A Night in the Bush

Whew! We're back! And we're alive! Since we camped last night and I couldn't get on the internet, obviously, I'm going to do 2 blogs tonight. One for yesterday and last night and then one for today. Right before I started writing this, Amy, my mom, and Ashton hitched a ride from the dude who runs a safari company in our hotel lobby to go and pick up pizza for our dinner (sketch!). I can't wait for the pizza though. Anyway, yesterday was just like a normal day. We woke up, but this time we had to pack all of our stuff up as if we were leaving. The hotel won't let us keep our things in the apartment if we aren't there, so we stored it in their luggage storage room. In addition, we crammed our bookbags with an extra set of clothes and all the other stuff required for a camping trip. We ate breakfast at the hotel, all of us very nervous for camping out in Africa. We don't even camp out at home, so the fact that we are doing it here, in the wildnerness of wildernesses, is pretty ridiculous. After breakfast we got a cab, which stopped by Shoprite so we could pick up marshmallows for all the kids and a whole bunch of chickens (not like live chickens...the kind from Harris Teeter) for dinner. We weren't about to settle for just beans and rice. We got to the village outskirts and made the long walk in, only this time we were loaded down with all of our stuff. When we got to the house, we did the normal routine. The kids sang to us, we went in, taught school, etc. Only this time, instead of leaving right before or right after lunch, we hung around. It was as if the day had hit a dead end. We really didn't have that much to do. I played soccer with most of them, but then got tired and sat in a tire while they all laughed at my really white scalp. To my chagrin, my mom had taught the kids how to do a bit of Cat's Cradle (the stuff where you make cool designs out of string with your hands) and they kept telling me to stick my hand in between the string so they could do tricks. It got annoying after about 3 hours. On a lighter note, the day was clear enough to where we could see Mt. Kilimanjaro from Matonyok, or at least we could see the very top. Mt. Meru is the one closest to us, and don't get me wrong it is very big, but not big enough to have snow on the top. It was really neat. Also, as the sun went down, it made a very beautiful sunset. This is Africa, so everything is very natural. The sun setting on Mt. Meru was also really cool. We got a lot of pictures. Then it was time for dinner. The house has a few lightbulbs, which run on a generator which sits in their backyard, so it made it like an eerie-type glow. Dinner was really good (especially the chicken...great thinking Americans!), but at the same time, it was the same type stuff we've been eating there all week. For dessert we brought out the marshmallows. We didn't have a fire to cook them on, so we just handed them out. For many, this was their first experience with them, so they were hesitant. Mike didn't want one at first because he thought they were a poisonous type of mushroom (he didn't understand 'marshmallow'), but once he realized his misunderstanding, he ended up loving them. The kids all did too. We didn't get the brilliant night sky we were all expecting. Sure there were a lot of stars, but the moon was so big and so bright that it blotted out millions more. Before the kids go to bed every night, Ndemno lets them into his and Emmy's room, where there is a computer. They all gather round and watch Swahili pop Christian music. You can tell they've seen the same videos many times because they know all the words and dances. Just when we thought everything was winding down, Ndemno and Emmy took us with them on a walk to see their LEGIT Maasai friend. I'm talking like this guy had 3 wives legit. (2 live at one "compound," and the 3rd lives farther away. The guy was gone visiting the third). So we walked in Africa in the dark with Africans to a traditional African house. That was cool. Go to google images and look up a traditional Maasai round mud house. It looks just like that. The first one we went into had dinner over the fire, and it seriously looked like a burning building inside as far as smoke goes. You couldn't breath unless you crouched down, and you could barely see anything. Oh wait, whats this that just touched me? Oh yeah...THEY KEEP THE FRIGGIN LIVESTOCK IN THE HOUSE! These houses aren't big to begin with, but inside, not including the family of about 7, was 6 cows, some goats, some chickens, some lambs, etc. I wasn't kidding when I said this was legit. They let me take pictures, so I'll show them when I get back. We then went to the second, identical house about 10 feet away. Apparently jealousy doesn't exist in Maasai culture. No smoking fire in this one, but there were the cows, chickens, sheep, goats, and people. Bear Grylls couldn't handle what we did. Heck yeah! I touched a cow that was in a house! On the way back I talked with Ndemno about the multiple wives thing, and apparently one of the kids that goes to Matonyok (not as a boarder, just during the day), his dad has 9 wives and between 60 and 70 kids. TIA right? So now it was time for bed. The tents had been set up earlier, and they were what you'd expect a tent to be. I had my own, and all the girls slept together. Let me first say that it was friggin cold. Africa isn't always hot like you would think, and when the sun goes down, it's downright freezing. On top of that, all we had to sleep with were travel sleeping bag liners (like a fleece, basically) and U-shaped airline travel pillows. It wasn't comfortable. At all. Once they turned off the generator it was crazy quiet, but also very loud with all the dogs off in the distance and birds and all that. I slept most of the night, but I did wake up to the sound of the first rooster about 3 miles away. Oh and then another one crowed...then another one...then another one...then another one...I think every rooster in Africa crows within 5 minutes of each other. Except for the one at Matonyok. It was like 30 minutes late. Amatuer. I went back to sleep for a bit then woke up to the sound of the kids coming to get us. They haven't seen many tents before, and they don't have white people spend the night a lot, so they were all, of course, smiling ear to ear. Overall it was very worth it. I couldn't do it for 2 weeks with any level of comfort, but one night was excellent. The rest of the day will be in the next blog. Talk to you after dinner! Pizza!