Dear Friends,
This weekend was an adventure right out of National Geographic! The five of us headed to Lake Naivasha on Saturday morning. Lake Naivasha (look it up on a map!) is a big, freshwater lake where you can see many animals, because the Kenyan government protects the area. Our awesome taxi driver, Javan Odinga (who also happens to be a former winner of the Mr. Kenya bodybuilding contest!) got us there safely in 4 hours. After checking in at the hotel, he brought us to his favorite tour-boat operator, who took us out on the lake and showed us lots of hippos! He told us that hippos can be up to 3 tons, and are the lions of the water, because they are so dangerous. When Geoffrey suggested that he could probably outrun them on land, he pointed out that they can run up to 20 mph on land.

Our boat guide showed us many amazing birds, including the fish eagle. He had brought some dead fish and went over to where he knew two fish eagles liked to hang out in the top of some tall trees. He whistled, through the fish up into the air, and when it hit the water, a huge eagle swooped down and picked up the fish, right in front of us!

Then he took us to an island in the middle of the lake, called Crescent Island. It is a preserve for wild animals, who are able to wander there safely and openly. When you arrive, a guide takes you around and you are just walking among the animals! The only really dangerous animal on the island is the water buffalo, which we kept at a distance.

A wildebeest!

A water buffalo, deciding if we look juicy enough to stand up and chase...

Water bucks, with wildebeests in the background

When we got back to the hotel that afternoon, we realized that someone (I won't say who!!!) had dropped the plastic room key somewhere on Crescent Island. When we asked the front desk for another copy they said they didn't have one and it would take a long time to make a replacement. Hmmm.... We went back to the room to figure out what to do next. After looking at the bathroom window in back, we realized that we might be able to wiggle the three panes of glass out and slide someone through the window. Ten minutes later, Geoffrey was in (the bathroom, but luckily not the toilet) and he opened the front door for us. Needless to say, we leave the room with the door locked until we checked out the next day!

We had another adventure walking back to the room from dinner. We looked up and a huge giraffe was 30 feet in front of us, eating leaves from the acacia tree on the hotel lawn! We stood and watched it for a while before it slowly ambled off. 

Then one of the hotel staff came out and asked us to stay there. He pointed into the dusk on the lawn with a flashlight, and we saw three huge hippos munching on the grass! We took the man's advice and stood there at a distance quietly observing these enormous creatures. When he made a loud noise, they turned and ran off, and although it wasn't 20 mph, it was certainly much faster than I could ever imagine these huge creatures could move.

On Sunday morning we got up early and Javan took us to Hell's Gate National Park. There, we took an 8 mile bike ride (on bikes that could use a lot of TLC, including mine who's back wheel was almost off for most of the ride). The ride took us through beautiful grasslands and craggy cliffs, where we saw hundreds of zebras, lots of giraffes, bush bucks, and even some crazy looking warthogs.

The back side of a warthog! Not much prettier from the front, I have to say....

A small herd of Thompson's gazelles, which are pretty but easily scared away.

Halfway through the ride, we stopped and took a hike through a deep gorge that has been carved out by a river over millions of years. 

Walking through the gorge with Javan

Then we got back on our bikes, finished our ride, and started the 4 hour drive back to Eldoret. The weekend was a wonderful break from our busy weeks, but we are all excited to get back to the hospital and schools tomorrow to see how things are going. 

Hope you are well,

Kwa herini,

Elizabeth