5:00pm     So it’s not that I’ve been slackin’ on my journaling, it’s that at the end of every day I’m exhausted and just want to sleep.  The past few days have been crazy, incredible, interesting, frustrating (definitely) and also just plain bliss.  I’ll try to write things in the order I remember them.  I had to write a list of all the things that I wanted to remember to put in here.  So here goes:

August 11.  The annoying beeping of my watch’s alarm gets me out of bed at 6:30am.  I grumble around in the dark trying to find clothes and shoes.  But soon the grumpiness fades when I remember that today we SAFARI.  Emmanuel took us in his truck to the Maasai Mara Animal/Wildlife reserve.  150 sq km of untouched land that covers a huge chunk of Kenya and Tanzania, there’s a river that is the border.  Before we even enter the park there are tons of zebras on the sides of the roads.  We ooohh and ahhhh accordingly.  (3 muzungus, Emmanuel, and his son).  The truck dips down over the hill and before our eyes is this vast land speckled with trees, not one hut or building for as far as your eyes can see.  Gorgeous.  About ½ a mile through the gates a mama elephant and baby are to our left.  To see animals in their natural habitats, not behind bars, not doing fancy tricks for tourists, not eating out of a bowl, is one of the most incredible things I’ve ever witnessed.  Zoos suck.  Emmanuel slows the truck down to let a few giraffes pass in front of us.  So magnificent, it pauses turns to look at us for a picture then walks on.  They are like supermodels of the animal kingdom.  Topes, gazelles, Thompson gazelles (smaller) are everywhere.  The animals are free to go wherever; they can leave the reserve anytime they want.  We spot a few other cars so we go check out what they’re up to.  Lions.  3 lions total, one male, two female.  Emmanuel tells us that once he saw them mating from a far distance and he was excited because it is extremely rare for people to witness that.  Most cars leave with the tourists in their safari hats.  We feel privileged to have a personal driver and a badass truck.  The male lion stands up (ps we’re about 20 feet away) and ruffles his mane and then proceeds to mount the lioness.  “Oh my goodness,” slips out under my breath.  Extremely rare, Emmanuel had said. 

The great wildebeest migration.  Hundreds of thousands of wildebeest crossing from Tanzania to Kenya over the river.  I’ve watched this on Planet Earth.  They cross the river a few at a time trying to escape the jaws of hovering crocodiles.  Hippos galore sleeping in the river, they look like large slugs, not very appealing.  Somehow I had imagined the cute cartoon hippos.  The cheetah posed for us on a small mound of land.  Protecting his family that were in the bushes.