My African Adventure - Part 1

It’s been a bucket list dream of mine, since I started a bucket list three decades ago, to visit Africa. And this month, I was able to tick this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity off my list. And it was more than I could have ever expected.

Along with my daughter-in-law Kim and granddaughter Lauren, I joined a Harambe Humanitarian effort. There were fifteen of us who visited Kenya for 12 days (along with our American/Kenyan host couple and their 2 children). In that time, we accomplished two secondary school visits/programs for Days for Girls, visited a DFG center, visited two primary school to distribute composition books, pencils, erasers, and other school supplies, as well as distributing soccer balls (and pumps) and several hundred wooden toy cars. We took hundreds of pictures to share with the Kenyans. And our hearts were stolen along the way!

In addition to the work, we visited the Maasai Mara for two days of safari. We visited a Maasai manyatta village to learn how they lived, we met Maasai warriors in the bush and learned of their rituals and purpose, we were invited to a Maasai home for a delicious lunch, we shopped in the local marketplace and in a Kenyan grocery store and mall. We walked and motored the streets of Narok and woke to the sound of cowbells as local herds made their way to pasture. We visited an elephant orphanage, a giraffe sanctuary, and made lifetime friends with our teammates and local Kenyans. I didn’t spot a blue-shirted Obama, LOL, but our former President was there visiting his father’s homeland at the same time we were.

I’ve got so much to share, that I’m going to break down my trip into several picture-laden posts. I don’t know how many it will take, but I’ll just keep sharing until we get through it. I’m anticipating about 3-5 posts per week for two or more weeks.

Let’s start with our first day. We lost a day in the air flying from the USA to Amsterdam to Nairobi. We landed in Nairobi late at night on Monday the 9th, made it through Customs without incident, and then drove in three vans to our lodgings at the Royale Guest House in the Karen district of Nairobi. Karen is named for Karen Blixen - you may remember the book or movie Out of Africa. Most of this district is what was once her estate, and her home is still there although we did not see it.

These were the grounds of the guest house. We ate outside under the canopy. It was too cold to swim (mid-sixties, Fahrenheit), and anyway it was only a one-night stop. We were headed to the elephant orphanage and then the 3-hour drive to Narok where we’d stay for 4-5 days.

Guest houses and hotels here are not fancy. And yes, it looks like a bomb went off in this room, LOL, with our messes. We had mosquito netting for every bed in every stay. Plus we were taking anti-malarial drugs and spraying ourselves well. It was probably overkill for this time of year; I only got one mosquito bite the whole trip.

I enjoyed this unusual tile in an outside alcove off the breakfast terrace.

In the morning, I was awakened by the singing birds as dawn broke. I could hear the sound of distant drums, and I thought “How lovely - what a perfect way to be awakened!” Once I got up, however, I realized the drums were not of natives, LOL, but of someone in a nearby home or ?? playing the bass on their stereo too loud. I had to chuckle at that.

Here’s a photo of our group as we got ready to climb into the vans to take us to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage (with a fourth van carrying just our luggage!).

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, takes care of many animals, but primarily elephants. We got to visit with their 18 resident elephants. Many of us adopted (fostered) elephants for ourselves or our grandkids - it’s a unique program that you can read about at the link I’ve given. I’ll talk more about this in another post, as we were able to go back there again a week later to visit our “children” (by appointment).

A school group (in front) and the public wait for the elephants

The orphanage is open for one hour per week for the public. The ellies are brought in in two groups; the under-2-year-olds and the 2-3-year-olds. After age 3, they begin their re-integration into the wild. They are with trainers 24/7 (even sleeping time), and the Trust makes sure they learn the ways of elephants and are accepted into herds before leaving them at about age 5.

As they emerge from their forest area, the elephants make their way to the trainers’ feeding ground in groups of 2-4 at a time.

They are fed formula from 3-liter bottles. Each of these small elephants (the first group of 8) get two bottles at this feeding. They drink a total of 24 bottles per day.

A trainer feeds the elephant

 “Hey wait! I want my bottle!”

After the bottles, the elephants get to much on succulent branches and leaves. The spectators are urged not to talk so that the playful elephants, who don’t know their strength, won’t mistake words and gestures for playtime!

The head trainer told us about each elephant and how he/she was orphaned. Many fall into wells or get stuck in mud. Still others are just found alone, and one was found with her trunk nearly severed in a poacher’s trap. They were able to re-attach the trunk, and she is doing great now.

The babies are then led back out to the forest by the trainers, and the whole process is repeated as the ten older (2-3 years old) elephants come in.



After that great visit, we hopped into the vans and rode about 3 hours through Nairobi, small villages and the Kenyan countryside on our way to Narok.

Between Nairobi and Narok is The Escarpment. It’s a ridge that forms the western wall of the Great Rift Valley. Fantastic views of the valley, but it was a bit overcast on this day.

The Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley is a huge rift, bordered by escarpments. The rift runs most of the length of the continent of Africa. You can read more about it HERE.  A couple months ago there were significant rains and flooding in the area that opened up a crack in the earth in the valley. See the article HERE.

The Maasai tribe of Kenya (some live in Tanzania too) live in Narok County, of which the city of Narok is the county seat. The Maasai lands are divided roughly into the Mau Forest area (mountainous) and the Maasai Mara - the lowland savannah.  Maasai can be spelled with one or two ‘a’s in the first syllable.

After settling in our guest house in Narok, our headquarters for 5 nights, we visited a local shopping center for a late lunch and to stock up on bottled water from the grocery store.

I’ll have more to write about our Home Away From Home in Narok in the next post, as well as our first visit to a primary school and the accompanying festivities.