This weekend really was a ton of fun – Grace (40ish), Lucy (24), and I went to Lake Baringo, about a 2 hour journey from Nakuru. Lake Baringo's known specifically for its crocodiles and hippos, and let me tell you it did not disappoint!
The three of us stayed in a tent RIGHT next to the water's edge, and as soon as night fell we heard the hippos emerge from the water and wander onto the land munching (so loudly!) on grass RIGHT next to our tent! Had our tent been open, we could've touched them! Hippos are rumored for being really aggressive and dangerous, and while I won't argue with that, they're really only dangerous if you get in between them and the water. If you frighten them, they won't munch you to death or eat your arm, they'll just run like hell into the water and bulldoze you over if you're in the way!
Saturday we lounged around the whole day and watched the hippos in the water (they stayed in the water during the day just off of the banks so you could watch them play and swim around), ate some delicious food, went on walks, and enjoyed showers that weren't out of buckets! We came home to Nakuru this afternoon (Sunday) and I've spent the evening playing with Rachel and Tabitha...and tomorrow I'm getting my hair done!! It's probably gonna take around 6 hours...gah...a lady in the camp, Mary, is doing it. Having things like that done on site are difficult because say she tries to charge me a really high price, it's hard to bargain because 1) you see what her tent looks like, 2) she'd probably say “sister, please help me” and 3) I have to see her every day for the next month so it's not like I can simply refuse her price. I'll have Naomy come with me to make sure I get a good price, and also to take a picture :)
On a different note, I've been drinking some kinda fishy water lately...everyone says it's okay though! At Lake Baringo all three of us drank water out of some random tap that connected to the shower water...the guy at the counter said it was okay to drink, but he also would have to be the one to go through the hassle of boiling water for us. It tasted fine, though...a little metal-y. I asked Elizabeth earlier about the water out of the huge, black container behind the house, too. She said it was treated with chlorine, and that Shamarie used to drink it straight. That, combined with Lucy's drinking the water here straight, was enough to convince me that I didn't need to be so paranoid. Plus, I've been here for approaching 3 months...I think that if I were going to get seriously ill, it would've happened by now! I'm more worried about the milkshake that I mistakenly drank on our last night at Lake Baringo—it's hard to remember not to take dairy! If I didn't put it on here, which I'm assuming that I didn't, I developed lactose intolerance while in Cambodia...good thing I hated milk anyway! (...)
I'm finally in Nakuru having some of the most memorable experiences of my life, I've been thinking a lot lately about all the people who liked to think (or say) that this trip was a dumb idea, that I would benefit more from going to college, or even that it wouldn't happen at all! Sometimes I imagine myself switching eyeballs with someone, so that that person could see some of the things I see every day here, and I'm positive that you'd never guess that those images belong to MY eyes! This is such a once in a lifetime type opportunity—I'm so fortunate to be here and am learning more than I ever will learn in a classroom. There's no education like experience!
I've also been thinking a lot about practical ways to “change the world” because I really think that deep down that's basically what everyone dreams of—being able to cure some illness or hunger and thirst or saving all the animals—whatever your passion is. The world is so, so, so incredibly enormous and in need that thinking about it too much makes my eyes water and head spin, but this whole trip is the spark that I needed to get going. It's easy to watch the news and think, “wow, that's horrible” and then flip to cartoons—but we don't HAVE to sit back and wait for someone else to do something! We can get up off of our couches and take action! Or hell, at least try...if we're supposed to be the generation to “heal the world”, why does it seem like we're the laziest yet?! I mean, more people vote for American Idol than our own presidential elections!! WOW. And I'm gonna make sure that this isn't a phase that I'm going through, cause I know we all feel save-the-world-motivated at times...this is gonna be IT.
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, and once every day's over...it's never coming back. This may have something to do with the fact that my birthday's coming up, too, and I'm feeling really old (lol.....no, but really...)
Anyway, that's my word for the night—thinking of you all, and having the time of a lifetime. I wish you were here to share it with me.
