Living in The Lion King

Last weekend, I had the extraordinary opportunity to go on safari for four days with the other CCS volunteers. I cannot even begin to adequately describe the views, the sounds, and the general experience of seeing animals like cheetahs and zebras in their natural habitats... so just be prepared for the following retelling to fall short, times one million.

The first day, after placement (it poured rain that morning, so half the kids didn't show up to school, meaning that I went to the original Step Up and ended up watching The Lion King and Tarzan on at tiny TV screen with the children so they could "practice hearing and understanding English;" I've never seen kids more excited about hearing the song "Hakuna Matata!" haha), we hopped in three safari trucks and began to head east towards Arusha and the Ngorongoro Crater. Along the way, we passed the Great Rift Valley, a score of baboons loitering in the road, and Mt. Kili, towering in our rear-view mirrors. No big deal, or anything. It was okay, I guess.**

No sooner had we arrived at the edge of the Crater at dusk to set up camp (literally a dozen or so tents and a bonfire on the edge of a giant bowl of beautiful) when an ELEPHANT casually walked through our campsite. Whatever, no big deal.** (It was AWESOME.) It then took a swig from our water tank and then moved on, no doubt annoyed by our camera flashes.

After our first of several campfires under a humongous starry sky, our only other guests that night (that we were awake for) were a pack of hyenas sniffing our tents and chatting away to each other at about 3AM. Rude.

The next morning we rose at dawn to see the sunrise over the Crater. The pictures I took BARELY do this justice. Many have said that the Ngorongoro Crater is the 8th Wonder of the World; I would have to agree. I mean, here's a pic of our campsite:



Yeah... That's a legit rainbow. After some hot tea and oatmeal (it gets rather chilly at night at the Crater), we hopped back into our safari trucks and began heading further east towards the Serengeti. Along the way, we stopped at the Olduvai Gorge to have a "squatty potty break" (if you catch my drift) and explore/learn a little bit about -- oh, you know -- where mankind is said to have originated. Again, whatever, no big deal.** Just some bones older than ANYTHING.

Next, we paid a visit to an actual Maasai village, wherein I got to take part in a traditional dance with the Maasai women and then go inside one of the red-cloaked warrior's mud-thatch houses -- no joke. I could write a separate blog all about the Maasai and never run out of interesting information to share, honestly. Even more amazing was that one of the Maasai men at this particular village had taken it upon himself to try and build a kindergarten just outside the village circle (since he himself had the chance to leave and get an education and felt his people's children deserved the same opportunity) and we got to go inside and see it! Nothing more than stick walls, one blackboard, and 4 rows of tiny children chanting the ABCs, but it was incredibly interesting and a worthy endeavor.

Several hours of driving in the hot African sun later, and we arrived at the Serengeti National Park. Please, just go watch The Lion King again and pay particular attention to the opening scenes... and anything to do with Pride Rock. That's basically what we saw for the next 24 hours. Zebra and wildebeest herds migrating across the dry grassy savanna, leopards laying lazily in the sun, hippos barely moving in their watery homes, and elephants and giraffes slowly moving their way through the acacia trees, nibbling their lives away. I barely sat down the entire time, opting instead to stand on my seat and stick my head out of the top of the truck like a crazed ostrich (oh yeah, we saw those, too), braving the intense dust and wind-whipping that ensued.

The night we camped in the Serengeti wasn't too different from our first night on the Crater rim, other than for approximately one hour, I was never more petrified in my life (nearly, anyway). My tent-mate and I woke up sometime around 2AM to the sound of "somethings" ravaging our dinner trash outside (most likely hyenas or warthogs)... as well as animal calls answering each other across the grassy field our tents were plopped in.

Then came the roaring and growling of lions. (Seriously. No **.) We proceeded to lay there, not moving and barely breathing, staring at each others outline in the darkness and realizing there was nothing but a piece of canvas between ourselves and X number of lions... and, oh yeah... we're on THEIR turf, not the other way around. I mean, it's not like I'm at Six Flags Great America, nervously boarding a new roller coaster, soothing my fears with the knowledge that "they wouldn't let anyone ride it if it wasn't safe." Laying there, I started thinking (irrationally) 'hakuna matata, we're totally fine,' because we wouldn't be there if it wasn't safe... only to suddenly remember that we weren't in the States, this patch of grass in the Serengeti wasn't Six Flags, and this probably wasn't entirely safe. Yikes. Knowing that there was absolutely nothing either of us could do about it, and being too scared to move, I decided to repeat the same E.E. Cummings poem in my head over and over and over again to drown out the terror and make myself fall asleep again. Well... it worked, and the lions must have thought someone smelled too harshly of Deet, or something, to bother knocking our tents down and eating us. So mission accomplished, and we lived to see another day.

As scary as it was... I wouldn't relive that hour any other way... and that's probably the least safe I'll ever be here in Africa (knock on wood, God-willing).

And what a glorious day it was, too, so thank goodness. On Sunday, we spent nearly the whole day in the Serengeti, taking in more zebras and gazelles and -- most extraordinarily -- a pride of lions brilliantly stalking and then chasing down a herd of wildebeests for a kill! Several of the lionesses and one or two males walked right along our truck, blending in superbly with the white/yellow dust of the grass and tire path! I've never been happier to be so close to a cat (from comfortably perched atop a truck, instead of cowering in a tent, of course). Truly an amazing sight.

After several more hours of driving under the sun (with one quick pit-stop at a Serengeti education center), we began driving back to the Ngorongoro Crater, where we would camp one more night, celebrate two volunteers' birthdays (how about turning 25 while on safari -- what a memory!), and rise early, again, to actually drive down into the Crater at dawn. To sum this particular experience up, I'd have to say I'll probably never see a prettier side of the world, ever. It literally looked like heaven on Earth, and my eyes began to sting because I didn't want to blink and miss one second. Then just about everyone in our truck fell asleep, because they were so freaking tired.

While driving around inside the Crater, before stopping next to a water-hole home of some hippos for picnic lunch, we had the pleasure of seeing two rhinos in the distance (now EXTREMELY rare, even there, in the heart of Africa... sorry Tim H), a cheetah, several elephants, and a ton of gorgeous flamingos, among various other usual suspects that we were suddenly desensitized to (zeebs, gazelles, and hyenas, to name a few). Kind of cool, maybe.**

It doesn't get much more eventful than that, folks. After 4 days on safari, bunk beds, cold showers, and toilets any more intricate than a hole in the ground all seemed luxurious, so upon arriving back at Home-Base, there were happy campers (no pun intended, sort of) all around. The dinners at the campsites were so delicious, however (zucchini soup, fresh cut fruit, spaghetti with vegi-"meat"-balls, for instance), and the memories so unreal, I wouldn't exactly say we all went hungry or were totally unhappy.

And then Simba and Nala watched Rafiki hoist their new lion cub up into the air, and all the animals cheered. The End.**

**Warning: A little sarcasm for good measure, everybody.