Mom's post

Entry for Alex’s blog

First I want to say I am very proud of Alex for doing this and want to thank him for including Eliot and me in his Kenyan experience.

As a child every time a Nat. Geographic Mag arrived in the mail I would spend hours looking at the pictures of Africa…the elephants, the Masai people, Mt Kilimanjaro, the sweet babies riding on their mama’ back ..never did I think I would ever have an opportunity to go there. Thank you Alex for giving me such an unbelievable opportunity.

The welcome the Kenyans gave us was so heartfelt, warm and generous.In Oloitokitok we stayed with Mama Alice who drove us around in her brother-in-law’s pickup, so we did not experience all the walking Alex had to do during his training. But I can tell you he walked many miles those months on dusty roads with no road signs and very sparse scenery giving very little indication where you are and which direction you want to go! But Alex made it home every night!. Mama Alice fed us until we could eat no more, introduced us to her sisters and their husbands, to other host mamas, slaughtered a sheep in our honor and invited many village people who knew Alex to share the feast. We parted great friends and I will not be surprised if Kevin, mama's son, does not come and stay with us some day. The only disappointment was that it was very over cast so

we could not see much of Mt Kilimanjaro, just a very thin strip of snow in the distant clouds.

We stopped at the Makindu Children’s Center, a school for Aids orphans. It was heart warming and also very distressing. The children get such wonderful care there but their lives are so tenuous, they have so little yet they had such wide eyes and big smiles, they warmed up to us very quickly and were so proud to show us their school work(they speak 3 languages). It made all the Stuff in our children’s lives seem almost obscene. No that stuff isn’t good but these children who have so little seemed to be able to get such pleasure from the little they have.

I have to tell you about travelling in the matatu bus. This is the way the Kenyans travel. It’s a bus about the size of a VW bus, has seats for about 15 people but does not leave the bus “station” until it has boarded at least 25 people, 30 bags of onions, several water barrels on top,3 men collecting money and tickets a driver and a man sitting next to the driver for what reason I am not sure. It stops anywhere, in the middle of nowhere, picks people up anywhere and in the middle of nowhere! Alex, Eliot and I shared the last seat in the back, each of us with our back packs on our laps, for 4 hrs on a dirt rd…one of those roads with no road signs, many pot holes or should I say mini dirt ditches every 10 feet. On the way back (there is only one way to go to and from Oloitokitok-the way I just described) we were smart and got a seat in the front of the bus…but still the 3 of us on one seat with our back packs on our laps…no come to think of it Eliot’s pack

was put on the top of the bus under one of those bags of onions!

The people in Alex’s site village also welcome us with such overwhelming generous hospitality. They really appreciate Alex and were so honored and flattered that his family would travel so far to visit him in their village. Another goat was slaughtered in our honor which was okay because all the people in the village were invited to the feast and got to eat a lot too. We met the principal of the primary and secondary schools. The kids very excited, swarmed around us when we walked into the school yard. Other than Alex I’m not sure they have had much exposure to white people especially one with a beard and one with long gray hair! They think our English sounds funny.

The safari on the Masai Mara was fantastic. Being 4 feet from an elephant was so cool! Our last morning we went on an elephant hunt and saw UP CLOSE a big mama with her baby, and 3 aunts…one stood right behind our vehicle checking us out with her trunk while the mama and baby almost walked into the front of the vehicle…they freaked out our driver!!! We saw a big male lion resting after his morning kill, many zebra, a 1 day old giraffe running with his mama and 16 million wildebeest in a single line, horizon to horizon heading toward the Mara River. It was quite spectacular. I sat in front of a camp fire early in the morning with a Masai warrior talking about our similar beaded bracelets…mine had 3 colors, his had 2 colors, he taught me how to say thank you in Masai (shantee..if you ever need it)

Then on the other end of the spectrum we stayed at the General’s house in Nairobi, and were very well taken care of. Again the General appreciates Alex and Peace Corps Volunteers and couldn’t say enough about their work. The General grew up in the village and is quite eager for it to prosper and he feels Alex is helping make that happen.

My trip to Kenya was Fantastic…go visit Alex if you can.

Again Alex thank you for making those National Geographic mag pictures come to life.