Lake Nakuru National Park

Once again we had an incredible expedition, although the car ride to get to Lake Nakuru National Park was ten hours, I enjoyed seeing all the different landscapes. We also got to drive through Nairobi which was awesome. They are really modern and it was nice to so a whole new side of Africa that we are never able to see. This time we did not stay in tents, instead we stayed in a hostel and slept about 13 girls to a room. One of the girls kept singing Annie songs because we lived like orphans for a couple of days in bunk beds. We at least had a real bathroom, even though I’m pretty positive that someone has ben murdered in it before. The baboons on and around the camp are also insane, and often had to be chased away by the guards and professors. We found a Leopard Tortoise in camp so we decided that we needed to save it, but when Claire picked it up it peed on her so we made the boys take care of it.

The next day we had A LOT of class, which really stunk, but we went on a game drive that night. This is a fenced in park so the animals are not able to leave, so we got to see some new animals like waterbucks, black and white rhinos, and seagulls. We also discovered the creep of all creeps which is the Marabou stork, he is ugly and eats flamingos, I may be one for breakfast club. 

The following day we had a traveling lecture where we went to different sights and talked about how the people and animals affect each other. We also went through a neighborhood and it was nice to see some real house that were super nice. They cost about a half a million US dollars. Obviously I figured out where I want to live. I also saw the first Veterinarian clinic in Africa, so there is still hope! That afternoon during the game drive we saw a leopard and a really awesome owl.

We also did a field exercise where we watched white rhinos and zebras for about 4 hours, which was really just driving around and looking at animals. We saw five lion cubs that were about a year old hanging out under a branch and they were adorable. After that we went to the lodge and had another buffet where they had unlimited desserts, and some really delicious chicken, so we all got really full and then laid by the pool for a while. A couple of us then spent an hour watching soccer and talking with one of the staff members which was a nice change.  That night at the campfire we had debrief and one of our professors, Shem, went through and thanked everyone and it was a really nice time to bound with all the staff.

The drive home was long, mostly because I was dirty and ready for a shower, but I was able to just sit, listen to music, and read so it was pretty relaxing. Now we are back at KBC and we have a relaxation day. We were just discussing how we have adapted to African Life very well because writing e-mails makes us tired, and this blog will be the hardest thing I have to do. We will start our directed research soon, I just hope I get the topic that I want. Once again African living is the way to go, I don’t know how anyone ever leaves here.