The first two weeks

Teizeen:

Our first two weeks in Kenya have been a whirlwind of family visits with a little bit of touristy activities scattered in between. Our stay in Mombasa, where most of my family is, was a little brief since we wanted to go on a safari to Masai Mara (one of Kenya’s most famous national parks) – the rates go up in July, so we managed to squeeze in a 4-day trip to the park and are now in Nairobi.

My grandfather (mom’s dad) had 13 brothers and sisters, all of whom have their own families, so that makes for a large extended family. We received warm welcomes from everyone as well as lots of good food! I have been speaking more Gujarati in the last two weeks then I probably have all of this year so far, and it is good to feel that I haven’t totally lost fluency in it. However, this also means that a lot of the time, Ryan has been surrounded by Gujarati speakers and doesn’t have much of a clue about what is going on. However, he has learnt one important Gujarati phrase: Khabernathi = I don’t know. This has turned out to be a very useful phrase and has elicited some humorous laughs, especially when he says it with his hands turned outward, looking confused.

Masai Mara was an interesting experience. The African savannah is beautiful, with rolling grasslands peppered with broad trees. We were able to see the most of the big game: lions, cheetahs, wildebeest, elephants, giraffes, impalas, ostriches, rhinos, crocodiles and lots of other deer like species and birds. The two we missed were rhinos and leopards, which are a rare sight. We traveled in a safari van, which has a hatch on the top that lifts up so you can stand up and poke your head out. We were able to get within a couple feet of the cheetah’s and lions. It was a little disturbing to see how familiar the ‘wild’ animals have become to cars and people, allowing us to get so close.

We leave for Kisumu tomorrow by bus, which is our main destination where we are volunteering. Things are informally organized at the moment, so it will be interesting to see how things pan out.