Maasai Village

Saturday morning around 10:30, we took a tour of a Maasai village. The Maasai are traditional nomadic herdsman and they make up about 2 % of Kenyan people. On our drive to the mara, we saw many maasai people herding their cattle, sheep, and/or goats. This particular village welcomes tourists and their dollars.

The chief's son, MaiTan, was our guide. As soon as we entered, he asked for our cameras so that he and another guide could take pictures as we enteracted with the people. There are 150 children living in this village (brought into this world by probably less than 10 fathers). I'm pretty sure MaiTan said something about having 14 wives??? Obviously a very different culture.

After the tour of the village, they took us to their market area where each home has their own stand. It is very overwhelming b/c they are all extremely eager for you to buy something from their "shop". We felt like we needed to visit each one (which was probably a mistake b/c it greatly lengthened our time there & created a mental shut-down for me), but we wanted to be polite. My favorite was the fact that they continually showed us the "calabash" as an item to purchase and proudly told us why it is so practical - b/c it is used to store cow blood for drinking. Apparently no one has broken it to them that these aren't in high demand in the US.

Of course, after looking at each stall, then the kids had to remember where they saw something they wanted to buy (which, for John, was every other stand, but we made him narrow it down to one - he's already made way too many purchases here!) You have to bargain quite a bit b/c they set their prices very high. Interestingly, they all know the word "negotiate".

Despite the mental drain of the last hour plus in the market, we were all glad that we had gone. It was very interesting to see ans something we will certainly remember.

The women singing a welcome song

Maasai warriors performing a traditional dance.
Jumping high (though I'm not sure to which height) proves you are ready for marriage.

Our waiter at the hotel recommended we take a treat to the children.
Fortunately, we had some bags of Jelly Belly Beans (I think from Grandma Sprayberry).

They lined us up with the women to sing a song (& decorate us with their traditional beaded necklaces)

The warriors led us in another traditional song and dance.

Mai Tan proudly showed us their houses, constructed of cow dung. They have over 40 houses in this village.

Inside the house. He showed us the sitting room, the kitchen, the warrior's bed, the other bed which is for the wife and children, the storage room and the kids' favorite - the sleeping room for the baby cows.





 
 

Safari Part 3

* Sidenote: I've received messages from some of you saying that you had an ERROR response when you tried to comment on the Safari posts. I'm not sure what is going on there; I haven't changed settings. Hopefully the problem will  be resolved. We do love reading your notes (when we have the connection to do so!)

Sunday morning we had our last game drive. We said good morning to the King of the Jungle and watched him stroll around a bit. Then we came upon a group of hyenas feeding on a kill (an unlucky wildebeest). We watched for about 30 minutes as they fed. Two jackals also circled, trying to sneak in while the hyenas were distracted. It was very interesting. I realize some will be interested in these pictures, and some will not. If you fall into the latter group, scroll down until you are past the red blur and take comfort that there won't be bloodshed in heaven.

Madeline especially liked the jackal. The kids thought it bore some resemblance to our dog Dottie.

Our fantastic driver Cosmas.
He has been doing this for about 18 years. On one of our drives, I asked him what some of his favorites things/scenes are that he has seen/experienced. He answered, "Cats. I love cats."
As I thought back to the amazing lions we had watched earlier that day, Cosmas added, "I love my cat at home. He comes and sits in my lap when I sit down." Fortunately on other game drives, he had shared some of the sights he's seen which were more in my line of thinking.

John’s most exciting sighting of the day actually came before the drive. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that our wake-up calls Saturday and Sunday mornings came at 6am when a kind attendant brought a tray of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate to the tent (FYI, a large majority of our family are not morning people).

Anyway, we were getting ready and John, in particular, was dragging. We were supposed to be at the front circle for pick-up at 6:30am. David and the girls headed toward the lobby a little earlier while I attempted to move John along. Meanwhile, the attendant came back to retrieve our tray. When John and I (eventually) came out of the tent (which was located about 50 yards from the main building), there where our walkway met the main path, sat a baboon helping himself to our drink tray which apparently had been set on the ground.

The baboon paid no attention to John and me (I had been told they are not afraid of women and children b/c we do not typically carry war clubs), but he did look over his shoulder several times to make sure no one else was coming before he began picking up the pots and drinking from them! John, of course, found it hysterical and before I tried to figure how we could get to the lobby, I decided I HAD to take pictures. I snapped a few (though they came out blurry) before David came walking down the path scaring the primate away. John had a ball telling everyone he saw after that all about it.

