And the adventures continue...

Since I have come back from Kenya/Uganda, adjusting has been hard at times, especially when I am trying to explain my trip to others. I've missed Kenya and Uganda every day since being back - so many things remind me of my trip and of the people there who taught me so much. Being home has definitely been good - seeing my family and friends, starting up classes again, learning about planes and spaceships that Ive only been able to dream about my whole life. But I will never be the same after living in Kenya and Uganda, and I now see a lot of things in a whole new way. Its been exciting to meet all of the MIT freshman from Africa, and to bond with all of the Africans here about how we miss ugali and African Time and how contrary to popular belief there isn't lions walking around in the streets. I even joined the African Student's Association here at MIT, and have gotten to practice my Swahili and Luganda with some of my friends/old roommate from Kenya and Uganda. I've been praying that God will give me the opportunity to go back very soon, and fully trusting in Him that He will answer that prayer. Thank you all for joining me in this journey and reading my long posts! I hope you all get a chance to go to Africa someday :)



Because God is just too crazy, He has laid on my heart another adventure for me to partake in! My church is running a mission trip to the Dominican Republic for college-aged students in January, and today I have decided to go on it. I had originally signed up before I left for Kenya, but since coming back, I really didn't want to go. Partly because my heart is still in Africa, but also because I havn't been trusting that God would provide the funds for me to go. One of my friends and someone who I look up to a lot challenged me as I was praying about whether to pull out of the trip, "Do you not believe that God can provide the money for you?". Honestly, I wasn't trusting that God would provide...the amount is simply too much. But doesn't the Bible say over and over that our God is Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides? And haven't I seen Him provide for me over and over - money for MIT, the opportunity to go to Kenya, multiple part-time jobs, admission into MIT, health, safety, a supportive friend group etc?

So after a few weeks of wrestling with this, I have decided to take a leap of faith and send in my application for the trip. If I am meant to be there, God will provide through whatever means He wants. I am going to trust in Him that in the next month He will bring in all of the funds I need within the next month! 

For more info on the trip:
I will be going with about 20 other college students and adult leaders. We are partnering with an organization called TIME Ministries that has a year-round presence on the island. Our group will be building a chapel (that will be used as a school during the week) and teaching English to college-aged students, while sharing the Gospel with the people we interact with. I went to the DR with the same organization two summers ago, so I am excited to be able to use the skills I learned while I was there and to see the local people who I established relationships with again. 

I would love it if you would please pray that God would prepare my heart and mind to work as hard as I can for him while I am there, and that He would allow me to interact with people who need to hear of the love and joy that can only come from Jesus. Pray that I will continue to trust in Him before and during this trip, and that He will provide all I need to go with a servant’s heart.  Please pray that I raise all of the support I need, and that I will stop doubting that God can do it, and that He is in control.
In addition to praying for me, I also want to give you the opportunity to support me financially with any amount, small or large. The cost of my trip is $1600, and any contribution you can make really does make a difference. You can make checks payable to Lyndsy Muri (preferably sent by October 5th), and sent to: 362 Memorial Dr., Cambridge, MA 02139

I thank God for any support you are able to give and will be praying for you. Every donation I get will help me to trust that God is able, and that He will provide for me! 

Thank you for reading this, for praying for me, and for giving anything you can to make this trip possible. God has been doing crazy things in my life through this past summer and I can't wait to see Him continue to move in my life as I trust Him with this trip and see Him work through me in the DR! 

Love, 


Lyndsy

My group after finishing the chapel we built in July 2011. 

Sitting on top of the roof after hammering all of the panels in. 

For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” Romans 10:13-­‐15

Uganda

I simply can't put my experience in Uganda into words - I had a lot of fun, learned some wisdom from Maama, got to see what living for others and helping the helpless really looks like, met many amazing people, tried new experiences (i.e. riding a boda boda), and got to relax before the craziness of American life hits me. Here are some pictures to explain my week in Uganda. Feel free to post comments/send me emails/facebook me if you want to hear more about it or have specific questions. One thing is absolutely certain - my last night/morning there changed my life and I will be back! :D 

One of the first times lax has been played on African soil :)

Bananas, peanut butter, and m&m's

Maama and I

Roasting marshmallows! 

Alex picking me up at the airport.

Missing you already Kenya and Uganda...

