Homeward Bound

We've made it to the Amsterdam airport, glorious mecca of travelers delights that it be. Our last night in Kenya was spent taking ridiculously hot showers in our "nice" hotel (the shower was lacking a shower curtain so the bathroom was soaked all night and the next morning, but damn was it grand), eating italian food that might have otherwise seemed remedial but reawakened our taste buds, drinking red wine, and watching bad tv. How i will miss the second season of the bachelor. Fortunately for me, i can find out what happens.
The next day we were charged with finishing this dopey video we were ordered to make by our research advisors. Aside from being time consuming and a royal pain in the ass, it was pretty neat to see the editing software used by the film company we found through some connections at the national newspaper. We also got to see raw footage of the weddings of many of Nairobi's finest, a couple of work banquets full of dozing and giggling employees, and sadly, a funeral for a woman with seven names.
The day ended up in one of the street markets. I really wanted a spear, since owning tribal weapons is fun and exciting, however the guy would not budge on the price and i knew damn well they could be purchased for substantially less in one of the other markets. So i'll have to get one of those next time.
After substantial negotiation involving about 6 phone calls between paul and lantei to some guy they knew that had a cab (actually maybe he has a car and likes to tell people its a cab- its hard to tell these things) we had also hired a ride to the airport. We almost got into four accidents, though only half would have been caused by our driver. Making it to the airport aubree wrestled with security a bit about sending her film through the uberXray machines they have barricading every entrance. For a country that has such limited infrastructure, they certainly have airport security figured out-we got xrayed and checked about three or four times, including right before boarding the plane.
Now we sit, doing internet activities since its ass early in the morning and we have just enough time to want to leave the airport but not enough time to actually leave the airport. Fortuntaely the duty free shops are open so if we require any chocolate or multipackls of miniature whiskey bottles, we know that we have options. And so these things go.

Masai Mara, or, We Saw Lions Doin' It

So friday ended up not really being our last night in Isinya. In typical fashion everything took about 6 hours longer than it would otherwise for no particular reason and by the time we were ready to leave for Nairobi it was way late and we decided that it would be better to drag ourselves out of bed at 5 in the am instaed. Unfortunately for the world of goats yet another one died in our honor for a grand total body count of 4. And so these things go. It was served to us cold.
Saturday morning we got dropped off at the safari company, Primetime Safaris. After the delays that we've come to expect (at least they had cartoons on in the office), we were introduced to our driver, Joe Faka (we weere informed americans get a big kick out of his last name- har), our cook, Chris, and the other person on our safari, Ravandi, a medical student from the colonial empire who had been working in western kenya doing HIV work. We were piled into our van, a slightly rattier version of the van we had been renting for work and off we went to Masai Mara Game Park. Yeehaw.
almost immediately i became convinced that joe had been a matatu driver in a former life based on ballsy and borderline insane driver maneuvers. he was gruff, of some indeterminate older age, chain smoking ciagarettes and not afraid to put his hand down on the meek horn to move cattle and other cars out of his way. he wore a green khaki safari outfit, tan loafers, and a white kangol cap that turned into a shade of dirt by the end of the trip due to all the dust blowing around in the van. joe was very knowledageable about the wildlife in the park and would proudly show us the animals in an old collier animal book. he wanted to show us as many animals as possible and informed us over a beerthat his job was to make people's dreams come true. this was in response to me asking if he liked his job or not-he said that is we were happy than he was happy, and that people have to work for their meat. i take that as a no, but its better than the other options.
The park itself is incredibly beautiful, with the sunrise and sunsets hitting at all the right angles. The first evening we arrived we saw the standard variety of gazelles, some wildebeast and zebras, adn then came the traffic jam. wondering how the hell there could be a traffic jam in the middle of a national park as we headed over, we soon discovered that the cause was lions. we saw them lying in the grass cleaning themselves and rolling about. twas quite exciting. eventually we headed to our accommodations and out of the park for the evening. some people have lots of money and stay in fancy game lodges where they serve you things and fan you and fluff your pillows. these people are not us. we stayed in a small camp site with permanent tents and some rowdy folks from northern ireland adn a family from the netherlands who didnt like germans. the food was plentiful and tahts all i'll say about that.
up early in the morning -aubree took off for a hot air balloon ride over the park, while ravandi and i headed out in the van. aubree had fun, and her ride ended up with a champagne and quishe brunch which sounded loveley, but she missed the highlight of the trip-lions eating a freshly killed buffalo, and far more rare apparently, lions gettin busy in the middle of the road. aw yea, cue the poorly synthesized 80s porn music.
all in all we saw lots of animals, tooks lots of pictures, which at my mother's request i will actually edit and remove the bad/unfocused/finger in the shot ones before posting them this time, and had a delightful adventure. unfortunately we did not get to see any leopards (they are very shy) or rhinos. next time.
coming back we have checked ourselves into a "nice" hotel, meaning toilet with running water int he room and also hot water. score. tomorrow night, tuesday. we hop a plane for amsterdam, followed by a plane ride for the homeland.

Last Day in Isinya

Today is our last day in Isinya. Tonight we are going into Nairobi and Aubree and I will stay at the safari place so tomorrow morning we can get up early and head towards Masai Mara to see some more animals, and hopefully some big cats since we will be safely in our vehicle.
This afternoon Pehninah's women's group is having another clinic for the orphans they assist. Since we have been here the number has risen from 75 to 95. THe children will have their weight checked, hearts, lungs and eyes checked, be given worming medication and vitamins and then provided with some food, blankets, and mosquito nets. The new children will also be provided with school uniforms and soap to wash them with. We will be going to help out and I will also be taking photographs to put on a website that I will make for the group when I get home. They have fundraisers through Paul's mother's church to raise money to support the orphans as well as the girls they save from being sold and send to school and the web site will be a way to communicate about those as well as about what the group is doing and who they are assisting. It should be interesting to go and see today.
After that we are going to make apple tarts (apples are very expensive and rare here) and serve them up and give people pictures that we took and show them video. We are doing this in lieu of sacraficing a fourth goat in our honor, and had to come up with something that is almost as exciting as meat. Since most people dont have cameras the only photos they get of themselves are when people like usgive them to them. Yesterday we had film and digital photos printed for this reason. THen its time to pack and head out....