Masai Mara

Hi all,

I'm just back from my 3day trip to Masai Mara National Reserve. Do you know of this name? It's the most famous park in Kenya, where you can see wild animals.

I don't know where to start. I went there with other 5 AIESEC trainees( 1 Japanese, 1 Chinese, 2 Germans, 1 Dutch). We stayed in a camp site, where at night we talked with many other tourists around a fire, having coffee. Many of them were from Europe. I had trouble joining their conversation, but it was a good experience, too.

Now for animals! Our group was able to see many kinds of animals, including three of BIG5( elephants, lions, rhinors, leopards, buffalos) in the park. However, I couldn't help feeling funny about ourselves, since many animals were so used to be surrounded by cars and taken pictures. Looking at a chitah lying midst ten cars and a lion walking past the nose of a car, I felt I were in a zoo. The most excting moments are gnoeus(wild cows) crossing a river in hundreds, a lion catching a gnoeu. We were lucky, I think.

The scenery was truly authentic. The sunrise, morning, afternoon, sunset, every moment was breathtaking. Endless plain, low trees, bushes, everything was shone by the sun, rising or setting. It was so nice.

In the endless grassland, a life, including ours, doesn't effect the movement of nature at all. However, we are definitely inside the grandeur circles of life. So we don't need to be sad or afraid because of that. Seeing many phases of life- baby animals, hunting of a lion, several wild cows drowning while crossing a river, scavenger birds eating bodies, and white bones-, I felt that way. Maybe I'm influenced by "The Lion King" and Elton John's song "Circles of life" and Buddism.

We also visited a village of Masai tribe. We saw their dance, ceremony, houses, way of making fire, etc. For them, cows are the most important property. The number of wives a man can have is based on the number of cows he possesses. They eat cows' milk and meat. Their houses are made of cowdump and branches. I cannnot introduce other parts of their culture today, but the visit was very interesting.

Anyway, it was a good trip, except for the terrible condition of the roads to the park...

See you,
Kei