Thank you to Molly and Mitch for shooting some of this footage, to Shakira for this song, and for all of the amazing people that made this experience so unforgettable :)

My last week in Kenya :(

On Monday, Molly and Daisy and I had lunch over Mama Janes. We had ugali, sukuma, and she treated us to LIVER. That was probably the toughest thing I have had to eat since coming here…I don't even eat cow meat, so cow liver was a stretch. But in Kibera, where families don't usually eat anything besides ugali and sukuma, I couldn't not eat something Mama Jane spent more money than she had on. I was especially grateful for her hospitality after talking to George and hearing that he wasn't at school (even though he has 2 months until he graduates) because they sent him home since he didn't have school fees for that month. Mama Jane is truly an amazing woman - so joyful and always smiling, so liver or not, it is a blessing to spend time with her and her family. 

On Monday night, Molly was headed home, so Jeffrey, Sam (Mama Jane's son), Daisy, Molly, and I loaded into a taxi and headed to the airport. Although there is very few rules in Kenya and you can basically get away with anything, we just happened to pass through a police check with four people in the back seat. Police checks are essentially police men with big guns that sit on the side of the road wherever they want, pull people one, and try to find something wrong so they can get money from you aka corruption at its finest. They told us we had to pay them or they would take us to the police station since we had too many people, so Jeffrey had to bribe them so they could let us go. I have no idea how much he paid, but we bought him lunch the rest of the week to try to pay him back. Sam ended up getting out and taking a bus back to Kibera, so we made it the rest of the way to the airport without any problems. We were all pretty disgusted at the corruption, but its so present in Kenya, that I guess our experience wouldn't be complete without witnessing it. 

Saying goodbye to Molly at the airpot was tough - much harder than I thought it would be. We have grown a lot closer than I thought we had I guess - nothing quite like the African bush to draw two people together. Daisy, Jeffrey, and I all had a pretty quiet car ride home…it made me realize how quickly I was leaving and how hard goodbyes would be. 

Goodbye Molly!

On Tuesday, after another good day of work with Zulu, Daisy, Edith, and I met up with the University students - Allen, Mweru, Roy,and Karl, for dinner at Carnivore, one of the most popular restaurants in Nairobi. The restaurant is famous for its all you can eat meat buffet of all different animals. We didn't get the all you can eat option, but we split 2 kilos of meat between all of us. It was all delicious: pork, chicken, lamb, crocodile, and ostrich. The ostrich was actually one of my favorites, but crocodile was a little chewy and almost life fish. 

Goodbye UoN students! 

On Wednesday, I headed into town center alone to pick up a thermometer for testing. Traffic was ridiculous, but it was cool to realize how I wasn't even phased by walking through town anymore, where as my first days in Kenya it terrified me even when I was with David. I then headed back to Kibera for the night. 

Fruitful Women, the women's group that I talked about in one of my first posts, that makes jewelry, and runs a school and orphanage, invited Daisy and I to sleep at their shack that night. Just to make sure we had the full Kibera experience - it started pouring as we headed over there. When we got there, we got to see a bunch of kids performing dance routines as part of one of their after school programs. After they performed, Daisy and I joined them and a few young girls started teaching us how to dance. It was so much fun, even though the place started to flood and we had to end early. 

We then started helping to make dinner, and eventually ate ugali and sukuma around 9 pm. Before I went to bed, I used the latrine after trudging through mud. It was probably the worst one I have had to use - there were plenty of flies and maggots. 

In the one room orphanage, there were 15 kids sleeping on 4 different beds (two without mattresses), and on the floor. Daisy, two of the women, and I slept on the floor on some pads sharing two blankets. Luckily after all of the flooding in the rooms they had dried up the muddy floor with a muddy cloth. I surprisingly slept very well and was pretty warm. I just woke up to a wailing baby around 6:30 am. We had to leave early to make a meeting at the university at 9 am, and they didn't want to let us go. Besides Molly, saying goodbye to them was my first really goodbye. 

