Snake Park and the Maasai Cultural Museum

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So.... eeearly Friday morning we departed from MS-TCDC in a series of three army green hummer-like safari cars... it was great... Our first stop was the SNAKE PARK... which, as you can imagine, not many of the girls were very excited about... but I was brave and told the guy I wanted to hold a snake, so that I could get a picture, because Juan loooooves snakes.. They also had crocs and turtles there...

Next we went to the Maasai Cultural Museum.. for those of you who don't know who the Maasai are, they are an indigenous ethnic group in Tanzania and Kenya which are rather nomadic and are very well-known and distinguished by there red and blue plaid "maasai blankets" and large earlobes, because they stretch them out as children.

After we went through the museum we got to go on a camel ride! And I'm not talking a small camel... more like those super tall ones that you see in Arabian movies.. It was so much fun...

After we got done with that, we headed to our hotel... but first stopped at an orphanage on the way. The kids were so adorable... there were like 30 of them but 4 of them were HIV positive.. it was soo sad because they would just come up to us and put their arms out wanting to be held.. and there weren't enough of us to hold them all! They were so incredibly excited to see us but our leader made us leave after like 10 minutes...

Then we went to our hotel... The Highview Hotel... which was a total shocker at like $200 per night... apparently the government wants us to be comfortable.... It really messed with our minds and emotions though, to throw us in an orphanage with sick children who don't have parents, then stick us up in this fancy-shmancy hotel where they give you a warm damp washcloth everytime you walk in the door to freshen up with... Really crazy. Here's the hotel website so you can see how freakin nice it is.. http://www.highview.afrika-praktikum.de/ www.highviewhotel.com if that doesn't work...

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Photos

I held a snake!
... and I look surprisingly calm, too!!

Comments

[Aunt Dee]

Eeeeeekkkk!
I know I could not have held that snake! It made me cry just hearing about the children. Wish Catie and Heather had a clue! The camel has an adorable face. Just his face is bigger than your mid-section! Thanks for the tour. Love you!!!