Second Game Drive Weekend 4.0

So many pictures, so many new things.  We all commented, as I may have stated before, that you look out on the Mara, there are literally thousands of animals grazing.  Water buffalo, wildebeests, impalas, gazelles, hyenas, zebras, tokis, etc, etc.  Herds and herds, as far as the eye can see.  Amazing.

Warhogs walk on all fours, but eat on their knees.  Weird and shy.

                           

Lunch is always under a shade tree.

Second Game Drive Weekend 3.0

So many great things to see this weekend, more pictures......

Pictures of a clan of 22 giraffes!  All sizes, slowly walking across the Mara, again, amazing to watch.

Three males hyenas, one female in heat.  Lots of activity.

Second Game Drive Weekend

Last weekend our 'game drive' was a 'walk-about' close to the clinic since William had gone home for the elections and to see his family.  This weekend was amazing.  Lions, giraffes, hyenas, hippos were the highlights.  Enjoy.

Our first stop of the day was to watch 5 lion cubs going nuts playing with each other.  After watching them for a while, we realized they were part of a 20 lion pride, all the adults were sleeping in the bushes.  A great watch.

Our next 'family' was a group of elephants.  Probably 8 total.  All sizes.

Next, this amazing male lion!  He wandered out of the bush and was on a slow bee-line right past us to the carcass of a wildebeest.  William told us that probably his mate killed it last night, and he was ready for breakfast.

In the next blog, you can see him devour the wildebeest.

Yesterday’s medicine man is today’s naturalist.

For a break last week, we went to the Siena Camp, where we take meals, to walk around a bit and we met Gideon.  He is the ‘naturalist’ for the Camp.  In introduction, we learned that ‘naturalist’ is the modern name for ‘medicine man’!  Excellent English. He gave us a walking tour of the grounds to show us the different medicinal plants the Maasai have depended on for 100’s of years. 

Aloe Vera is used both internally and externally for a variety of uses.  ‘Sandpaper Plant’ to smooth rough leather, (the leaves were around 00 sandpaper), the ‘sausage tree’ pods to make beer, another tree when you strip the bark it is used to tie sticks together for house building, bamboo and its many uses, and last but not least, the ‘toothbrush tree’.

We were told prior to our departure to NOT bring toothbrushes for the local people.  WHAT?  That is a staple for service trips!  Not in Kenya.  The Maasai use the ‘toothbrush tree’ to brush their teeth.  They break off a branch, whittle it down a bit with the ever-present machete and clean their teeth as they walk around.  Indeed, Grace, one of our Dental Assistants is always ‘brushing’ her teeth with the stick as she prepares the clinic for the day.

Right outside our clinic, mom keeping Junior tidied up, removing and eating insects in his fur.

Some Odds and Ends.......and Baboons

We are at the mid-point in our time in Kenya, 18 days in with 18 to go.  We have settled into a nice routine.  Clinic starts around 9am continues till around 1 or 2pm, then finishes up about 4pm.  We are averaging 15-20 patients per day. 

Almost all patients request extractions.  Single tooth/chief complaint.  They may have several broken or decayed teeth, some even next to each other, but they will point to one and only want that one removed.  Also, as we may have mentioned in the past, many of the Maasai both male and female have their lower central incisors removed at an early age.  It is what their ‘tribe’ does. 

Another cultural challenge is if their upper canines, or ‘eye-teeth’ are not coming in fully, and stuck under the lip.  They want those removed as well.  We have done several of these.  A gal came in today, (we have stopped asking them how old they are, few know) who we think was a teenager, but may be in her twenties, wanted her canines removed.  No orthodontics in the bush.

Around 4pm each day, the baboon family shows up at the garbage dump behind the clinic.  They are very skittish, if they hear a door slam on the other side of the building, they are gone.  So either we go out around 3:30 and wait, or we watch them through our back screened porch.  Fun to watch,  However, I wouldn’t want to get on their bad side.

                                       

Finally, I had to add this photo.  Have you ever felt really embarrassed after leaving a public restroom and you have a piece of TP stuck to the bottom of your shoe?  ----Not that bad----  Below is the Alpha Male leaving our garbage pit with a dental mask stuck to his bum!

