Masai Mara

4/30/07 - morning

Before I went to Kenya I had no idea about what a safari entailed...I figured we might see a few animals. I bought a Kenya bird book, just in case. I really wasn't prepared for the "Mara" as they call it in Kenya. It is a National Wildlife Preserve in Kenya at the northern end of the Serengeti Plain in Tanzania -- not that big of an area but oh my, what a place!

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning - a bird was singing beautifully in the night. I never did see what it was, but I didn't go back to sleep, either. I finally got up and got dressed and went downstairs to email home -- 40 minutes to log on, read email, send one email to family and that was it. Slow, slow, slow. Boy are we spoiled by high speed internet. After breakfast, we were off to the airport -- Joseph was there at 7:30 sharp and it took us nearly an hour to get to the airport. Only six of us are going on this part of the trip, Norm, Kerry, Gloria, Tom and Teri and myself. As I told several of my friends before I left, I couldn't go to Africa and not see large ungulates (biologist joke -- I think I used it before, oh well, too bad).

The plane was a small "Twin Otter" type, about 14 seats, you nearly had to double in half to get on. Gloria and I sat in the back row, by the door. Kerry climbed into the seat next to the pilot. Now, my sister's ex-husband was a pilot and they had a small plane when I was a little girl, and we went on many excursions -- for some reason, I feel very secure in a small plane, flying doesn't seem such an affront to nature as the big planes are, but Teri and Gloria were not as sanguine about the trip as I was. As we took off, I noticed that Gloria was hyperventilating (first step to a panic attack) and I told her to take some deep breaths and she did pretty well after that. The trip was uneventful, beautiful views of the Rift Valley and small villages on the plain.

The duty free shop and the airport terminal were quaint to say the least, a couple of shacks in the middle of nowhere (I will add my pictures if I can find them) -- we were met by Alex, our driver, who was another one who was "one" with his vehicle, a 10 passenger Toyota Land Cruiser.

We drove a few minutes to Keekorok Lodge -- one of the first safari lodges built in the area -- a truly beautiful place, were dropped off and instructed by Alex to be back out front by 4 pm. Well, we settled into the rooms and since it wasn't time for lunch yet, we went for a walk around the grounds. There is a marshy area to the west of the compound (which has no fence by the way, more about this later), which has a raised walkway, and several seating areas, where you can relax and observe animals. I had taken a picture of a giraffe taking a snooze under an acacia tree within a few minutes of arriving, and there was a beautiful impala close by.

A few minutes later, Gloria comes up with none other but a Maasai warrior in tow. His name is Joel Moseka Ole Nchoe (Ole Nchoe means "son of Nchoe" - his father's name). Moseka is his Maasai name and Joel is his Christian name. We had found a Maasai warrior who had converted to Christianity a year ago and wants to be a preacher -- he works at the Lodge to earn money so he can go back to school. A girl who visited the lodge gave him a Bible and he read it and decided this was the truth. He's 26, married to a girl named Mary, and has two sons, 2 yrs old and 1 yr old. And he has an email address! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to him, and he was very interested in where we were from and what we were doing in Kenya. We told him about our trip to see the children and he was very moved by their plight -- we found out later that AIDS is not common among the Maasai, because they do not usually go out from their own tribe, but he identified with the orphans since many children and their parents die from malaria. The lodge hired him to keep away the wild animals -- he carries his stick and club with him all the time. He wore many bracelets and chokers and a special one that his wife had made for his wedding. He finally said goodbye for now as it was lunchtime, but we would see him many times in the next two days.

The walk and the small copse of trees by the boardwalk are also home to a troop of vervet monkeys. We were warned not to get too close and to never have any food on us, as they will attack. I watched a few of them play.

Lunch and as a matter of fact, all the meals were more like a cruise ship than a lodge. It was a nice change from the sameness of chapatis and stew from last week, but the excess was a bit much. I really enjoyed the fruit and vegetables though...Norm had a big sundae...it was good. Kerry usually had cheese and crackers and had trouble getting the right amount -- either there was too much cheese and not enough crackers or vice versa -- it always entailed another trip to make it turn out even!

We relaxed until it was time for our afternoon game ride.