Safari

My safari trip began with a ten hour bus drive on an un-airconditioned, crowded bus (truly going rustic) to Nairobi where we spent the night before continuing on the rest of our journey. Nairobi is a much larger city than any I have been to here so far, but it still was under developed. People were just as forward about asking for money on the streets as they are in the villages and taxi drivers competed for attention and costumers. We didn't venture too far from the hotel, which we paid ten dollars a night for, and got a pretty decent meal a block away and went to buy treats for the ride at the kenyan super market, Naku Mat. On the way home though, when we stopped in Nairobi again, we were able to check out the local market which was huge and had some really cool trinkets and delicacies. The second leg of the trip, from Nairobi to Masa Mara was eight hours, another long trip on bumpy, dusty roads. Once we finally arrived, we drove through the Massai village, which we later got to explore, in order to arrive at our accommodations: a series of canvas tents with two beds each in them, attached to bathrooms, with running water and electricity from 7pm-11pm. Theres also an outdoor restaurant here where we ate breakfast and dinner, overall exceeding my expectations. We arrived just in time to go on a sun set game drive and saw the first animals of the weekends. Right away we were able to spot zebras and antelopes and even lions and jaguars. On the way in we even saw a series of elephants walking together. A successful two hour drive. The next morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and spent the entire day in the park. We saw more of the above, but also got a chance to see giraffes, hipos, a variety of birds, wildabeasts, and more. I felt as if the animals had been placed there for our viewing rather than in their natural habitat. There were several times when the animals grazed the van. On the way back to the hostel, we stopped in the massai village and were taken on a tour and shown the typical male dance. Their culture is very interesting: they believe in polygamy and one must buy their wives with cows, and their work ethic is unparalleled but what struck me was that this whole tour and insight into their culture was a small scam. We each paid 10 USD to enter which is fine because their village definitely needed the help, but as we were exiting, we were attacked by numerous villagers selling jewelry and other things. They put the bracelets and necklaces on you as you exited and when you tried to take them off to give them back if you didnt want to buy them they refused to take them back. We basically were all forced into buying at least one thing, them clearly taking advantage.
The next morning we were out on the park in time for sun rise which was beautiful. We saw more of the same animals, and after about an hour or so headed back so that we could leave early enough to make it to nairobi by night fall.
The safari was definitely an incredible experience, one of a kind, but I am glad to be back in Malindi and back at the hospital.