Bennett and Maria in Kenya: January 2011

Sorry all that it has been so long! My mom and brother flew to Kenya to visit for two weeks, and during their stay every minute was booked. They arrived in Nairobi on the 28^th and the next day we headed to Nanyuki where we spent the next few days exploring the town. We took them to all our favorite restaurants and to the Mt. Kenya Safari Club Orphanage, so that we could play with some animals before seeing them in the wild.

The alpaca that quickly became obsessed with Bennett. He chased him around for fifteen minutes, nipping at his clothes.

In the middle of a serious conversation

Had to recreate a photo that we took in the Galapagos. This guy is a far way from home.

A beautiful colobus monkey.

Look at that pose.

Mom hanging out with a colobus.

Things got pretty wild.

Almost human.

The sweetest patas monkey.

A newborn.

I think he is having fun....

We spent New Years Eve in town. We relocated the afternoon of to a popular hotel, well known for its neighboring and even more popular nightclub (we figured we might wind up there around midnight, and so it would be nice to have our rooms within walking distance). Little did we know that on big holidays the entire hotel turns into a nightclub! Beginning at 3 PM music started blaring, giant speakers projecting the music into every room. Welcome to Africa mom :) The music lasted until 5 in the morning, which included a 12 AM climatic episode: the host screaming “Happy New Year” repeatedly over the microphone for thirty minutes. Thomas, Bennett, and I had the pleasure of attempting to sift through the hundreds of partygoers, while avoiding being pick-pocketed.

The next morning we arose early to head to the bush for some peace and quiet (my mom of course had not slept at all on New Years Eve and so was eager to depart). My family brought some luck with them, and we saw a tremendous amount of animals on the way to our house and during our stay. We saw a family of elephants drinking from the river just in front of our veranda, and one night while admiring the stars, lions roared just to the south of us. My mom quickly adjusted to our “drop pit” latrine, and for nighttime visits (to avoid leopard encounters) an old bucket made a nice chamber pot :) Thomas quickly adjusted to the seclusion and the lack of his electronic entourage. He even began writing a novel, which he diligently pursued for the duration of their trip!

We next headed to the Old Pejeta Conservancy. We stayed in the Pelican House, a three-bedroom house with both indoor and outdoor seating areas. It is located right on a dam frequented by animals. We awoke to cheetah and a sunbathing hippo! The conservancy was rife with animals. We saw black and white rhinos, water buffalo in herds, and masses of all the usual suspects. Jane Goodall has even established a chimpanzee sanctuary there for rescued chimps. We had the pleasure of the seeing the two groups face of in a dominance display! Thomas generously “adopted” a chimp for my birthday. His name is Poco and we were both born in 1980. He was forced to live in a tiny cage suspended above a shopkeepers store for 9 years, in order to attract customers. He now often chooses to walk bipedally because that was the only position he could attain in his constricted cage. The poor boy now has cataracts; I hope to avoid this malady for some time yet.

Anyway, the conservancy is gorgeous, and is exactly what one imagines when they envision going on safari – expansive dry plains littered with various herds. The curious yet haughty warthogs were gathered in clumps around every turn.

Baraka the blind rhino.

Zebra and child.

Well the girls have finally arrived back at Daraja to begin their 2011 school year. I have begun data collection for my thesis, and I am now also acting as the “official” yoga instructor to the girls and to the teachers and staff. Bennett and I co-taught our first yoga lesson during sports yesterday, and thankfully they all loved it. There was a lot of giggling and not-so-yoga looking postures, but I am happy as long as they remain entertained and challenged :) Bennett and I are also helping out with the Media Club this Term. The girls had a great time utilizing our camera and digital recorder to document their tree-planting activity with the new MS Action Aid students, although as you can see, they preferred snapping the ever-popular self-portrait :)

Teaching media.

Some of the Media Club.

Jacinta, Mercy, and MS student.

Mercy, Susan, and Rasta.

Marylene.

Susan's self-portrait.

Most of Kenya is currently experiencing a drought. The short rains were extremely short this time around, and in parts nonexistent. The Nanyuki River that flows next to the Daraja campus it progressively diminishing. This river provides the school, our neighbors, and their livestock the invigorating water they need to make it through the day and carry on with water-necessary chores. In order to postpone the devastating effects of its depletion, the Daraja Academy has had to limit each person to 20 liters of water per day (to wash your hands, bathe, wash dishes and clothes, and to aid in flushing the toilet if you don’t prefer to use a drop toilet), only to be acquired via faucets between the hours of 6 PM and 10 PM. We have a large bucket to collect our daily ration, and Bennett and I are getting by using only about 5-10 a day. I wonder how many liters a day we were using in the United States?

Happy New Year everyone!

Maria