AND I'm getting excited for camp!! :] hope YOU are, too!!
The three of us stayed in a tent RIGHT next to the water's edge, and as soon as night fell we heard the hippos emerge from the water and wander onto the land munching (so loudly!) on grass RIGHT next to our tent! Had our tent been open, we could've touched them! Hippos are rumored for being really aggressive and dangerous, and while I won't argue with that, they're really only dangerous if you get in between them and the water. If you frighten them, they won't munch you to death or eat your arm, they'll just run like hell into the water and bulldoze you over if you're in the way!
Saturday we lounged around the whole day and watched the hippos in the water (they stayed in the water during the day just off of the banks so you could watch them play and swim around), ate some delicious food, went on walks, and enjoyed showers that weren't out of buckets! We came home to Nakuru this afternoon (Sunday) and I've spent the evening playing with Rachel and Tabitha...and tomorrow I'm getting my hair done!! It's probably gonna take around 6 hours...gah...a lady in the camp, Mary, is doing it. Having things like that done on site are difficult because say she tries to charge me a really high price, it's hard to bargain because 1) you see what her tent looks like, 2) she'd probably say “sister, please help me” and 3) I have to see her every day for the next month so it's not like I can simply refuse her price. I'll have Naomy come with me to make sure I get a good price, and also to take a picture :)
On a different note, I've been drinking some kinda fishy water lately...everyone says it's okay though! At Lake Baringo all three of us drank water out of some random tap that connected to the shower water...the guy at the counter said it was okay to drink, but he also would have to be the one to go through the hassle of boiling water for us. It tasted fine, though...a little metal-y. I asked Elizabeth earlier about the water out of the huge, black container behind the house, too. She said it was treated with chlorine, and that Shamarie used to drink it straight. That, combined with Lucy's drinking the water here straight, was enough to convince me that I didn't need to be so paranoid. Plus, I've been here for approaching 3 months...I think that if I were going to get seriously ill, it would've happened by now! I'm more worried about the milkshake that I mistakenly drank on our last night at Lake Baringo—it's hard to remember not to take dairy! If I didn't put it on here, which I'm assuming that I didn't, I developed lactose intolerance while in Cambodia...good thing I hated milk anyway! (...)
I'm finally in Nakuru having some of the most memorable experiences of my life, I've been thinking a lot lately about all the people who liked to think (or say) that this trip was a dumb idea, that I would benefit more from going to college, or even that it wouldn't happen at all! Sometimes I imagine myself switching eyeballs with someone, so that that person could see some of the things I see every day here, and I'm positive that you'd never guess that those images belong to MY eyes! This is such a once in a lifetime type opportunity—I'm so fortunate to be here and am learning more than I ever will learn in a classroom. There's no education like experience!
I've also been thinking a lot about practical ways to “change the world” because I really think that deep down that's basically what everyone dreams of—being able to cure some illness or hunger and thirst or saving all the animals—whatever your passion is. The world is so, so, so incredibly enormous and in need that thinking about it too much makes my eyes water and head spin, but this whole trip is the spark that I needed to get going. It's easy to watch the news and think, “wow, that's horrible” and then flip to cartoons—but we don't HAVE to sit back and wait for someone else to do something! We can get up off of our couches and take action! Or hell, at least try...if we're supposed to be the generation to “heal the world”, why does it seem like we're the laziest yet?! I mean, more people vote for American Idol than our own presidential elections!! WOW. And I'm gonna make sure that this isn't a phase that I'm going through, cause I know we all feel save-the-world-motivated at times...this is gonna be IT.
YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE, and once every day's over...it's never coming back. This may have something to do with the fact that my birthday's coming up, too, and I'm feeling really old (lol.....no, but really...)
Anyway, that's my word for the night—thinking of you all, and having the time of a lifetime. I wish you were here to share it with me.
AND I'm getting excited for camp!! :] hope YOU are, too!!
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