Back from Safari

I’m in my room writing another blog entry (as opposed to a place where I have an internet connection) because I’m just so excited and can’t wait to tell of my adventures. I just got back (about 3 and half hours ago) from a safari to the Masai Mara. Oh my goodness is it the most amazing place! It is most definitely a wonder of the world. There are just so many animals, I mean so many animals. They live together so comfortably and everyone has a job in the eco-system. I’m going to try and remember the names of the animals I saw. I can tell you now that I’ve already forgotten many of the names of the birds. I saw a baboon, a jackal, 5 female lions and 6 male lions, many many elephants, countless zebra, a black rhino, several warthogs, several hippos, a lot of giraffe, a few bushbucks, a handful of elands, many buffalos (and even saw 4 male lions kill a buffalo), lots of waterbucks, lots of hartebeests, many many topi, insane numbers of wildebeests (I mean these guys where everywhere!!!), a dik-dik, many impalas, and lots of both the Thompson gazelles and the Grant gazelles, a few crocodiles, lots of vultures, black collar doves, some bird that eats bones, the beautiful lilac-breasted something or other, a couple of eagles, several varieties of weavers, a flock of guineafowl, geese, and other animals I can’t remember. Can you believe all these animals live in one place? They just sort of wander around doing their thing and the people drive around in either vans with a pop-up roof or in fancy Land-Cruisers with openings on the sides. I was in a pop-up top van. I was getting pretty good a balancing standing up while the driver (Joseph) did his best to make the bumpy road a smooth as possible. With me standing was my Maasai guide George. We bumped around and into each other many times but I did try my best not to bump into him. I have a pretty deep bruise on my right arm from hitting the side of the car so many times. The bruise is such a small price to pay for the experience I had. I can not recommend strongly enough that everyone needs to do this at some point in their lives. I so hated to leave this afternoon. I can’t wait to go back. Of the “Big Five,” the elephant, rhino, leopard, lion, and buffalo, I only missed the leopard. So when someone is ready to go let me know so I can go back and catch the leopard this time.

Other than the excitement of the game drives, I spent a lot of time resting a reading. I stayed in very comfortable tented cabins. There was some very heavy rains Tuesday afternoon and again in the evening. The cabins are so well designed and cared for that the rain was not a problem at all. I took a wonderful shower with the sounds of heavy rain pounding on the roof. This camp has 10 tented cabins and a few rooms. I had a whole tent to myself. Way more than I needed but it sure was nice. When I checked in the receptionist told not to worry for my safety as the camp had an electrified fence to keep the animals out and there were two night guards that wandered around as well. Silly me, I never thought about the animals getting into the camp. Tuesday morning I saw that elephants had crossed from the park to the other side of camp (with the fence somehow they must have gone around us) so then I believed that was something to consider. The food was all Western food and actually quite fancy. It had been a long time since I have eaten that nicely. Though honestly, I was starting to miss my simple Kenyan dishes from the YWCA. The staff were all so wonderful to me and were constantly checking to see if I was OK and enjoying myself. They’ve only been open for just over a year so I think they are looking for more word of mouth referrals so I’m happy to say Ngama Hills Tented Camp is worth looking into when considering your safari. I do honestly hope to go back there some day.

I don’t want you to think that all I’ve done is relax and have fun. Last week was an exhausting one. St. Andrews had Vacation Bible School and I was second in command for that. We had about 170 children per day and we went Monday through Saturday from 8:30-12:30 everyday. There were so many kids and we had a very tight schedule and Kenyans are not known for their time keeping so my job was mostly to run around to the six different areas every 20 minutes and tell the leaders and guides for the kids it was time to move to the next area. St. Andrews is on a hill so I was running up and down the hill I can’t tell you how many times. By Thursday people were mentioning how much weight I have lost since coming to Kenya. I was fighting a cold all week and on Wednesday I managed to develop a fever as well so they sent me to the nurse we had for the kids. A little cough syrup, a hot dog, some chips, and tea and I was back to running up and down the hill. I thought the volunteers would be annoyed to see me as I was constantly telling them to hurry up and move to somewhere but the kids and the volunteers did have a very nice week. It was exhausting for sure. I had to preach on Sunday and couldn’t muster up the energy to write my sermon until about 10 PM Saturday night. I was still writing on Sunday morning when I got to church. This time I wasn’t preaching in the sanctuary. It was District Sunday so people were supposed to have church with their elders in their districts. An elder asked me to preach for his district. It turns out that his district joined with two other districts and drove out to Hawa Children’s Home, something St. Andrews sponsors and supports. I was a bit worried that my sermon was aimed too closely at people who are members of a church too much that the boys from the home wouldn’t be interested but it seemed to work. Praise God for working in ways that I can not see, understand, or expect.

So now that I’m back in Nairobi feeling well rested and refreshed I’ll spend the next couple of days helping out with the high school version of Vacation Bible School. I also have a package to pick up from the Post Office (thank you Mom and Dad for sending goodies!!!!!!) I preach next on August 31st so I’ll spend next week working on another sermon, this time for the youth services. I meet with the Moderator tomorrow and we have some paperwork stuff to work on. (I’m loving my experience but I also want this to count for school.) Well as it seems the moderator is not in the office today so I'll drop off the paperwork for him and then head back out to Hawa Children's Home. The High Schoolers are out there with the boys right now.