Safari Adventure

by Helen

On Friday morning we head out to Masai Mara for our weekend long Safari get away.  We stayed at Sopa Lodge, which was very similar to the eco-lodges that Adam and I stayed at in Central America.  The unique part about traveling in Africa is that once we were about 50 miles out of Nairobi, there were no more powerlines so most of the population does not have electricity.  Those who do, use generators.  As a result, the lodge we stayed at, was fully run on generators, which run on fuel.  So we only had water and electricity between certain hours, which was not limiting at all, but a different experience from before. 

Anyway, Friday, 4-6pm we did an evening game drive and we saw elephants, zebras, lions, lots of deer like animals, deek-deeks, giraffes and many others that I can’t really remember.  It was stunning to drive through Africa and looking around.  I am ashamed to say it, but I definitely had Circle of Life stuck in my head the whole time.  Friday night we had dinner and then watched the hyenas get fed at 10pm.  The food was gone in 30 seconds and they hyenas do shriek just like they do in the Lion King.  In case you were wondering. 

Saturday, we did an all day game drive as well as visited the Masai village.  The Masai are one of the 42 tribes in Kenya.  They believe that they have a mandate to own as many animals as they can (cows, goats, pigs, etc). So traditionally, they were a very violent tribe that moves ever 7 years to a different location due to termites eating their mud huts.  There are still 10M Kenyans who live in mud huts and work the land and one of the most prominent groups are the Masai. 

In order for us to see how they live, we each had to pay 1000 shillings ($12) and they showed us their dances, how they make fire, walked us into their huts and of course took us to their market where we were asked to buy their “original work” that the created – beaded bracelets, necklaces, tooth of a lion and many others.  The representative that showed us around definitely spoke English because he attends one of the Serena Williams built schools in Kenya. 

It was definitely interesting to see how the Masai used to live and supposedly still do, but it seems that they are in a weird place.  From an outside eye, it seems that they pick and choose the parts of the past that they replicate. For example, they say that there is a village medic who cures all the sick, but in the huts, I definitely saw some vitamins and medications for kids. I also saw random tennis shoes, casio watches, etc.  So while I don’t think this was all a façade because we saw many Masai dressed people tending to the animals as we drove, it definitely wasn’t super authentic either.  I’m sure it’s a weird space to be in while trying to determine how much of modern life to accept and how much to stick to old traditions.  I personally saw a lot of similarities between the Masai in Kenya and the Amish in the US. When I get back to Seattle, I will paste some pictures of the Masai.

After our stop in the village, we went back into the park and drove around more to see more animals.  We stopped for lunch by the river where we were very much so harassed by monkeys.  FYI – monkeys really do like bananas as they stole most of our bananas out of hands and lunch boxes.  They were not that big of fans of oranges and passion fruit.  After that, we took a walk along the river and saw a crocodile and many, many hippos.  The guide who escorted us had a very large gun.  Then we got caught in the downpour and headed back to our cars. 

We finished our day with one more dusk game drive in search for leopards.  We didn’t see any, but we did see two lions get into a fight.  The girl lion was clearly not into the guy’s moves so she attacked him and he roared at her.  Then they both went back to sleep.  We also saw some lion cubs and a lion hunting a topee, but apparently the toppee is super smart and one lioness could not take the toppee on.  But it was interesting to watch.

Sunday morning 12 of us went on a hot air balloon ride over the safari.  It was an early start (3.45am wake up call) but totally worth it to see the sun rise over the savanna and animals from a very different perspective.  We saw a herd of buffalo protecting their young from hyenas that were surrounding them as well as an almost birth by a water buffalo.  Seeing giraffes and lions from up top was also pretty surreal.  It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience and totally worth it. Once we landed, we went over to a place where champagne breakfast was set up for us.  It felt a little colonial, but so does everything in Africa if you are receiving services, or so it seems.

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