Fabulous Trip to Africa, 22 Sep to 4 Oct 2015, Post 9 – Masai Mara

Up early again, we were on the road a little after 6:30. In addition to the normal animals, we saw five hot-air balloons rising near the camp. Gretchen got a good picture of a couple of them as they took off. She saw them from the bar area of the camp, as one of the balloon concessions is run out of our camp.

It took awhile to get started, but we saw the cheetah mother and her cubs playing with each other near a different tree from yesterday.

We saw a group of hippos in a rather disgusting pond which had only still water, so their waste just stayed put.

It was a small pond, with a number of hippos. One stayed off by him/herself, and she put on a good show. Among other things we saw a group of vultures surrounding a kill that had already been abandoned by the killer (a lion, it was guessed based on the footprints in the area). We also caught up with a number of warthogs and their youngsters. Apparently the warthogs at the height of their reproductive capability will have four babies, having graduated from one upward, and then as she declines, she will have less number of babies. The ones we saw typically had three babies, but at least one had four.

The wildebeests were common all around, and we even had our breakfast in their midst (well, they were aways away really).

We went to a common crossing point in the Salama River (?) where there were a number of hippos, a number of crocodiles, and a number of vultures.

There were also several wildebeest bodies hung up on the rocks in the river. We were told that the river had been much higher and faster last week, and the wildebeests had had a hard time getting across quickly. They stumbled over each other and in the process a few drowned, were captured by predators, or just weren’t strong enough to make it to the other side. It made for a gruesome scene, yet somehow from a distance, natural. We went to another area where it looked for awhile like a herd of wildebeest was going to cross, but they stopped, and we grew tired of waiting, so headed back for lunch.

This afternoon, we’re going to a school to give them the school supplies we brought for them. The school is nearby, and one of the Masai warriors who work at the camp (Nixon is his name) has siblings who go there. It is the Loingo (?) Primary School, meaning it has children from nursery school through level 8. It is a residential school, so the students live there during the terms (three months in school and a fourth month at home). Unfortunately, there is a teachers’ strike right now. We are told the reason is that an official in the central government gave the teachers a 50% rise in pay, and it has since been determined that this is not really a good thing to do, so they have tried to rescind it, but the teachers now are striking to have it reinstated. The net result is that schools are not really in session. The only class running at this school is the level 8 class as the students have their state-run graduation test in November.

There are 19 in that class, 15 boys and 4 girls, at least there were on the day we were there. After a brief introduction by the principal, and a welcome song by the students, we were allowed to talk to them individually or in groups. I ended up talking to six boys who were quite interested in interviewing me (as I was them). They asked all sorts of questions about me, my occupation, what it meant, where I lived, what the USA is like (what is our economy based on — yes, that was one of the questions!), what our weather is like, what religions we have, what our political parties are, and a whole variety of other things. They knew President Obama, and wanted to know more about him.

I asked them about their economy (farming and herding based), their religion (mostly Christian, although they also knew of Muslims), their schooling (they do have high school, if the child and his/her parents choose to take advantage of it), what their ambitions are (pass the test, and then be herders), and so on. They were very attentive, and interested in the answers to their questions, as well as interested that I understand their answers to my questions.

After we finished, the principal had us into his office to do his bit for getting us to gift money to the school, but we demurred by suggesting he send a list of needed books to Philip who would forward it to us and then we would work on providing them to the school.

After we left, we came back to the camp, where we took the afternoon off, meeting again for dinner. The big adventure in this interval was the decision of a large baboon to visit Gretchen’s tent-cabin. He made a lot of noise, and when she came out to investigate, he was on her roof. She went back in to grab her camera, and when she reappeared, he had gone over to the side closest to our tent-cabin, and Gwen had come out to see what the commotion was all about. He saw Gwen, and ran back over to Gretchen’s side. He quickly decided that wouldn’t do, and disappeared up one of the many trees right above our tent-cabins. There was a smaller monkey in the trees as well, just to increase the fun. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken, so we have to rely on Gretchen’s and Gwen’s descriptions.

One other event worth recording is the latest adventure with Frederica and Nameless. They are the eland females who are domesticated enough to be allowed to inhabit the main areas of the camp. Before dinner, the three of us (Gretchen, Gwen and I) were sitting in the bar area, when the two eland walked by the registration desk and headed toward the patio just outside the barroom walls. Standing with her back to them was a young Japanese lady, who was almost rammed by Frederica. When she turned around to see who bumped into her, she screamed loudly and threw up her hands. The eland were remarkably calm about the whole thing, but the woman got flustered a bit. Gwen was closest to see, and tells me we should have a shot of the Japanese lady’s face when she realized she was being bumped by an animal that was just about her size!