Hungry, Hungry Hippos

I was off work this weekend and got to spend some time exploring Kijabe and the surrounding area. (The tourist blogs will soon give way to more medical blogging as I start a 2 week stretch of work tomorrow. But for now, the travel writing…) Yesterday I hung out with the Trotters for a while and went to the duka (small grocery store) and produce market. I didn’t buy something from every lady this time since they had a lot of traffic – hopefully I didn’t make any enemies. We then had lunch at the Trotters’ house and walked the perimeter of the Rift Valley Academy, a school mainly for missionary kids whose parents are stationed all over Africa. About 500 students attend there, grades K-12. We were entertained by a few colobus monkeys and baboons during our stroll. The school is up on a hill and has an amazing view of the Rift Valley. It was very serene. I also ended the night at the Trottter’s house for game night. Aurelie was on call all weekend, so the Kathy and Doug are my new best friends. The anesthesiology residents and a physical therapist from Kansas joined us for a competitive and fun game of Taboo.

The weather here has been lovely – sunny and 70s during the day, but cool and super windy at night. I have been getting enough Vitamin D to last me through the rest of Seattle winter.

Today, Tracy, an anesthesiology resident from Vanderbilt, and I went to Crescent Island at Lake Naivasha, about an hour from Kijabe. Scenes from the movie “Out of Africa” were filmed there. Apparently all of the animals were imported to the island for the movie and have flourished. It is one of the only game parks where you can walk among the animals, as you usually you are confined to your land cruiser. A British couple now owns the island. Our animated guide Mumo showed us around- first stop was the hippos. We crept through the brush and Mumo went first, in case they attacked. Just as we were approaching, a small antelope ran out of the bushes, which scared us half to death. Hippos can be very aggressive, and hippo bites are not an uncommon chief complaint at the hospital. (The “white lady” who owns the island had a hippo skull on her porch and it looked like a t-rex!) Anyway, there was a family of about 12 hippos in the water. In case a hippo charges, Mumo recommended running in a zigzag pattern uphill or hiding behind a bush, and then darting in another direction. There are also a few buffalo on the island, which have large curled horns. If they attack, you should climb a tree. However, they have an excellent sense of smell so you stay up there for a while or they will smell you and come after you. Another option to escape buffalo is “lying on the ground.” I guess it is better to be crushed than gored? We kept our distance.

Mumo also informed us that giraffes have a 1 yr gestation and can kill a lion with a swift kick. (I could go on with Mumo stories for a long time…and will.) If a giraffe is about to “drop a baby” and it is threatened, Mumo says it will run away for 3-4 hrs with the baby giraffe "hanging out of it." We did not witness this theory in action, but we did see a family of giraffes with two 1 month old babies. Amazing! I am definitely getting carried away with my new camera. Herds of running wildebeest also made for exciting videos. There are also a few pythons on the island, but we did not meet them nor learn how to flee from their clutches [shiver].

Next we went to the Lake Naivasha Country Club for a “nice lunch.” (People in Kenya are always telling us where we can find a “nice lunch.”) The country club is actually a hotel and restaurant on a beautiful piece of land across the lake from Crescent Island. We were made “honorary country club members” since we are volunteering in the hospital. Lunch was served on a verdant lawn where we sat in whicker chairs. We really liked our driver, John, and invited him to join us. Instead of the chicken salad and watercress sandwiches I had envisioned, we were served curry soup, cucumber salad, fish, french fries, cooked spinach, pasta, dessert, and tea. It was a very “nice lunch” and a real treat!

There is a public Kenyan beach by the country club, so we walked there after lunch to view more hippos – but this was a “friendly” hippo family accustomed to people. More national geographic picture taking ensued until we could capture a hip with its huge jaws open.

On the way out, Tracy bought a 3 ft wooden carved giraffe in the gift shop. I bought a pair of bone earrings (that I can not make myself, Yiota!) Here is the text of a sign in the gift shop, "Polite Notice. We regret that in the unfortunate event of an item being broken or damaged whilst viewing, we shall have to ask you to pay for it. By Management." Kenyans are so polite. You break it, you buy it!

No trip to Kenya is complete without a bit of car trouble, right? We got a flat tire on the way home, but our driver swiftly fixed it and we were on our way back to Kijabe.

The power has been out for a while, so I’m typing by candlelight. Hope someone switches on the generator soon…