Thursday was a sad day for me. Every class that I went to was another set of good-byes. And each time my students would ask when I was coming back to stay, I had to say that I didn't know. I will miss everyone at Brookhouse very much, and I really hope that I can come back again.
On Friday, Mumo drove me to the airport early in the morning. We had a very interesting conversation about strong and soft cultures. It's really quite amazing to think that Portugal held Mombasa for around 200 years, but left relatively little influence on Kenya. Whereas Britain spent just a short time in Kenya and completely altered the country permanently. He said that Kenyan culture is a soft culture like Portugal - when his family came to Canada, they had relatively little trouble adjusting because his culture is a flexible one that just adapts to the new culture that they find themselves in. I think Canadian culture is much them same - probably because we're a mix of various immigrant cultures. Anyway, it's an interesting thing to think about.
I soon hopped on a little plane to the Mara. I feel very blessed to have a flight - I hear that the barabara (road) to the Mara is very bumpy. I met all sorts of interesting people in the airport - I bumped into a Canadian who was here for research, and also heading home soon. She was missing her family at home too. The next couple I met, it was all I could do to keep from laughing. I know there are lots of very nice Americans (the lovely Julia included), but this couple was truly the stereotypical hilarious American couple. The two of them were both decked out in the funniest "safari" gear - from the shoes to the khaki vest to the fancy hat. The man worked for the army, and was telling me all about the great work America is doing in the Middle East... it didn't seem to cross his mind that anyone could perceive the US army as anything but wonderful. He talked for quite some time about how he's moving countries "forward", and finally I just couldn't smile and nod anymore, and I had to ask him what is "ahead" really?
When I arrived at the airstrip in the Mara, I met my very kind driver. He told me he was a Matatu driver for years, and has now been a guide for 20 years - and he certainly knew how to drive on the bumpy roads well! He was also very kind and knowledgeable, and helped me out with my kiswahili a bit. The airstrip isn't pavement, however, and as we were driving away, we heard a tire pop on my plane! He said there is a special airstrip for damaged planes to land in Nairobi, however, and he said they'd be alright.
At the lodge, I met all sorts of very nice people. Since it's the low season, there were hardly any guests, so I felt very spoiled, lol. There was a very nice woman, Pennina, who was also doing a student placement - she was studying tourism in Nairobi and had been at the lodge for several months on her placement. We spent a lot of time together over the weekend. I also met a very nice Maasai fellow, Lepapa, who came a long on many of our game drives. He's a naturalist, studying the different animals, and he felt very passionately about preserving the Maasai's traditional culture. He was worried that within the next century, the skills of living traditionally will be lost, and I can definitely see why he worries.
It was quite funny when I met Lepapa - he said that when he saw my name in the register, he thought my last name was Maasai and my first name was Nigerian. So it was a bit of a disappointment to find out I was Canadian, lol. Pennina and Lepapa were a lot of fun to spend some time with. They performed a dance for the guests on Saturday night, and invited me to join. lol, I was kinda the only white person in the dance, but if my name is Maasai then I must be close enough.
We had a wonderful time looking for animals. On the first day, we saw a pregnant cheetah lying in the shade, a herd of elephants, giraffe, many many impala and gazelle, a black rhino mom with her mtoto, and a lion! It was absolutely amazing to see animals who I've only ever seen in pictures. The second day, we found a whole pride of lions with their cubs, a herd of buffalo and a mother cheetah teaching her cubs how to hunt. It was so beautiful to watch the three cheetahs walk through the tall grass looking for a stray gazelle. I think the giraffe and the cheetah are my two favourite animals - they are so elegant and beautiful. I have so many pictures to share with you, but that will have to wait until I am back at the Mumo's place.
During one of the game drives, my driver, Charles, Pennina and Lepapa got on a role sharing their stories with me. It was so interesting to hear them tell the stories - they were all excellent story tellers. They pointed out a mountain called the sleeping Maasai where a warrior slept and the mountain grew into the shape of a sleeping warrior. They told me that somewhere in Kenya, there is a large snake who keeps a glowing rock in it's belly. It sets the rock in front of it at night and waits for insects to come to the light. Then it eats all the insects who come. If you can steal the glowing rock, they told me, you will be very rich and you'd never need a lamp. But it is very difficult to steal because the snake is very protective of its rock. The only way would be to take a bucket upsidedown on the end of a long stick and cover the rim of the bucket with cow dung to seal out the light. Then, you'd have to drop the bucket over the glowing rock very quickly so that the snake could not see it. They also told me about how a certain lake had been formed - I've forgotten the name of the lake. hey said that a family had lots of cows and became greedy. They decided that they had so much extra milk that they would swim in milk rather than water, so they made a swimming pool of milk. But a man nearby was upset because there were other families who were starving, and this family was wasting milk on a swimming pool, so he prayed that God would do something. While the man was sleeping, it poured rain, and the entire family was swept away except the one house where the man lived. He stepped out of his house, and everywhere he walked, there was a stepping stone until he got to the shore of the lake. I wish I could remember all the stories they told me - there were so many, and they were all very interesting.
On the second day, we drove out to a Maasai village, where they showed me how they make fire (which was quite amazing!) and how they build their houses. I met the father of the village who was 98 years old with 11 wives and many sons. As I was leaving, three of the sons were joking that I should stay. One offered 10 cows for me, another 13, and the last fellow offered 20 cows! He asked me where my father lived - if it would take 30 days? 40 days to drive the cows to him? I had to tell him that it would take a very very long time to drive cows to Canada.
On my last morning, we drove for 2 hours without finding any animals. Just as we were heading back, we passed another person who said they had found a pride of lions who had stolen a kill from a leopard who was sitting sadly in the tree. My driver was very excited, and he drove us through the craziest not frequently used path through the hills to find this. We did find the leopard and the lions - it was very exciting to see!
On the flight back to Nairobi, I met a Canadian family who was working for the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi, but unfortunately, I was too travel sick to talk. Mumo picked me up at the airport, and we dropped by their home briefly before I took a taxi out to a different airport to go to Mombasa. It was a very wobbly tummy day with two flights and two longish taxi drives, but eventually I made it to the hotel in Mombasa.
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