Hello again!
So I am trying to finish up everything that happened in
Kenya before we left for Tanzania in this blog!
The day after our exams was our last non-program day to
spend in Kenya and we had all kinds of experiences lined up for us! The first thing that we did was an amazing
hike on a hill called Loisoito. The
drive to get there was insane! We left
the nice paved road after about 5 minutes from camp and went on to the crazy
dirt roads near Kimana. But then, the
dirt roads that I thought were bad ended and we went into land that had no
tracks and nothing around at all accept a few bomas here and there. We were literally driving through grass up
past the windows and over boulders that caused the entire car to shake and
people to almost hit their heads on the ceiling. I was laughing so hard watching the other
cars around us bounce around and everyone’s heads in my cars fly around when
they were trying to sleep.
When we finally arrived at the hill/mountain, all we could
see was tons of trees and huge boulders!
Quite a site compared to the rest of the landscape. We got our backpacks on, filled up our water
bottled, and started up the hill. It
didn’t take very long, but it was steep the entire way! We climbed pretty much straight up the hill squeezing
between boulders and trying to avoid every bush since they all have thorns
trying to get you. I felt pathetic when
I got the top and was panting like a dog, but I realized everyone else was in
the same boat! The view from the top was
amazing!!! I literally felt like I could
see all of Kenya from the top. The top
of the mountain was filled with more boulders and we were allowed to explore
anywhere we could get to! A couple
people took off and climbed this insane boulder that involved leaping over a
huge crevice to a rock that was at a 70 degree angle! It was so scary to watch, but I guess it was
pretty cool from the top. I went a
different way with a couple of my friends where I still had to leap over the
gorge thing, but went to a rock a little less steep. I felt like the view from there was the
perfect tribute to Kenya! I was
surrounded by all of my best friends, overlooking what felt like the entire
country with the sunshine on my shoulders.
I was so happy and just took a deep breath from the top, hoping to
always remember that view when I think of Kenya. It was truly an amazing experience!
After climbing down, which was actually even scarier than
climbing up, we kept exploring, took awesome pictures up in the rocks, and
sunbathed on the top of the hill! It was
so peaceful and when they told us we had to leave, I was so sad. As much as I was looking forward to going to
Tanzania, Kenya would always be my first African home and I knew how much I
would miss not having this view with Kili in the background. We made the climb down and I got my hair
stuck in a thorn bush three different times.
You can only imagine how it looked when we finally reached the bottom! I loved the drive back again over all the
crazy rocks and seeing the Maasai hidden among the landscape. We got back just in time for a well-deserved
lunch with lots of chapati!
That afternoon at around 2 in the afternoon, we invited some
of the Maasai mamas to come and visit our camp and teach us how to make all of
the beautiful beaded jewelry that they are so well known for! We had purchased tons of beads the day before
of all different colors, along with wire, and the mamas brought dividers that
keep the beads in place. We got to
decide what we wanted to make, like bracelets and rings, and they helped us
make the right shape. I never in a
million years thought I would have the patience to make any of the beaded
things, but I actually really loved it! I
made an awesome bracelet with all of my favorite colors and an awesome design! The mama that I was working with was great
and helped with everything that I was trying to make! However, there was another mama that tried to
steal my beads and make something to sell for her! I had to get one of our staff members that
spoke Maasai to tell her to give them back hahaha! I loved making my bracelet, and when I was
done and had tons of beads and wire left, I started making tons of rings of
every different color. I literally
became obsessed with making rings. It
was so easy, they looked great, and it was instant satisfaction when I
finished. I made them for my friend for
her birthday and for some of the staff members that said they wanted them. In total I think I made over 25 rings, which
I never thought I would have the patience for haha and I am still quite proud
of them! I stopped because we had
another volleyball tournament with the staff and had like 40 people playing! It
was so fun and got so intense, but I loved spending that time with everyone,
even people that had never played before!
We also had a brief spear throwing lesson with the spears that we had
bought, but I only did it a few times because I was so bad at it and would
never be able to hit anything accept maybe an ant hahaha.
That night, we watched Lord of the Rings, not my favorite,
but I just continued to make rings (fitting right hahaha) and write blogs and relax before having to
pack the next day! The next day was
probably the most relaxing, sit back and relax kind of day that we had at
KBC. We had no assignments left and no
exams, so we could do anything we wanted and not feel guilty about it! We hung out all morning and played banana
grams with some of the staff and watched TV shows and other youtube
videos. We were getting our exams grades
back at 2 in the afternoon, so we just had to wait around in suspense. When we finally saw our professors putting
our grades in our cubbies, we all held our breath.
Overall, I was so happy with my exam grades! EP and WM went great and I did not have any
complaints. The problem came in WE which
was some of the most unfair grading that any of us have ever received. On past WE assignments, the professor had
graded fairly and we all were doing well.
But this exam, none of us got about an 85 on! He wrote “REALLY???” all over everyone’s
papers like we were stupid in the answers we gave. We all tried to talk to him, and he was not
very welcoming of our problems and no one’s grades got changed. It was so frustrating when that was the class
that I felt the best about but ended up doing the worst in. I just decided to take a deep breath the best
I could and decided to not let it bother me since I was in Africa after
all. We had a volleyball game right
after grades were released so it was great frustration release! Our final grades were released at 6 and we
all just took them as they were and moved on because nothing could be
changed. It was kind of a frustrating
day, but I still enjoyed my time to relax and hang out with friends and the
staff.