Child care is very different in Kenya than it is in America. In America, every single need of a baby is immediately attended to. In Kenya, there is not constant supervision. Kids are free to wander wherever they want throughout the day (even if they are 2 years old), or just sit on a bed all day if they can't walk yet. At night they just feed whatever kids show up, and I don't think they ever actually take count of the kids. When a baby cries, it is often ignored for a while because the mother doesn't have food to give it anyways, or has other kids to attend to. We ended up going to bed around 11 pm, and some of the youngest kids were still up and stayed up until the women went to bed. One of the girls, Brenda, who is only 15, did more work than a mother should have to do. She was in charge of cleaning up and locking the gate, helping with dinner, buying food, putting kids in bed…very different form my daily life when I was 15. With all of her responsibility, she was as mature as a 20 year old. Even some of the 3 year olds acted like they were at least 10, perfectly able to just sit on a chair and do nothing for a few hours or feed themselves, since there is no one to give them attention anyways. 

On Thursday morning, we had a good meeting with the UoN students, and afterwards I had to say more goodbyes. It hurt to say goodbye, not knowing when I would see them again. They were such a blessing to spend time with and get to know, and made me miss being at MIT among students were are similar to me. Ahhhh let the goodbyes begin! :(

On our way back to Kibera on a bus, I realized before we got off at our stop that my wallet was missing. My first reaction was to freak out…but luckily I only had about $15 worth of money in there, and not my passport. I lost my license, school id, health insurance card, debit card, and keys to my home stay.  As it was getting stolen, I had been praying that God would teach me something these last two days, and I guess He answered that prayer quicker than I had hoped. It reminded me how God is always in control, something that Stevo from Zulu tells me often. It reminded me to trust in Him, because I could have lost so much more, or been prevented from going to Uganda/home. And it taught me how people and relationships are so much more important than material things or money. It hurt a lot more to say goodbye to the university students than it did to lose my wallet. Living in Nai-robbery for two months and not getting anything stolen was just too good to be true, so I guess its all part of the Kenya experience. My host sister got her entire bag stolen last week (including her smart phone, national id, $), and didn't have any money to get home, so came home the next day. Someone at the CFK office got her bag stolen two days ago as well…so when I told people, they weren't really shocked. They were more shocked that my phone or camera weren't stolen, and that I hadn't been robbed yet. As Opa always said: "if it can be fixed with money, then it's not important." :)

After this eventful day, it was good to go home, start making thank yous/goodbye gifts, and just spend time with my host mom. I spent the afternoon listening to worship songs with her and writing thank you cards for everyone here in Kenya. 

Friday was a day full of goodbyes. Daisy and I brought ice cream for Zulu for my last day (and they were shocked - I don't think all of them had ever had it). I then went to Mama Jane's house to say goodbye to Sam and George. I then went back to CFK, and after giving some flour and sugar to Mama Jane as a thank you gift, I said goodbye to everyone (except Jeffrey wouldn't let me haha). Daisy and I then went to Mama's hotel for lunch, and I said goodbye to them and gave them pictures that we had taken together. Finally we went to Zulu, made a last bit of charcoal, and prolonged goodbyes as long as possible. Jeffrey came by and said goodbye and gave me a few big hugs and a Kenyan bracelet. I then had to say goodbye to Zulu - Stevo, Ndiso, Msioks, Karanja, Zola, Pablo…ahhhh goodbyes hurt.

When I got home I started packing, ate dinner, and watched the Olympics with my family. It was weird that I had been in Kenya for so long, and that I was sleeping in my Kenyan bed for the last time. The next morning, we woke up early, drove to the airport, said goodbyes, and I was Ugandan bound.

Goodbyes to Mama's hotel.

Saying goodbye to Stevo :(

 My last meal in Kibera - dengue and chap - the meal I ate practically every day at Mama's. 

Oh and if you'd like to hear some Kenyan music, or at least the songs I heard over and over wherever I went, check out these links: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMSTYtMSbL0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inb2IrBrr40

Mombassa

As a grand finale to my time in Kenya, Daisy and I traveled to Mombassa, the major city on the southern coast of Kenya. We started our journey on Thursday night by boarding a bus into the city centre. There, we successfully made it to the bus office, got our tickets, and waited until we could board the bus. At 9:30 pm our bus pulled out of Nairobi, and arrived in Mombassa at 5:30 am. Mombassa is predominately Muslim, so we heard the Muslim call to prayer and got to see the sunset when we arrived. Daisy and I then took a Tuk Tuk (a tiny, 3-wheeled, 3-person taxi) to the Tusks of Mombassa - the most famous symbol of the city. 

