I have taken lots of videos over the past few weeks. A few at Lake Naivasha, some at Masai Mara and some at Victoria Falls. I have used a new google program to upload them on the web so you can enjoy them. You just need to go to video.google.com and type in my name for the search. My videos...along with someone else's videos named Shannon Farley will come up. Mine are clearly the ones with animals in them, not the baby. Enjoy!

Today I was up early to head out to the last day of White Water Rafting. The water levels are so high they shut down the river for about a month, but luckily I visited just in time. The safety briefing they did was really funny and when it came time to signing the waiver they asked if there were any Americans among the group. I raised my hand, already knowing why he asked. He insisted I sign the release form twice and mumbled something about what a litigous country we were. : ) After the walk down the gorge, I hopped on the 'adventurous' boat, which included being pushed into the water along with jumping out to enjoy some swims (while holding onto the raft) in some calmer areas. For the most part it was Class 3 and 4 rapids, but we did hit two Class 5's. At one point they pulled over to the Zimbabwe side of the river (the Zambezi River separates Zambia from Zimbabwe) and gave us the option of a 4 meter or 9 meter jump into the river below. It didn't look that high from the river and an older gentleman at the hostel the night before told me his whole group jumped from the 9 meter ledge, so I figured if they could do it so could I. Well, it sure felt a lot higher once I had climbed up to the 9 meter ledge. Their jumping instructions seemed simple--jump off, balance yourself, then fold your arms across your body. Somehow it all got jumbled in my head after they counted to 0 and I jumped and just screamed. I narrowly avoided landing on my back and I experienced the worst wedgie in the world as I landed fell less than graceful into the river below.

The views of the gorge from the river were fanastic and I promise to have pictures soon (including the one of my jump). They charge $30 for a CD of pics from the day and we decided as a group to have one person buy them and email them to the rest.

After white water rafting I laid low until my bus trip back to Lusaka. The bus was to take 5.5 hours just like the ride there, except I'd be leaving at 8pm and would get in at 1:30am and would have to get up early for work the next day. To my misfortune the bus left 45 minutes late, and then got stopped at a police checkpoint just outside of the city for over an hour. Two hours later our tire burst. As there is no AAA in Zambia we sat for over another hour as someone tried to fix it. It's all part of the journey I guess. I finally got in at 4am and headed for the hotel. The man who sat behind me on the bus was nice enough to help me find a good taxi. He told the taxi driver he was writing down their number and they better get me there safe as he'd be following up.

I did make it home, but not without a glitch. The taxi driver tried to play a trick on me saying I hadn't given him a 20,000 kwacha note, but instead gave him a 1,000 kwacha note. Seeing as though I was low on cash for the end of the trip I only had one 20,000 kwacha note left so I knew when I looked back in my wallet I had given him the correct amount. No one likes being taken advantage of and I clearly was not up for games at 4am after an 8 hour bus ride. I just got out of the taxi and went inside the hotel.

The next day was tiring, but I got in a few hours of work and then hopped on a plane to Nairobi without any problems. Two more weeks in Kenya, one in Thailand, and then home.

This morning I took the 5:30am bus to Livingstone. The experience was much like that of taking the Chinatown bus from DC to NYC. It was mostly locals with a sprinkling of backpackers. While the seats are small (2 on one side and three on the other), I managed to sit next to a nice guy named Martin on his way to Botswana for where he does electrical work--it made the ride go by fast.

Once I made it to Livingstone I dropped off my stuff at the hostel and headed to the Livingstone Museum. The museum, which is a dedication to David Livingstone, who was a Scottish medical missionary and explorer that was one of the first Westerners to make a transcontinential journey across Africa, was actually pretty boring. Most of the documents they had were poorly photo copied replicas, and one of their highlight items was Livingstone's umbrella. They had another area of the museum dedicated to the local animals and a local village, but overall it wasn't impressive.

In the late afternoon I got picked up for my microlight flight over Victoria Falls. I was nervous at first, but enjoyed it immensely! We took a couple loops around the falls and then flew along the river where you could see groups of hippos and crocodiles. The flight was smooth and calming, although every time the pilot made turned to the camera on the wing for a photo I felt the need to look straight ahead so someone was watching where we were going.

