So I told you I would try to update more often, so here is my attempt at an update more often. We had a non-program day a few days ago and it was lovely. We went to a tourist lodge to go swim, eat, and relax by the pool. And what a day of relaxing it was.  The lodges are such an oasis in Kenya, like an unrealistic slice of life completely non-reflective of the way most Kenyan’s would ever dream of living.  The lodges are beyond elegant (in fact, even nicer then what many Americans would ever dream of being able to have). Made up of marble floors, mosaic walls, lush plant life through the halls, huge glass windows, elaborately carved out pools, and a buffet that makes you forget you’re not home, the lodges are our time to pretend like we are not hard working students with homework waiting for us, but that we a just tourist relaxing and enjoying life.

It’s a strange thing to say that we enjoy feeling like tourists, so I suppose that is not the best way to phrase it. I mean, our most favorite thing to do while we are here is open up the roof hatches in our safari jeeps, go to Amboseli National Park to drive around and look at animals, then go to the lodges, eat like we were starving, and then go swimming. But when it comes to all that other tourist stuff, like being taken to big auditoriums to watch normal people dress up and dance, got to a set up of a Maasai cultural manyatta, and isolating yourself away from the rest of Kenya, not something that neither I nor this big group of students likes to do.  Perhaps the best way to phrase it would be to say that we do not appreciate the unauthentic aspects of Kenyan tourism, but the more college student oriented doing work for half a day then taking the rest of the day off, is something we appreciate much more.

So this was the second time we had been to a lodge since coming to Kenya. We went to two different lodges, one inside Amboseli, and the second right outside of the park. In my personal opinion the second lodge that we went to was much nicer, the pool was huge and elaborately shaped, with plenty of lung chairs sitting by the pool, and a fully stocked bar sitting in the shade of palm tree (not a native Kenyan species, just so you know). The sun was so intense, many of my classmates who normally have trouble getting brown back home were beat red by the end of the day (I was not, I was smart and wore sun screen. I know this pale Irish skin can only handle about ten minutes of sun). The water was so cool and refreshing, a perfect place to escape from the hot sun. Oh, but do you want to hear the best part, the part that makes me seem like a dumb ass? I forgot my bathing suit. No not back at the camp site, I forgot my bathing suit back home, in America.  So I got to sit by the pool in a tank top and a make shift skirt/wrap. Yep, I looked mighty foolish with no bathing suit, but hopefully I can have one sent to me (hint hint). But even though I was stuck by the side of the pool dreaming of how wonderful the water would feel on my whole body, it was well worth going. 

So a few days after we came home from the lodge we had quite the opposite experience from the fun-loving-tourist activities we had been participating in. We participated in a very real and legitimate Maasai goat slaughtering. Yes thats right, a goat slaughtering. We bought a goat, took it around to bushes behind our chumba, slit its throat, cooked it, and ate it.

 As horrifying as it may be to hear that we all watched as a goat lost its life, there is much more to the situation then what meets the eye. Like I have said in previous posts, being in Kenya I need to open my mind to new cultural experiences and put my ethnocentrism behind me. This was one such experience that was particularly difficult to let go of as I am sure you can imagine. I was too much of a whimp to actually watch as the goat had its throat slit, but oh boy I could here it. Slicing the throat of an animal is not nearly as quick as the movies make it seem. There is hacking, sawing, and shear force that needs to be put into the annihilation (I feel like this is a nicer term then murder) of a goat. Yes, the goat screams as it is laying on its back getting its throat slit until it is dead. And yes, I could here the goat screaming all the way from the chumba. If you are wondering what a goat sounds like when it is dying, it sounds just like a person yelling at someone to stop killing a goat. I was sitting in the chumba with my friends Collin and Molly when we heard it screaming (and yes we were the only three how had trouble watching the death of the goat, everyone else was much tougher and watched it get slaughtered).One of us (stupidly) asked if that was goat screaming, and we just nodded our heads. But once the goat was dead, we went to watch them take it apart and had a mini anatomy lesson. The men who were taking the goat apart were straight up bosses, I mean they were hacking away at that goat like it was no ones business. After it was taken apart, the meat was thrown on the fire (yes, the goat was roasted on a fire out side in the middle of the wilderness) to be cooked. 

I of course tried some of the meat, and it was my first time eating goat. I actually liked it a lot, it tastes like a mix between lamb and steak. It was overcooked, but while in Kenya that is the only way I would want to eat my meat. It was defiantly an experience, but not a bad one. I know that it may be hard to imagine the hole goat killing experience as being a good thing, but in the reality of the world, it was an extremely humane way for the goat to die. Rather than being locked in a pen for its whole life, and force feed corn, injected with hormones and antibiotics, and then served up in plastic wrap, this goat was aloud to stay with its mother as baby, it was able to graze and feed in open pastures, and was never shown a hormone or antibiotic in its life. Although its death sounds appalling, compared to what happens in America, it was quick and humane. There was little suffering on the goats end, and it lived a long and happy life. One day I may be able to actually watch a goat get slaughtered, but for now, hearing it scream was enough for me.

But on to bigger and better things, on Tuesday we head out for expedition to Tsavo national park! Yes, we will be roughin it even more then we are now for a whole week in Tsavo. We are expecting to see all kinds of wildlife, like lions, elephants, and hyenas. Oh boy I am excited. But camping for a whole week means that I will not have access to the internet. So consider this post the last one until we get back from Tsavo.

Kwa heri wazungu!   

*I do apologize for the lack of photos, it is difficult to upload them right now. 

Location: Kimana, Kenya