Into the wild (complete with wine, hippos and petite airplanes.)

Safarisafarisafarisafariiiiiiiii

Fun fact: Safari means journey in Kiswahili. (despite my ability to completely grasp the language, I do know a few things, or should I say kidogo [which means some])

Anyway,

Safari last weekend was amazing. Completely amazing. Kenya never ceases to amaze me with it’s indescribable beauty. Maasai Mara is breathtaking. I sat in awe at every turn because of the striking landscape. Nairobi is not an unattractive city – however I do not think it is a fair representation of the country.

Anyway, Abie, my parents (delightful) driver came to pick me up around 8 on Friday and we began our 5 hour drive. It was very foggy and rainy – so we couldn’t really see much while we left Nairobi, but once we began driving through the Rift Valley, the scenery became clearer.

The last 80 km of our carried was bumpy, to say the least. But we had been warned previously and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. However, I think Mary and Jay were surprised at the beating these vans can take – cars are built for Africa. Extra suspension, nothing underneath the car (because it would be ripped off) and the vans can drive on anything.

 Once we made it to the Simba Lodge, we had a delicious lunch (there was brie!! BRIE! you have no idea how much i miss cheese, it is actually painful how much i miss it)

After that, we rested for a bit, then went on our first safari!! We saw lions, impala, some awesome birds. 

I wish i could write more eloquently about what we saw - but the pictures will bring it all to light.

Then we had dinner, where we were surrounded by a bunch of huge indian families and british tour groups (british people are interesting little ppl). While we ate, we were entertained by some Maasai dancers - very wazungu, but the dancing and singing was really cool to watch -- and they can jump outrageously high! 

Our days were full of safari and relaxing, which is exactly what I needed. Sometimes when you are bombarded by never ending projects, walking away from them and getting some fresh air allows you to return to the papers with a renewed work-ethic.

My parents continued their trip through the bush on Monday and I was taken to the airport. I had this huge, open air land rover to myself, so I looked like a little princess being driven around the bush - but it happens. I got to see a leopard (completing the Big 5! lions, elephants, water buffalo, leopard and rhino). And then we ventured over to see the wild dogs - which hadn't been seen for 6 years! So that was very exciting. You know it is a big deal when the guide takes pictures. 

Anyway, then I went to the airport - it was more an air strip. a dirt air strip. And apparently it was also the place for europeans on safari to go for a smoke. I flew on a very, very light, petite plane. but i survived. on the second leg - we picked up a bunch of Danes, and two of them threw up once we landed in Nairobi. Needless to say I was thrilled that I opted for lighter breakfast fare that morning. 

Upon my return, I could no longer ignore the impending amount of school work that had to be done. and after 5 days of hell -- IT IS OVER!! YAY!! 

We have been having constant rolling black outs, which is not conducive for paper writing or studying, but it all turned out okay. We went to bed super early a lot and then woke up early. When in Africa. 

My parents came back Thursday afternoon - so we went out to dinner and caught up. They said they had a great time in the rest of the bush - and you'll have to ask them to fill you in on all of their fun adventures! 

Now that we are done with our work - we are planning weekend trips, seeing that we only have three free weekends. I will be spending one in Rwanda and one in Uganda! I am beyond exciting - I am going to go white water rafting on the Nile - badass, right?

But on Tuesday, I leave for rural week. We go to western Kenya for three days and stay at home stays. I am staying with an older couple, I am very excited. 

Picture time!! 

baby monkeyyyy

The best parents in the entire world! Dr. Jaybo and Mary

Asians on Safari. The best kind of Asians

hello friend

did you know that giraffes have the longest tail in the animal kingdom?

did you know that giraffes only sleep 20 mins a day?

favorite picture of the trip

nom nom nom nom

oh hello little plane. i am going to travel in you.

out of africa, bitches. 

10,000 shillings means 100 dollars, Dad

The good Dr. Jay and Mary are in Kenya!!

And they are white as ever.

Not that anything is wrong with that. I intern all day on thursdays, so they were able to stop by my internship, though their driver got lost, and pop in and see me! The ladies loved meeting them!

However, prior to my parents arriving, i had an incredibly interesting conversation with Maggie and another women, Fillipa, from Eritrea with whom i was working with. We talked all afternoon about the status of refugees and immigration and the government in Kenya. People who live here have so much to say. They want exactly the same thing we want, a better life. And they know they are being shafted. Maggie asked me "why Africa -- why not you."

For the frist time was this question directly posed to me. It sucked, because I am use to replying -- i don't know. But i am not used to replying "i don't know" to an african.

