Day 30 (10/4)
This morning was another early morning. Cook crew reported at 6:00AM and we cooked with Susan. It was so dark and cloudy outside (rain coming?). I was responsible for cutting potatoes. I did it wrong about 3 times before Susan actually showed me how she wanted it. Haha she gets so flustered sometimes, and honestly all you can do is laugh because she speaks half Swahili and half English (even though she is fluent in both) and calls everyone baby girl. After cutting the potatoes I fried them in about 3 cups of oil, added some peppers and tomatoes. Good ole’ Kenyan cooking.

Breakfast was at 7 AM and we left for Amboseli right at 7:30. Harrison was our driver and he is seriously the best. Honestly, there are no roads here, just tire tracks and at times it’s at least 5 inches of dirt/dust and the Land Cruisers are so beastly that they just power right through. And the pot holes/HUGE ditches are unreal. There are times when the truck is at a 45 degree angle because the roads are so degraded and they just keep on truckin’.
We got to Amboseli and we put the tops down as usual (got our normal greeting of local Mamas and guys selling bracelets and necklaces, carvings and things at the gate) and then had about 5 stops to have 10-20 minute lectures. After the lectures we went back to the lodge that had the buffet last time. We didn’t have enough time to go swimming but we all hung out by the pool and ate lunch.

AND again, the Vervets are always watching you. This time we didn’t have an askari and quickly realized they are not at all scared by wazungos (white people/ foreigners in Swahili). They tried to go through our stuff if it was left un-guarded and then if we tried to chase them away by just clapping or yelling they acted like they were gunna jump on us…which didn’t happen. But if you acted (really aggressively) like you were going to show a shoe or rock at them they sort of ran away but quickly came back. They are pretty afraid of sling-shots though. And flying objects. Haha they are more or less harmless and really entertaining. As we were leaving they were all trying to jump into the truck as we took the tops off again lol they are EVERYWHERE.

We hung out for a while at the lodge, interrogated Daniel about his wife and kids (haha) and hung out and talked. It started to rain while we were there which is really exciting because hopefully that means the actual rains are coming soon! (in the mountains but you could smell it in the air and the dust was so thick because of the downpouring). On the way home we did a game drive (which just doesn’t get old) and saw lots of hyaneas, and elephants really close up…Harrison was awesome at getting us right up to them at the right time (as they were crossing the road or just passing the other Land Cruisers if we couldn’t see…lol)

Harrison..again is an amazing driver. We took a back way home and somehow managed to spend 10 minutes less in the car and come up completely on the other side of Kimana, which is not a small town. I’m starting to think that to be a driver for the school it is required to be a gypsy. But to their credit they are extremely skilled drivers, they know exactly how to maneuver around these “roads”… most American drivers would flip these huge land cruisers in about 5 minutes trying to drive here.