how does it feel … to be without a home … a complete unknown … like a rolling stone ???

alll right … this has got to be fast (again … sorry …)

i went on safari … it cost a lot … it was worth it in some ways … not so much in others …

the first evening we arrived we went on a evening game drive as the sun was going down over Maasi Mara (connected to the Serengeti) … there are animals EVERYWHERE … and there is something overwhelmingly tranquil and beautiful about driving into the middle of a herd of 50-100 ‘deer’ (impala, gazelle, heartebeast, etc, etc, etc … there are prolly 10 types of deer like animals out there), shutting off the engine, and just being with them while they eat and graze and wag their little tails …

the hi-light of the evening … which turned out to be the hi-light of my whole trip, was when we found a herd of about 30 elephants … again … just sitting and being with them as they go about their day to day … was … magical … somehow they seem wiser than other animals … you look in their eyes from 10 feet away and you really get they feeling they are looking back at you, and that they understand … wow …

b/c my tour company were a bunch of lying bastards … i ended up doing the full drive around Maasi Mara (i don’t even know how to spell that, how embarassing) … twice … which had its highs and its lows … i saw about 10,000 zebras … which was pretty cool … saw a pack of lions feeding on a buffalo … which was pretty cool (though not as impressive as the elephants) … was made fun of by a baboon and sat about 3 feet from a baby monkey … which was probably the 2nd hi-light of my trip … people who deny that humans are evolved from a similar ancestor as primates need to seriously consider opening their eyes a little bit … in my opinion …

so it was good … but worth $450 ??? … not so much … you reach a point where you are like “oh look, ANOTHER giraffe … just like the last 50″ …

i was supposed to visit a water development project on the weekend, but it got bumped to monday, so i stopped in Naivasha and Hells Gate National Park for about 24 hours instead … it cost only $20 and was freaking incredible … you can just walk around … by yourself … in a park filled with wild animals … zebras and warthogs and leopards and cheetahs … there is nothing in the world quite like walking over a rise at 7am, and finding a family of 5 warthogs 10 feet away … my mind flashes back to ‘lord of the flies’ and i am not sure if i should be afraid or in awe …

they decide for me, and take off running … so i round the next bend, and the tree i walk past turns out to be a tree … like the tree next to it … but the tree next to IT … is a giraffe … and he takes off running too … sending about 5 others all around me who i didn’t even notice into a sprint … so cool …

i was a moron though … and decided that, since i was out there at 6:00 am … i would walk the longest circuit … i was about half way through it when i did a little mental math and realized that in 4 hours i was going to be late getting back to my lodge, so late getting to naivahsa, so late getting to nairobi … and late in nairobi means a $10 cab ride instead of a $0.33 bus ride … so i walked as fast as i possibly could for about 4 hours straight … all in all, in 8 hours in the park i walked 39km … plus 4km there and 4km back from my lodge … i have never been so tired in my life …

like clockwork though, i arrived back at my hostel in nairobi JUST as supper was being served … it’s nice when things work out …

monday i went to a place called kisasi … where 24,000 people have no reliable access to water, so for 6 months of the year are forced to walk for hours to dig holes in the sand, which are subsequently shat in by all manner of animals, to collect water and then walk hours back … they need $500,000 … that seems like a big number … great people though …

now i am about to disappear for 10 days … everyone i tell about this thinks i’m crazy, so that fact that i think it sounds amazing makes me almost certain i am crazy … i think spending 10 days meditating, not communicating with anyone in any way, with no distractions what so ever seems like a bloody amazing way to learn about myself …

to each their own i guess … so i will be back again on the 29th … and hopefully i won’t be schizophrenic by then … then i am back for a couple days to take care of odds and ends, then i am going to visit an orphanage south of nairobi and a youth centre east of nairboi (maybe) … and then am off to uganda … can’t wait …