It isn't fair. It isn't even kind of far. In fact, it really fucking sucks (pardon my language, my dad is going go be mad...)

Speaking of my dad. The adorable Dr. Kiefer -- tonight, he bought TWO bottle of 100 dollar wine -- thinking it was 10 dollar wine -- shillings are tricky, but not that tricky. The wine was delicious. I have been drinking a far amount of 300 shilling (3 dollar) box wine, so this was an incredible change. He doesn't even buy that in the US -- it was 5 times that amount of money our meal was - at least the rest of Kenya is cheap.

I am so happy they are here. Even in the midst of midterms and term papers, they make everything a little bit better. Parents are good like that. They know exactly when their little ducklings need them. And even though i am a pretty big duckling - i still have enough yellow fluff that i need them to swoop in at the right time.

I bought (well, my wonderful grandma bought me) a beautiful quilt today, I love it. It has a lot of reds and blues and pinks and reds and whites, it is amazing. It is one of those pieces that I will be able to tell the people in my life that "i bought this while i studied abroad in Kenya" which is nice to be able to portray my experience in a cozy blanket.

We are off the safari tomorrow! I am incredibly excited. Despite the amount of work I have to do (which is plentiful) it will be very nice to get out of the city and have an adventure. Breaks are important -- and it has been stressful the last few weeks,

We havn't had power, on and off, for around 3 days, nor have we had water for the last one or 2 -- that's rough when you are in the throws of midterms -- welcome to Kenya!

Anyway -- i will get better at updating this. I promise.

Always

Laura

And then the door on the matatu wouldn't open...

Habari Yako!!

Sorry it has been so long. Not going to lie, my life has been less than exciting these past few weeks. Classes are in full swing and on top of having school work to start doing, we started our internships!

Thus far, I really enjoy Amani ya Juu. The women I get to work with are incredible and I have been able to do some interesting things. The first day they had me sew some things, so I could get a feel for some of the things the ladies do there. None of the women thought I could sew. They made fun of me while I was setting up my sewing machine. However, thanks to Mary Kiefer (and my 7th grade sewing teacher) I surprised them all! I got hugs the rest of the day. I think I earned a lot of respect because of that, so that is nice.

I have already bought a few things from the store - I imagine that is where the majority of my presents will be coming from. I like it because not only do I know the women who are making them, I also know that the money is going towards a good cause.

The good news is that the USIU death trap bus has yet to kill me. It did hit a car the other day - so we had to offload in the middle of the highway, and Quinn S almost got flattened by a dump truck. But, I have lived another day. That same day our matatu door wouldn't open. It was troubling. LUCKILY I have come up with a plethora of worst case scenario strategies: like, if the matatu door won't open, you open the window and crawl out of that (this is why it is imperative that you get a window seat or a seat by the driver). The USIU bus is more tricky - a window seat is good, but sitting towards to front of the bus is best - seeing that there are no emergency exits and the windows don't really open that well.

Anyway - I have yet to need any of those, so it is all good.

Today we traveled outside of Nairobi to go on a "nature walk" (it was a hike) and to the Kitengela glass factory. The hike was a ton of fun. We were able to get some pent up energy out, climb on some rocks - enjoy beautiful weather and fresh air. It was probably around 80 degrees - so we all lathered sunblock on and enjoyed the occasional cool breeze.

hiking/braving rocks

still hiking

picture of people taking pictures

so beautiful

We visited a little Maasai village where they danced for us and taught us about their tribe. It was unclear whether they were living there legally because they were on private land. In Kenya, no one can really go on a hike alone - you always have a guide and usually a security guard of sorts. I like to think that this is how VIP's feel all the time.

Nyos dancing with the Maasai. LOOK at that vertical leap.

Then we hiked to Kitengela glass factory. However, first we had to adventure across this:

scary bridge -- however it is decorated by blown glass from the factory! so it is v. pretty

bridge from the other side. we had to go back over it after the glass factory
dun dun duuunnnnnn

Steven is happy we survived.
:yay!:

Kitengela had beautiful pieces and all of their work is made from recycled glass from around Kenya! Sustainable art! 

Glass champagne flutes

gorgeous light fixture

stained glass window in the store

Following the glass factory, we braved the bridge again - and finally settled down for lunch and some swimming (for some people). It was great to lounge by a pool and get to relax outside - something we don't get to do very often in Nairobi. 

Hopefully there won't be as large of a gap between my next post. Miss you all 

Safari Njema