Unbwagable!

We were in East Africa during a very interesting time -- free election season in Kenya! I'm sure you've read about it in the news. Basically, the country was psyching up to lose it's fading leader, Moi, for the Opposition Party's Kibaki. Both the cities and the countryside was bustling with election activities. In Masai tribal villages, we witnessed a mini-truck loaded with enormous speakers, broadcasting, 'We are unstoppable, we cannot be stopped' over and over again. Election signs were posted EVERYWHERE -- stop signs, road signs, trees, cars. Banners proclaimed 'Unbwagable!' which we found out is a combination of the swahili word for 'stop' and the english 'un' and 'able' from 'unstoppable.' 'Unbwagable' became the motto for our safari because of all the obstacles we overcame.

Obstacle #1: Nairobi --what a scary place. We stayed inside as much as possible.

Obstacle #2: Taking off for our safari a couple hours late ('There's no hurry in Africa') and pulling over about 30 minutes later with a smoking engine. Waiting another few hours for a new minibus to pick us up.

Obstacle #3: Overcoming my fear of sleeping with only a canvas between my body and scary animals. When I jokingly expressed my concern to our guru-like driver, Mr. Nelson, he had only this to say: 'It is the lion's way. If you meet the lion, you either shake hands, or say goodbye.'

Obstacle #4: The second minibus lasted for several days without incident. Then, in the middle of a game reserve, the alternator began acting up. While pushing the vehicle to pop-start it, we kept both eyes in the distance for predators. Hoped it wouldn't happen with carnivores nearby. (Mr. Nelson: 'It could happen. It is not my wish.')

Obstacle #5: Spending 20 minutes behind an bachelor elephant in the road waiting for him to move on.

Obstacle #6: Ah, and this is the big one. Jim survived our trip's first illness. We were camping on the rim of the spectacular Ngorongoron Crater along with about a hundred other holiday-goers. We were two days from the end of our looooong safari and looking forward to the morning game drive within the crater. Jim's intestines had other plans though. He spent most of the night sticking his head out of the tent door and into the downpour. It was a miserable good night. We piled him up with all his warm clothes, both of our hats, both sleeping bags and he was still shivering. At 3am, we were dangerously low on clean water. I walked through a maze of guides and drivers sleeping in the dining tent to find our cook. He boiled some water for us and found another blanket. By daybreak, Jim had stopped moaning and we piled everything into the truck for the bumpy 5-hour ride to the nearest town with a decent medical clinic. Phew! He's fully recovered now and still taking antibiotics for the bacterial infection (no malaria!!). The funniest part of the story was the benefactor of all of this. Let's just say that we found out the next morning that a bush pig feasted outside of our tent that night.

Unbwagable!

Tera and coherent Jim