Travel to Africa

I don’t know what to say about Kenya except that it was truly magical. In my next entry I will document the safari we went on, but I want to focus on a few of the humanitarian elements of this trip.

It is difficult to share experiences like this. We visited a village where the children were so excited just to receive a sticker or a piece of candy. Their t-shirts were so ragged they were literally falling off their small little frames.

They had never had Smarties before, so we had to show them how to unwrap them. When we gave one child a promotional t-shirt for one of our sponsors, he grinned so big you would have thought it was Christmas.

The women of this village are part of a co-op … they get a loan of $200, and with that money they are able to start a business, and support their family. It isn’t much, but they don’t starve. Over time they pay back the loan into the co-op, so the money can be loaned to help another woman and her family. And the most amazing thing to witness is the spirit these women possess. I couldn’t speak with them because of the language barriers, but their eyes tell amazing stories of strength.

Back to touristy stuff, Nairobi is a great city, and it was interesting to me that most of the tourists seemed extremely wealthy. Even more so than the tourists I have seen in Europe or other places like Hawaii. It is difficult to explain, but you know posh when you see it. And it ain’t cheap to travel to Africa. We also stayed at this place right on the beach of the Indian Ocean, which was a first for me. I will let the picture tell that story.

Other memories include:
- Running from the hippos (not really, hippos are really dangerous creatures, but we at least THOUGHT we were running from hippos)
- The Masai warrior whose only job was to wander around the safari camp with a slingshot keep the monkeys from going into the tents and stealing stuff
- Getting sold to a Masai warrior for 12 cows … I am a 12-cow woman!

And so, so much more.

Africa is the most amazing place I have ever traveled to. I doubt I will ever write this about any other destination in my blog, but do whatever you can to get there ... and by there I mean somewhere like Tanzania or Kenya, where you can truly see the things that define Africa (as opposed to Egypt or Morocco that are somewhat distinct in nature). If it isn’t on your bucket list, it should be. It will change your life. You will never be the same.