Masai Mara and the Good Old U-S-of-A (well, HOT Damn!)

So, as some of you already know, I'm at home now, back on Tera firma. There really isn't all that much else to tell you about the summer except for our last adventure to the Masai Mara - an extension of the Serengeti, bordering Tanzania.
We left Lwala quite early in the morning - still full from the previous night's feast. but "when you're in kenya, baby, you eat," so we took some final photos (i'll post photos soon, i promise), and split some freshly picked and cooked Rabwon (sweet potatoes from the garden). In Kisii we met David - our "eccentric" (Grace, that was for you) safari guide. The drive to the Masai Mara was quite beautiful - and it was great to see more of the country side. We saw a bunch of coffee and tea plantations - which were really quite the site - gigantic fields of lush, green tea leaves, spotted with the occasional worker, giant basket in hand, plucking off the top leaves. The agriculture in Kenya is governed by the land that's available. near Lwala, the land and climate is simple unsuitable for tea and coffee - but quite perfect for bananas, sugar cane, and maize. As we got closer to the Masai Mara, the land became quite arid, speckled with Dr. Seuss looking cactus's.
On the drive we saw a lot of Masai with their herds of cattle and sheep, some antelope, and even two HUGE giraffes, just having a snack on the side of road. After five hours of driving, we arrived at the camp site - a beautiful area with gorgeous vegetation and giant platform tents (Dre and I were in a tent for 4 - but had the whole place to ourselves). Our tent was quite the palace with it's own sink, toilet, and shower.
It was nice to feel like we were finally on vacation. For two days we could just relax and do whatever we wanted - and that was quite nice. On our first drive out, we saw baboons, elephants, antelope, buffalo, and lions. It was very exciting! To find the harder-to-find animals, you really actually just look for the other safari cars (giant white mini-vans with pilot seats and detachable roofs - it's a strange sensation to watch an animal in its natural envnt ... surrounded by 10 other safari cars - kind of like a big zoo). When we came across the lions, we had no idea where they actually were at first. We were told they were in the grass, and sure enough, after 10 minutes of waiting, we would see a tail flick up, or a giant black paw bat the air. Eventually they arose from their slumber to get up, look around, and then flop back down. Just big ol' cats... being cats.
On our second day, we spent the entire day in the park, standing in our safari car, holding on for dear life, as David, our guide drove around looking for the animals - and animals we saw indeed. We saw hundreds of wildebeests and zebra (apparently they're good friends and always hang out together) - which was really a beautiful site. We saw elephants bathing at a watering hole, we saw more lions, this time two males and three females - there was some sleeping, there was some lazing, there was some mating, only to be followed by some territorial strife (back off, this is my lioness) etc. It was very exciting! The lions are PERFECTLY camouflaged within the grass. To a point where our guide would never get out of the car if the grass around us was too tall because he was afraid there might be a lion that he couldn't see. We also giraffes, hippos, crocodile, lizards, vultures (yes, they really are that ugly), and ostriches (sorry folks, riding of the ostriches was not allowed this time around).
After the park we headed to the Masai village to learn a little bit more about the masai tribe. It was an interesting visit, manufactured as it was, and we learned a fair bit about this warrior tribe - it was really interesting. The masai that have held on to their cultural traditions are very dramatic to look at... it's every thing you read about in books from their traditional red wraps (symbolism for fighting lions), to giant holes in their ears, burn scars for decoration on their skin, beaded jewelry etc. Apparently, for extra identification as Masai, they also knock out two of their lower front teeth. Pretty intense. They sang and danced for us, had a jumping contest, showed us their homes (made of mud, sticks, and cow dung, beds made of sticks and cow hide), made fire from two twigs etc. The masai are a polygamous tribe with sometimes as many as 7 wives for one man. Families may own as many as 150 cows, so the families are always moving (at least once every five years) to find new grazing land for their cows and sheep - they pick up everything, their huts, their beds, their children, and move - all the time. It takes about 3 months to build a new house - and it is always done by the women alone.
At the end of that day, we were too pooped to pop (be forewarned, there will be poop jokes and puns abound for the months to come... i believe i've earned it). We retired back to the camp for dinner - only to watch some very crafty monkeys pull a mission impossible-dive-bomb-roll to steal some of our bread from dinner (sneaky little buggers...). We slept well that night, despite the monkeys jumping on the tops of our tents.
For our final morning drive, David warned us that "this was nature... I can't control the animals... we're likely to see nothing at all..." but, oh, david - ye of little faith. After seeing a remarkable sunrise (which inspired many renditions of the Lion King theme song), we came across a fresh kill. Cringe as you may, the two national geographic inspired medical students were fascinated. We found a zebra with it's colon in full view (i'll spare you the rest of the details)... just a couple hundred yards later, we came across another kill - a wildebeest (or what used to be a wildebeest) with pretty much only its horns remaining. Meanwhile, the herds of wildebeest and zebra were still close by, just looking around as if to say, "hey, have you seen bob?" "I though he was with you..." (and we kept saying, "trust us guys, you might want to get out of here..."). As if this was not exciting enough, we got word of more excitement up and over the hill ... to sheer amazement we found 3 cheetahs lazing in the grass with bulging, full bellies. They were just yards away from our vans. They continued to clean one another, then got up, checked us out, stretched themselves down the length of one of the safari buses... and then loped off into the distance. It was a fantastic morning!
After which we were headed back to Nairobi, where Dr. Dre and I indulged in hot showers and disposable razors... cleaned up, but still in quick dry clothing, we indulged all of our American fantasies at the hotel restaurant... and ordered our first pizza in kenya... only to be followed by brownie and apple pie sundaes. Apparently, we missed home a lot.
I am now home, letting culture shock sink in and dissolve little by little. I still think twice before getting water from the faucet or brushing my teeth without bottled water. The summer in Kenya was an incredible experience - one i won't even attempt to explain now, as i know i cannot do it justice in just one paragraph on the blog. Pictures will be posted soon which i think will help a lot. As soon as they are, i'll give you the link, and hopefully that will give you a more complete idea of the past 2 months in Nyanza Province, Kenya. They were a good two months indeed.
I hope you all are doing well - and I cannot wait to hear about how you have been. Wherever you may be headed, ichiop maber and Oriti!
-Jobaby