We were going to try to explore the city a bit, but since everything was closed, we decided to head to our hotel and spend the day at Diani beach, south of Mombassa! We had to take a ferry across a channel, and there were literally FLOODS of people coming off the ferry and going on, heading to work I assume. We were the ONLY mzungus in at least 500 Kenyans, and got plenty of stares. After the ferry, we took a matatu to our hotel. For being the cheapest hotel we could find (about $12 a night), it was pretty nice - and even had a toilet and toilet paper! We then walked to the beach (we were one of the few hotels not on the beach). Once we got on the beach multiple rasta 'beach boys' came up to us, trying to sell us stuff, just talk to us, and give us a 'tour' of the beach. We flat out told them we wouldn't give them money, but they talked and walked with us for quite a while. It was okay though because it meant other people wouldn't come up to us trying to sell us stuff. 

Before we got to the private resort areas we laid our towels down and soaked in everything around us. It was absolutely amazing - too good to be true. Since I had heard about Mombassa my first weekend here I had been wanting to go. And thinking about the Cape and the warm weather at home, especially since it has been so cold in Nairobi, has been one of the few things making me homesick. But we were finally here - under a HOT sun, laying on white sand, surrounded by palm trees and bright blue water, with fresh mangoes to eat :D

After a good nap, swimming, camel spotting, trying to figure out the quickest way to make beach boys/vendors leave us alone (we probably talked to at least 20 guys within a few hours), body surfing, and making plans to go snorkeling the next day from one of the vendors, we headed back to our hotel. We showered, and went to dinner, and had seafood for the first time since being here! It was delicious! 

On Saturday morning, we woke up early, and loaded on a matatu to go even further south (30 km from Tanzania). Once we got there we went on a dhow (a boat completed made of wood, very old looking) and headed out to some islands to look for dolphins. It was so beautiful, and I felt like I was playing a part in "Pirates of the Carribean". It didn't feel like we were in the same country as Nairobi at all. We ended up seeing lots of dolphins, completely in the wild, just swimming around, having fun, and eating. They were beautiful.

After that, we jumped out of the boat and went snorkeling. There was so much coral, and the fish were beautiful! They were so colorful, small and large and some with weird horn/sword looking things. We even saw a sting ray, a huge clam shell, urchins, and many big schools of fish. It was like "Finding Nemo" (my two favorite movies within in one day!). After that we landed at Wasini Island, where a paddle boat brought us in from our dhow, to the restaurant we were eating lunch at. We had crab, talapia, rice, and fruits. We then took a short tour of the village and saw a mangrove forest that fills with salt water for 10 days of each month. Life on the island is very hard - they don't have any fresh water, so they bathe in salt water. They collect water during the rainy season and hope it lasts them through the dry season. 

We then left the island, and headed back home. It was an amazing day - although I got my first real sunburn since being in Kenya! At night, we tried to have dinner at a popular restaurant that is set in a cave, but there was no room. So we had dinner at a restaurant on the beach, and had lots of fun playing on the beach at night afterwards and catching crabs. God gave me a beautiful, full orange moon that night - and I couldn't help but praise Him for all of his blessings. 

We had to take a taxi to our hotel since it was late, and by God's grace, we ran into a man from Belgium who was also looking for a taxi. His hotel was less than a km from the restaurant, so we were going to pay for most of it, but when we got out, he offered to cover the whole taxi since he had daughters like us, remembered what it was like to be young and poor, and because I told him I was Dutch and so was his wife. 

Sunday morning we woke up and went for a run to the beach. It was my first run outdoors since being in Kenya, and it was absolutely amazing. I felt like I could have run forever. After I stopped to wait for Daisy, there was a Kenyan working out on the beach, and he asked me to join him. I was a little wary, but did anyways…it was pretty cool to work out with a local in the middle of paradise! Daisy then showed up, and we jumped in the ocean. It felt so good, and no part of me wanted to leave the warm water. We eventually had to head back though to check out of our hotel, and headed back to the Mombassa city. 

