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We had a great time. It was really a wake up call about THIRD WORLD countries. Kenya is definitely near the bottom, I believe. So many people living in poverty but I guess that is the way they have always lived. AIDS is rampant. Life expectancy is down to 45. Some villages have only older people and children since the young adults have all died. You rarely see anyone with gray hair. Little kids love to wave at you and watch what you are doing. They have nothing better to do. At a very early age of 4 or so they help the family by hauling water (usually dirty water from a river or pond) or tending the animals. We saw kids drinking water from the road side. It had to be full of bacteria due to the goats and sheep everywhere. A few of them would say "jumbo" which means "Hi" then some would ask "how are you" then laugh when you responded because they don't know what you are saying. Some will also say "Give me My money!!!" When I told a young man we were watching birds, he laughed his head off. You never know when you are going to run into someone taking a bath in the river...... or kids taking a bath along the road. Most of the people are very skinny except those that live near the sugar cane fields... go figure. The people live with their big families in little huts or mud houses about the size of a bedroom and they share that with their goats and sheep. No electricity or running water. The towns are just a garbage pit of people trying sell anything they can in their thrown together stands of old boards or whatever they can find to build it. Boy do we have it good.
I do not have any desire to go back but am glad we went. The roads are terrible. Most of them are unbelievably torn apart. The good ones go to where the president lives or such and one good one was a gift from China. Roads that are used by trucks are horrible. They drive on the dirt beside the roads because it is in better condition than the real road. We hit roads being repaired and you could not see the vehicles in front of you due to the very fine dust. We were covered in dust after each drive. I hate dust!!! You could live on the edge of the seat all the time but you just have to trust the driver and sit back. A few times I covered my eyes. If a road is 30 miles long you probably travel 40 miles due to the criss-crossing back and forth to miss the huge pot holes. There are always trucks and vehicles going for a head-on but at the last few seconds they usually go separate directions. There are slow-down bumps in the road and police check points all the time on major roads. And then there are the people all over the sides of the roads either walking, riding a bike (the men), or using donkeys with or without a cart.
The food was delicious but the desserts had hardly any sugar or taste. I didn't eat them. I craved good old American calorie laden desserts. But fruit and juices were great and there were lots of vegetarian dishes.
We saw lots of animals. I loved seeing the giraffes in the wild. They are so gentle looking and inquisitive about you going by. I "saw and talked" to monkeys every day (including baboons when a real monkey wasn't available).
Animals: 2 kinds of elephants, lions, genet cat, elephant shrew (cute), several kinds of squirrels, bats, crashay's hare, several kinds of monkeys (my favorite were the columbus monkeys which are colored like skunks), jackal, mongoose, hyena, 2 kinds of zebra, 3 or more kinds of giraffes, greater and lesser kudu, bushbuck, oryx, waterbuck, gerenuk, gazelle, impala, dik-dik, cape buffalo, wildebeest, hartebeest, eland, gazelle, hydroax, hippos, black and white rhinos, monitor lizards, other lizards and geckos and I am sure there are others I do not have listed. Highlights were being charged by an elephant, black rhino and a hippo in the water.
We stayed in very nice lodges to run down dirty places (a golf country club ran it) to the tent and other places in between. I only felt uncomfortable in the one place but it still wasn't that bad. Just glad to leave it. We laughed a lot on this trip. Everyday was full of laughter when we weren't being serious about watching the birds and animals. Our guides were a kick when they found out we liked to laugh.
In this country of grime and mess, I saw a sign that said "Patriot duty not to litter". No one seemed to follow it or maybe they couldn't read it.
"Our trips are pleasurable but not always pleasant."
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