Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Back in the States

Hello All!

     I am officially back in the United States, and have been for two weeks now.  I did not want to blog right away, as I wanted to let being home set in for a while first.  As for the last leg of our trip, it was incredible.  The safari was really cool, but also quite a culture shock, as it was very luxurious.  We went out on game drives morning and night for four days, and saw the big five.  The big five are the five animals that were most hunted for their skins or horns, and these include the lion, leopard, elephant, cape buffalo, and black rhino.  There are only 26 or 27 black rhino's left in the world, and we got to see one on our last game drive.  We also saw three or four leopards on the last day, which was neat.  The cape buffalo was everywhere, and we saw many lions.  We only saw one elephant, and it was a baby, but you could see it's small tusks sticking out of it's skin.  On one drive, the open top jeep we were driving in was surrounded by fifteen lions, which was pretty cool, and there were three cheetas that were in the area for two days.  The first day they were rather thin, but by the second day, their stomachs were engorged, and hanging rather low, so they had obviously eaten during the night.  We were hoping to see them make a kill, because they had been circling, and stalking, the wildebeast that were migrating, but they did not actually kill one.

      The people working at the safari camp liked having us around.  A few of them were from Kisumu, right down the road from where we volunteered, and because we knew a few words in kiswahili, a language known across the nation of Kenya.  It was also strange four them to see four american university students there, as most of their clients appeared to be older people and their families.  This wasn't the same in every camp, as there were younger people in other jeeps, but it seemed to be the case for this company.

        Adjusting to life back in America was not difficult, but it was strange at first.  I mean I can drink the tap water, sleep without a mosquito net, and put my clothes in a washing machine.  All of which are pretty cool.  I feel much more appreciative of what I have been given, and as I watch the news on Somalia, Kenya, and Sudan, I have a much deeper knowledge of what is going on there.  It was an incredible experience and I will be forever grateful to all who made it possible for me to be there.  Thank you very much for reading this blog.

God Bless,

    Kevin