Adventure of a life time!

This weekend we got to go on an adventure of a life time. We first started out the journey in the Great Rift Valley. It was beyond beautiful. There are not even words to describe what it looked like. After the trip we will be able to put up pictures of it up. We continued our journey onto the Masai Mara. Masai Mara is a national park that has thousands of acres on it. It has hundreds of different types of animals. On the first game drive we saw gazelle, elephants, zebras, topi, antellope, buffalo, hyennas, many many birds and animals I can't remember, and of course 3 lions eating a buffalo that had just been hunted. Molly wasn't a fan of seeing them pull out different organs or hear the sound of them eating bones. We stayed at a tent camp in the middle of the Mara. It was incredible to be able to go to sleep to the sounds of wild animals in a tent. At the camp we had members of the Maasai tribe taking care of us. They were such wonderful people to be around. We all had so much fun being with them. The boys took a very big liking to the warriors and of course want to be just like them.
The next morning we woke up VERY early to go out in the park. We saw the Kenyan sunrise, which was beautiful!! We saw so many more animals, cheetahs, crocs, lions, giraffee, and many more. In the afternoon we went to a Maasai village to spend time with the tribe. The Maasai live the same way they have always lived. They have not let the western influence them into living a different lifestyle. We were able to dance with them, wear lion manes, and go into their homes which is made up of cow dung and are very small! We were also taught how they start a fire. The boys got the items they use and tried to make fire, but 15 minutes later all they were left with was blisters and no fire (the maasai can make it in about 1 minute.)
Saturday night was a very special night. We first watched the most amazing, beautiful sunset any of us had ever seeen. Then we were able to spend time watching the stars that were brighter than bright with two Maasai men Steven and Ben. We talked for about an hour all about their tribe, American and God. We became so close to the staff at the camp it was very hard for us to leave. Many of them wanted Lanie and Molly to stay to marry their older brothers. The boys spent a lot of time talking with a Maasai Warrior named Sammi. He taught them many things about being a man.
On Sunday, we started out our journey by going to see the Hippos and Crocs. When you go to see the hippos you have to get out of the car to see them. We start off walking with of course a ranger with a very large gun, there was so much mud the whole time we were slipping and sliding. It was really funny, although we were COVERED in mud. On our way back to the car the ranger goes come come come.. so of course we all run to him and he yells at us not to run due to the buffalo running after us. Buffalo are very dangerous in Kenya and a single buffalo makes them even more dangerous. He used his gun to scare off the buffalo, but after that we all walked very very close to each other and right up next to the ranger. Almost being attacked by a buffalo never makes one feel very safe. Sam said that he was more scared about the time our car was completely surronded by elephants. We made the journey back to Nairobi which was a very long 5 hour bumpy bumpy trip. It was an incredible time, and of course we have tons of pictures to show you all.
Right now we are spending time with our guest house staff and watching Kenyan soap operas. They are really interesting. Tomorrow morning we wake up at 5:30 am to begin our journey to Meru. We are excited about getting to work with many different missions. Hopefully we will be able to update again soon. Kwaheri!

Lanie, Molly, Sam and Brandon