Weekend Adventure: Safari

This past weekend the University of Texas students and I went on safari to a game preserve about 3 hours away called Samburu National Park. Samburu has all the "big five"(lions, leopards, rhino, elephant and buffalo) so its a popular place to visit. We left at 6am on Saturday morning and got there by 9am. We hunted for animals all day and saw tons of giraffes, gazelles, impalas, monkeys and elephants. We hunted and hunted for cats but couldn't find them anywhere. We stayed in a tent, a tent literally in the middle of a game preserve. (It wasn't quite like wolf pack camping!) There were monkeys and baboons climbing on our tent and stealing our food and following us to the outhouses. It was hilarious, we couldn't leave any food unattended. Also, it was SO HOT. I could barely sleep with the heat and the bugs. Yuck!
We got up at and were out hunting animals by 6:30am on Sunday, the lions were hiding but I got some amazing pictures of other animals.

After leaving the game preserve we also stopped to visit one of the local Samburu tribes. It was super interesting to learn about their way of life and for them to dance for us, show us where and how they live. They believe in polygamy so the men have multiple wives. The men aren't allowed to marry until they are 30 but they marry girls who are 16 years of age! They live in these huts, that the women build, made of cow dung, coated in goat dung to keep away the mosquitos. They have a little preschool for the children where they are teaching the English alphabet and how to count to 20. The kids were adorable, as usual.

The Texas students and the Denmark girls will all be leaving next week so I am sad to see my friends leave. Pray for me to make new friends and find new community here. There is a lot of downtime and it gets lonely, so I'm dreading their departure. New Texas students won't be coming until late May...and I'm having trouble downloading more books for my nook! Luckily I still have three seasons left in Friday Night Lights and a handful of movies. Keep praying for the children in the pediatric ward that are sick and I'll post soon about a baby I fell in love with in the nursery, Kaleb. His mother died during childbirth and now he is an orphan. I have seriously considered stealing him. He is so precious. Miss and love you all!