Kenya 2024 Day 7

Today we woke up early to have breakfast and do a game drive that was at 6:30 and then we would head out of the park for home. The first animal we saw from a very far distance was a hyena. It was actually fun to see it. We watched it go up a hill. I think Dama and Zuri were the only two who did not see it. Zuri was riding with us this morning. We drive down to an area that was very green and pretty this time. There were giraffe and many elephants. We did not see very many zebra this time. We went to one area that was very open and were told there is a lion, but we did not see it. So we kept going and were heading the direction of the exit. Maybe a mile later we found ostriches.  Those are some big birds. From there we drove so fast. I assume we got news of a cat somewhere, but they never tell us. After a very long drive, we saw a group of cars, but some were leaving. I was trying to figure out which side of the road we needed to look at for cats. That is when I realized there was a herd of zebra on our left side and they were all looking the same direction. That is when we saw a pride of female and adolescent lions. They were far out and walking away. Dixon said he was going to drive to the road on the other side. I think we were the last vehicle to do this as we had a hard time finding where to park at first. Although, Dixon knew right were to park. The pride of 15 lions all walked toward our vehicle. They stopped on the mound of dirt by us the cubs played not to far away. Then they continued on. One of the last two females walked right next to our car. I realized at this time Amana was below with her window open. I looked down to see her pull her head in. Later Aaron called me a bad aunt and said I could not have his children during safari. Haha. I told him the lion was not hungry, so she was safe. The lions walked in front of our vehicle again and went into the bushes for shade from the sun. The last thing we saw was a group of male gazelle and they were all thanking turns fighting with one. From there we left the park. When we stopped to sign out of the park, I moved to the front seat so two of the girls could ride with us. I enjoyed talking to Dixon. He said he is a Christian. We learned earlier that he had three children. One in university, one in boarding school, and one at home. I asked about seeing his family and they all see each other only 3 times per year because it cost to much for any if they ti travel home. That is all I remember him saying. He also gabe me information about different areas we drove through or things we saw. I think it took about 3 hours from the safari park gate, but we finally made it home. 

We ate some lunch and decided our plans for the rest of the day. The kids had swimming and basketball they needed to attend and Aaron is teaching basketball. Everyone, except Mike went. While Zuri was in swimming, Margaret, Dama and I watched basketball. Tucker and Rudy helped Aaron teach the kids how to play. When swimming was over, Dama helped Zuri change and then us adult ladies left. We went and bought more groceries. When we came back everyone was just finishing in the groups they were with. We went back home. Tucker decided to try his hand at bucket washing his clothes, so I gave him the detergent I had left. Rudy was going to shower after basketball, but the power went out so he had to wait until later. We went to Aaron and Dama’s and at dinner using a little battery powered lamp. The power came on not long after everyone finished dinner. We were thankful for this because it is hot and humid and sleeping without a fan would have been hard. The girls gave us all popsicles. They actually sell these to the kids in the community to make a little money. While eating the popsicles, Naama asked if we wanted to play the alphabet game she made up. We did countries and started with A. If you are the last one to say a country (not repeated) you get a point and we move on to the next letter. The game was fun, but I was so sleepy it was hard to think of many. Also, we did not make it through the whole alphabet because all of us were exhausted. Zuri fell asleep on the chair with Aaron. I showered when we got back and went to bed, but was awake later than I should have been because the shower woke me up a little.