Safari Fun

Christina and I are finally home from the fun filled safari weekend! We arrived around lunch time on Friday to the most beautiful Fairmont Mara Safari Club. We were greeted with warm towels and fresh mango juice as we exited our car. It was definitely one of the nicest places I have ever stayed. We were taken to our "tent" where we would be staying the next 2 nights. It was beautiful! Our deck looked over the Mara River where about 5 hippos snorted, grunted, and splashed the whole time we were there. We had a rain fall shower head that was the best shower I have ever had in my entire life. That is definitely going on my bucket list to own one day. 

The hippos outside our tent! This is for you Grandma Hawk!

This is our beautiful tent. Christina and I were too scared of crazy animals coming into our room, we slept together in the bed farthest from the door!

Kind of a dark picture, but this is the lobby. 

We were able to have a nice lunch outside before we headed out on our first safari. Overall, we went on two 2 hour long safaris and two 3 hour long safaris. Our driver was Moses and he was so patient answering all of my ridiculous questions about the animals. If you really know me, then you know I can be quite inquisitive. He made such an effort to get us to see a ton of animals. We were able to see lions, cheetahs, wildebeests, cape buffalo, hyenas, elephants, zebras, giraffes, baboons, and we even were able to see a cheetah attach some antelope without any success. 

Christina and I in the land cruiser on the first day!

The elephants with the most adorable baby! The mom kept ushering the baby behind her to protect her from us. There were elephants everywhere so it was really awesome to get so close to them.

One of the many lions we saw.

A couple of cheetahs.

Sunset on the first day. It was so amazing to be so far out in the wilderness and be so far away from civilization. This area is only allowed to be inhabited by the Maasai tribe. They serve as protectors of the animals. They never kill any animals unless it is a lion that is attacking their herds. Many of the animals (like zebras) go to sleep outside of the Maasai villages because the lions are afraid of the Maasai and stay away from those areas.

The "daddy" lion that looked pretty beat up mostly likely from a fight with another male lion. He got within 10 feet of our car.

A couple of giraffes "necking". It made me laugh because they looked like they were moving in such slow motion that it couldnt possibly be doing any harm.

Christina and I joked that we were on a romantic getaway because we stayed in our robes and read our books together.

Standing on top of the seats so we could look out the roof. 

On Friday night, a group of Maasai men came to put on a show for all the guests at the resort. They did some dancing and chanting and then had a competition to see who could jump the highest which I guess means a lot to them. They then went around and grabbed women from the crowd to dance with them so of course Christina and I were chosen. We danced all over the lobby with them and they placed their beaded necklaces around us. Chrstina's man kept whipping his long hair in her face. We joked that we thought we were married to them after that ceremony. I got the highest jumper so I am going assume that makes me the queen. We had a lot of fun with it. 

We returned on Sunday to try to work on schoolwork. Back to the grind. I think I developed an upper respiratory infection so pray that I get over that soon. It seemed like Cindy the intern on call over the weekend worked really hard to discharge a lot of patients so we finally feel like we are getting more control of the floor. Pray that I get my strength back and start feeling better. This week Christina and I hope to get a lot of experience in obstetrics so I want to be feeling my best. Also, pray for all 3 of us as we are really missing our family and friends. Stefanie and I are trying to keep our heads up knowing we have a whole other country and adventure ahead of us. 

PS- Kenya Airways finally called me back after I have obsessively harassed them since my arrival for my missing luggage. They found it at the airport in Nairobi and hopefully it will be in Bomet by tomorrow. Thank God!