Day two at Massaai Mara

We started at 7:30am the second day. Early morning is a good time for a game drive. The wide sky above was light blue with many beautiful puffy white clouds scattered all over. A beautiful morning. A very good time for a game drive. Many many animals are enjoying the fresh morning air and having breakfast.

Today we would be heading toward the Massai Mara River where we will see hippos and crocodiles. Every drive we would see droves of wildbreasts and zebras in the plains. Some asked to see the Big Five. What are the Big Five? Odhis, our driver and guide, said are the beasts early hunters feared because they were ferocious and charged after them. These are the lion,the African elephant,African buffalo,rhino, and leopard. Unlike the Indian elephant, the African elephant cannot be domesticated. Their ears are much largerand grow much larger than the Indian elephant. Also like the African elephant the African buffalo cannot be domesticated either like the Indian water buffalo. However, in the game preserves, they have become so used to seeing many vans with people gawking at them they do not attack but just sit or walk away. With the exception of the rhino and buffalo, they are very shy and will run away when approached. However, when we saw them at Nakuru National Park, they were as calm and placid as the other Big Five.

Diana's wish was to see a leopard. Today we did not see a leopard,but we did see a mother cheetah and her cub lying lazily under a shady bush. They were beautiful together;their coats so bright with the rings around the mother's tail so distinct and beautiful.

We saw elephants,giraffes,and many types of gazelles,entelopes,and three females lions lying on the grass together. Later one decided to hunt a wildbeast. We followed it slowly head for a herd.
However, a zebra got wind of it and alerted the wildbreast and the whole herd took off. This was not to be a successful hunt. There is something wonderful about seeing these animals in their natural envirnment. And I was also very surprised to see that many of shrubs and plants were the same ones that grow on Kauai. On this game preserve everything was dry. But I learned some animals prefer dry grass to fresh grass. The two other game preserves we would visit wer totally different.
We travelled miles before we got to the river,but we were rewarded with many hippos. We had to work harder to find the crocodiles.
We had a picinic lunch under some shady trees before seeing more animals on our way out of the game preserve and back to our camp site.

In the evening we ate with many from other safari groups. It was fun meeting with them and sharing our experiences. I also got a chance to talk story with the Masaais who served the camp.

I asked Daniel and Moses how they got their Christian names. Both were influenced by missionaries. Moses was especially interested in locating Hawaii on a world map which they had tacked on to a 3'x4' bulletin board. I was told that of all the large tribes the Massaais stuck firmly to their life style and traditions. So I was surprised at Moses's answer when I asked him
what was his dream,desire or want for himself. He quickly answered,I want to become a teacher to teach the little children of his village. I asked why? Because if they don't have an education they will be stuck taking care of the herd. Those with education can get better jobs with the government and hotels and earn more money. I later learned from Daniel that the Masaai council made up of the elders at first only allowed children who were poor at watching the herd to go to school. Now that they have seen what has happened to those "educated"children they are raising money to build a new school.