Africa The Beautiful!

This past year I had the opportunity to travel to Africa on Safari.  Kenya specifically.  Although it took a total of 21 hours in flight, it was well worth the journey!   I first flew from Cincinnati to New York where I then boarded a plane to Dubai Arabia.  From New York to Arabia it took a total of 13 hours.  The flight was smooth and the flight attendants were extremely accomodating.  I was on the carrier Emirates.  I recommend them to everyone.  There service is impeccable and there were choices to select from on the food menu which made the long flight bareable.

 I stayed overnight in Dubai.  Such a rich location.  The city and the people were beautiful.  If you've never been there the climate is tropical so be prepared to be HOT! (smile)  The hotel accomodations there were great.

 The next morning I flew from Dubai to Kenya, which was an additional 5 hours but the overnight stay in Dubai and the excitement of anticipation made up for long journey.

 I arrived in Nairobi Kenya and was greeted by a liason from the Kenyan Tourist Board.  We were escorted to the first stop, the Serena Hotel in Nairobi.  After we refreshed, we were taken later that evening to a Welcome Party where we met the Tourist Board Administrators and we were given our itinerary for the duration of the trip.

Over the 10 days we were escorted by our guide from the Wildlife Safari division.  His name was Andrew and he was extremely knowledegable which made our tour very exciting!

We stayed at several lodges during our stay, one of which was Amboselli where we met the Massai Warrior tribe and Masa Mara to name a couple.  We were shown how the tribe lived, some of their rituals and the schoolhouse that was for children ages 2-5.  They are in desperate need of school supplies, so I've made it a project to gather items for them and I'm sending school supplies to them on a regular basis. 

We were informed that when the tribesmen have no ear piercings that this is an indication that they had been educated to some degree.  If their ears were adorned, they had not been formally educated.  The Massai people exist on beef, and milk mixed with cows blood! Doesn't sound very appetizing does it? :-)

The marriages are pre-arranged and the man is required to give a dowry to the family of the bride.  Generally it is a herd of cows.  The more cows a family has the richer they are considered to be.  It is the woman's responsibility to build the hut in which they will live.  All other women within the tribe help each other with this task.  I always wondered why when I would see scenes of Africa on television,  there were always flies swarming around the children and families, well, I found out it's because the roof of the huts were made from cow dong.  Not a pleasant environment initially but the longer you're there the more bearable it becomes. 

This particular tribe is a bit more civilized than most because they were solicited by the government to tour us through their village and share their wares.  Once the cars have eaten all of the greenery sourrounding their village, the pack up everything and leave for a new destination and the hut building starts all oaver again.  The vast majority of the land in Kenya is owned by the Massai Warriors.  The govenment has purchased most of it and but the Tribesmen are given a percentage of the profits the Sarari tours.

I could go on and on about their culture but you'd be here forever, the best thing I can say is if you ever get the chance to visit Africa, take it.  It's beautiful country and many things are very different from what you think.

Happy Traveling!