After the flight I headed straight to the falls to truly experience them up close and to watch the sunset. The water flow of the falls is at its peak so experiencing the falls truly means getting soaked in its mist. You can opt for a poncho, but that seemed like a wimpy thing to do so I opted out and headed straight down the path to the falls. The water drenched me, but I loved it. I ran from lookout point to lookout point trying to get pictures that would do the falls justice. It's difficult to see in some areas as the mist is overwhelming, but incredible. After I was beyond soaked I headed to the top of the falls to watch the sun set behind the gorge in the distance.

Oscar (one of my World Vision counterparts) and I went shopping at one of the local curio markets after work today. I promised myself I wouldn't buy anything as I don't even know how I was going to get the souveniers I already have home, but of course I didn't stick to the plan. I picked up two ebony necklaces, and a carved rhino and a warthog. At this point I can start my own carved animal zoo.

So yesterday I made it to Lusaka. My first impression is that it's nicer than Kenya. The roads are good (no potholes), the matatus are clean, and there's not as much air pollution. With a nicer city comes a higher cost of living. It's quite expensive here as the kwacha has appreciated a lot in the past year, while the prices remain the same. It used to be 5,000 kwacha to a dollar and now it's around 3,000. It cost me $10 for a small personal pizza and a can of coke. They have us staying at the Holiday Inn which is pretty basic, but they charge around $200 a night as there are only 3 Western hotels in the city. While staying at the Holiday Inn I realized how much I missed American orange juice and ketchup. It has been around 6 weeks since I had a good version of either, but the hotel was stocked with western items and I fell in love all over again.

I'm a bit delayed in some big congrats to some proud new parents:

Congrats to Steve and Teri, the proud parents of Gage Kendale Pantier! He was born April 14th, 5:37pm and weighed in at 8lb, 1oz.

Steve is becoming a pro at changing diapers!

and Congrats to Tom and Amy who welcomed Noah Thomas Brown into the world on March 28th at 5:08pm. He weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.

Also a big Congrats to my cousin Kim and her husband Jim on the birth of Samantha Grace Tighe. She weighted 9 lbs. 2 ozs. and was 20 1/4 inches long.

And a long overdue Congrats to Pat and Sue Creedon on the birth of Chase Patrick Creedon. Chase was born on March 5th at 5:13pm.

We took it easy in the pool today (which is salt-water by the way) and played some volleyball at a court set up in the pool. About 15 minutes into playing an older Italian man came out of his hut and yelled at us in Italian. When we didn't respond (neither of us speak Italian) he started yelling at the guards and staff in Italian and pointing at us and hand moitioning at what looked like he was trying to say he was sleeping. Now, it was 3:30 in the afternoon, but apparently this is siesta time in Italy. Fortunately the staff was more accepting of us playing in the pool then this guy's afternoon nap.

Happy Easter! I opened the card my mom sent me and it had a large string of easter egg cutouts. I decided to spread the Easter cheer by wearing it around my neck for the day and decorating different objects around the resort.

Today we went snorkeling around the Coral Reef. Due to the rains they had recently there was poor visibility in the area, but if you threw a piece of bread in the water you immediately saw tons of hungry fish swimming along the top of the water. The area around the coral reef was very shallow, which made it very difficult to swim without getting scratches all over your legs.

After the snorkeling we met a local "tourist advisor", a Somolian refugee named Ali who took us to a carving factory. It was late so the store associated with the factory was closed, but Ali said we could buy things on what he called the "black market". It basically means the boss was gone for the day so they'll sell items they are making to us at a discount (without the middle man). I met a guy named Richard who was carving a large beautiful bowl. I bought it from him mid-process and he delivered the final product to me on Sunday. The only problem is how I am going to get it home!

Arrival in Malindi came as quite a shock to me as I wasn't expecting so much humidity. I couldn't imagine a city only an hour by flight, east of Nairobi could have such a different climate. Luckily the resort we stayed had A/C and a bunch of pools!

