Amboseli

The weekend before last we were able to get away for a much anticipated safari. The girls were on vacation and I more than qualified for a comp day given the number of Sundays I’ve worked recently (Sunday is the beginning of the work week in Somalia).

Amboseli from the sky

We honed in on Amboseli National Park. It’s been on our list and people we know speak very fondly of the place. It’s only a 3-4 hour drive from Nairobi but we opted to fly. We wanted to maximize the time there and we only had 3 days. Also, driving in Kenya isn’t always pleasant and the return can undermine all the restfulness of the weekend. It’s not that I was excited to go catch a flight. I’ve taken eight international flights since the Christmas holidays (yes, they were all to Somalia but it’s still a lot of travel).

We were initially planning on leaving on the Thursday evening. However the flight changed on us and we had to wait until Friday morning. In the end it worked out okay (and cheaper) given that we were still able to get two game drives in on Friday, two on Saturday and a relaxing morning on Sunday before returning to Nairobi in the afternoon. The 38-minute flight is far more exciting for the kids than a 4-hour drive.

Day 1

The early start wasn’t pleasant for the girls but once we were going they were fine. Typically the national parks (and often UN and others) are served by Cessna 208 Caravan planes. They’re sort of the workhorse of Sub-Saharan Africa. They’re reliable and they can land on shorter airstrips. I’m guessing they’re cheaper to operate since they normally have less than ten passengers. Our flight had another couple and a baby so we were seven plus the two pilots.

On arrival you normally see a few safari vehicles lined up, either bringing people or picking up people, or both. Since you land on the inside of the park, the park entrance fees are paid right at the little airstrip. This place, and many of the parks around Kenya, no longer take cash. I’m told it changed due to the vulnerability of these places to robbery/theft. And it’s more efficient. But one needs to know this in advance to make sure they are prepared to pay by credit card or m-Pesa (electronic money transfer). One problem is that the credit card machine relies on a cell signal, which is quite weak there. It took the guy quite a while to get it to work, walking out of the little building with the machine held in the air like a torch waiting for the cellular transmission gods to respond to his appeal. After some time we started hearing the clicking of the machine telling us the payment was going through. Soon we were loaded up and headed on our way.

The place we were staying was only about 15 minutes away. It was surprisingly green thanks to a series of swamps that supply water even now in the late stages of the dry season. This obviously helps support a vibrant animal population.

Given that it sits on the border with Tanzania, the local population is primarily Maasai – including our guide, Isaac. We don’t see them as much in Nairobi as we did in Dar es Salaam. There they are viewed as particularly trustworthy and they tend to be hired as guards. All the better when they wear their traditional clothing – always a hit with the tourists.

Amboseli is the second most popular park in Kenya after the Maasai Mara, also on the border with Tanzania. Proximity to Nairobi helps but it’s also a stunning location. Situated at the base of Kilimanjaro, it’s easy to forget that Africa’s highest peak is a Tanzanian landmark rather than Kenyan (it makes Tanzanians angry to see their beloved mountain on Kenyan tourism posters). My brother, Priya, another friend and I climbed it back in 2006 and it was good to be back in her presence.

First things first. We checked in and proceeded to settle into our room. The view of Kili and the passing wild game was amazing. The room itself was quite nice too. No complaints.. After a coffee and a brief moment of down time, we were off to meet our guide and head out on a game drive.

Guides can have a big impact on how much you enjoy the experience. Not only are they knowledgeable about the creatures you’re seeing, they need good connections such that they alert each other to interesting sightings. And Isaac started off strong. Within 5-10 minutes we were in the presence of a lion and lioness – sort of like hitting it out of the park on your first at-bat. Fortunately for us, it wasn’t the last we’d see of them. Normally alpha male lions are stunning creatures but this guy had obviously seen better days. According to Isaac, he has been quite the stud for many years, and still holds his own, but his face looked almost frightening. I suppose someone will say that about me one day.

if that mouth could talk...

 The lioness on the other hand was beautiful. They’re such amazing animals.

We drove around the park enjoying the open-top safari vehicle, the cool-ish air and the scenery. The ground changed from swampy to very dry, the former with an abundance of bird life. Our attention often turned to Kilimanjaro. It’s hard not to. It’s the highest free-standing mountain in the world at 5,895 m (19,341 ft). We were told that it’s often obscured and that we should take advantage of the clear moments. In fact the mountain remained pretty clear most of the time that we were there. I suppose we were fortunate.

The girls were generally pretty enthusiastic about the game drives. Each time we do this they understand more and find it more fascinating. Certainly there are moments when they are a bit less into it so we made sure that we had some back-up activities. It’s exciting to see their enjoyment doing something that is so important to us. And they’re getting quite good at identifying and even discussing the animals they see.

