Jambo!...

I meant to sit down and write on my blog this weekend after we got home from Kenya, but we were so tired that we ended up not doing much at all!  The trip was a once in a lifetime experience, and we truly enjoyed it.

We flew to Nairobi, Kenya on Sept 23 and were welcomed by our travel guide with a warm “jambo!” and “karibu!”  This means “hello” and “welcome” in Swahili, and they were very gracious hosts.  Everyone that we met was really kind and hospitable.  After napping at the hotel a bit, Brent and I visited a Masai Market and purchased a few souvenirs for family.  We found a great place for dinner and then turned in early since we had a long drive the next day.

We met up with our tour group the next morning, and our first stop after Nairobi was to see the Great Rift Valley.  The views were absolutely amazing.  It just seemed to go on for miles and miles.  After that we stopped at Lake Elementaita, where we saw flamingos and met some of the local children who wanted to sell us flowers made from the flamingo feathers.  We politely declined, but they were really sweet.  We met one of the little boys named David, and he herded the goats for his family.  I love experiencing these people from cultures so entirely different from my own.  My world is expanding exponentially on this trip!

Great Rift Valley

Painted on the wall overlooking the valley

Lake Elementaita

Lake Elementaita (flamingos in the background)

Lake Elementaita

We stayed at the Kigio Wildlife Conservancy, which was AMAZING!  It started with a great lunch and dinner at the site.  Once again, the owners were so hospitable and made our stay so nice.  They partner very closely with the Masai villages nearby.  It’s a wonderful example of community, if only they were approaching it from a Christian perspective!  They care for God’s creatures, protect the local widows whose husbands have died from AIDS by teaching them to weave and sell baskets, and take every precaution to care for the earth.  While they may not be modeling their behavior after Christ, it was a challenge to me to learn from them since they’re doing a better job of living like a Christian than I sometimes do!

Before dinner we all sat around a cozy fire and learned about the camp and conservation efforts.  My absolute favorite story from the entire trip was about a black rhino.  They’re extremely rare, and the conservancy got two of them a few years back.  The rhinos typically live to be around 40, but the male died shortly after they got him at only 5 years old.  Medical investigation showed that he had a lot of fat buildup around his heart and had actually died of a heart attack.  The conservancy probed to understand why he had so much fat around his heart.  And you know what they discovered?  This particular conservancy doesn’t have any lions.  Since there are no lions, the rhino wasn’t ever chased.  Since he was never chased, he didn't get exercise, which caused his heart attack.  I always think it’s so sad that these animals have to fear for their lives every day and be chased by enemies.  But it’s actually good for them!  Being chased is actually a form of exercise for them.  Isn’t that just like God?  What a cool story of Him using bad for good!  The camp will get another rhino soon, and this time they’ll actually use their motorcycles to “chase” him and make sure he gets his exercise.  I love it!  This reminded me of two things: (1) God always has a plan, and His ways are much higher than our ways (I would never have thought that being chased actually helped this poor creature), and (2) pruning works in a similar way in our own lives.  Just like being chased, pruning is hard, painful, and actually sometimes might even kill us.  But it keeps us sharp and close to our creator so that we don’t get “fat buildup” on our heart (i.e., sin in our lives).  Great lesson!

After dinner we loaded up into the jeeps with blankets (it was cold in the morning and night) and went for an evening game drive.  This was my favorite part.  It was our first chance to see the animals and seeing them in the dark, gracefully walking past, with nothing but a spotlight just took your breath away.  My favorite was the giraffe family, which had 5 babies with them. 

The camera didn't like the dark, but this is one of the giraffes with her babies

Back at the camp, Brent and I somehow managed to get the honeymoon suite which was straight out of a movie or something.  It was so fantastic!  The hut was right on the river, so we saw monkeys and listened to hippos down below all night. 

Early the next morning we headed out on the 5 hour drive to the Maasai Mara.  The camp there was a little more rustic, but we had our own private tent with bathroom/shower.  It was a neat experience.  We did two game drives in the Mara and saw more animals that I could possibly count.  We saw lions (and cubs!), zebra, gazelle, impala, hyenas, cheetahs, black rhinos, elephants (with babies!), hippos, crocodile, mongoose, vultures, water buffalo, wildebeest, warthogs, and tons of birds.  Brent and I both celebrated our birthdays in the Mara, and it was one of the most memorable that we’ll have I’m sure.

On the way back to Nairobi we stopped by a Masai village and saw their homes made from cow dung.  The people there were kind, and the children were precious.  It’s hard to see how difficult their lives are and how they have to live, knowing how easy my life is in comparison.  But they honestly seemed so happy and content.  The little girls sang and danced, and the boys herded their goats.  I’m sure they’d like to have more than they do, but they’re honestly probably better off than we are in a lot of ways.  Neat group of people. 

Back in Nairobi, we visited a giraffe sanctuary where we got to feed and pet them.  Oh, I loved this!  That night we had dinner in the hotel (I had an upset stomach, so we didn’t want to venture far from the hotel).  We spent our last day in Nairobi exploring and sipping cappuccino in a coffee shop that was recommended to us.  We had an overnight flight back to Bangalore and then spent the weekend recovering.  The trip was like a dream, but it was definitely more of an adventure than a relaxing vacation.  We were beat!

We met several friends on the trip and enjoyed getting to hear their stories.  Most of the folks who come on tours like these have traveled extensively, and I learned a lot from them.  It's amazing how close you feel to a group of strangers after a week together.  I did get a pretty big sense of homesickness when the American friends that I met on the trip were headed back to the states and I knew I was coming back to India.  But I was surprised at how much it felt like home as soon as we landed in Bangalore.

This is a trip that I’ll never forget, and I’m so thankful that we got to do it!  It was nice to have a vacation, but we’ve been praying since we returned that God would refresh the vision He’s put in our hearts for the people here and remind us constantly not to get absorbed in our own lives but to continue to invest in the lives of others.  Paul said that he became all things to all people so that by all means he might save some for the sake of the gospel.  So this week, we’re back to being Indians!