NOVEMBER 9TH, 2009, My African Safari conts.

November 9th, 2009 – My Safari Continues…

Leaving at 6:30 a.m. allowed us to see sites that you might not see later in the morning. The animals are frisky and playful. They’re all up and about, grazing, and showing a lot more affection toward each other. It was wonderful! I got some great pictures.

This is our daily schedule:

We go to bed between 10 p.m. – 11 p.m. Betsy and I wake up at 2:30 a.m.every morning and it impossible to fall back to sleep. The sounds of the birds, and whatever else is outside our tent, are in constant conversation. We are so off our regular time schedule and our bodies are so confused we just can’t sleep for very long. I don’t even require my usual afternoon nap that I usually take at home.

We drag ourselves out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to eat breakfast @ 6:30. As I have mentioned earlier, breakfast was my favorite meal. I usually hit every one of those silver covered dishes. We are off on safari at 7:30 a.m. and don’t get back to camp somewhere around 12 or 1 p.m just in time for another great buffet lunch. Then we have some free time before we leave again at 4 p.m. and aren’t back at camp until about 5 p.m. Dinner is at 7:30 p.m. so you can see we were on a tight schedule. This is what you call a “working” vacation. Between traveling, breathing in dust, and being knocked around in the van all day we are ready for bed at nine o’clock. We average 4-5 hours sleep. Some people do well with that. I never did, but I sure am now!

After coming back from the afternoon safari I was approached by one of the security guards and he asked me if I could help him get to America. We talked a long time about the corruption of the Kenyan government. He confessed how badly he wanted to go to the USA to make himself a new life. Actually, I thought he had a great life. He was in a camp that looked like paradise and had a job. That’s so much more than most Africans have. I told him that the grass wasn’t always greener on the other side. I told him that America also had problems to with corruption, but he said nowhere could be as corrupt or poor as Nairobi. After seeing “Slum city” I could believe it. The poorest of poor in our country are wealthy compared to these people.

The people that work at all the hotels, we stayed at, work for three months at a time before they get to go home for a two-week visit. They live in a compound and I would imagine the pay is not very high. Many of these people are married so they don’t get to see their families often.
The security guard told me he had a brother in Wichita, Kansas and gave me his telephone number. He asked me to tell his brother where he was and that he wanted him to phone him. He said he needed a letter from him inviting him to America and wanted him to help him get a visa. When I arrived back home I did call his brother in Kansas. He seemed happier to hear that I just came from Kenya than he was about getting in touch with his brother. I can only hope he called and will write the letter for him…MORE TO FOLLOW