The town of Malindi was definitely small, but nice for short walks. Tuk Tuks were the most common forms of transportation. It's basically a golf cart that will take you anywhere around Malindi for 50 -100 shillings (around 75 cents to 1.25). Walking around town the Kenyans speak to you by default in Italian as the area is a large Italian tourist attraction. The Italian/Kenyan combination is an odd mix. At the resort they would notify guests that the meals were ready by beating large drums (a nice touch), but then followed it by an Italian version of the YMCA (which was just incredibly cheesy). Luckily the Italians at least provide good food.

This morning we had one last short safari on our way out of the park. We saw a cheetah again and the large herd of elephants (my favorite animal in the park). On our way out of the park we hit multiple checkpoints where our driver has to declare who is riding with him. Gareth and I are considered residents as we have business visas, but that always seems to cause issues with the checkpoint dude as all he sees are a bunch of white people. We are asked for our passports and briefly questioned then sent on our way.

The ride home made me a bit car sick. I can't even explain the road conditions and how people drive in Kenya and have you truly understand how horrible it really is. Many of the areas only have dirt roads that are filled with rocks which make for a bumpy ride. Where there is paved road, it is filled with potholes that require the driver to swirve from side to side to avoid them. On numerous occassions the potholes are so bad that it requires the driver to drive on the side of the road, on the dirt, which is below the road level so you occassionally feel like you might tip over. There are speed limit signs which are a bit of a joke because in most areas one cannot even get to that speed because the roads are so bad...and where the road is good, people speed like crazy to make up for the lost time in the crappy areas (which makes up the majority). Our 120 km trip took us about 5 and a half hours.....5.5 hours of what feels like off roading can make for a very unhappy stomach.

On our way out to our first safari we came across a couple (a May/December male couple from Israel) that had gotten into a bit of an accident getting there. They had veered off the side of the road into some bushes. They had their bumper in the back seat and their grill was filled with leaves and small branches. They were on their way to our lodge and were happy to only be a couple miles away. On our way back from the safari we saw them again...this time sadly stuck in a mud-drenched area. They were covered with mud on their legs and had been sitting there for two hours awaiting assitance from the lodge. It truly pays to have four wheel drive in Kenya.

We were woken up at 6am for our first of two game drives for the day. Luckily the weather was much nicer for the rest of the trip and we avoided any more rain. In the morning we saw both male and female lions, with many hyenas following them hoping to get some leftovers of their most recent kill. The gazelles and topis started to feel like cats and dogs as they were everywhere--I hoped we'd get to see some more of the big five (which are....the lion, the rhino, the buffalo, the cheetah, and the elephant). To my luck we saw a group of elephants--there were about 20 in all. The babies were so animated...playing with eachother and eating a hearty green meals. As a new elephant family showed up they greeted eachother with loud noises.

After the elephants we came upon a turtle. It was the smallest of all the animals we saw, but it was special none the less.

After we arrived back at camp, we were greeted by Nicholas, a 21 year old man of the Masai tribe, who would join us on our bush breakfast and be our guide for a walking safari and Masai village visit. The bush breakfast was excellent and the staff was very nice. We asked the waiter how he liked working at the camp--we knew someone who could shut the place down if he was unhappy. : ) The walking safari was was definitely the most informative part of the trip. We learned which leaves will kill malaria bacteria, and what tree branch dual functions as a toothbrush and a typhoid cure. I still plan on sticking to my anti-malaria pills, but I'll add that to memory for any 'worse case scenarios' I may come across. Nicholas was very knowledgeable--he knew a lot about parts of the world he had never visited and about the rules and policies his government was trying to impose on the tribes of Africa, as well as the corruption that exists within the government that keeps them from receiving UN funds. We spoke about female circumcision, a practice he finds no issue with, but is aware they are trying to ban it. He also spoke about pologamy where he said his father, who has four wives, his mother being the youngest, wants him to marry a newly circumsized 14 year old girl. He refuses to, saying he wants to fall in love and marry just one woman. As we walked to the village Gareth and Sol asked what they could get if they married me off. Nicholas quickly stated oh you could get 10 heiffers, 5 bulls, 3 rams, and 3 female goats. I can't say whether that is good or not, but I had no plans on staying in the village for longer than a half hour. We continued to bombard Nicholas with questions about Masai traditions and beliefs and learned many interesting things:

If a female gets pregnant before she is circumsized she is chased out of the village, shamed, never to return. When I asked what if the sex was forced on her (rape), Nicholas said that didn't happen. Hmm....somehow I doubt that. What about gays Gareth asked--do you have them? "Not yet" was Nicholas' response....as if it were being imported from Europe and would arrive soon.

