I believe many of you have seen safari pictures posted on the flicker site. That is the easiest way for me to post many pictures (see the site www.flickr.com/photos/lilnel65). Here is a brief "story" about the trip: The safari company we used was recommended by a PC volunteer who had gone on safari previously and all was good. The PCVs on the trip were myself, Caitlin, Charlie, and Erin(see left....sorry I can't figure out how to make the picture bigger without destroying the clarity... guess I'm not a tekkie??)We had to meet in Nairobi where the safari guy picks us and drives us to Masai Mara. We stayed at a kind of backpackers place called Upperhill Camp which was fine (kind of like staying in a dorm). The vehicle arrived early and included others who were also bound for our same "camp" in Masai Mara. One of the fringe benefits of traveling here is that you often meet travelers from all over the world. We were very lucky to get great tripmates in our safari van!
No exciting stories about trip to Masai Mara. We did have an interesting short conversation with a guy at the cashier of a kind of convenience store at which we bought bottled water. He asked us where we were from then asked which state in America. Of course, I said Virginia and he immediately said, "Oh, I'd never want to live there". That wasn't an expected response so of course we asked "kwa nini?" (why?). He said, "Because Lorena Bobbitt lives there." Of course, Erin and I laughed and Caitlin (who is mid 20s) said, "Who is that?". Then he continued to tell us that he'd love to live in Utah because there you can have more than one wife (polygamy is still much practiced in parts of Kenya). Needless to say, none of us thought we'd be thinking about Lorena Bobbitt on this trip. If you want to see more pictures you can go to the flickr site that I gave above. There is also a video of a lion that walked right next to our van...that was pretty cool.
THE REST OF AUGUST -- Well, not much to tell. We had a PC Workshop at a nice sea lodge in Mombasa (Severin Sea Lodge). The meetings were okay but most of the volunteers loved the food and hot showers! I went home after that for a few days (to give my students some work to do) and now I am in Nairobi (first week of September) to help with planning for the next education group that arrives in October. I've been having lots of computer issues, so I am trying to keep up with posts, etc... but it's hard to do at times. I'll try to post some more pictures of school and students on the flickr site (maybe this week?). God bless!
