Note from Miriam Sauls

Hello, Miriam Sauls here, the only North Carolinian amongst the Virginians and Aussies. They are all excellent traveling companions, I might add. For my first blog entry, I will include some words here that I wrote upon returning from our safari.

We headed off to the Maasai Mara region for our safari and on our way to our tent camp, we started seeing zebra and giraffe. Then we arrived at the very elegant Fig Tree Camp, with beautiful dining areas and pool and tents unlike what I had in mind. Yes, we zipped in and out of our tent, but they were furnished with very nice mahogany beds and a tiled bathroom with all working plumbing and hot water. It also had a nice open-air thatched roof bar. Not roughing it at all!

We went on our first game drive within an hour of arriving and over the next two days went on 4 game drives and saw lots of lions, elephants, more zebras and giraffes, hippos, a leopard and tons of Cape Buffalo and lots and lots of gazelles, impalas and all kinds of antelopes and hyenas and bat-eared foxes. There were warthogs galore and baboons and amazing birds and we even got in a wildebeast migration! When I say we saw elephants and lions, I mean multiple times and our drivers drove us to within 10 feet of them sometimes. We saw mother and baby lions playing and heard big males ferotiously growl and saw very protective mother elephants with precious babies. The leopard had taken an impala it killed and hung it in a tree and when we found the tree (all the safari drivers either talk by radio about what they have found or stop as they pass on the road, so we had gotten a leopard tip) we only saw the kill, but we caught the leopard the next morning coming down from breakfast.

The grandeur of the landscape and the light at sunrise and sunset and these enormous majestic animals appearing on the horizon is about as thrilling as anything I have ever experienced. Then there are the small moments like getting back to camp and seeing an elephant nonchalantly drinking from the stream by our camp or a baboon racing through camp and the monkeys that got in two of our tents and went after snickers bars and popcorn and makeup! You never, never leave your tent unzipped lest they make a raid. We took a couple of hours to go to a Maasai village near the camp and they sang and danced for us and showed us inside their huts and answered a million questions and it was magnificent. The men dress mostly in red fabric draped around them toga-like, and have lots of shiny necklaces and beading and a big knife in a sheath around their waist and they always carry a walking stick. It is so hard to believe these are not just costumes they put on for our benefit, but we saw village after village of these people going about their daily life, and they were simply beautiful. We even saw them playing soccer in these clothes and the goalie still had his stick.

The only animal we didn't see that we were hoping to see was a cheetah. We didn't see rhinos either, but we knew they were almost extinct in the park (there are apparently only 20 left in the park) so we didn't have any expectations for rhinos. But we really were hoping to see a cheetah in action. Oh well...But yesterday, we took 240 of the school children in buses to the animal orphanage in Nairobi. I was walking around filming and a keeper asked me if I wanted to see a baby lion. Of course I said yes and he took me to a building behind the cages. I snagged George, a great photographer in our group and he came too and they handed us a 3-month old lion to hold. You have to hold it very carefully as it already is interested in nipping. Breathtaking! Then I finally got to see my cheetah. They took out a 5-month old cheetah and gave me a toy on a rope to shake around for it to play with. It played just like a domesticated kitten and was absolutely adorable. But you had to keep its attention on the toy, because it was already too big to want to have it focussed on you. These workers obviously had a racket going - they expected a tip and were very good at using your camera to film you with the babies. But I was more than happy to give that tip. What an experience!

When we got on the bus to go to the animal orphanage, I happened to be on the bus with the 8th grade girls who have a great chorus. They immediately broke into song, with fabulous 4-part harmony and sang all the way there. They were in a regional competition today, but I haven't heard the results. The high school girls also competed today. Some of us went to the competition but we had to leave before they performed - but we heard them rehearsing and they did this beautiful call and response chanting that was out of this world. They were draped in African cloth - they can make the most out of the least little thing.

I continue to appreciate how fun and compassionate and talented the group I am with is. It all feels like a big blessing.