So after countless hours of traveling and exploring along
the way, I have finally arrived in Kilimanjaro Bush Camp in Kenya! And what a trip it has been already.
I had an awesome travel experience, ranging from sitting
next to an upcoming rapper from Connecticut, to a new friend from the School for
Field Studies program that I am completing, to meeting individuals from
Zimbabwe and Comoros that gave me the run down on what to expect and get out of
this experience.
I even had the chance to spend some time in the lovely city
of London with a few other adventurous girls that I had traveled from New York
with! We had the opportunity to see Big
Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and so much more in the few short
hours that we were there. I felt so
grown up figuring out the subway system in a whole new country and diving right
into it with a group of girls I had not even known for 24 hours. What better way to get to know people you
will be spending the entire spring with!
When we finally arrived in the Nairobi airport, there was an
SFS individual waiting right at the gate to meet us. After spending tons of time filling out
VISAs, currency exchanges, and other documentation, we made it through customs
and everyone on the trip got all of their baggage! I was in disbelief
considering that doesn’t happen to me in the United States a majority of the
time :)
After getting all of our things, we walked outside into the
beating down sun to see the most picturesque safari vehicles that you could
ever imagine. They are dark green Toyota
Land Cruisers with open tops and huge windows, covered in dirt with 2 spare
tires on the back because of all the flats that you get around here. We loaded up our bags and then 9 students to
each of these cars! As we began driving
away from the airport, the rest of the drivers were crazy, not to mention we
were on the other side of the road. But
we made a quick stop at a local grocery store to get some snacks to take on the
long trip with us. They had a variety of
items, with a few familiar things like pringles :)
After that, it was time to start our journey to Kilimanjaro Bush Camp. It’s
about a 3 hour drive to get there from the city, with descent roads the entire
way. We even stopped at a local market
to look at the jewelry and other handmade crafts that the people make here for
a living. The people are sure pushy and
want you to buy something from them, but it’s really fun to bargain with them
for the things you want. After our
little pit stop, we continued on to the camp.
When we turned off the main road by a km marker sign, it finally hit me
that we were finally there and had made it all the way from the United
States! It literally brought tears to my
eyes.
And the camp could not be more amazing! It is a huge fenced in area, with Mount
Kilimanjaro as the backdrop to everything!
There are giraffes, elephants, buffalo, and other wild animals roaming
around right outside the gate. There are
baboons in the camp sitting next to me as I type this. It feels like I am in a movie.
When we first arrived, the entire staff was waiting for us
and wanting to shake our hands. Everyone
here is so friendly and they love talking to you and hearing your stories. We had our first meal as soon as we arrived
and I love the food. Everything is made
complete fresh and from scratch, including all of the locally grown fruit and
vegetables and the meat that is slaughtered right outside. We had a brief introduction and learned everyone’s
names that are here with us and then had some free time to go and unpack in our
Bandas (or houses) Our houses are kind
of like a dorm room, and I share mine with 3 other girls. The bathrooms and showers are outdoors, with
freezing water that gives you goose bumps EVERYWHERE! But the living area overall is great. I feel like I am constantly at summer
camp. With all of us being extremely
tired, we had dinner, I was on cleanup crew and we all hit the sack pretty
early, all wrapped up in our mosquito nets!
Today was amazing.
The second I walked out of my banda, Kilimanjaro was towering over me,
glowing the in sunlight. It was one of
those moments that takes your breath away and no one could ever understand how
amazing that moment was. We had an early
breakfast, around 7 am and a longer orientation today. But then we got to go into the closest city
to our camp.
Kimana is an amazing place that is full of so many surprises
and happiness. When you first arrive at
these towns, they seem so small and poor and kind of run down at first
impression. But boy was I wrong. We went into a small café where we had a cold
coca cola and chipati, which is this amazing tortilla like bread that is common
here. When we finished up eating, we
began to wander down the street through town, right as all the kids were
getting out of school.
These kids are life changing. They are all so genuinely happy all of the
time. They wave and smile at you any
time you pass, come and shake your hand, want to take pictures with you and
hold your hands. If I could have the
same carefree happiness that they do, I would be set for life. The kids we were hanging out with were around
5-8, walking home from school by themselves.
We would take pictures with them and they would swarm us to see the
pictures, and when they did, you should have heard the laughter! There is no way that you could ever be sad
looking at the joy on these kids’ faces.
They walked around town with us, and I started this game with them. If I stopped and stuck my tongue out and made
a funny face, they would all stop and turn around and do the same back to
me. They would get so giddy and keep
trying to slightly turn around to see when I was going to do it next. And when we would stop, we would laugh and
laugh at the faces we were making. I
have never felt so much joy brought on by these amazing children that I could
not even communicate with through words.
It’s amazing what a smile and a game can do to break language barriers,
no matter where in the world you are.
When our time at the village was done, we went back to camp and
it was time for some soccer!!! They have
a small field out behind the bandas that we play with small goals. Some of the staff comes and plays with us. It was one of those moments that you had
imagined, but now that it was happening, it was so unreal. Dust was flying up around us, Kilimanjaro
majestically as the background, the staff yelling and cheering for us in Swahili,
all while letting go and having a blast playing one of my favorite things.
We had dinner and heard our first student presentation. There is a student leader every night that
presents something that they like about the day and organizes a game for all of
us to play. It was so fun and everyone
was laughing. Then a group of us stayed
and played cards and were getting so tired and loopy that we were laughing at
everything.
Now it is time for
bed before another adventurous day. I
know this is super long and in the future, blogs will be much shorter. There is just too much to cover today!!!!
I miss everyone back home and hope everyone is doing great!
La La Salamna (Goodnight) XOXO,
Mollie Ann
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