Again we were the only mzungus taking matatus and the ferry. As we were in line of at least 400 people and I realized we were the only white people in such a sea of people, I had one of those moments where it really hits me about how crazy it is that I am in Kenya, always standing out. It was one of those moments that gets me questioning - about why I was born in America, about race, and how being white has shaped my life and outlook, and about how race is completely effecting how people see me in this place. Sometimes I wonder why so many people are staring at me, why kids laugh when I walk by…and then I remember how ridiculous it must seem to them that I am living among them. Most mzugnus who visit Mombassa come from Europe, fly there from Nairobi, stay in all-inclusive resorts on the beach and never interact with local Kenyans, would not dare to step foot in a matatu or public ferry, are couples on their honeymoon wearing designer clothes, and don't know any Swahili besides Jambo (which Kenyans use to say hello only to tourists). Daisy and I shocked many people - we are young girls, with backpacks, know basic Swahili, stayed in the cheapest hotel, take matatus, are quite an odd pair to Kenyans since I am white and Daisy is Asian, and come from US instead of Europe (most of them kept thinking I was from Poland or Denmark). 

Once we arrived in Mombassa, we headed to the Old Town, and explored around ourselves. We saw Fort Jesus - a fort set up by the Portuguese in the 1500s. We then meandered through the small windy streets, minaly inhabited by Middle Eastern mixed with Kenyan Muslims. I felt like we had been transported to the Middle East or Greece - it did not feel like Kenya at all. The doors were very intricate - and Daisy wanted to take pictures with as many as we could, so we did. We had all of our stuff with us, so we looked like backpackers. Since it is the month of Ramadhan and Muslims are fasting until sundown, it took us an hour or so to find a cafe that was actually open! We ended up finding a local, non-touristy place, and had a delicious, Kibera style lunch of chapatti and beans! 

Afterwards, we walked around a huge market and tried many Ramadhan treats that they sell as people are breaking fast. They were all pretty good, and things I had never tried before! By 8:30 pm we were on our bus and headed back to Nairobi…after some sleep amidst the blaring rasta music, we arrived in Nairobi at 4 am, took a taxi home, and spent some time relaxing before my last 5 days of work in Kenya begin! 

Standing beside the Tusks of Mombassa - the most well known symbol of the coast throughout Kenya.

Dolphins!

Becoming a true Kibera resident

On Tuesday of my seventh work week, Daisy, Molly, and I all stayed at Mama Jane's (a lady who works for CFK) house in Kibera. She has a one room house with a sheet dividing the bedroom and the dining room/living room/kitchen, and then another room a few feet away with bunk beds and a 'kitchen'. Her house is in a little group of houses that all share a latrine and a little showering space. She has three sons, George, Sam, and Moses, who are 18, 22, and 25, who live down the street from her. She also has a 13 year old daughter, Linda, who sleeps in the room with the bunk beds. Her husband lives with her although he was very quiet, and I think she had another child who passed away. 

After buying some flour, fruit juice, and pineapples to bring over, we walked with Mama Jane to her place, and started preparing dinner. Since there was only one room to sit and cook in, the whole family took part in cooking and hanging out. We made somaki (talapia) in a stew, sukuma, ugali, and rice. It took at least 3 hours to cook, and they even had two jikos to cook on at a time. Sam, one of her sons, offered to take me around Kibera at night, because I told him I had been wanting to see what it was like. Even though it was dark out, the streets were packed with people, and all the shops were still open selling food and other trinkets. Everyone says that people in Kibera never sleep, they just walk all night, and I guess it is kind of true. It is also perfectly normal for a family in Kenya to eat dinner between 7-10 pm. I definitely would not have felt safe if I had gone out at night alone, but with him, it was completely fine, although we did get a lot of attention from his friends. We tried sombusas (fried dough filled with lentils) and he showed me all around. One of the ladies at a vegetable stand gave me a free banana, and then we headed back home because Mama Jane said we had to be back by 8. 

At around 10, we finally finished cooking, and we enjoyed a big meal. They don't have a refrigerator, so everything had to be eaten - which meant we, as guests, just had to keep eating. We then ate lots of pineapple and fruit juice, and took many pictures. 

Staying in Kibera kind of felt like camping. You dump water right outside your front door and it just runs down to the nearest sewage river - so when we brushed our teeth, we could just spit out the door. They offered to boil water for us to bucket shower in the morning, but it was so cold when we woke up, we just didn't shower. Molly and I shared one twin bed, and Daisy and Linda shared the other. It was very cold at night - only metal sheeted walls (with holes in them) and a rickety wooden door separated us from the chill night air. While we slept, we were able to hear noises from all over Kibera - neighbors' tvs and music, dogs howling, babies crying…in the morning we bought mandazi with Sam and had it with chai, and then headed back to CFK. I really enjoyed the experience, and it helped me to understand Kibera more than I ever could from just working here everyday. 

