Donations received, Emily arrives, and a Safari- "Katrina Style"!

Prior to Christmas Day Dana and I went to the grocery store to purchase items for the New Life Home Trust Orphanage. With all of your support, we managed to raise over $1000 !!!

We had 4 shopping carts full of goods and transferred everything in boxes via taxi. Thanks once again for your support and I am sending something "special" to each of you that helped this cause!! It was a memorable Christmas for the Orphanage and everyone was so appreciative of the support from their friends in Canada and the U.S.

.............................

Emily arrived on Christmas Day and since then we have been going non stop! Dana and I hosted a wonderful Christmas supper, which included a turkey, pre-ordered from the neighborhood butcher. Festivities lasted into the morning and I think everyone felt comforted by friends when family was not around for the holidays.

Although jet lagged, Emily was a trooper and let me take her around Nairobi the next couple of days. We went to the Giraffe Centre, shopped, and also went to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage. The Elephant Orphanage was great! The center was featured on 60 minutes and ABC World News and as a result has become a huge tourist destination. They take in baby orphaned elephants. You can pet them and watch them being fed- it was a GREAT experience!!

...............................

Now on to describe the BIGGEST adventure yet- the Safari!! Warning: when the local news and your journalist friends suggest that you do NOT go to the Masai Mara due to heavy rains... pay attention to them.

The trip included the following people: Myself, Emily, Dana, Martin, and Jimmy. We left Nairobi on Dec 29 at 10:30 am and began the 8 hour drive to the Masai Mara. To let you know how poor the roads are- the Masai Mara is only 400 km away and yet it took us 8 hours to arrive in the Mara. The first night we arrived it was raining- as indicated by all of the news channels in Kenya. We stayed in small cabins and prepared ourselves for the next day's game drive.

The next morning we awoke to more rain but were assured that this would not ruin our safari- they were right! We had the MOST INCREDIBLE day! We saw 27 lions, 50 some elephants, a leopard, buffalo, giraffes, zebras, etc. It was incredible. We also had the opportunity to visit a Masai village- it was great! We saw their huts, watched them dance, and chatted with them about their lifestyle. Very interesting. Dana, Emily, and I quickly realized that we were useless as potential wives because we did not have cattle, goats, or crops.

As you will be able to see by the pictures we were about 10 feet away from the lions and it was absolutely amazing. Once the rains cleared up, we got stuck in mud and had to be towed out by the other large vehicle travelling with us- this was just the first of many tows to happen. In order to visualize the safari experience, you must take a look at my photos (234 in total).

That evening we all went to bed by 9:00 pm, you would be surprised how much safari-ing tires you out. At 12:30 am, we were awakened by the Safari guide "Ladies- the river is getting out of hand, you need to pack everything in 5 minutes and be in the truck". We madly packed and when we got outside, realized that the river level had come up to our cabin's porch. We immediately got into the truck and we were all told that we would now go sleep in tents on higher ground. So we get into the tents, fell asleep, and at 3:30 am the guide says, "Ummm... excuse me... the river is getting out of hand". At this point I wanted to scream "out of hand?!? it's frickin' Katrina all over again!!" But I remained calm, as I trudged through the river that now came up to higher ground and once again we were all in the truck. This time... to sleep. We all slept in the truck.

The next morning we awoke to a flooded camp. (See pictures)

We had coffee and some breakfast and were then told that the ONLY bridge to cross the river so that we could make our way back to Nairobi was severly flooded. The safari guides drove us to the bridge so we could wait there (see video). That was Dec 31 and we were able to see the beautiful sunset to cap off 2006.

They said we would be on the road in a couple of hours. That was at 8:00 am and at 7:30 pm we finally were able to cross, with water still splashing over the bridge. The driver had to go full speed over the bridge (terrifying) so that he would not get stuck in mud... thankfully we made it across. So the next plan was to go camp by the Masai Mara gate entrance. We would set up tents and sleep there... New Years Eve 2006 was spent watching the stars over the Savannah and falling alseep at 11:30 pm (exhausted from only 10 hours of sleep in 2 days).

At 4:00 am, we were awakened by Martin and Jimmy screaming in their tent because a mouse was crawling into Martin's sleeping bag. Poor guy :( They finally got it out, and then one hour later we were awakened by the safari guides so that we could start our way back to Nairobi.

As we left the Masai Mara on Jan 1, 2007 we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise- it was incredible and really an amazing way to start off the New Year.

A couple of hours into the ride back to Nairobi we were once again stopped because another bridge had semi-collapsed and a tractor was stuck in the middle of the bridge. GRREEEATTT. We were prepared for another adventure and after waiting for one hour we finally made it across.

We arrived back in Nairobi at 3:30 pm and it felt great to shower and rest. All in all I can say it was a great trip!! We all had some great laughs and felt like we had survived the Masai Mara Flood of 2006. It was a memorable end to 2006 and a beautiful start to 2007!!

For more pictures check out the albums at : http://amandakenya.shutterfly.com

For the Flood Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRH0B7qqJkM