So most of yall know my good friend Hana Lokey from Tech. I was
basically her PL her freshman year, and looked to her as a little stooge. We
just had passions for the same things: sports, Africa, people, underprivileged
people, traveling, Jesus, outdoors, tackling people- you know, the normal
things. In fact Hana got a kick out of telling people she was little me during
her time at tech.
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| Hana and I at tug her freshman year |
We have always kept in good contact, never spending that
much time together, but when I was back in Atlanta we made sure to grab a meal
and talk about life and dreams. This past summer we were trying to plan an epic
road trip/camping trip to celebrate her graduation from tech, sadly it never
happened. Well, about a month ago I got
to fly Hana out to Kenya to live and come work for me on these projects that got
to be too much for me to handle alone.
One would think that once you spend every waking and
sleeping moment with the same person for a month you would get tired of them,
praise the Lord that is just not how it has been for us. This is the first time
that we have spent a lot of time together and it has been incredible. From the
first day she arrived the adventures started. It was so nice to share the ridiculousness
and the awesomeness of my life here with someone. Since she arrived we have been
licked all over by giraffes, been on numerous motor bike spills, cooked up a
storm in my little outdoor kitchen, been attacked by chickens & baboons,
had a cat adopt us, build an incredible solar latrine in a village, mountain
biked, kayaked, hiked, camped and seen some of the most incredible sun rises
and sun sets.
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| At the elephant orphanage in Nairobi |
But this past weekend was so ridiculous, so African, it
topped them all. Hana and I decided to go on a safari, by ourselves, in the 2nd
most visited national park in Kenya. We rented a cheap little car, we named him
Kobi due to him being an all-star and due to the upside down Lakers sticker on
his window and decided to pack up and drive up to Nakuru National Park, camp
and see some REAL African animals.
It has been so long since I have been on a good ol’ fashion
car road trip (being that no one really has cars in Kenya) so we made a great
play list, bought so many nom-noms, and hit the road Friday afternoon with huge
grins on our faces. As if driving on very precarious roads, with ridiculous Kenyan
drivers, and on the left side of the road wasn’t enough to handle, FYI Nakuru
National Park- 2nd most popular in all of Kenya, attracting Millions
of visitors a year from all over the world- doesn’t have ANY signs leading the
way to the park. Hana and I kept stopping to ask for directions and ended up in
a random slum on the outskirts of town. When we stopped to ask directions our
response was filled with plenty of “I love you”s and “let me hop in and show
you”s till we finally got this, our best answer “follow this road, then in a
bit turn right, then you will want to turn left, but don’t stay straight, pass
the tarmac road, then later turn right, follow that road and you are there.” I
kid you not. That was the BEST directions we could get. Don’t believe me? Watch this
video of later when we asked a guy and he confessed his love for Hana. Note the
“road” we are driving on.
Somehow we finally make it to the park. We got there 10 min
before the gate closes! And apparently only moments pass when a lion was right
by the gate just hanging out. But we did make it in, and we had passes to camp
on the furthest point of the park by a huge waterfall. Because it was already
so late most of our drive to our campsite started at twilight and we saw hippos
in the lake, lots of buffalo, weird giant reindeer looking things and just jammed
to our music loving the fact of being in nature. It got REAL dark really fast.
At one point in our headlights on the side of the road was a hyena! I don’t
think I have ever seen one in real life and boy are they ugly- and BIG. Surprisingly
big. We kept driving, chatting, singing, seeing random animals ever now and
then and then on our play list that super epic song from Lion king – you know
when Simba finds out who he really is and decides to go back to face Scar came
on. We got really excited because we were in the perfect setting for such a
song and then, I kid you not, we came over a hill and BAM! An entire pride of
lions just strolling down the road. It was about 13 female and 1 full grown
male. They were the most majestic thing I have ever seen, slowly sauntering
down the road. We got to follow them for about half a mile, they were not more
than 10 ft from our car, huge, beautiful, shinning in our headlights. Wow. And with
that Lion King song playing, it was nothing short of magical.
Our campsite ended up being only a mile or so away from that,
with slight hesitation we headed to the only campfire in the camp site field
and decided to stay near other people. The couple we met at the campfire where
Mazungu Kenyans (white Kenyans who generations ago colonized this area) who
owned and operated Crescent Island, a small island and animal preserve out on
Lake Naivasha. They were delightful company and told us about growing up in
Kenya while we made our dinner and sipped on good ol’ Safari Whiskey (cheap
Kenyan whiskey). After dinner we were just sitting around the camp fire when
the couple across form us said “oh my, look at that cat!” Hana and I thinking
some super large wild cat had snuck up behind us started looking off in the
distance kind of scared of the possibility, and then we finally looked right in
front of us- inches from Hana’s foot, licking our leftover pasta off the plate
was a Gente Cat! This weird looking creatures is a small cat, with both cheetah
print and stripes. It was so weird, I have never send something like it before.
Hana and I spent a large chunk of the night chatting, looking at the incredible
stars, and gazing at the waterfall in the moonlight.
The next morning we got up well before sunrise to make it up
to Baboon Cliffs for an incredible panorama view of the park during sunrise. It’s
hard driving around such wilderness because not only are there very few signs,
if any, but random roads are blocked by fallen tress, flooded plains, dead buffalo,
so you have to find your way around and we spent most of the day on washed out dirt
trails where we pushed Kobi to his limits and had us very worried at times.
Sunrise was spent at “out of Africa’ lookout point and was incredible. We
lunched in the middle of a savannah plane on top of our car. With giraffes, zebra,
gazelles, warthogs, and so many other amazing animals all around us. We saw
flocks of flamingos down by the lake, a couple more lions throughout the day, 1
rhino, and some of the most incredible scenery you can imajine. It was quite
the safari.
We had been given the name and number of an ex-pat in Nakuru
doing water and sanitation development work. When we left the park we had scheduled
to meet up with him. He took us up to Menigi Crater, the largest crater in East
Africa. Formed only about 400 years ago the cliff down into the crater is about
500m drop, and the area of the blow crater stretches for miles. Menigi is Massi for grave, apparently
when the volcano blew thousands of Massi were killed and barred in the volcano
flow and rocks in the explosion. Sad story, but incredible view. And we got to
learn a lot about Massi history in the area. We also got to see a public school
near by that our new friend and his non-profit FAB: Food, Aid, and Building had
put in a rain water collection and huge water tank for. We got invited to have
dinner with him and his Kenyan fiancé and then found a random campsite on the
high way to pass out early.
Early the next morning Hana and I donned our cutest picnic attire
(sun dresses & flip flops) and headed into Nairboi for Blankets and Wine. This
monthly outdoor concert has become one of my favorite events in Kenya. Every
time I go I meet more and more incredible people, so being my 4th
time I already knew so many people there from so many different times here in
Kenya. Its like a reunion every month. So I just jump around from group to
group, catching up, drinking plenty of wine and non stop picnic food. The music
is always great, and there is always a bunch of dancing (this is Africa), and
so many laughs your belly hurts by the end. We only got lost in Nairobi a
couple of times before we found our way back to Naivasha late Sunday night
after 1 amazing weekend.
I love my life here!
beautiful. all around
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