Water Testing In The Mara

The past two days we traveled to 3 places, Endonyo Erinka, Aitong, and Mara Rianta to take water samples from the rivers and tanks that the clinics and communities get their water from. We got to drive through the game park on our way to the destinations and we were able to see elephants. I was so excited-there were 4 adult elephants with 3 little babies. I really wanted to see elephants before we left, we couldn't stay for too long as one of the adults came towards us with his trunk raised....so we had to leave. Bummer!

The kids showed us where they got
their water supply from...yes, it was contaminated.

Water testing

I'm watching 4 missionary children tomorrow and have some packing and cleaning to do before we head out on Saturday for our safari. We will head to Nairobi on Monday and will leave on our flight home around 11pm, Tuesday evening. I am excited to get back with the other teams from CMF, I'm thankful we'll have a few days to catch up and talk during debrief before I head back to Iowa. Wow, time flies!

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Amusing Experiences

Two funny things have happened and I'll just give a quick update.

1. MB was heading to the outhouse late one night and as she opened the door to the toilet and a snake slithered out. The snake really didn't want to move from in front of the door so we threw a rock at it and it went away. I got a can of bug killer spray and sprayed the outside and inside of the toilet....it has to help a little, right? MB was rather scared by the poisonous little thing and really didn't want to venture out there again. I told her to use the bathtub to pee in, she thought that was so funny-I thought it was very practical and safe. I would so do it. Ha! She didn't take me up on the idea so instead I stood guard with a flashlight outside the toilet keeping an eye out for the snake. It never came and we haven't seen it since!

Mary had us stay in
her boma for a night.

2. We had the opportunity to sleep in a boma, a traditional Maasai mud/dung house one evening. I was not extremely excited about our chance but thought it would be an experience. We had dinner with the woman and talked to her about her livestock, children and husband. When it was time to sleep we were showed to our tiny room, me and MB had to share a very small bed. I woke up every hour because I felt little bugs crawling on me the entire night. I was also afraid that the bug net was going to suffocate us...it was not doing the job properly and kept falling on us. It was an eventful night, we took a few videos of us throughout the evening-we were laughing so hard of this awful and very painful experience (I will post some video on my fb wall when I return...be ready!)

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