Aloha

Dear friends and family,

My how time flies! We have much to catch up on, and will do our darndest to fill you in.

Massai Mara:
On New Years Eve, we made our way to the Massai Mara for a safari. We were greeted by Jared (the manager) with a cold glass of lemonade and a damp cloth for our foreheads. Perfect start. The "tents" we stayed in were more of a mini resort. We had running water, hot (bucket) showers, a mint on our pillows and a view that opened up to water buffaloes grazing the plains. The camp isn't fenced in at all so animals freely roam during the day and night. One lady opened up her tent to a lioness, while another couple had some things stolen by monkeys that had broken into their tent.


Anywho, on our first game drive, it was nearing sundown and we happened upon a suspicious group of lionesses and some nervous antelope. Shortly thereafter, one of the lionesses broke off from the pact and went full Usain Bolt after the antelope. Our jeep gunned it, and we found ourselves only meters away from the catch. It was a bit of a bittersweet moment. Seeing a kill is quite rare, and seeing it all so close was quite exciting.


To make everything even more awesome, we drove out into an open plain for champaign, appetizers, and the sunset. Moments later, Massai warriors appeared and began performing their tribal dancing, chanting, and jumping. It was quite the cool experience.


Other highlights included seeing a 3 month old cheetah cub, a jackal catch and then release an antelope, and eating lots of good food.





Diani Beach:
A few days after returning from the safari, we took a 16 hour train to Diani Beach. The train is infamous within Kenya and was quite an experience itself. The tracks go through slums, cities, and the countryside. Children and their mothers would run along the train waving and yelling, "How are you?".



Diani Beach is a small beach town right along the Indian Ocean. Our first day there, we met an awesome couple from Sweden and spent the next number of days with them. Very lazy days that mostly included going to the beach and watching the Office at night. The downside of Diani Beach is that the "beach boys" (the guys who try and sell you everything!) often blocked our view of the water. Sometimes they would just sit in front of us and wink and blow kisses at Michelle when I wasn't looking. In terms of hassling/selling they were easily the most obnoxious we came across. I developed different methods of dealing with them including building sand castles and trying to sell them to a persistent beach boy and waving my finger furiously while yelling no as belligerently as possible. One of them said to me after a long ordeal of me refusing his services, "Your heart is like Russia. Cold and Hard.". It was perhaps the quote of the trip thus far.



After Diani Beach, it was off and up to Egypt!

Cairo:
We've now been in Cairo for a few days and love it. We are staying with some good friends from college and they have been awesome with showing us around and taking good care of us. The people here are easily the nicest and most hospitable of anywhere we've been. With that said, I've never heard more car honking, seen so much dust, or eaten with my hands so much. It's also still a bit eerie to hear the call to prayer over loudspeakers throughout the city 5 times a day. We've spent a lot of time in markets and at mosques, and will likely make our way to Giza in the next few days to see some pyramids and the Sphinx.





On a side note, one of our friends has a connection at the American embassy, which means we get to watch the Vikings this Sunday night! While my purple shirt is a bit dirty from not having been washed for close to a month now, I will wear it with pride as Favre dismantles the Cowboys.

We love hearing from you back home, so please keep writing when you have a chance!

Love you all.