Baboons are notorious for their unruly behavior.
David wondered out loud, "What do you think a baboon on coffee would be like?"

I do realize while most people reading these stories will find them amusing, there MAY be a relative or two who will have concern over the “dangerous” points; just remember we have returned safe from the African plains and we've never been sound anyway!

Safari Part 2 (see Indescribable Post below for Part 1)

Saturday afternoon around 3:30 we headed out for our 3rd game drive. Cosmas, our safari driver and guide, had promised John we would see rhinos; we didn’t realize we would see them so “up close and personal.” There is a rhino conservation area where a group of White Rhinos are protected by a group of guards. These men follow the rhinos to protect them from poachers.

Cosmas drove us up to the group of guards and said, “Now you will have a walking safari.” One (note: one) of the men led us up a path to an area where 4 of the (very large) rhinos were grazing (about 20 yards away). As we began snapping pictures, the rhinos worked their way closer to where we were standing. We would step a little further away and snap some more pictures. At one point, the guard very calmly and politely said, “Ah, hello; this way.” He led us through a few bushes then turned and stated, “that one is aggressive; sometimes we run.” Oh, okay; good to know. Never fear, he did carry a twig to wave off the aggressive rhino should a situation arise.

Yep, there's a rhino behind us; he's pretty close, too

They seem much bigger "in person"

Grab a magnifying glass and look very closely between Madeline and Abby; you may be able to spot the protective twig

Once back in the cruiser, we saw more animals, spent several minutes observing the lions (simbas), and watched a BEAUTIFUL sunset over the savanna.

Topi - one of the many variety of gazelle found in the mara

Many times, the chorus from Chris Tomlin's "How Great Is Our God"
played in my head as background music for these amazing scenes.

Indescribable

(Written Saturday afternoon:)
Our safari experience so far has been incredible. I wish everyone had an opportunity to see God's amazing creation here. It's surreal; David and I continually look at each other and just shake our heads. I'm not sure how many times we've told the children, "What you are experiencing is an opportunity of a lifetime; something some people only dream of." And we have only been on 2 of the 4 game drives included in our stay.

There are so many posts I could do from the past 30 hours (the 4-hour road trip across the Rift Valley from Kijabe to Masai Mara; our hotel and Kenyan hospitality; the visit to a Masai Village), but I will start with the most amazing one and the one that many of the kids' friends have been waiting for: Safari Animals!

We've all seen the incredible pictures taken, but it is hard to imagine seeing those scenes personally (especially from a few yards away). 440 pictures - that's how many we've taken on our "big"camera during the 1st two game drives! Obviously I'll only be able to share a sampling.

You've heard of the Big Five (elephant, rhino, leopard, cape buffalo, lion) - so far we've seen 4 and John has been guaranteed that he'll see the 5th this afternoon. It is rare to see all 5 during a short safari stay because the leopard is very elusive, but we were fortunate to catch a view of one on the drive back to our "camp" last night (you'll understand why camp gets "these" after we do the hotel post later!)

Enough chit-chat, let's see some pictures!

SAFARI PICS - PART I

One of my favorite of the kids' quotes, "I can tell it's an African elephant because of the ears;
Ms. Tiffany taught us that."

Tembo is swahili for elephant

The Masai Mara is an extension of the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania

Cape Buffalo (nyati)



Wildebeest Migration
There are millions of these in the Masai Mara right now

You can't see it very well in the picture, but we watched this lioness crouch and start after a pair of Wildebeests.
She gave a very half-hearted attempt though and quickly gave up.





Here she is resting after her 30 yard dash



Not sure what yawn is in swahili



Simba!
It was amazing watching this beautiful creature walk across the plain (and right past our cruiser) Saturday morning.



David snapped this great shot

Lion cub hiding in the brush. We had to crop in on the computer to get a closer shot. They were very hard to see; we never would have noticed them if our guide had not showed us.



Our most requested animal picture by friends at home:
twiga



There will be many more things to share from our wonderful weekend and hopefully those posts will come sooner than later. We are safely back in Kijabe. Thank you for your prayers for safe travel.


Abby does want to let all of their friends know the kids "absolutely, positively miss all of them."