SAFARI

    I'm skipping through our second week here...it was not much different from the first: played with the kids and did some odd jobs around the compound! but on friday morning we got to take a trip to do a safari! we took a little plane further east to the masai mara national reserve. (you literally land on a strip of gravel in the middle of this wild life park, its amazing!) Right after landing we met our driver, Jackson, who's a complete gem and went straight into our first "Game ride." When we were done they showed us to our rooms...we stayed in tents, but were in no way roughin it! And the meals were amazing...multiple courses of gourmet meals (and no ugali!). The next morning we woke up early and went on a game drive,this was by far my favorite drive! for one thing, we had been traveling with two guys from rafiki, who are GREAT, but they had decided to go on a hot air balloon safari, so it was kinda nice to ride with just the girls! second, Jackson was in his best form...we felt like we were jurassic park or riding a roller coaster-we were bouncin all over the place in a huge jeep, no seat belts, no sides! (in fact there was a point in the trip where the road got soo rough, and i was in the back getting the worst of each bump, that i literealy flew out of my sit and hit my head on the top of the car, when i landed my pants split nearly all the way from top to bottom! haha)

   the reason for this crazy adventure, jackson explained, was that there had been a siting of a pride of lions and he wanted to catch them before they left...well we caught them alright...we were literally right in front of them, 5 feet away, as they passed by our jeep! im not usually one for going on and on about scenary or nature, but you would never believe how majestically these lions walked or how beautiful they were!

    came back for breakfast then went on a walking tour of one of the masai villages! We got to dance with the masai warriors (which ended up being mostly us just hunched over laughing out of embarassment!) we also got to sing with the women of the village and tour a hut.

     This is where the tour became an eye opener...the hut couldnt have been much bigger than an average persons bathroom. it had 2 beds (one for kids, one for the parents) that were made of sticks covered with some kind of hyde. the walls of the hut were made with sticks and cow dung and were not high enough to stand up completely straight. Other than the beds, there was only a bench along the wall and a small fire pit between the beds....no bathroom, no kitchen...no anything!

while sitting with our tour guide, julius, we began to ask him questions about living in a masai tribe...his insight astonished us! he told us that they ate milk, blood and meat (although meat was a rare occasion) and that if they got hungry they'd eat these little berries that he claims were very filling, but tasted to us like cotton! He also said that the masai men are allowed many wives...and that usually the more cattle you have, the more wives you have. He went on to explain that the jumping incorporated into the masai warriors dance also determined parts of their love life, saying that the higher one can jump, the more girlfriends he has. i wanted to clarify "so you can have multiple wives and multiple girlfriends...all at the same time?" he laughed and assured me i had heard correctly.

In all honesty, i wasn't judging them from a biblical standpoint...or even a legal one, but the hopeless romantic in me couldn't help but wonder...do they know what it feels like to be in love with someone? it made me sad thinking that they might not!

After the village tour, we ate lunch, took a nap then went on our evening game ride which was beautiful...even if we hadn't seen any animals, the scenery would have been enough!

so the next morning we had our last game drive and said our goodbyes to jackson!

this is my FAVORITE video from the trip...we were trying to teach him the Hakuna Matata song from the lion king (it became our trip theme song) and so we'de randomly hear jackson sing snippets (in the wrong tune or with the wrong words) but it was the sweetest thing EVER!