Hello all!
It has been a very long time since I
last posted and so much has happened. The biggest and most exciting
event was my week long expedition to Lake Nakuru National Park. But
before I get into explaining Nakuru, something else happened the day
before we were supposed to leave for expedition. As I said before, I
have been pretty sick for the past few weeks. About a week ago now, I
woke up in the middle of the night with excruciating pain and
collapsed on the ground on my way to the bathroom. Luckily one of my
friends and my roommate found me soon after and I was rushed to a
hospital in Oliotokitok. I was admitted to the hospital and spent the
entire day there. I now have an even greater appreciation for modern
medicine and American hospitals. I'm not going to lie, the hospital
in Oliotokitok was terrifying and the conditions were deplorable. I
was in a lot of pain but it was hard to feel sorry for myself when
there were people that were literally dying all around me. I think a
couple people actually did die in the middle of the night because
they had some very loud prayer circles around a couple of the beds.
It was definitely one hell of an experience. I've still been in a lot
of pain since then and I just went back to the doctor today and he
said I have a bad throat infection? God only knows what is actually
wrong with me. The people at the program are taking me to Nairobi on
Tuesday to see a better doctor and hopefully sort all of this out.
Now on to the fun stuff! Last week we
went on expedition to Lake Nakuru National Park. It was about an 8
hour drive north from Kimana, past Nairobi. Lake Nakuru is a very
interesting park and is so different from Amboseli in the fact that
Nakuru is completely fenced. The fence is a double edged sword in
terms of conservation. On the one hand it reduces human-wildlife
conflicts with the local town (which is really more of a city now)
but it also causes many internal problems such as overgrazing,
overpopulation, and the spread of invasive plant species. Nakuru also
has huge populations of rhinos and cape buffalo. The rhinos were
amazing to see and I can now say that I have seen wild lions in
Africa! When we finally found the lions, our group sat there for
almost an hour just watching them, it was absolutely incredible. We
went on games drives every day that we were in Nakuru. It was
interesting to see the differences between Nakuru and Amboseli.
Well for now I have exams coming up
this week, a game drive in Amboseli tomorrow, a trip to Nairobi, and
then we switch countries and go to Tanzania on the 25th.
Being here definitely isn't easy but I love Kenya and the people and
will do anything to stay here. Hopefully the next time I post I will
have only good stories and I'll try to post some more pictures too!
Until the next time,
~Emily
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