Visiting a local village

We met Masooy, our day-guard/warrior at 9:30 so he could take us to Grace’s village for church.  A 30-minute walk to a town somewhat spread out with homes made of block or corrugated steel or sticks and cow dung.  A small ‘main street’ with a few buildings and a nice ‘health clinic’.  We were told there were five churches in town.  

A hundred of so goats going by as we enter the village

But, before we go to church, Grace was honored to invite us to her house.  It was a very small, simple home made of sticks and dung.  It had three rooms; a center room with chairs and a small table, a kitchen/bedroom for her mother-in-law and cat, and her bedroom she shared with her husband, Paul and their 18-month-old daughter, Faith.

Kitchen counter.  A few pots and a small pantry for potatoes and a sack of rice.

                                                     

Grandma and kitty in the kitchen/bedroom

She was quite proud of her two small solar powered flashlights she has charging on the roof.  These were all they had at night.  A short tour of her home was followed by a hospitality gift of orange slices.  She also demonstrated how she lights her charcoal burner for cooking.  Interesting.  Charcoal is sold by the bags all over Africa.  She has a small brazier with a few sticks.  She then lights a portion of a plastic bag, letting the molten plastic drip on the sticks and you have a fire!  She had already cut up some potatoes for grandma to cook for lunch.  Once the brazier was lit, grandma took over with a bit of onion and tomato and spices.

How Maasai recycle plastic bags!

Grace helping us wash our hands prior to the orange slices

We then walked to church.  Paul is the pastor.  About 30 attending including the kids.  First, the kids sang and danced for us, then an offering, some praying then the sermon began.  Jackie, Grace’s cousin translated.  Jackie works at the health clinic.  Paul is one fiery preacher!  Jackie had a hard time keeping up!  At times, Paul just kept preaching and pacing and Jackie just stood there and smiled.  Lots of hand raising and clapping.  We had a great time listening to the sermon and watching the people.After church, Grace took us back to the clinic.  She enjoys her job and admits her employment is appreciated since it is steady.  Paul’s pastoral duties are volunteer and he is not paid.  He has a motorcycle so he is able to ‘uber’ people around for money.

Jackie, our interpreter on the left, Grace, our dental assistant on the right.  Two amazing gals!

A Walk In The Bush

Saturday.  Day off today.  With William home with family, our night watch-warrior took us on an amble in the bush.  We wanted to see the air strip close to the clinic since we had been hearing planes landing and taking off there during the week.  But, we saw much more and hiked much further.  First, with a machete on his hip, he stopped at the front of the clinic to remove a lion spear from the entrance.  We thought they were for decoration!  They aren’t.  Off we went.

We started at 9:30 and worked our way thru the bush to the runway.  Waiting there were 4 Maasai.  Once they saw us, they laid out their small blankets and promptly organized their trinkets for sale.  We thought they were preparing for a soon arriving flight with tourists, but no, it was for us.  We had to explain that we carried no money with us and could not buy what they were selling.  Indeed, the whole time we were out and about, no planes landed.  We wondered if they hang out there all day, hoping for a flight to come in.

We continued hiking thru the scrub.  Lots of elephant droppings, (dumps would be more accurate) as well as droppings from other animals, but no sightings.  Twice, in the distance, probably a mile away), we did see giraffes grazing.

Our leader did show us a leg from a bush buck.  Still had meat on it.  He poked around a bit and found the body under a tree.  Fairly fresh.  We asked him what he thought killed the bush buck.  He said ‘tree’.  We think he meant that the animal got tangled up in the low branches and couldn’t extricate himself.  The bush carnivores will continue to show their appreciation.

Front leg of Bushbuck

Easy evidence that an elephant was by.

Ditto.  These are the diameter of coffee cans.

These trees are everywhere.  One inch thorns.  If they are on the ground, don't step on them.  I did and the spike drove through my sole into my foot.  Our Maasai warrior was able to pull it out from the inside of my shoe!

Another reason we enjoyed the walk is in the National Parks, we cannot get out of the vehicles.  This is to protect the animals, and you.  No such rules where we were today.  Remember, our night watch-warrior had his lion spear……  We made it back safely.

Our view as we walked the bush.