When a male is circumsized it's at the age of 12. He said that a lot of alcohol is made for the event. That made sense to me as it sounded like a pretty painful experience, but then he corrected me saying that the alcohol wasn't for the boy, it was for everyone else. He also noted that if the boy cries or even flinches his fingers he is considered a coward and is always remembered. I sure hope no one gives the 'specialist' any alcohol.

Pologamy is standard there and most wives are married off to much older men because they are the only ones that can afford to pay the price (in livestock) for a bride. Each wife is given her own hut where she lives with her children and the husband rotates where he lives each night. Huts are no luxury in the villages.They are made of branches and dried mud, there is a room for their goats, a "bed" for the husband/wife, and a "bed" for the children. The kitchen consists of a firepit in between the two beds where they warm up cow milk and blood to drink. There is a small hole in the wall for the smoke to go out of, but it doesn't do a whole lot of good as it was very hard to breathe, not that you wanted to, given the horrible smell in the air.

We were shown around the Masai village by the son of the chief. We were asked to pay an entrance fee (around $20) which allows us to take any photos we wanted as well as see/take part in dances done by the men at the women. The area between the huts was filled with mud as it had rained the night before. Despite the conditions the kids ran around smiling and staring at us....quick to say a friendly "Jambo!" (hi!) as you passed by.

After the visit to the hut the men performed a welcome dance, where they each took turns jumping in the air as the others sang. Nicholas told us afterwards that whoever jumps the highest, gets the most girlfriends and that if Gareth stayed in the village for a month he could jump very high and get many girlfriends. Gareth was convinced he could just get a lot of girlfriends because of his money, not his jumping.

After the men danced the women sang for us. They insisted on me standing in their lineup as they sang. It felt a little awkward and I must say I thought the women were the least 'happy' of the villagers. It may have something to do with the workload balance as they are the ones who collect wood, water, build the houses, raise the children, and cook the food.. The men go out and hunt the food. I'd be a little bitter too. Another tidbit of Masai information is that if a woman sees the kill when the men are hunting (before it's brought back to the village for cooking) then no one is allowed to eat the food. That sounds a little over the top--and Nicholas agreed.

On the 3 mile journey back Nicholas told us even more about the history of the Masai people. He mentioned that the British insisted the kids go to school and went to the village to take children to make sure they attended. Given that each man had many wives, and usually he didn't like at least one of them, the Masai man would send the children of the wife he didn't like to school, and then take the rest of the kids with him into the bush to hide and to hunt. Ironically those children gained much success in going to school and Nicholas said one of the kids is now high up in the Kenyan government.

Nicholas also said that the British gave them all white cloth to wear as they didn't like them running around naked. The Masai people didn't like the white because it made it difficult to hunt and so they requested red, symbolizing blood. Red is what you see them all wearing today.

After our walking safari I took a well deserved nap while Gareth went and played soccer with the staff. He was enjoying it so much he skipped out on the evening safari to continue playing. At night we saw the animals from the previous days, but also got to see some hippos in the river and luckily George, who was done inspecting the lodge came along as he spotted a cheetah on our way back to camp. That means four out of the big five!

I came home to an ailing Gareth who had gotten heatstroke and was sunburned all over his legs and face from playing soccer in the afternoon sun. He was lucky his team wasn't skins.

The lodge we stayed at (Fig Tree camp) was very nice. It's basically a bunch of industrial tents on top of a cement area with a wooden roof. Inside are beds and bathrooms, closets, lamps, ,etc. Everything you would expect in a basic hotel room (even a bible) except you unzip your door instead of unlocking it. Right outside our door was a river, complete with hippos and crocodiles. We were also advised to keep our tents zipped up as some mischievous monkeys were known to get inside and eat any food you have lying around (gives new meaning to the song 10 little monkeys jumping on your bed!)

