Safari in the Masai Mara

On Wednesday morning, I left for a 3 day safari in the Masai Mara, which is known as the best safari location in Kenya. There were 8 of us, not including the driver, who loaded up into a 4WD van with a top that pops up for viewing. My newfound friends, Julie and Twinkle, laughed and sang songs a good part of the way, causing much joy to other passengers. It took roughly 5 hours to get there, stopping for a delicious lunch along the way. We had chapati, which is like naan, lentils, meat, greens like kale and rice. Delicious!
Back on the road we passed fields, farms, little shops/huts, cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, etc. The road got rough and we crossed a broken down cement slab of a bridge, which I was sure wasn't wide enough for the van.....I was mistaken. The bumpy road made my ribs feel as if they were clanking together at times, and the crazy passing made me feel as though we were in a constant game of chicken. All and all, we made it in one piece.
First stop was to the neighboring Masai Village, where we were greeted by the chief's son and each paid 1,000KES, which equates to almost $13USD, to see the village. The money goes to the chief and is used for their school. After money collection, we were greeted by a group of tribesman who performed a welcoming dance for us. Wrapped in their red cloths and decorated with jewelry, they danced and groaned and grunted, marching and competing with high jumping, which they are known for. After the dance, we learned that the large holes they've created in their ear lobes are a sign of age, and someone who has holes in the top of their ear means they've gone to school.
Next, we were shown how they make fire by quickly twisting a wooden stick into another piece of wood, then taken for a tour of the village. As we walked through piles of mud and dung, we learned that they actually mix the mud and the dung together, so avoiding the piles was kind of pointless. We passed by a hut which was being rebuilt by weaving a type of string back and forth between sticks.
As the group walked on single file, one of the tribesman took my hand and told me to follow him, and he pulled me into a tiny doorway, through which I had to both duck and turn sideways due to the small size. While this was happening, I was like, "'Oh my gosh, I'm being seperated from the pack', 'what's happening?', 'they won't know I'm gone!'" Only to find out later that this happened to everyone of us.
When I walked into the hut, I saw spider webs, but couldn't see anything else. It was pitch black, and I was freaked out. The man asked me to sit on the bed, which he kept tapping, but as I lowered my butt, I was unable to locate it, and didn't want to touch what I couldn't see. Finally, about two inches off the ground, I made contact with what felt like a hard plastic tarp. The tribesman sat next to me and told me that this was his home. Another tribesperson in the room, who I'm still not sure if it was a man or a woman, opened a 3 inch hole towards the top of the hut to let light in. I was told that was for when they cook to let the smoke out. The hut was considerably cooler than it was in the hot sun just a few feet away. I was told the layout of the hut; where the couples bed was, the guest bed, the elder's bed and the bed for the baby sheep and baby cow, who need to be indoors when they are young. In the center was their "kitchen", which just looked like the center of the room to me with some raised dirt. I learned that he had 5 children, 4 boys and 1 girl, and that they have to tear down their home every 9 years due to termites that live in the ground below and eat their home. As he told me that, I noticed what I thought was a termite crawling on one of the posts by the kitchen and my mind started to wander off as I thought about what might be crawling on me in the darkness. He then tried to sell me 2 necklaces he wore around his neck, one for me and one for my sister he said. He wanted 1500 KES, and I said no. Wanting out of the hut, where I could see again, I said I wanted to look around and then would decide.
We left the hut and he persistantly tried to bargain with me. I offered him 100KES. He laughed and said my price was too low. I told him I wanted to see the market first. We went to the market, which was a round circle, will each of the jewelry makers in front of their 2 foot long stick shelf of goods. As I passed by each one, they were pushing their products hard. Most of them stood in front of me, ordering me to look and not allowing me to pass onto the next vendor. Their jewelry was beautiful and intricate, but not having much money on me, and lacking the desire to lug souvenirs around for 3 weeks, helped me resist the pressure. One person actually forceably put a necklace on me and a couple others attempted to put bracelets on my wrist. I turned them all down, but it was quite uncomfortable. They made car salesman pale in comparison. I exited the circular market with the tribesman following me the whole way, still wanting to negotiate on the necklaces. I ended up getting both for 200KES.
We took a little tour of their school, which was a lot fancier looking than their homes, but rundown at best. I appreciated the effort for education and one of the girls in my group made a donation to who I believe was a female principal. We left the village, with tons of children playing soccer, known here as "football" in the background. Our camp was so close that you could still hear the children playing when we arrived.
We went out into the national reserve that night, all of the next day and the following morning. Our safari guide was fabulous and I believe he broke a rule or two to get us the shots we wanted. It was amazing to see all of the animals there, out in the open, roaming free. We saw everything but a rhino and a male lion. There were impalas, gazelles, heart beast, water buffalo, monkeys, baboons, hippos, lions, wildebeest, zebras, colorful butterflies, birds & geckos, a crocodile, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, mongoose, etc. It was insane, and I truly hope that I am able to hang onto my video camera and get it safely home so that I can share some of the spectacular things I saw!
We've made it safely back to camp, arriving last night & did a little late night run to an Ethiopian restaurant around the corner. It's above a bank (lol), and some bumping music made me check out a sign next to the restaurant, which read, "Singles night! Starting at 6pm. Non-alcoholic fruit punch served." Seeing as it was around 10pm, I was curious if ther was anyone even inside, but the fruit punch comment made me chuckle and I resisted temptation.
I slept in a tent on the lawn last night, as the dorms were full, but I slept well & woke up at 6am like usual. Ugh, tell me this is temporary! A little french press coffee, a bit of blogging and I'm ready to start my day. Not sure what I'm doing yet. Need to get a hold of my contact at the Red Cross to see if I can come up to Isiolo (5 hours north) for a water project. If that doesn't pan out, I will do something else. It's a bit out of my comfort zone, but this "no planning" thing is kind of nice!
I'll be in touch when I can! :)