July 30th

We spent the morning hanging out at Nigel’s house. He was helping us arrange transportation, but said that we were definitely welcome to stay for as long as we wanted. (He seemed a bit lonely, and really enjoyed having people around to talk to.) In the morning, Annabelle and I went for a walk near Nigel’s lake. We were looking at the hippos and flamingos, when we saw a giraffe in the distance. The giraffe kept walking closer and closer to us. It was so cool to watch it run. They look like they are running in slow motion, and just look like such bizarre creatures. The giraffe ended up passing about 30 feet in front of us. It was a very cool morning!

I spent a lot of time playing with Nigel’s 3-year-old daughter, and then we were treated to another great feast. He had about 4 of his house staff in the kitchen preparing a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, cereal, eggs, sausage, bacon, and toast. The cook came out and asked each of us what we would like and how we wanted it prepared. (I could definitely get used to having a fulltime cook, housekeeper, and driver.) Nigel told us that he only makes about $40,000 USD a year from his safari company, but he is sure able to live in style with his money.

After breakfast we found out that the orphanage that some people were volunteering at had sent a van to pick us up. The poor man from the orphanage had to drive 8 hours each way to get them and bring them there. He was kind enough to drop us off at Nakuru (where 4 of us were volunteering) on the way out. So, he came at about 2:00 to collect us all.

The ride was incredibly rough, but we got to do a little more animal spotting on the way. We saw a buffalo (which is 1 of the big 5), some zebra, giraffes, monkeys, and baboons.

We got to Nakuru, but realized that nobody had an address for our school. (On the website they only list a PO box.) We were frantically calling them, but since it was Sunday there was no one in the office. The day before, we had over heard some giving directions to our original driver and I was able to remember 2 words: “Racetrack” and “St Joseph’s”. Luckily our driver was from Nakuru, and when I said those 2 words he told me he knew of the area. So off we went. After asking a few locals we found the office of LDK (our volunteer organization).

Unfortunately, the drama doesn’t end there. The gate to the complex was locked and the place was empty. The only phone number we had for them was the office landline. We were basically screwed again, and the other people driving in our van still had about a 5 hour ride to go. The driver spoke to some locals and found the principle’s cell number. He showed up shortly after that.

The school and our housing are awesome! These people are actually organized and know what’s going on. They were just as frustrated and confused by Benson as we were, so I definitely don’t blame them for anything that has gone wrong so far.

We are staying in the office complex. It sort of looks like a small motel. The office is in 2 parts of it and we stay in the other half. There are 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a nice kitchen with a refrigerator, stove and oven, and a living room. We have electricity and running water (only cold water, but you can’t be too picky), and we also have access to the Internet anytime we want in the office. (The Internet is incredibly slow and frustrating.) We also have 2 women come to our house everyday to cook and clean for us. The school employees them and we just buy the food. (Of course we will give them each a nice tip when we leave.) But the whole thing is about 100 times better than I would have imagined!