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We arrived at around 3pm, had a late lunch and then went off on our first game drive. Unfortunately for us it was raining, but we were too excited to keep the roof hatch down. We lifted it up, put on some warm jackets and then headed out. The animals didn't seem to mind the rain as we saw Topis, Gazelles, Impalas, Giraffe, Warthogs, Hyenas, Lions, and Buffalo all out in the open and close to our trail. We saw a herd of Buffalo we wanted to check out, but Steven was afraid he'd get stuck on the mud. We pleaded and he got as close as he could. He said the Buffalo were the most dangerous of the animals on the reserve because they will charge a vehicle. We thought we were in the clear heading back, but we hit a muddy patch and got stuck. Fortunately Sol and Gareth were able to push us out of it as I took photos of their struggle in the mud. The rain eventually cleared up and we got to see a beautiful sunset.

After the safari we had dinner and I learned a lot more about my fellow travelers. Sol, the American is from California and just graduated UC Davis where he studied hydrology and was just traveling around Africa. I had never heard of this major before, but would soon learn I was in the minority. George, the Kenyan water inspector was also a hydrologist, hired by the lodge to do their annual inspection. George was quiet at first, but added a nice balance to the rest of the non-Kenyan group. He made fun of our cold water, insisting the waiter bring him lukewarm water, as is normal in Kenya and also took part in our political conversations saying how he liked Bush because he was able to win the Presidency despite being so dumb. George was a guest of the lodge...getting his meals and drinks free. We joked about the bribes he was receiving and he was a good sport.

So I'm two days into my anti-malaria pills and the travel agency calls to say the third guy in our group dropped out and they want to move the dates back a day. That would not work for us as Gareth leaves for Uganda on Monday and we already are taking Friday off. She tried to get us to pay the extra transportation costs of the guy who dropped out, which is ridiculous as we paid in full--the guy who dropped out should lose his deposit or something. I stood strong and eventually she gave in and said they would absorb the costs. Hopefully when our transportation shows up it's not a motorbike! I think it's about a 4-5 hour drive, but it should be scenic. Stay tuned for how the safari went!

I'd also like to add that I'm saddened to hear Katie Couric is leaving the Today Show, but I'm outraged to hear that they're replacing her with Meredith from The View/Millionaire. I mean honestly there's no comparison....I would have much rather it been one of the 'back-ups' they used while Katie was on vacation....they were nice. I can only hope for a massive protest against her replacement....who's with me?

I forgot to mention the other day that I met a guy who was a medic during the filming of the Constant Gardener. He said he was in charge of taking care of any extras that were hurt or got sick during filming, but many extras would come to him with ailments they clearly had for years. Regardless he did what he could and said that the cast and crew were so great to the community. That's good to know. He also told me some 'inside information' about the parts of Kenya scenes were filmed that were supposed to be other areas of Kenya. I have a feeling your average American didn't pick up on it. Good movie though--if you haven't seen it, see it.

Last night we went to see Ice Age 2 at the movie theatre at the Sarit Centre. Tuesday nights you get a movie, soda, popcorn, and hot dog for $5! You can't even get a matinee ticket for that price in the States!

My review for Ice Age 2 is that it's a must see! I laughed out loud and Gareth even enjoyed it.

So just about all the trips have been booked and I'm excited about my adventures to come. Pics should come a few days after each trip. Here's the plan:

April 7 - 9 Masaii Mara (Safari at a large Game Park in Kenya)

April 14 - 17 Malindi (A city on Kenya's coast known for beautiful beaches and swimming with dolphins

April 18 - 23 Zambia (I'll be in Lusaka for work during the week and then I'm taking a weekend trip to Livingstone where they have one of the 7 natural wonders of the world Victoria Falls).

May 6 - May 15 Bangkok, Thailand (I have two days of Training as part of the ADP program and the rest of the time will be spent siteseeing and shopping--let me know if you want something!)

May 17 Home!

Post May 17 is still up in the air. I'll either be back in Nairobi or on another ADP project somewhere else in the world!