Day 28

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Dominic

I forgot a story from Monday that I wanted to preserve. The way from downtown to Flora is all uphill. I like it because it gives me a great way to train. Since it takes about 20-25 minutes I am usually dripping with sweat when I get to the room. As I crossed the last major street out of downtown a really tall guy moved right past me. I decided to take my walking up a notch and see if I could catch him. In just about 50 feet I was in front of him and cooking up the hill. It wasn’t long until I could hear his footsteps right behind me. We were both in full stride.

No matter what side of the world you are on, boys will be boys. It was like a car race. He would pull ahead, and then I would pull ahead. He got jammed up by some people and I went far ahead, then I got stopped at a street crossing and he timed it just right and moved past me. By the time we reached the crest of the hill we were both smiling and we introduced ourselves. His name is Dominic. He is a student of international relations and his hoping to get a master’s degree in NGO management. He says he pays to ride into downtown, but always walks home for the exercise. He thanked me for the good walk and the fun and then he strode up Ngong Avenue as I turned into 5^th Ave. to get to Flora.

Nairobi National Park

I was planning to visit the park, which we pass every day on the way to Tangaza, on Thursday, but am going to be with Dickson instead, so today was the only day I could go. I decided to take my camera, but I kept it in my backpack and therefore decided to ride to town instead of walking. Then in downtown I got van on route 126 and headed to the park.

I arrived at 9:20 AM wishing I had been a little earlier when I realized it opened at 8:30 AM. I didn’t need to worry. I was the first one of the day. They have a Safari Walk, we would call it a zoo.

It encompasses about 40 acres and is very beautiful. They have the major attractions, lion, zebra, rhino, cheetah, jaguar, antelope, warthogs, cape buffalo, and others. It was quiet as I walked and looked at animals. I got a few shots, but they looked like animals at the zoo, so I switched to the birds that were free, but were hanging out in the park.

For the first hour I was totally alone. Then three guys walked through talking loud and scaring the birds. Then a group of 100-125 kids from a school arrived. The birds went into hiding. The kids were great. A group wanted their picture taken with me. I think they thought I was a zoo exhibit. I decided to circle back around to see the jaguar/leopard.

This is where things got interesting. One of the zoo maintenance staff was cleaning near the cheetah cage. He said, “You have already been around once.”

“Yes, but I did not see the jaguar, so I thought I would go and look again.”

“Have you ever petted a cheetah?”

“No”

“Would you like to?” He said, and he put down his broom.

I figured he was kidding, but he said, “Follow me.”

In a couple of minutes I was standing in the cheetah enclosure with the cheetah. It had been orphaned at about two weeks of age and had been hand reared by humans. The two workers began to play with the cat and invited me over. They took my camera and started taking pictures of me with this huge cat. It just laid on the ground and looked around and purred. This is obviously not an American Zoo.

Then we headed off to the Jaguar exhibit. He said this cat came to the Safari walk later in life and was used to some people, but not everyone. He walked me down next to her cage. She showed me her teeth “Mean mugging” as Catherine Rohr would say. I was inches away from this beautiful and scary animal. She would let the trainer reach in and touch her, but I was not interested.

An unforgettable experience.

Animal Orphanage

Most of the animals in the Safari Walk came from the Animal Orphanage that is next door. When abandoned animals or wounded animals are found in one of the national parks, they end up at the medical headquarters. If they cannot be returned to the wild, they make the Safari walk their home. If they are too little to car for themselves they go to the hand raising area.

The Animal Orphanage has lions, cheetahs, ostriches, monkeys, servils, and warthogs. When you walk through the gate a worker is assigned to you (later you need to tip them). Mine walked me through the cages. He asked me, “Have you ever petted a cheetah?”

“Yes” I said with a smile.

“Really?” He said incredulously.

“Yes, just a few minutes ago in the Safari Walk.”

“Have you held a lion cub?”

“No.”

“Would you like to?”

“Yes,” I said out loud. On the inside I screamed, “Of course ‘Yes,’ Are you kidding? A lion!”

We went to a building, the nursery, outside a trainer was working with a very young cheetah. Inside they opened a cage and out wobbled a three month old lion. They took my camera and handed me the biggest cat I have ever held. She did not squirm but looked around the room. I petted her, looked at her huge paws and very sharp claws (one was digging into my hand). After about 5 minutes they said it was time to go and that I had to leave the cat with them. We finished the rest of the area and then I looked at my watch. It was 3:00 AM in Texas. I seriously thought of calling and waking Cindy up. I just got to hold a lion cub. The only thing I regretted was not hold it up like Simba.

I didn’t call, but as I was finished I head back to town and sent an email about it to Cindy and a teaser on my blog.

An unforgettable experience.

Downtown.

I needed to get some paper to print my research paper, because my new friend and proof reader was making marks on the pages, so I went in search. I went from store to store begin sent from one place to the next, but all of them only selling reams of paper. I only needed about 30 sheets. After about 45 minutes I gave up and bought a ream of paper.

In my search I had gone back by the movie theater and they have a Tuesday special. Matinee movie, coke, hot dog, and popcorn for $5.00 bucks. I couldn’t pass up the chance. I saw the Forbidden Kingdom. It’s a B- martial arts film, but the hot dog was great. All in all the day was going great.

Hit by a bus

I left the theater and was headed past the conference center. They drive on the wrong side of the road and we had been given a stern briefing at Tangaza about being careful crossing the roads. They said lots of people get hurt in the roads. I have been extremely cautious. I look both ways. I look two or three times to make sure. Many of the roads have a midpoint sidewalk. First you cross to the middle, then to the opposite side. I came to one of those junctions. I easily crossed to the middle and was waiting for a large bus to pass. Behind it I there were no other cars. I looked right out of instinct to make sure no one was driving down the wrong side of the street as I prepared for the purple bus to pass. I think if I had been looking left this might have turned out differently.

At that moment, everything suddenly stopped. The next few minutes are very surreal. I heard a loud slap, I felt like I got hit by a sledge hammer on my left side, the a huge crash, screeching tires and a purple bus hitting the curb just a few feet to my right. The next image I can remember is seeing the driver talking over his shoulder to people in the bus. It becomes clear to me that his door has popped open right as he was passing me and the door hit me on my left shoulder. Then it has slammed back into the bus making the huge sound. The drive had reacted by swerving to the right and slamming into the curb.

The driver is looking at me like I did something wrong. People in the bus have their faces against the window looking at me. People on the street have stopped and are pointing at me.

I imagine everyone thinks I should be dead or bleeding or at the very least been knocked down by the impact, but somehow, it looks like the bus bounced off of me. Its just an illusion, but I feel really awkward so I cross behind the bus and start on my way back to Flora. The people on the bus shift sides and are standing in the bus staring at me. The driver looks at me and shakes his head.

It does not take long, but my arms starts to hurt and I get sore, but I take some pain medicine and I seems fine.

An unforgettable experience.

Finalize the paper

My friend the AIDS educator came over to my room. He had given incredible attention to my paper. We talked about it together first the ideas, then the grammar, and typos. He had trained as a pastor at a Baptist school in Tanzania, but could not afford to finish. He is employed by the church as an AIDS educator and is in town for a big conference that I saw being promoted downtown. We spent about an hour and half together.

Here I am in Africa being taught by this incredible gracious African man sitting and talking about Colonialism, tribal conflict, and the gospel. It was so rich and rewarding. When I left I made the corrections he had suggested and had a much better paper.

An unforgettable experience.