The afternoon thunderstorm forced us to hang out in our room and wait out the rain. Sitting on the balcony, we started noticing movement from above. Monkeys came out of the trees and the crevasses in the roof of the hotel and started going through people’s belonging that had been left on their balconies. “Cheeky…
Tag: Africa
strumming my pretend guitar in Mombasa
I imagine having long, lanky hair and sun kissed skin as my feet sink in the wet sand. I pull the guitar around from my back and strum a little tune. African children run down the beach to the sound of the music. Ocean crabs dance on the rocks. Mombasa is a place to let…
The beautiful empty of my fourth Safari
I’m seeing how fickle Mother Nature can be as I come to the same grasslands of the Serengeti for my fourth time in five years. Grasses so high you can barely see the predators that lie in wait. Waiting for food that hasn’t come… The African rains have been plentiful this year, the grass higher…
Pride Rock
The great plains of Africa spread out as wide as the seemingly endless ocean. To my right I have acacia trees dotting the horizon, with a string of elephants, in single file, moving across the great expanse…. to my right is a lone stack of flat rocks in the middle of the tall grass, a…
Old World Monkeys
A family together around a tree, the elders up top to survey their surroundings, the younger on lower branches playing, babies on the ground with their mothers, being protected. It’s the largest gathering of baboons I’ve ever seen…. The theory of evolution is so blatantly apparent if one chooses to see it. The interactions between…
feeling almighty at the Kenya/Tanzania border
Out in the Maasai Mara, hours from our camp and civilization of any kind, there sits a formidable stone. It is the marker of the border between the countries of Kenya and Tanzania. Out here, there are no border patrols agents or crossing guards, no security of any kind. Which can leave one with a…
Sarova Mara
The “Jurassic Park” gates slowly creak open as one patiently waits in your safari vehicle. The sounds of Africa’s Big Five fill the sky. Sarova Mara is a Game Camp located inside Kenya’s Maasai Mara. As you settle into your tent, the roar of a pride of lions is heard just beyond the electrified fence….
The Albino Kenyan
As we are driving to Safari, a conversation gets started about the Albino population in East Africa. It is estimated that around 10,000 albino’s are in Tanzania and Kenya, probably more. The are moving from the countryside to more urban areas due to a horrible current practice of hunting and killing albinos ( regardless of gender…
Sena & the mattresses
One place we always visit while in Nairobi with Build.Create.Kenya is Ken’s Shunem orphanage for girls. BCK sells bracelets throughout the year for Ken, as he has started this much needed orphanage by himself ( with his lovely wife), as his passion to help takes priority over the cost to run such an institution. As…
BCK on Kenyan TV
When BCK’s in-country director Justus told us that he had set up a deal with a Kenyan TV station to help promote the work of our non profit organization, I was at a loss for words, literally. Next thing the four of us knew, we were in a television studio being prepped for our interviews….
coming full circle with the Maasai
As we pull up to the familiar Maasai village, I marvel to myself how comfortable I am here in this place. Over the years, I’ve gone from an outsider looking in to calling these people my friends. I see David, the younger tribal chief, and greet him warmly as I inquire about village life. Everything…
The Hippo Pool
Driving hours through the tall grasses of the Maasai Mara, past Acacia trees and endless skies. Arriving at the border of Kenya and Tanzania to one of the most amazing wonders of the Natural World….. The spot of the annual Wildebeest migration across the Mara River at the hippo pools. In late July and…