For the past few days we have been in the middle of the Masai Mara with not contact. All is well. The roof is finished on the dining hall, and we have completed and incredible safari...lions..jaguars...elephants..giraffes...zebra...etc etc etc. Stories to be told. At the moment we are in Nairobi taking our last shower before heading to the airport for the long journey home. See you all shortly. Attached is the last blog written which we were unable to post. FB



Hujambo!!! Marianna here. . .hi mom. . .yesterday was our last work day, though there was very little work to be done. The beams are up and all the building needs is a tin roof and a good sweep. In the morning, many of the village women gathered near the worksite so we could have a private sort of flea market place. There were bangles, collars, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, swords (for all the boys’ parents who are reading this. . . your boys are coming back armed. . .), walking sticks, cloth, and so many other trinkets. Everything was hand-decorated in beautiful beads, and it was so much fun to bargain with the beautiful earth-goddess-esque Maasai women. It was also great because a lot of them we knew from our homestays or as the mothers of a lot of our little friends from the school.
Later that afternoon, there was a huge send off ceremony for us, and we were all decked out in the extravagant jewelry we had bought earlier that day. We were presented with some goat meat, a symbol of unity and us being officially welcomed as part of the community (some of the tougher members of our group had seen a couple of the goats being slaughtered and roasted a few hours earlier. . .ooh aah interesting). The chiefs made a few speeches, there was singing and dancing (we sang Aye, a song Julia taught us, and Lion Sleeps Tonight of course), and more of the village wives presented us with gifts as we danced and sang together. Some of the younger boys did a warrior dance which we had seen our first week here, and we were invited to dance with them! I am not entirely sure if the community was laughing with us or at us, but the mood was quite jolly. We went to bed as a pinkish hue settled over the land as clouds covered the sunset, its colors changing and shifting in the endless sky over the plains.
This morning we got an extra 30 minutes of sleep as we woke up to a Lion King sunrise at 7:00. Birds were chirping and everything was calm as the sun climbed higher, people finished packing and zipping up their bags, and plopped over at the mess tent for our last breakfast in Oloika. We all knew that a lot of our little friends from the school would be coming to see us off, and I think a lot of people were a bit uncomfortable knowing that it is entirely possible that they might not be seeing each other ever again. Hopefully, because we all tried to get addresses from the people who worked at the site with us and the children we played with, we’ll be able to maintain some form of contact with Oloika, sending pictures of our own homes and families. Bittersweet, no matter how clichéd, is the perfect way to describe the mood as we loaded onto the van, since we are all sad to be leaving but excited to move into our days at the Maasai Mara and to be coming home soon.
The forty minute flight from Magadi to the Mara was beautiful! It was amazing to see the change in the landscape as we crossed over the mountains, moving from a dry desert to greener ridges then to the flat “pridelands.” At the parking lot, however, it was sort of surreal to see all these other (white) tourists dressed cleanly and fashionably waiting with huge cameras for their safari vehicles while in the distance you could see three Africans carrying water tanks to their homes. The juxtaposition of that and of just coming from our experiences in Oloika provided a bit of food for thought as we scrambled into the safari vans and stood on the seats to peer out of the holes in the roof. It is so BEAUTIFUL HERE!!!!!!! As Shani would say, “omigod.” It is as if I jumped into one of the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History, in Akeley Hall of African Mammals. Herds of wildebeest and zebras meandered through the tall grass of the savannah with acacia trees dotting the horizon. I always believed that the Africa that Carl Akeley, the expedition leader for the Museum who journeyed to Africa countless times to take photographs and specimens for the African Hall of Mammals, was trying to preserved had vanished as advancing technology and overpopulation intruded into the environment, wildlife, and people of sub-Saharan Africa. I see now that while global climate change, increasing tourism, and deforestation have devastated much of the land surrounding this place, there are still special places that are both ancient and ageless that you can only find here in Africa. All it takes is some perspective and a plane ride. The only things that are missing are Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. And maybe a crazy baboon holding a baby lion up to the sun.

I can live without them.
Xoxo
Marianna
P.S. Turns out goats, being livestock, have to be subjected to traumatic quarantine experiences if brought back to the US. I am not sure Nosim is yet mentally hardy enough to make such a journey . Besides, the other farm animals might make fun of her because of her funny accent. Her English isn’t too good. . .