Sopa oleng!!

That's "A big hello!" in the Maa language. We learned a few words over the weekend while we were in the Maasai Mara area so we could communicate with the Maasai people we stayed with and went to church with on Sunday. We learned "Thank you" = "Ashe" (pronounced Ah-Shay) and "Very good" = "Sidai oleng" (pronounced Sa-die). Our weekend away from Nairobi was amazing, to say the least. Rachel asked me Sunday evening if our trip so far was meeting my expectations I had before we came. I told her it has SO greatly exceeded expectations for all of us!

We left Crums' house on Friday morning to drive out to a house in the Mara area that has been a missionary house until a couple of weeks ago. The family living there is back in the US on furlough now. The drive took us down through the Great Rift Valley and over roads that were varying in their bumpiness. That's putting it mildly! By Saturday afternoon, Dan had said more than once, "Is this a road?" When I say "bumpy" think of the roughest road you have ever driven on. Now triple the rocks and ruts and maybe that's about how bad some of the roads were for us. On the way to the house on Friday, we had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. Dan and Josiah changed it in about 10 minutes with no problems. Then it started raining, which is good for the area, right? Well, then the "roads" become so slick and muddy that it's worse than icy roads in places. Dan drove through like a pro though, slipping and sliding and fishtailing like crazy. What a ride! Then we "took a wrong turn" (hard to find the "roads" which were now more like paths), and got stuck in mud twice! We all had to get out to lighten the load and the 2nd time, Kyle, Pat and Josiah had to push the Toyota Land Cruiser to get it up and out of the mud. We made it to the house and enjoyed a quiet evening together.

Saturday morning we were up and on our way to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve by 6:30am. We drove around the park from 8am until about 4pm. It's so hard to condense our day there! I'll have pictures galore to post later. I made a list of all the animals we saw. Dan and Connie said we were having a good day, seeing so many different kinds. Wildebeest, zebra, Thompson's gazelle and ostrich were the first to be seen. Then we talked to some people in another car who told us about a cheetah and her 3 "children." We found them and watched them for about 30 minutes. After that it was like a floodgate! We saw about 30 different types of animals and birds throughout the rest of the day. Lions, giraffes, elephants, cape buffalo, topi, hippos in the river, hyena, crested cranes with 3 chicks, several beautiful bird varieties, and many more! What has struck me are all the varieties of animals and the large number of most that we see. In a zoo you see a limited number of each animal. There were no fences here! =) So fun to see the baby animals, too.

From the game park, we drove to Kawaii, which is the area on the Siria Escarpment where Crum's used to live. What views we had all day of the savannah and hills and valleys! Beautiful! We spent the night with Ole Salepu and his family. Salepu has been a leader in the church and friend of the Crums for many years. He and his wife, Norakadau (sp?), were so sweet and hospitable! We had a bit of culture shock while there, but were happy to get to spend some time with them.

I am running out of time. I need to get going. I'll write more about the weekend later!