Lake Nakuru and Maasai Mara

First Photos from Samburu

Dinner at Samburu Lodge

Angole, Monica, and Rebecca ... the Samburu boy and ladies we met past Isiolo town at the second of our flat-tires on the road up to Samburu.

The first herd of elephants we saw in Samburu on our game drive to the lodge.

We stopped at the equator in Nanyuki, on our way to Samburu.

At the Carnivore in Nairobi the night before we left for Samburu.

Riding atop our landcruiser, shooting photos of wildlife, catching the breeze, and just having a grand time.

Michelle and Allison with the Samburu women at the Leperere manyatta near the Archer's Post Gate in Samburu.

Back in Nairobi ... Amboseli Tomorrow.

Hello Friends and Family -

After three fantastic days in a beautiful wilderness setting where we all felt very pampered, we left Maasai Mara this morning, had a good brisk drive, with a picnic on the eastern escarpment overlooking the Geat Rift Valley. We made it to Red Rose at lunch time, where there was pandemonium (in a nice way) when our group arrived. Screams of joy all around, lots of song, dancing, hugging, chatting, reconnecting.

 

We had a nice party meal of pilau and sodas for the children, and just time being together. We stopped at a grocery store after Red Rose to pick up some snacks for tomorrow's drive to Amboseli.

 

The weather is lovely, everyone is in great spirits, although we are all already talking about how short the trip has been. One of the ideas that has come up is that we should do a trip for parents next year. What do you all think?

 

Tonight I will burn some CD's of images from Samburu, Nakuru, and Maasai Mara that my brother Jeff can upload to the blog for all.

Lots of love from the whole crew,

 

Ken

Back in Nairobi

Hi everyone,

We arrived in Nairobi several hours ago after leaving Masai Mara this morning. The drive was long, but rewarding, as we made it in time to spend a final afternoon with the children at Red Rose. The kids celebrated their birthday with us (joint birthday parties are common, since many of the kids may not know the date of their actual birthday) and sang us farewell songs as we filed out of the school and drove from Kibera towards the Methodist Guest House.
Safari has been a great experience and we have thousands (literally!) of photos to share when we come home. From getting up close and personal with elephants and lions to dancing with Samburu and Masai warriors, we have certainly seen a lot in the past week since we left Nairobi. While we have been exposed to the grinding poverty that claims parts of the country, we have also realized that Kenya is a beautiful place filled with wonderful places to visit, exciting animals to see, and interesting people to talk to. I know I speak for all of us when I say I hope to return sometime...
Tomorrow morning we will leave Nairobi for Mombassa, stopping at Amboseli for a night. I'm not sure what our internet access will be like, but we will blog if possible. We hope all is well at home!
~Chris

Last Day at Maasai Mara

Jambo from the Maasai Mara National Park!

This is our last day at the Maasai Mara. Tomorrow morning we leave early for the drive back to Nairobi. Yesterday we went to the launch site of the balloons at 5.30 am, waited until 7 am, and the pilot had to call of the flight because the wind was too turbulent.

Today we got up at 5 am again, went to the balloon site at 5.30 am, and we were airborne for about 90 minutes. It was amazing, we were flying most of the time just above the tree tops, and at the highest point, we were 10 stories high!

We had a great breakfast in an open field on the plains that make the park at the end of our balloon ride.

We hope to get pictures to you all soon!

Ken

Safe in the Maasai Mara National Park

Jambo --

We began our day this morning with a wake up call at 6 am, breakfast at 7 am, and an early morning drive around Lake Nakuru to see more flamingoes, rhinos, baboons, zebra, giraffes, cape buffalo, hyrax, warthogs, hyenas, monkeys, pelicans, oryx, impalas, gazelles, and many other birds whose names I can not keep straight.

We left Nakuru around 9.30 am, driving down to Narok in the heart of Maasai country for our lunch at 2 pm. We then drove one for another two hours into the Maasai Mara, and saw lots of wildebeeste, zebra, and impalas 10 miles outside the park. Once inside the park proper, we
drove for about 200 meters before we ran into our first herd of black elephants, which are much larger in size than the elephants we saw at Samburu.

We saw waterbuck (one of the cars did) and decided to drive on to the lodge for check-in as a light drizzles was beginning. Our accommodations at the renovated Keekorok Lodge are in a row of posh cabins. The main lounge and restaurant area of the lodge is all new and "modern safari chic" in style. Last time I was here with Monica, the old lodge was very 1920's to 1930's old colonial/Hemingway design, and the rooms were showing some signs of age. None of that is to be
seen anymore! The Hippo Bar is still there, with an excellent view and a pond that draws giraffes, birds, buffalo and other animals to drink from it.

