch we set out on an evening game drive. There were many other vehicles then that really made it feel less like I was actually watching wild lions that really could’ve creamed one of the cars if they’d gotten annoyed enough, but they’re too lazy. We saw lots of animals there: elephants, zebra, wildebeest (which was neat because they are somewhat rare to see depending on the season since they migrate), giraffes, DLAs (it’s really difficult to say all of them that I saw since I don’t know many of the names), cheetah, lions (males and females two times for each), vultures, ostriches, a hyena, and a leopard. Because of the time of year, there were also a lot of young animals that were really cute. God is creative and his creation here is indescribably, breathtakingly, mesmerizingly beautiful! The sunset that evening in Masai Mara is one of the most awesome ones that I have ever seen. The green is greener and the blue is bluer and the sky is larger here. Sounds weird, but anyone who has been here will agree. It was such a wonderful experience to see the wild animals of the beautiful land of Africa. I had a lot of fun with my roommates as well; we bonded a lot over the trip and really enjoyed everything about safari. We were really excited about being lucky enough to see all the “big” animals. Usually people talk about “the big 5” but since we saw a leopard as well our guide said we saw “the big 6.” We saw all the big things we were looking for on our evening game drive except for a leopard. So that is what we searched for on our morning drive. After a while I spotted a small one. We were the only vehicle around, making it all the more special. In that regard, the number of other vehicles, the morning drive was more pleasant. Our wonderful driver got us really close to the lions, cheetahs, and leopard. One funny story—while watching the cheetahs on one side and the elephants on the other, one of the elephants got agitated and sounded his trunk in warning, startling my roommates. I wasn’t startled because my first thought (seriously, no exaggeration) was, “Roll Tide!!”… yeah… seems the sound effects UA uses are pretty good to evoke the same response while in the wild. Does that make me brainwashed?
All in all, our safari was an unforgettable, wonderful experience. We made many stories together, but we also spent a lot of time just soaking in God’s creation and silently worshipping Him.
To come: Nairobi, Kitale, school, and further observations on life in Uganda/ East Africa. Also, hopefully, I am going to Gulu with my students' family to visit family there. I am really excited about going up to Gulu to see some of the work going on there.
5 years ago