Day 11: The great Samburu

Today we braved our sickness and headed to Samburu. We tried to be so brave and pretended it was Chelsey’s birthday all over again. It was an adventurous two hours to get to Samburu. The drive was just beautiful; along the road were tribal men, women and manyattas. It felt like something out of one of the great Kenyan novels. Our lodge was perfect and that day we had lunch looking over a riverbed and a heard of unruffled elephants. There is something so magical about the bush and wildlife. A new respect and appreciation for nature is reborn every time I visit the bush. It killed me to hear statistics on wildlife numbers in Kenya over the past twenty years. There are no rhinos in Samburu

Day 10: Chelsey’s Birthday

Sick 

Day 9: Flagyl

Never take Flagyl unless, I don’t know, it’s the last option on earth. After a breakfast at Dormans Chels and I had obviously eaten too much and felt a little nauseous. We went to the pharmacy and being as ignorant as we are sometimes, we asked the pharmacist for something to assist nausea and vomiting to make sure we didn’t feel sick for the night before her birthday.  He gave us the dreaded box; it was a dose of four big pills. We had a sleep and woke up feeling ok. We then had a cocktail with dinner and went off for a night of karaoke and the lunar eclipse. Well let me just tell you… After just two drinks I could feel my body ready to reject everything. Peterson, who came to join us for the night, rushed me back to the house, my head hanging out the window and his speedometer on 120kmph on potholed roads. I felt so bad leaving Chels but I got home and nearly died. I was so sick. I crawled into the bed and lay there shivering, so sick I couldn’t think. Chels came in just after the eclipse and collapsed in the same state as me. She ran to the bathroom and her illness only spurred on mine. We shared bathroom breaks praying to feel ok. It was horrible. We woke up to find out we had been poisoned. 

Day 7: Artistic portrayal

This Sunday in Kenya we spent at a Lilly Pond. We arrived and followed a story about elephants and bees. This exhibition was a portrayal of nature and humans and how they can work together to eradicate conflicts between them. In Kenya elephants have become problematic in terms of eating crops and killing vegetation. Before, harsh methods were used to keep the elephants away. Going back into the history of elephants, they have always been afraid of bees.  Farmers have now developed new methods that increase the population of bees as well as keep the elephants out of their crops. The artist managed to capture the story in a colourful and energetic light. We then spent the rest of the day watching Kenyan plays under the warm African sun.

Day 7: Artistic portrayal

This Sunday in Kenya we spent at a Lilly Pond. We arrived and followed a story about elephants and bees. This exhibition was a portrayal of nature and humans and how they can work together to eradicate conflicts between them. In Kenya elephants have become problematic in terms of eating crops and killing vegetation. Before, harsh methods were used to keep the elephants away. Going back into the history of elephants, they have always been afraid of bees.  Farmers have now developed new methods that increase the population of bees as well as keep the elephants out of their crops. The artist managed to capture the story in a colourful and energetic light. We then spent the rest of the day watching Kenyan plays under the warm African sun.

Day 6: A wild encounter

The first Saturday in Kenya and Chelsey and I are headed into the wilderness. Ol Pedjita conservancy an hour from Nanyuki town. Being in a bright red X-Trail has proved to e somewhat amusing. Like in Spain the bull, in a heft of fury slammed his angered body toward a small red cloth. Did I mention we had a big red X-trail and we were headed into high-density buffalo, black rhino and elephant terrain? I, as the driver, was on full alert! The conservancy has a captive blink black rhino, Baraka. He was nearly killed in a hierarchal battle with another dominant male. He can’t survive without the help of humans.  We fed Baraka with our human hand; his prehistoric mouth enjoyed every bite. On the same land we saw, in the distance, a cheetah with two cubs and a fresh kill. On our way out of the reserve a lioness popped her perfectly chiseled head out of the nearby shrubbery and used the road around our car as a catwalk.

Day 5: The road less travelled

We have adopted Peterson as our safe guard and our translator. He is a gentle giant.  There is nothing “nice” about a dry, long, sand road. There is something magic when a figure in the distance is slowly walking towards you on the same dusty road. The figure got clearer and it was an old man, dressed in his best suit and tie, which was torn and shaggy. He has broken shoes with no socks and skin covered in itch.  We stopped the wise old man to ask where we could find the elder of the village we were we headed to. He looked at us, summing up our intentions. He made a decision that our visit was of more importance than the reason he was wearing his Friday best. How is it possible that two Mzungu girls and a Peterson were more important than his ceremony? How important must we have been to these people? The answer only came when we were introduced to the head woman of the village; again she looked at us, almost as if she was looking straight into our souls. She sat us down on an old wooden plank and we calmly explained that we come in peace, empty-handed but with full hearts. Again we realized our importance when the very women who had no food to feed hungry children, offered us four eggs from their cooped chickens in regret for having no tea as an offering. Incredible. As we continued on the dusty road we were greeted with applause and a magnitude of handshakes and smiles.  The school had an energy like no other, it was almost as if one could feel the excitement of every child before we even entered the gates. We went through the grades and got serenaded by each child as they grew from babies into eager teens. Then we took the same dusty road back towards civilization, where it rains and people eat.