Tomorrow morning we go for our balloon ride if the weather is good, otherwise we will try the next day. Wake up time for the balloon ride is 5 am, we depart the lodge at 5.30 am for the launch site, and come back to the lodge for a buffet breakfast between 8am and 9 am. We have
two game drives schedule after breakfast -- one to the Mara River to see hipopos some of the wildebeeste crossing decribed by Good Morning America as one of the seven wonders of the living world, and another driver to simply look for lions, cheetahs, and more elephants. We are guaranteed to see wildebeeste and zebra in many parts of the park.

We plan to visit a Maasai traditional village (manyatta) near the park in these three days we are here to learn about the culture, and to buy some beadwork. Tonight our entertainment is a troop of Maasai warriors dancing. Last night in Nakuru we had a guitarist serenade our table
with Bob Marley songs we could all sing along or hum along (the girls requested the songs, and he played them!)

My brother Jeff has uploaded some more photos from our time in Nairobi on the Red Rose blog. Check that out by clicking on this link http://redrosechildren.blogspot.com/

Thank you parents for sending us on this trip and everyone who helped us as we planned for it during the school year. Greetings from the whole crew here and Kwaheri!

KO for AF, CR, HP, JE, MC, MO, MF, DA, CB, and KB.

Blog posting

Hello from Lake Nakuru!

We arrived here after a good but long day in the cars. It is amazing to watch the countryside change over the course of just a few hours. Today, we left desert this morning, moved through grasslands, rich lush farm lands, and arrived this evening in jungle-like land around a beautiful lake. This lake is known for its flamingos and we saw hundreds of them today. The lake seems to be ringed in pink... it is amazing. Today we also saw baboons, water buffalo, rhinos, giraffes, hyenas, warthogs, zebras, and pelicans. I am happy to say that in just two and a half days in game parks we have seen all of the "Big 5" and more!

Before I left, many people asked me what we would be eating in Kenya. I am very pleased to report that the food has been wonderful everywhere. We are getting buffet breakfasts complete with omelet stations and incredible dinner choices. Delicious curries, great grilled meats, cooked veggies, and even seafood are on the menu almost every night.

Tomorrow we will do a morning game drive and then head off to the Masai Mara for more time in game parks.

One final note: at this point you may have noticed that we over-estimated our access to Internet. While we have and will continue to try to blog daily, please expect that we will not. As you can imagine, our days are packed (and wonderful) and the main time we have to try the Internet is in the evenings. We've encountered Internet outages from time to time as well as outlandish Internet prices. So, please know that we are having a fabulous time and will certainly blog as much as possible and please expect that we will not be doing that daily. I hope that makes sense! We have more photos of our service at Red Rose online by clicking here.

Have a wonderful night and fantastic days... we are!

Asante sana,
Michelle

Samburu was Great, Nakuru and Masai Mara next!

Dear Friends and Families –

 

We have had a fantastic time in Samburu, we will be leaving tomorrow to drive into the Rift Valley and see Lake Nakuru, world-famous home of the flamingoes.

 

We are all well and in good spirits, overjoyed like children at a candy store with the sighting of each new animal.

 

Our drive to Samburu was long, adventurous, and educational. Two flat tires on the road north gave us the opportunity to meet children from a rural school and see their work. We gave them some bottled water and pencils. At the next stop, we chatted with some Samburu women – a lady who is 38, her two daughters, one who is 18 years old, married with two children. Quite a culture shock.

 

The elephants at Samburu were amazing, the fat crocodiles were scary, the monkeys very cute. (Google black faced vervet monkey !)

 

Wish us safe travels. We miss you all.

 

KO

Thursday Kenya Photos

http://redrosechildren.blogspot.com/2007/06/community-service-at-redrosekenya.html

The link above will take you to many new exciting photos from these fisrt five days in Nairobi. Enjoy, KO

Today

Hey,
We've been trying to post everday but it's not that easy to get to a computer. Last night I tried at the hotel but the service was down. Right now we're at Mr. Okoth's brother's internet cafe. Today was out last day at Redrose until we go back for one day next week. It was really sad because a lot of the kids started crying as we were walking out the door and getting into the cars. We then walked through Kibera and back to Mr. Okoth's Mom's house. People have been taking tons of pictures and we'll be able to make a couple of CDs when we get home but we just can't post them right now because it takes a long time. Tomorrow we're going on safari which will be very exciting. Kibera is amazing but there's so much going on so the safari will be a nice break. We've all been having a great time together. We'll try and post again soon.

~Cate
P.S. we're going to carnivore tonight

A Thousand Words Have We Not!

We are having a great experience and are learning many amazing things. Internet access has been sporadic in the evenings, so we have not blogged frequently. Let's make up for it with the following snapshots from some of the places and people we have visited since we arrived in Nairobi on Sunday.

