Lions and Elephants and Hippos, Oh MY!!

Yes this weekend I went on a Safari! What and amazing experience. We roughed it a little and stayed in tents in the bush next to the lake. That was good and bad, the hippos then had free reign over our area. Each night as we were climbing into our tents a hippo would walk right through the campsite. They are big awkward animals but they have huge teeth and can run up to 35 miles per hour so I chose not to mess with them. Usually there was a littler one and a bigger one who would stroll on by munching on the grass.

The first morning we woke up and left at 6:30, the first thing we saw were tons of warthogs and some cod. Then some elephants, they are huge! We could come within like 20 feet of them, which is amazing but a little scary because at any moment they can get mad and charge the van. We had rented a pop-top van so we got to sit on the roof and observe the animals. Later after driving for about 2 hours we finally saw two lionesses! It was so amazing to see wild animals that are that huge. It made me really feel like I live in Africa. We were only out for about 3 hours but got to see so much.

We came home and I got to rest and sit on a beautiful porch for 5 hours watching hippos swim in the lakes. It was literally the first chance I have had to sit and rest. I was able to journal and read my Bible. I actually felt a little refreshed after 5 hours of nothing!

Then we left again for an evening safari from 4:30-7:30. We right away saw a herd of elephant and one of them had a tiny baby that could fit under her legs. It was super cute! We then saw many more cod, water buck, water buffalo and warthogs but we really wanted to see more lions. Our prayers came true when we noticed about 6 lionesses lying underneath a tree. After about 5 minutes we realized there were 2 little cubs wrestling on the ground! We watched them for about half an hour. We were about 100 yards from them, which was close enough for my comfort, but our driver assured us that we were safe; lionesses take a long time to make decisions apparently.

Overall the weekend was an amazing time to rest and regroup for another week. It is often hard though to do these things alone. Before I left Chris told me to take a picture with Simba but to not touch the hippos, when I saw both I thought of him. I thought how much my dad would love to sit and watch the sunset with me and how much my mom would have loved to sit with me on the porch and soak it all in. I thought about how much my sister would have loved to sit on top of the car belting out The Circle of Life song with me. All these experiences are so fun but they are somewhat dampened when someone you love is not next to you sharing it with you. I have told Chris many times how much sweeter these experiences would be if he could do it with me. I wish I could see their faces as they take in the joy of life. I wish I didn't have to tell my family and Chris about this but that they could actually do it with me.

On a more positive note...I promise next week's post to be very entertaining...tonight I am going to kill a chicken for dinner and this weekend I am going to a circumcision ceremony in Mbale!! It should be fun!

Please be praying for me, these past two weeks have been very hard. I am probably the most homesick I have ever been and life is just getting difficult. I have been told that these are generally the hardest weeks but that doesn't make it any easier. Chris will find out probably tomorrow whether or not he was accepted to study abroad next semester in Costa Rica, which would mean another 4 months apart. I am missing our anniversary on the 31st and am just struggling with being so far from him. Life here is not much different but it is still just as foreign. There has been little comfort (I actually ate raisins last night which was a huge treat!). Please pray that at this time I would be able to focus on why I am here, that God would meet me in my loneliness and show me himself more and more. Please pray for a wonderful time despite wanting to be home so badly.

On a side note...the sunrise was spectacular this morning. It was bright orange and the whole sky was lit up. I walked extra slowly so I could watch it all!