Looking outside of Mama Jane's door. The ravine outside is where you dump all of your water.

Cooking fish stew!

Daisy, Molly, Mama Jane, and I

Me, Moses, Molly, and George.

With Mama Jane and her daughter Linda.

The next day, Daisy and I went to the restaurant (hotel) we usually eat lunch at, called Mama's and they taught us how to cook chapatti! Last week we learned how to make the dough, and this week we made the dough, rolled it out, cooked it, and made dengue (lentils). It was delicious - and tasted as good as the native Kenyans cooking. We used the food to feed the Zulu youth group and they loved it! After we finished cooking, we waitressed at the hotel. The way the hotel works is a constant stream of hungry men walking in from 12-2 demanding food immediately so they can eat, and get back to work. So you can imagine their shock when two young mzungus were asking them their order. Most of them wouldn't give it to us at first, until they realized we were helping the waiter Ann that day. They were all laughing and enjoying it, and all talking about it, even though they were all from different tribes. Who would of thought that working at a hotel one day would help to end tribalism? haha It was pretty hectic, but fun and exciting, and worth helping the hotel out for free since they gave us cooking lessons. 

Making chapatti at Mama's hotel!

That night, Jeffrey, Daisy, Molly, Andrew, his host brother, and I went to see the Dark Night Rises - which I enjoyed a lot and didn't even fall asleep during! Now I just need to see the first batman movies (Sessoms I am guessing you will take care of this…)

On Thursday, Daisy and I had an unpleasant meeting with some of the leaders at CFK because they had an argument with the Takachar leader. It was annoying to feel stuck in between it all, yet kept in the dark. It was pretty annoying…but I am glad it happened in my second to last week. Hopefully we can work past it so I can enjoy my last week! 

The Masai Mara

The Masai Mara is the most popular national park in Kenya - especially in July and August because thousands of wildebeest migrate from Tanzania to Kenya through the park. Molly and I left early Saturday morning from the city centre, boarded on a matatu, and left for the Mara. In our safari van we were with four girls from Denmark, one woman from Hong Kong, and one man from India. They all spoke english so communication wasn't too hard, although it made me feel pretty lame that most Americans only know english when outside of America most people know at least three languages. After a long and bumpy ride (they call it the SUPA highway - it gives you a free massage), we were in the park (which basically means you drive through a gate and they charge you a lot of money, everything else is completely natural). 

On our first game drive that night, we got to witness a mad chase after a leopard - one of the rarest seen animals in the park. When our driver heard over his radio that someone had spotted a leopard, he went off-road, VERY fast, over bumps and puddles, to see the leopard. We were all standing up (because the roof popped up), hanging on for dear life. It was a blast! We got to see the leopard sneak up on gazelles and zebras, although they noticed at the last minute and ran away, while the leopard walked away unhappy.

That night, we went back to our camp, had dinner, and slept wonderfully in our beds that were inside tents. Although our mosquito nets didn't really fit the beds…thank goodness for bug spray! 

The next day we went on a game drive all day and saw almost every animal we wanted to: giraffes, zebras, dik diks, topis, gazelles, jackals, impalas, elephants, warthogs (which run really fast by the way), birds, hippos, crocodiles, vultures, ostriches, and the wildebeest migration. It was truly amazing to see them all, and weird how comfortable all of the animals were with our car. There were tens of thousands of wildebeest, as far as the eye could see. The only thing we hadn't see was a lion - and I wasn't going to leave Kenya without seeing a lion first! Our driver kept promising us we would see one…but I was getting wary…

That night, we had a good dinner, and then sat by a small campfire and talked to 3 Masai guys. Learning about their culture was one of the coolest parts of the trip - more on that in a later post!

The next morning we woke up very early, before sunrise, and went on a game drive. We finally saw two lions! They were so beautiful, so awe-inspiring, so powerful looking, but they didn't really seem dangerous haha. Our car was a few feet from them and they didn't really care. It was a perfect end to our safari.