Carolina for Kibera – Binti Pamoja
Olympic Primary School
Red Rose Children’s Centre and School
Starehe Boys’ Centre
Starehe Girls’ Centre
AFEW Giraffe Centre
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – Elephant Orphanage
Karen Blixen Museum

Ok ... it has been real tough getting the photos to upload. So here is a link to the few photos from the first five days in Nairobi that we could get online!

First Day in Nairobi

Hi everyone! Tonight is my turn to blog, and our first day in Kenya was certainly an eye opening experience, I think. After meeting our drivers (who are really nice) and arriving at the Guest House (which is really comfortable and nicely removed from the hustle of the city). We then drove into Kibera. Industrial buildings and upper-to-middle class residences shrunk to an unpaved slum of corrugated metal houses and dirty streets as we drove into the neighborhood. We stopped close to Mr. Okoth's family apartment, and were introduced to his mother and family, who welcomed us warmly. We then visited Mr. Okoth's old school and a girl's center that works with young girls (of about our age) to fight against AIDS. We talked, listened to their poetry, and played games with them, and then visited the Red Rose School, where we will be doing our service through Thursday. We were very impressed with the level of education that these lucky children are receiving, and are looking forward to working with the teachers and students in the coming days.

We arrived safely in London

We all got on the flight at Dulles, were delayed on the tarmac for two hours. Good news, we are all resting in London safely. Flying to Kenya in six hours.

Dulles Airport Check-In, British Style Adapters, My Cell Phone

My cell phone number is 202.288.0764 in case you need to catch me urgently before our departure.

We are meeting at the Dulles International Airport on Friday at 2 pm. The required check-in time for international flights is 3 hours before departure, and since we are a large group, it is wise and important to have a little time together earlier so we can take care of anything that comes up at the last minute. I am sure there will be some shifting of luggage and minor repacking, labeling of all our yet-to-be-tagged luggage with ribbons, etc.

Our meeting point is the International Departures Terminal at Dulles Airport. Come to the United Airline Gates/Ticket Counters (4 North and 4 South). You should be able to easily spot our group of folks all wearing the grey Potomac T-shirts.

The adapters and plugs for Kenya are the British Type. See what the sockets in Kenya will look like, and bring a plug/adapter that will make sure your American appliances can connect to the Kenyan grid.

Bring Potomac Student/Staff ID Card to Kenya

Hello -
Please bring your Potomac Student/Staff/Faculty ID with you to Kenya. We will need it to get special entry rates for educational groups at Lake Nakuru and Amboseli National Parks.
KO

A Great Swahili Primer

So, as you pack up and check out this webpage for last minute reminders, check out this great website on basic Swahili. It will help you communicate a little better, which will make your trip all that richer an experience.

You may also click here to take another look at the video Lesson One of the Basic Swahili for Travellers to Kenya.

Kenya Music

Hey guys!
Mr. Okoth gave me a cd of kenyan music to share with you guys. If you would like a copy, please bring me a blank cd (if you don't have one I have a couple extras) and I will make you a copy.
Allison

Hi Grace and Hayden

We are in Mr. Okoth's classroom packing up for our trip to Kenya!
We have 13 computer bags and over 15 suitcases filled with supplies for the students at Red Rose. I know they will be excited when they see how much we were able to bring to them.
Only five more days to go! Everyone should click on this link to see more drawings and colorings by the Red Rose Children.

Packing

Right now we are packing and it is going very well. I think everyone is very excited that we are leaving so soon. I think the luggage is going to be heavy but it's good that we're bringing so much stuff to give to the kids and others.

Possible Documentary of our Trip

Hey guys! What do you all think of making a mini documentary of our trip? It could really help with awareness at school (especially since I've heard comments suggesting all we are doing is throwing money at this). It would also be great for the lower school- the kids at Red Rose could answer their questions on video, and that could be part of the documentary. It could also help with future fundraising. Hilary and Dominique have video cameras, right? And we could also include photos from our trip and background information on Kibera. I think it could be really fun! - Allison

Young Panthers Love to Learn and to Help

The 3rd grade Community Service Committee and the Arts and Artifacts Committee at the Potomac School with history teacher Ken Okoth. These students led their peers in planning and carrying out the successful project to raise funds to help children at the Red Rose School. One Potomac kindergarten class collected questions they would like to learn about from the children of Red Rose about life in Kenya. The Upper School students and chaperones going to Kenya will get written and video responses to these questions to bring back in the fall semester along with authentic arts and crafts from Kenya that the Potomac children can use in their studies of Africa.

Kibera Kids Can Bend It Like Beckham!

Carolina for Kibera is among the best organizations working in Kibera to enable the people to find local solutions to their challenges. It has a sports program, a girls' reproductive health and leadership program, a solid waste recylcling and trash removal, and a medical clinic that remains open 24 hours a day.

Potomac Lower School Celebrates Success of Community Service Project