Parents are here =)

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It's been a while since I last wrote an entry. Sorry things have been busy. My parents arrived Mon. May 1st. =) It's soooo good to see them. Before they arrived I was busy with interviews and getting research done. I was also busy planning some of the things we would do. It was a busy week and I was very anxious to finally have them here.

Mon. morning I woke up early and went to the airport with Mkuu, my host-mom. It was a great first day with my parents and was wonderful to see them again. We came back to Mkuu's place and had a wonderful Swahili breakfast. Yummy yummy food and lots of it. My plan for the first day was just to walk them around Mombasa a bit. They arrived at 7 in the morning and I had to keep them awake the entire day. Unfortunately the weather didn't want to cooperate and it poured the entire day. We got drenched a couple times. So we spent most of the day inside. Went and had tea at Athman's house and actually spent a couple hours there. My parents did end up taking a nap once we checked into the hotel, but it wasn't bad. Once we were in the hotel we were rained in for almost the whole day. It just poured and poured and poured. The area just in front of our hotel turned into a lake. finally in the evening the rain let up and we had to go pick up something at Mkuu's house and decided we would while the rain held off. we had to walk through water that was above ankle deep. (and there was a fairly large drain that was getting rid of water)

Tue. morning we were up early and were picked up by James and Patrick to go on our safari to Tsavo East National Park. It was wonderful. We saw sooooooo many animals. More than I had seen when I went last. On our drive up there all it did was pour rain, which made driving a little slower on the horrible road. I think that road seems to get worse everytime I've ridden on it. We had to crawl over lots and lots of pot holes and drive in mud. was an interesting ride up. By the time we reached the park the rain had stopped and it was gorgeous. Because it had rained there wasn't any dust and the air was nice and cool and fresh. We popped the lid and stared on our quest to find animals. We saw dik diks, gazelles, impalas, lots of red elephants (red because of the dirt), zebras, water buck, water buffalo, lions, ostriches, hyaxes, mongooses, lots of different kinds of birds and many more animals. The highlights of the day were seeing a mother giraffe with her twin babies, seeing a family of elephants drink at a watering hole, seeing a family of elephants cross the road right in front of us with little babies that couldn't quite make it up the side of the road and slipped and fell and then got a little boost from the mothers trunk to get it up the incline =) (was really really cute), and seeing two lionesses stalking a heard of water buffalo calculating who they were going to try to hunt down. (It was getting dark so we didn't get to see them try for the kill but it was still amazing to watch them move in slowly on the herd and see them calculating who and when they were going to strike).

We stayed in Voi Lodge within the park. It was a nice one up on the side of a hill overlooking part of the park and two watering holes. Unfortunately the next morning my mom was sick. Something just wasn't agreeing with her stomach. we went out for a drive at 6:30am and she was doing ok. We got to several neat animals like a group of 4 or 5 giraffes close to us and some baboons that morning, oh, we also saw some Jackals. We went back for breakfast after a couple hours and by then she was feeling really really bad. We checked out of the hotel and it was a very very long 3 hour ride back to Mombasa for my mom. We were going to go visit my family in Mgange-Dawida, but didn't think being in a place with no electricity was a good place to be when sick, so we changed our plans. We got back to Mombasa and my mom slept most of the day. My dad and I walked around Old Town a bit. That night the three of us had dinner with Egan, Leigh and Lia. That was really nice.

The next day we just kind of took it easy. We went on a tour of Fort Jesus and Old Town. That was weird for me walking around Old Town as a tourist because I've been a part of this community as a student but it was really nice for my parents. They learned more about Old Town and the Fort than I could have told them. We then went to lunch at Pistachios which was really nice. After that we went back to the hotel to relax. It was starting to get really hot and my mom wasn't feeling great. That night we went to Mkuu's house and gave them gifts. We played cards for a while. It was fun to just hang out at the house for a while. Í've been missing em. That night my mom was feeling better, but my dad had a fever. So, yesterday we spent almost the entire day inside just giving their bodies time to get better. Today both are feeling much better, but we're also going to take it easy today. We're leaving tomorrow morning for a 3 day safari in the Maasai Mara and want to be all better for that. I feel really bad that I've been here 3 1/2 months and have hardly been sick at all (and even the time I was it really wasn't that bad) and they've been here for 3 days and have already been sicker than I've been. Hopefully though the sickness has come and gone.

It's wonderful spending time with my parents. Now I have to start getting more work done though. I only have ten more days till my paper is due, so I've started writing. Still going to enjoy having my parents here though. =) I'll try to write again after the trip up north. My time here is winding down. I hope all is well with all of you. It won't be too much longer till I see you all again. Miss you! Take care! Kwaherini

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Photos

Elephant family crossing the road
Right after I took this picture the baby elephant slipped down the incline and had to get a boost from the mothers trunk to get up and over it. =)

Lionesses on the hung

Hyrax
believe it or not, the hyrax is the closest living relative to an elephant.

Mom and Dad on safari

Dik Dik
A dik dik is the smallest antelope

Voi Lodge
A dik dik is the smallest antelope

Comments

[Mike Rogers]

Find a good doc
Too bad you can't find a good doctor for your folks!!!!!!! Hope they are feeling well soon and that you all have a great time. MIKE