Another Wild Week

This week was full of excitement. John arrived on Thursday afternoon and we were all very excited to see the familiar face. On Friday we left for Samburu and stopped at the Equator for some pictures and shopping. We arrived at Sarova Shaba, Samburu in the afternoon. The lodge was beautiful; we were welcomed with fruit juice and hot towels after a long bumpy ride, known as the “African Massage”. The lodge had a lot of monkeys over the lawns, and a very large swimming pool, which we were all excited to see. We went on our first Safari in the afternoon, and were happy to see many elephants, giraffes, and zebras. On the second day out we even saw lions!
On Saturday we went to a Samburu Village, where we took a tour of the village and were told some of the history of the two tribes who live there (the Samburu and the Turkana). We also watched a dance, and were even invited to join in. As we walked throughout the village, we were also shown the inside of the manyattas, and watched as men made fire with sticks. On our way out of the village, the women of the village set up a market of goods they had made. We all agreed that the visit to the village was our favourite part of our visit to the Samburu area, although the animals were an exciting part of the weekend also.
Although we didn’t want to leave Samburu we were excited on Sunday to be heading to the Meru area to meet with Jennifer. Jennifer welcomed us into her home and was happy to have us there. That night, she made a wonderful dinner and Shaad even came to join us. Unfortunately we only had the one night with Jennifer, and the next day we had to leave to visit the schools.
First we visited Kiirua Secondary Boys School. We were met by the head teacher and Martin from the Muchui Women’s Group who showed us around the school and the gardens. We were very impressed with the school’s gardens, and how self-sustaining the school is. They had produced enough potatoes to feed the students for the entire term.
Next we visited Kinyenjere Primary School, where the students were very excited to see us. The headmaster showed us around their gardens and took us through each classroom. In the classrooms we were greeted with smiling faces. As we were leaving the school the students all gathered around us to ask questions. They asked us several questions about Canada, and posed for many, many pictures.
The weekend was very busy, but we all really enjoyed visiting Jennifer and the schools. We headed back to Ichimara very tired, but with many memories.