The last few days I have been having some very sickening and painful stomach issues. Lots of meals left uneaten because my stomach can't take it and the food the does go down seems to come up within an hour. I think it is because of a sandwich I ate on the flight back from Mombasa. Not too much fun.
However, I felt quite a bit better today than I did yesterday, so I decided to go out and do some of the things I've always wanted to do.
1) My roommate Adam, the son of this ranch's owner, has a pet cheetah. So he took me up to where they keep it and I got to play with it for a while. I probably outweigh the cheetah by at least 90 lbs. but it still remains incredibly intimidating. Looking at the cheetah it has two black stripes beneath its eyes that seem very much like war paint. It had such a loud purring that you could seemingly feel it in your chest. Not to mention the cheetah is amazingly quick. One second I'd be petting it as it lay down, then the next it would be up on all fours and looking me directly in the eyes. It was an amazing experience to get to spend time with one of the world's fastest animals.
2) After this Adam taught me how to drive a stick shift. We took out his old Range Rover and went on a bit of a sunday drive. I stalled 4 times I think, but seemed to quickly get the hang of it. Cruising along the dirt roads of his ranch next to giraffes, wildebeest, and zebra was a very surreal moment. I don't know if there has ever been a greater place to learn to drive a manual then here in wild Kenya.
Tomorrow I will be leaving to head about 4 and 1/2 hours north to my internship in Nakuru. I talked to the woman that I'll be living with and she seemed very friendly. Hopefully this first impression will hold true. In a sense I'm really excited about this new chapter in my summer story, yet I also am slightly unsure of what I should be expecting.
This next part is more for my brother. The ranch I'm staying at was used to film a portion of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In one of the tucked away warehouses here they have a canon from the film, a full sized plane that was used in the filming, and some other props. When I come home we'll have to watch it and I can point a few things out.
Jordan
I think it was the fish in Nairobi airport my stomach hasn't been the same since and the flights home were miserable. Miss you though papa hope ur havin fun with young hopcraft
ReplyDeleteThat's the worst intro paragraph! haha I didn't really want to read on thinking the entire post was going to be about you being sick. In detail. Though, I miss you so much I may cherish any little thing. ;) love you jojo! wish I could talk to you :(
ReplyDelete...this is Megan by the way, I'm on Bri's computer...myyyyy badddddd!
ReplyDeleteHoly moly, 2 days in a row?! What a treat...hope this means you'll have internet more often than you have been. You are missed.
ReplyDelete-Brandon
is that brandon bays (guessing no, because seeing his presence on the internet is strange to me.....
ReplyDeleteanyways, i saw your father the other day at scooters, exciting fact. also, DMB has a new CD, do you have access in Africa?? I think it's pretty good. I could send a care package?
Mr. Dose? Hmmm, it's Jeff. and I fixed it.
ReplyDeleteRough about the sickness - but totally jealous you got to hang out with a Cheetah! Jeez!
ReplyDeleteOhh Jeffrey, just b/c i don't use facebook doesn't mean i don't use the internet. My google account or whatever keeps saying my name or password is wrong so I've just been using the anonymous profile. Guess I shoulda cleared that up.
ReplyDelete-Brandon Bays