After a couple hours we were back at the hotel. The weather by this time was quite warm, particularly in the sun, and, after a rather yummy buffet lunch, we made our way to the pool. I’m not used to swimming pools on safari. Most times it’s tented camps, basic meals and nothing fancy. This time was hotel room, elaborate buffet meals and a pool. No complaints.

The setting of the pool was rather stunning. The water was clean and the temperature was quite nice. We all decided that we could live there.

By 4pm we headed out on our second game drive. The pattern for most of the safaris seemed to be early morning and late afternoon outings to catch the animals at sunrise and just before sunset. The middle of the day was normally less interesting as a lot of the animals, particularly the cats, would be lounging in the shade rather than walking around and/or killing things.

The afternoon drive produced a nice little scene of a group of hyenas munching on a fairly recently killed hippo. Hyenas normally don’t do the killing themselves. So likely something else did deed and then they came and took it over. There’s a lot to eat on a hippo. We came back the next day and sure enough, they were still there gorging away. They apparently will keep eating until they vomit. And repeat until there’s nothing but bones. If it’s a smaller animal and they’re still hungry, their powerful jaws will allow them to eat the bones as well. They’re pretty gross.

before...

...and after

Then we saw a hippo chase. Apparently it was an alpha chasing down a challenger. Given that a fight of this nature often goes to the death, the unfortunate challenger was in high gear to get away. He eventually did. Quite amazing to see how fast they can move, particularly given that they don’t work out much.

surprisingly fast

By the time we were back the pool was closed so we had some tea and then headed to dinner. The hotel makes a big fire in the evening for the guests. We didn’t have the chance to enjoy it much since it was sort of dinner and then get the kids to bed. We were pretty exhausted so we hit the pillow soon afterwards.

Day 2

The next morning Isaac almost topped his previous effort of seeing a lion in 5-10 minutes. This time it was probably about 15 minutes. I don’t know if it’s always like this but it was impressive.

The rising sun was beautiful. Fantastic to see the first light hitting the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The low light of morning and evening is always beautiful and being in a place like this, all the more.

Later we saw that ugly lion from the day before, this time with the whole family. I think we counted nine in the pride altogether.

not exactly handsome but still seems to do well with the ladies

The day followed the pattern of the previous day except that our first outing started earlier and ended earlier. This gave us a chance to have a swim before lunch. In fact the extra time was quite relaxing. They key with kids is to limit the game drives to a couple hours and mix it up with other activities. Worked for me too.

lounging baboon

The afternoon game drive was low key with a bit fewer animals. Just nice driving around and taking it all in. As we were nearing the end, we saw a collection of safari vehicles. We would join them and see that they had gathered to watch a pride of lions off in the distance, the same pride from earlier in the day. Only this time, instead of two or three vehicles, the highest count I made was twenty-nine! I hadn’t seen anything like this since the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, and even then I don’t think it was this bad. Vehicles were blocking the road (as local Maasai residents wanted to pass, including a pick-up of school children and other vehicles of workers). To make matters worse, the lions were attempting to cross the road we were on. Vehicles were so packed that no one could move out of their way even if they had the courtesy to do so. Most of the pride were able to make it through the barrage but about three of the young ones seemed a bit too intimidated by the by the circus on the road, understandably so.

Eventually they did make it and we were able to dislodge our vehicle from the traffic jam and start heading back. Not a pleasant way to end day 2 but fortunately it only happened this one time. Mostly we were either alone or with one or two other vehicles.

the family waiting for the cubs

We were soon back at the hotel. We’d asked for an earlier dinner so we basically went straight to the restaurant. Then a nice hot shower and bed.

sunset on the drive back to the lodge

Day 3

The last morning we were not in a hurry since there was no game drive. We were able to sit and have some coffee watching the sun rise over Kili. SO nice. We had the entire morning to ourselves so we spent it eating, swimming and relaxing. We would leave for the airport after lunch.

watching the sunrise

sunrise

Interesting side note, the driver/guide that took us to the airstrip was rather famous. He was featured in full-page newspaper article that was posted near the entrance to the hotel. He’s half Maasai and half Indian (Sikh). That’s rare enough but he’s also noted for having summited Mt. Kilimanjaro something like 47 times! I think he’s retired from guiding people up Kili now but he still works in the park. Super interesting guy. Would have loved to hang out with him a bit more.

lolly while sleeping? poor parenting...

Alas, the fun was over. Soon we were flying back to Nairobi. The flight was so low that I was getting cell reception in the plane, exchanging Whatsapp messages with my supervisor. Sadly, the topic of conversation was the Ethiopian flight, also bound for Nairobi, which had gone down earlier in the morning and whether or not we had staff on the plane. Sobering end to a wonderful weekend.

