Day 11 Katherine

Hi everyone! This morning, July first, was a hard one for all of us, and for a few different reasons. Most importantly, it marked our final hours at the Nambale Magnet School, the beautiful campus we have called home for the past week and a half. What made it (significantly) more difficult was that we were brutally awoken at 4:40 in the morning in order to leave the school at 6:00 am. I'm sure that getting a group of fourteen teenagers out the door at the crack of dawn was not an easy task, and it could not have been done without Mike's Phase Three wake-up, the African pancakes delivered at 5:00, and our final prayer led by Madame Director Evelyn. I think a couple of us had tears in our eyes as we rolled out of those gates and away from Nambale, but the anticipation of our next adventure kept our vans (somewhat) lively.
After nine hours of sleeping, singing, and magic tricks, we finally passed through the gates of the Masai Mara National Park Game Preserve, the park which we would be exploring over the next couple of days on safari. Tears once again filled a few eyes as we drove through the park to our lodge and were greeted by elephants, giraffes, and zebras. After a very late lunch at the lodge, we set out for an afternoon and evening game drive, during which we saw more of the beautiful creatures and the vastness of this incredible park.
We closed out our very long day with our typical reflection, this time focusing on our thoughts and feelings as we had moved on from the Magnet School. Many of us continued to share the difficulty of leaving the school and its community behind, but we also reflected on the difference between Nambale (and other rural towns that we had passed through) and the resort that we now found ourselves in. While in a way, we welcomed the change and were excited by the unexpected luxury, we also recognized the complexity of resort culture. We discussed how many people come to places such as Kenya and move from resort to resort, arguably missing the opportunity to truly see and understand the country. While I am incredibly grateful that we are able to stay in such a beautiful place as we explore Masai Mara, I am even more grateful that we were given the chance to see how the vast majority of Kenyan people live. While it wasn't easy, it is what personally made this trip one that will inspire and motivate both service and understanding throughout my life.