The next day was our final full day in Kenya and I was so
sad as I woke up and realized that. We
had breakfast like always, and then had a group debrief with all of the
professors and staff to talk about what we thought of the program. We covered everything from academics to food
to safety and security. It was great to
be able to express our opinions and know that future students would have a
better time when all of the little details were fixed. After we were done with all of the business
parts of the talk, Kiringe asked us to go around and say two words that
described the entire experience. People
went around and said things like “pleasantly surprised” “absolutely amazing”
and “best friends” but when we got to Shem, all he said was “waterbuck,” which
caused all of us to burst out laughing since that really was the best inside
joke of the entire trip. But then, Shem
continued to go on saying the most amazing words about us. He told us what an amazing group we were and
how happy he was with how well behaved we were.
But what got my tears going was when he told us that he considered all
of us his children and how much he would truly miss us. Me and my friend Paige started tearing up and
it was so hard to stop as all of the other staff continued to say such amazing
things about us. Jenna told us after we
were finished that Shem has never said more than his two words about any other
group, so it was a great feeling to know how much he loved us and enjoyed our
company as much as we enjoyed his.
After this debrief, we just had a short session with Tara
and Jenna to talk about what we were expecting in Tanzania and what we were
scared of so they could reassure us. It
was comforting to have an idea what to expect when we got to the border the
next day and who would be greeting us there.
Before we knew it, it was time for lunch, and we all sat together
outside in the sunshine!
That day, we also decided that we were going to have a giant
feast and make a bunch of our favorite recipes from home for the staff to
try! We had three different cooking
groups, and they were starting at 1 in the afternoon so we could get everything
done by the time dinner came around. The
kitchen was INSANE! People were using
every stove and oven and pan and there were up to ten people in the kitchen at
once. It was quite a show, but really
amazing at the same time with everything we got done. This day was so insane for me though! I was the student of the day, which meant I
had tons of responsibilities to get done for the next day. I had to coordinate all of the kitchen times
and things that were being made, fill up all of the water cans that we would
take in cars with us, and coordinate making cards for all of the staff and have
everyone sign them before dinner. I was
literally running around like a chicken with my head cut off. And on top of all that, I had to pack
everything up too!!! By the time dinner
had come around, I was exhausted, but also amazed at everything I had gotten
done. I had somehow packed all of my things and finished everything else by the
time the feast started so I could enjoy it with everyone!
We moved all of the tables into one giant table like a
normal feast and made everything from brownies to three types of cookies, to
pineapple crisp (which is what me and my friend Jen made), bean burgers,
falafel, guacamole, and our own homemade chapatis! It was so fun and I literally ate so much I
thought I was going to explode! The
staff barely tried any of our foods due to their addiction with nyama choma
(roasted meat) and ugali, but a lot of them liked the pineapple crisp which I
was pretty happy with. I got lucky and
got to sit with Charles and Kioko during dinner, two people that I would miss
tons. We took lots of pictures,
including with Shem who said waterbuck instead of cheese in pictures! Since I was student of the day, I also had to
make a presentation of all of the cards we had made to the staff and they were
so thankful for all of them! It made all
the hard work so worth it seeing the smiles on their faces and the cards
immediately getting hung on the walls in their offices!
After dinner was over and the staff was all heading to sleep
soon, we realized that we hadn’t painted the newly completed gazebo yet, and
that was something that we really had wanted to do before we left! We had extra paint from the school, so we
painted a mural on the ceiling from the sun to the moon with fading in the
middle and stars that spelled out Spring 2012 Session 1. It looked really great and it was a great way
to leave our mark on camp. I had to head
to sleep though because we had to be ready to leave camp the next morning with
all of our stuff by 7:30 am!
The next day was crazy filled with emotions, like the most
up and down roller coaster that I have ever been on. I woke up and was happy to see Kilimanjaro
once more shining outside of my window, but so sad that I would no longer see
that every morning when I woke up. I
took tons of pictures as if I didn’t have enough of the best mountain
ever. I got my comfy clothes on for the
car ride, threw all the other random stuff in my room into a garbage bag, and
hauled all of my stuff over to the cars to load up. I double and triple checked my room to make
sure nothing got left, scarfed down breakfast and made sure all of my things
had made it into the white rhino! The
best part of the morning, however, was when I realized that my favorite cook in
the entire world has returned from his days off early just to be able to say
goodbye to us. I heard his voice in the
kitchen and literally took off running and jumped into his arms when I saw
him. He was literally one of the reasons
that I loved our staff so much. He
always kept me on my toes, but was also so down to earth with me and we had the
most amazing conversations in the world.
I could not have been happier to see his smiling face that morning. We had to say goodbye to all of the kitchen
staff, including Arther, and the askaris that would not be making the trip to
the border with us. I could not pull
myself together saying goodbye, but it was the best feeling when all of them
told me how much I would be missed and how I was always welcome to come back to
my Kenyan home. It was a mix of being so
sad leaving, but so excited for Tanzania and I had no idea how to be feeling at
that moment. We pulled out of camp,
waved to the most smiley askari in the entire world, and started on our way to
the border.
Daniel was my driver, with Jenna as the co-pilot, so they
definitely kept us amused with their arguing like a bunch of little kids. It was great to be in a car with friends all
comforting one another and staff members that I would miss more than
anything. The drive took about two hours
in Kenya to get to the border on all dirt roads past Amboseli National Park. We saw lots of giraffes and gerenuks
throughout the entire drive, and seeing Kilimanjaro as the background to all of
the animals was a great way to say goodbye to Kenya.
Thanks again for reading and stay tuned for my first twelve days of my Tanzania Adventure!!!!
Love,
Mollie Ann
No comments:
Post a Comment