Kenya: Teary Friday at Red Rose, Maasai Mara National Park/Game Reserve

Friday was an emotion-packed day as our American high school students bid farewell to their Red Rose students.  It was very powerful and very touching.  After the normal Friday morning rally (for the baby class through class 8), it was back to classrooms for presentations, songs and goodbye speeches.  When Courtney and I got back to Class 4, they'd prepared a solid twenty minutes of singing and dancing for us.  Phenomenal.  The energy and spirit of these kids is transfixing... intoxicating.  I've never seen or heard anything like it.  After that, they presented gifts to us!  The kids took a collection to get Courtney and I some locally made bead jewelry and a homemade wooden spoon.  This floored me.  Students whose families live on as little as $2 a day buying us gifts.  Craziness.  Then it was on to a farewell assembly where each class performed 2-5 songs.  I led my kids through "Yonder Come Day" and "America the Beautiful," which I'd taught them.  I'm looking forward to teaching more songs this week!!  Next on the docket is "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round," an Civil Rights Era song.

Receiving a beaded "Africa" bracelet at the farewell performance on Friday.

With most of Class 4.  Amazing kids.

Friday we also visited Mama Ngina Orphanage in Nairobi, which houses abandoned children ages 0-18.  We got to tour their facilities and play with the toddlers and adolescents and even hold some adorable babies.  Here's our group there upon arrival:

Saturday morning we were up early and off on to the Maasai Mara National Park & Game Reserve in Western Kenya.  Once you get to a town called Narok, the paved road ends.  From there to our lodge it was about two hours of what we were calling the "safari massage."  Let me tell you it leave something to be desired. ;)

After a short game drive and a lovely dinner (preceded by a song and dance presentation by some local Maasai warriors), it was to bed early.  Sunday we were out all day from 8 am until 4 pm and saw some great animals.  I saw my first Cheetah, Leopard, and Lion on this trip!  So exciting.  We saw ostrich, hippos, crocodile, giraffe, vultures (devouring some kind of antelope or wildebeest remains), zebra, elephants and lots of cool birds.  

The Maasai are an interesting group to learn about.  I can't quite find an exact North American analogy, but the Native Americans would be close I believe.  They are just one of the 47 tribes in Kenya.  They are a nomadic people-- herders.  Their wealth is measured in the number of livestock they have (they are also polygamists... 10 cows buys you a new wife!).  The Maasai wear red frocks and gorgeous beads.  Some have the large hanging earlobes from years of stretching.  From my perspective they seem to be the most publicized of all the tribes, though they are small in number.  For example, when you buy Kenya postcards at the Nakumatt, they are all animals with the exception of a few postcards showing Maasai men and women dressed in traditional garb.  The lodge we stayed at in the Mara was a bit kitschy, with a Maasai warrior greeting you upon arrival.  This morning we visited a "traditional" Maasai village on our way back.  It was interesting to see the mud huts and to hear about some of the traditions... but one wonders how authentic it all is. A great, quick read about Maasai life is in Facing the Lion.

So now it's back in Nairobi.  The group of high school students leaves tomorrow and I am on my own for about a week.  I will spend some more time at Red Rose, take some drumming and singing classes at Bomas of Kenya, observe rehearsals of the Kenyan Boys Choir and see some friends of friends.  Next weekend I also plan to see some more Nairobi tourist sites. 

Maasai Mara.  Beautiful country.

Participating in a traditional Maasai jumping ritual.

With Ken Okoth, CoKF Founder & Executive director (and my roommate on safari)