Safari

I just got back from my first African safari in Tsavo East National Park. We left Saturday morning and got back this evening. It was a veryyy cool experience! We saw so many different types of animals - giraffes, zebras, dik diks ("Richard Richards" as my car calls them), elephants, lions, gazelles, cheetahs, impalas, camels, water buffalo, waterbucks, warthogs, cape buffalo, baboons, antelopes, crocodiles, hippos, other monkeys, birds with beaks, vultures, ostrich, and a lot of other things. (They loved to come out to see us when we played Circle of Life on our iPhones with our homemade speaker - a water bottle with the bottom cut off. Works like a charm.)

We rode in a van with a roof that opens up. Unfortunately, our roof didn't raise as high as the others and we all have several bruises to show for it.

At one point we watched a cheetah prepare to kill it's dinner.. Unfortunately, again, too many other cars stopped to do the same which made a lot of noise... And since cheetahs have more patience than we do, we didn't actually get to see the attack.

Earlier this morning we watched several lions circle around some zebras and gazelles... We couldn't figure out which ones they were going to hunt but it was interesting to watch and try to figure out their tactics. At one point they disappeared into the grass... That was a little frightening to know there were 5 lions around but we could only spot one.

Perhaps the coolest part was when there was a lion within a couple yards of us... Or when the elephant got mad at Jerry and walked over to where he was and pulled its tusks up. Actually, there were a lot of cool parts now that I think about it. Too many to name.

On our way home we stopped by a Masai village to see what it was like. A few interesting things: elephant dung seemed to be used in and for everything, there is one "Papa" - that is the chief- and he had 9 wives (the whole village is one family), in order to marry a man must first kill a lion and present the head to his future wife's family, they either go outside of the village to marry or just stick within the family, they are good jumpers, nothing is free... Even in a little Masai village, the kids like to see themselves on the video camera, and they have creepy tour guides who rest their heads on you while you take pictures.

I was sad, I forgot my phone for when I went into the village or I would post a pic of all my precious little children friends. I almost made it onto the bus with one of the babies...

Anyway, it was great! Tomorrow we start back at Tawfiq Hospital!

Here are some pics I was able to get on my phone: