So...About the Safari

So the morning I woke up for the safari I had a bad feeling. It was one of those feelings that you just push aside, but a bad feeling none the less. When I woke up I crawled out of my bottom bunk and hit Kate, who sleeps above me. From her moaning I could tell she wasn’t doing too well. Turns out she was REALLY sick…which meant all duties of the safari fell to me. We were actually scared that she had malaria, but we gave her a blood test and it was negative. Everything was a little hectic because w/ Kate sick I had to walk down to the market to pick up groceries, take a shower because I walked to town to get groceries, and collect everyone’s money for the trip. As I was getting my things together to go, I hear Bethany in the bathroom. It confused me a little because she wasn’t supposed to be out class yet. When I went in she was covering her mouth and when I asked what was wrong she dropped her hand to reveal a HUGE swollen lip. She thinks she might have been allergic to a cat she petted. Anyway, her lip was huge and getting bigger by the minute. Thank goodness, last minute Kate decided she felt well enough, after sweating out a fever, to go. And Bethany took some benedryl and gave it a couple hours and the swelling went down (but not before I took some pretty hilarious pictures of her).

We all jumped in the coaster bus and took off. A few hours into the journey we stopped at the equator for a bathroom break. One of the guys, Daniel, stepped off the bus…and pooped his pants, literally. Luckily we always have plastic bags handy. We got back on the road and were almost to the park when the coaster died in the middle of the road. And remember…we are almost to a national park, which means there are wild animals roaming free everywhere. Our amazing bus driving, Jeremiah finally gets the bus running again after a scary twenty minutes we are off again. We kept driving…and driving…and driving…TEN HOURS after beginning our journey we arrived at the park. We pulled up to a gate only to find no one in the gate house, so we sat for about twenty minutes waiting on a guy to show up just to tell us we were in the wrong place. Next gate, same thing, only this time we found the right place. We pull in to what looks to be the place we are supposed to stay, but nope, wrong place. By now it is 1:30 am. We finally find the place we are supposed to stay only to discover that the person in charge of the keys isn’t there…and we get a lecture for showing up so late. Well, they can’t do anything for us so…we sleep on the coaster. Twenty of us sleep on a bus…it was the most uncomfortable night of my life. There was no room to get comfortable so we just had to sleep sitting up. Between snoring, laughing, and people jumping out of the windows to go pee, I probably got a total of three hours sleep.

At 6 am the next morning, we headed out for our first game drive. I got really sick, probably from lack of sleep, it being so early, and being in a car, so I slept through most of the drive. I did see a bunch of lions on a rock though, that was pretty cool. After that we had breakfast at a canteen in the park. When we climbed off the bus at the canteen we had been on that stinking coaster bus for 21 ½ hours! It actually kinda felt like home. We finally got to our hostel and climbed into bed. After putting everyone to sleep by reading “Peter Pan” I finally fell asleep…for a wauping thirty minutes. We got everyone together and headed out for our boat ride. The boat ride was pretty amazing. Not only was it beautiful, but I got to see hippos, crocodiles (don’t worry dad, none chased me), and a bunch of birds. When we came back to our hostel we snuck up to the really nice, ritzy lodge. Because we were white we just blended in and they thought we were staying there, so they were really nice to us. They ended up getting a dessert bar together for us for $3 a person, it was pretty amazing. Finally we got back to the hostel and passed out.

Sunday morning, we were up at 6:15 am. We drove out on our second game drive and saw lions, hyenas and some pretty majestic mountains. I’m not going to lie; I slept for about half of this drive too. Back to the park we went to have breakfast at a picnic table next to the lake. We headed out at around 11 am. With no problems, just a few bathroom breaks (one of which I peed in a bathroom that had no toilet and no roof, in the rain) we arrived back at school at 8:53 pm (I know the exact time because we were all taking bets).

I must say that inspite of all the set backs that happened on the trip, it was pretty amazing. When you sleep with people on a bus it sure does bond you all together. The park was beautiful and we actually could walk through it and see warthogs, mongoose, and waterbucks…close enough to touch. It was the best safari I have ever been on for $30, that’s for sure! I’m kinda getting into this whole roughing it thing. On the bus home I realized how happy I am. I’m in the middle of Africa w/ a bunch of people I only met 2 ½ months ago and I am so happy. I feel God’s presence here and I know that I’m not alone. I guess I’m just realizing that no matter where I go, God is right there w/ me…and it’s pretty amazing.

P.S. On the way home we stopped at a gas station and they were selling grasshoppers and one of the boys bought them...and I ATE ONE!! Yup, I ate a fried grasshopper...it was disgusting!