Over the past couple weeks I have enjoyed Kenya more and more! I am really getting used to the people and the culture. I am happy to say that I am finding myself able to speak more Kimaasai dialect every day, unfortunately, no Kiswahili. I have gotten to know each of my students a lot better as well. They are very sweet children and I am going to miss them all a lot!
Maasailand is extremely dusty during the dry season! All of my clothes are covered in a layer of dust/dirt and I wash my feet, face and hands EVERY time I come home. I primarily use two forms of transportation; a matatu and a picky-picky. A matatu is a type of truck that drives along several routes and picks people up to sit in the back. It's cheap, but slow. A picky-picky is a motorbike that is used as a taxi. It is fast, but the ride is VERY bumpy and they are known to fall over. Luckily, none of mine have fallen over yet, but I have almost fallen off!
I have quite a big family here. It definitely keeps things interesting, and they are all very good to me. There are 7 people not including me: Coco (my mom), Grace and Jackson (her children), Virginia (her grandaughter), Oloshorua and Samuel (boys hired to help manage the land), and Jon (a boy who lives with us and goes to school nearby). Virginia is 2 and a half, and an adorable, crazy ball of energy! Besides the family, all of our animals are constantly giving birth. In the last week we have had 2 calves, 4 puppies, and 5 kittens!
As for food, we typically eat; rice, potatoes, ugali (a floury and spongey sort of bread) and getheri (mashed beans). Every once in a while we may get chicken, beef, or eggs. The food is pretty basic, but it's filling. My favourite Kenyan treats are Chapati (fried dough) and Mandazi (deep fried dough).
This past weekend, I travelled North in Kenya to the rift valley, where Lake Naivasha, Mt. Longonot and Hell's Gate National Park are all in very close proximity. First, I visited Mt. Longonot, which is a giant crater that used to be an active volcano. It took us (another volunteer and myself) a 45 minute steep climb to reach the rim. From there, we could look down into the crater, as well as look back and see open grasslands and Lake Naivasha in the distance. It was beautiful! Later we took a boat ride of Lake Naivasha, where we saw pelicans, fish eagles, hippos and a number of other birds. At first, our boat got very close to the hippos, but when one started to swim towards us we had to keep our distance since they are very aggressive and powerful enough to tip the boat. Finally, we visited a wildlife sanctuary where we were able to get very close to zebras, wildebeest, waterbuck antelope and giraffes!
The next day, we visited Hell's Gate National Park, which is the location that was the inspiration for the Pride Land in the Lion King. The National Park has a lot of red rock formations, wildlife and a deep gorge. We went down into the gorge and explored waterfalls, hotsprings, and "the devils bedroom" (sort of like a cave). My favourite part of Hell's Gate was seeing warthogs (aka Pumba). They were VERY hard to get close to, but they certainly were as funny-looking as I expected they'd be!
At the end of this week, I leave Maasailand to begin my backpacking tour. I will head south to Tanzania, then Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Should be quite an adventure!
