Masai Mara!

June 28, 2011

This morning everyone got up at 6am to go on our first official safari ride. We saw everything from the day before plus lions, a cheetah, elephants, water buffalo, and a few other animals. The first group of lions we saw were two females and five cubs that were eating an animal they had killed. We also saw a male and female lion mating. While all the zebras, wildebeests, etc, are scared of people, the lions and cheetah were both very calm when we pulled up beside them. We got to be about 10-20 feet away from almost all the animals we saw. We also took a long walk to see the hippos. They were huge but stayed under the water. We could only see their heads. We couldn’t get too close because we learned they are strong enough to completely bite off a human leg! One of the Maasai warriors at our camp, Dominique, taught us how to brush our teeth using a certain African plant. He said that’s what they use instead of a toothbrush. Tonight was our last dinner at Maasai Mara. We had ANCHOR and played a leadership game and then we went to sleep. Everyone was exhausted from our long day of safari. We are all looking forward to the rest of the trip!

Xoxo Shelby

June 27th

Today the group woke up at 8:00 AM at the Maasai Lodge. We ate a delicious breakfast and then loaded up the cars and drove five hours to Maasai Mara for our three day Safari. On our drive, we stopped at a little gift shop to eat lunch and do some shopping. The group members that wanted to purchase something learned how to properly bargain a fair price for their knick-knacks. After a long drive, we finally arrived at Maasai Mara and took our first short Safari. The group was very excited to see our first zebras, wildebeests, and other common animals, but we had no idea what we had in store for the next two days. After our short intro Safari, we arrived at our campsite where we were happily greeted by Alex and the Maasai warriors. We had a fabulous dinner prepared by Alex and the warriors. Then we sat by the campfire to have our “ANCHOR” talk (Appreciation, News, Concerns, Hopes, Obscure Fact, and Reading) lead by Caroline and Ethan. We discussed our plans for the next day. Once we heard what time we would be waking up, 6:00 AM, we all decided that it would be a good idea to go to sleep.

Our First Full Day!

Jambo!  Paul here.  We arrived safely last night, and made our way to Maasai lodge where the staff graciously stayed up till 12:30am to feed us upon our arrival.  We are now up, well fed, and are relaxing for a moment before we head to Maasai Mara.  And, the kids have seen their first monkey, as it ran across the patio during breakfast!  We will spend the next two days on Safari in the Mara.  Please note: we will not have internet access in the Mara, so we will not be able to blog until we return to Nairobi.  At the time, the kids will begin posting their blogs and their pictures.  Our adventure begins!

Students are in Kenya

Hello everyone!
I just spoke with the WLS instructor, Chris and the group has arrived in Kenya. They are all happy and healthy. They are heading to the Masai Lodge for a feast before heading to bed. Please call the office with any questions 303.679.3412.

Erin Lasky
Program Director