Safari Day 3: Maasai Mara

Last night it rained pretty badly on our campsite, and Jamii and I were sharing a tent. Most of the stuff in our tent got pretty wet, including us. But, that's OK -- it was an interesting experience.

After breakfast, we did the five hour drive to our new location, which is Maasai Mara. This is a huge area owned by the tribe of Maasai people, who are traditional herders. They still live in this way, and their land is apparently protected from the government. They are one of the tribes in Africa who alter their appearance to be more beautiful. For this tribe, they stretch their earlobes to be as long as possible.

On the drive through their territory, we saw some of the same animals as before, just hanging out on the savannah. We saw herds of zebras and gazelles, along with two new animals: ostriches and wildebeests.

Our new campsite is in "permanent tents," which means concrete slabs, large tents, and actual beds. But still no electricity, and the camp is hidden among trees and bushes in the middle of this valley. After we unpacked the van and had afternoon tea, we headed out to find some animals.

This time we saw an elephant crossing the road almost right in front of us! That means that we've hit four of the "Big 5" so far. We also saw more zebras and gazelles, a serval cat, and three more lions! It was one male lion with two females. Some other people told us they could see three females, but either way it was great. We were fairly close, but it was hard to see them through the very tall grass. Julius said that next month is the "great migration" of wildebeests through this area, and while they move through they'll eat all the grass.

Dinner was great again, but George (our cook) left us, and now our cook is a local Maasai man. Still, they make "Western" food for us to eat. I'd love to try some authentic African food, but I guess that will have to wait until Rwanda.

After dinner we all spent about an hour sitting around the campfire, and we ended up talking about Kenyan politics and law, and then comparing Kenyan and U.S. economics, such as real estate. It was great to hear Stan's perspective on economics. This kind of conversation is exactly why the McCorkle Fellowship is valuable; we all get to gain from the experience by having colleagues from different backgrounds here.

It was another exciting day. We've all been saying that it feels like we've been here at least a week, instead of only three full days.