January 27

Yesterday, Trent and I had our camel ride! It was about 30 minutes for $15 each. Some Samburu tribesmen bought 2 ornery camels to Samburu Intrepids camp for the visitors, and only people from our group wanted to try! Trent and I were on the second run... they took us over the river (which we later found out was crocodile infested!), then toward their village. They asked Trent and I if we wanted to see their village, but we had to get back for the game drive. I would have loved to see it!!!

The camel ride was really fun. Quite comfortable, once I got used to it, but not the most graceful animals to get on and off of!!

On the game drive we didn't see very much except a waterbuck, impala, a whole lot of birds and a large family of elephants. We were rushed, though, because of the time we took for th ecamel ride. Steven, our guide, took us up to a viewpoint where we took pictures and saw the mountain the Samburu people pray to God. We had to rush back to get through the gates by 6 pm, or else we would be locked out to spend the night in the bush!!

Last night we listened to a talk on Samburu culture. Matthew, a tribesman hired by Intrepids (to slingshot monkeys away from our food!) gave the talk and allowed us to ask anything we wanted to know.

I've heard contradictory information, but Matthew said the women are no longer circumcized! Another person, Maya (at the Samburu village we visited), said they were. So manybe just not in Matthew's tribe??

When you hear about a polygamous society, you think of the definition (1 man with many wives) and I always just assumed women didn't have any control over - anything - in their society. But in talking to Matthew and a female Samburu (I forget her name), the females get together and ask their husband to marry another woman in order to have more help around the village! The women in the tribe take care of the village - they milk all the cows, so the wives (of which there is a head wife and "assistants") ask their husband to marry another woman to help with the chores! The women can also ask their husband to marry a particular woman if they know she is a hard worker. VERY interesting!!

Yesterday we thanked the manager for having such fantastic staff. Trent accidentally left about $100 USD on his bed - when we returned for the evening, it was still there, even though our beds had been turned down for the evening! We left him a thank you note, some $$, a shirt and some pens as a thank you. We also gave our Samburu camel guides a bag full of pens - all different colours, and they seemed to like them! Much more functional than Canada pins, I think!

I forgot to mention before - the camels were both male, and they seemed to pee backwards! Thought the Zoo Docents would like that :)

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SO here it is, January 27, and we are waiting at an airstrip for our flight to Nairobi, and then to Kilimanjaro. It was supposed to be here at around 10:00, but we're learning about "African Minutes" - it's now 11:30 and no lane.

I have a stomach ache, but I'm trying really har dNOT to use the toilet - I already almost got stung when I went to the bathroom in the toilet "hole" and woke up some wasps! DON'T LAUGH, but I raced out of that outhouse so fast I still had my pants around my ankles. I'm so glad no one was looking my way!