Work Life Balance

I try to mix up this blog so it’s not all work-related nor only talking about my non-work life. Now that I’m spending so much time in Somalia, the balance is tougher to achieve. Admittedly there is more happening that is note-worthy in relation to my work. It’s a fascinating context so I suppose that would make sense.

It’s not to say that my non-work life isn’t interesting. We are blessed to have very rich lives and I feel like every day is a new adventure. In fact I wouldn’t mind if life were a bit more boring at times.

When returned from the US, as I mentioned I needed to pivot quickly towards Somalia and continue pushing hard on this transition of remaining operations from Nairobi to Mogadishu. It’s been a significant focus of my job but I think it’s bearing good fruit. But it does mean time away from family.

Admittedly this flipping back and forth between Somalia and Kenya is tiring. It means long days. Lots of time spent in transit, including lengthy taxi rides, particularly since my normal arrival time in Nairobi, regardless of what airline I fly, is evening rush hour. I thus have resorted to hunkering down in the taxi with my phone or laptop, being discreet as possible given the rampant crime. Guys are known to reach in open windows and take whatever they can grab. They will even bash through closed windows if they see something worthwhile. Given that it can take anywhere from 45 min. to two hours, I try to find the balance between productivity and safety.

The other thing that I have to deal with, and I assume it applies all people who have this sort of dual country (dual community) life, is the constant feeling that I am unable to be anywhere long enough to do justice to one’s obligations. I felt this a few years ago when I was going back and forth between Burundi and Rwanda. You have two sets of relationships to maintain and nurture, both personally and professionally. And it’s never enough, particularly for an introvert who also needs time alone to recharge mental batteries. 

As I type this I’m on a flight back to Mogadishu after spending the weekend with family. It didn’t turn out as I’d planned. After arriving in Nairobi on Thursday evening (and a fateful welcome home kiss from a sick daughter), I was able to join in on the “Carnaval” celebrations at their school on Friday morning. Always good to weave these types of kid events into a busy work schedule. Then on Saturday morning I went to the gym as I normally do only to start feeling sick late morning. By the middle of the afternoon, it was clear that I was doomed. A stomach flu had set in and would pulverize me over the coming 48 hours or so. 

Kinaya and class taking in the acrobatics

By Monday I was marginally functional. I made my way to the office late morning to sign some things and have a short external meeting. I would be in Mogadishu a big part of the week so I needed to make it happen, even if it was brief. I went home mid-afternoon and balanced hanging out with my family and resting. I would need to be functional enough to leave for the airport by 4:30 the next morning. 

That brings me to where I am now. I’m off and running though I don’t feel great. Without going into details, I’ll just say that evidence that my illness is still with me showed up this morning at the airport. And of course, a Somali lady next to me on the plane just spent the last minute or two barfing into a bag. Many of these flights to Somalia, including this one, offer no purpose-built bags for such occasions. The poor woman had to improvise. Plastic bags in Kenya are now forbidden so she didn’t even have that option – relying on a more porous substitute. Good for her that she was carrying some napkins and was wearing traditional Somali clothing with an ample amount of material. But let’s just say she’ll have some cleaning up to do when she gets to Somalia. 

It’s common knowledge that it’s not ideal when you are sick to be around others who are visibly ill as well. Fortunately I was able to channel my thoughts elsewhere during her little episode. 

looking southwest from the airplane - protection barrier between the airport and the ocean

As we were boarding, at the base of the stairs to the plane, a Somali woman was standing next to me. She looked up at me a couple of times and smiled. That’s not very common since Somali women, unless they’ve spent considerable time outside the country, particularly in a Western country, not only don’t make much eye contact, they often use their hand or part of their veil to partially cover their face. It’s sort of the middle ground between the burka (full face covering) and the hijab (just the head covering). In public you see a mix of the two. 

So I made some sort of banal comment about the morning weather or something and she jumped on the opening to engage in a short conversation. It seems she really wanted to chat. Turns out that she lives in Ohio and she was sort of checking to see if I might be from the US as well. She went to the US several years ago as a refugee and she now calls that home. This was her first trip back to Somalia to see the family and friends she’d left behind. She seemed excited and a bit nervous. I suggested that she was probably happy to get away from the Midwestern winter and she proceeded to tell me about life during the polar vortex.

(By the way, we had plenty of time to chat on the tarmac outside the plane given that they were boarding some elderly folks and doing who knows what.)

Given that I’m an American in Somalia, I asked her about her experience with the inverse. Surprisingly she seemed rather cheery about her time in the US. And the fact that she was happy to connect with a stranger in a queue that she thought might be from her adopted country felt like confirmation. I apologetically said that sometimes politicians aren’t always positive in their rhetoric about refugees. She seemed to brush it off saying that Americans are generally good and helpful people. Given some of the things I’ve read and heard over past couple of years, I was happy to hear she felt that way. Hope it continues.