Arriving at dawn, we touched down in Kenya, and McKay cried "giraffe!" almost as soon as we left the airport! Sure enough, they were grazing in a protected area near the road as we left the airport. Traffic was as crazy as we were told to expect, and vans crammed with passengers were racing all around on and even off the roads. We arrived at our hotel and napped all day. That evening we sang at the hotel's outdoor restaurant, and they fed us a delicious dinner.

Then we sang at a rooftop event for one of the hotel's directors, whose private home is on the premises. I was feeling extra festive so I added a key change in the middle of "Ride the Chariot" when I sang the solo.

The next day, we visited a giraffe and elephant center and got to kiss giraffes! Their tongues are so precise that they can pull a little food pellet from your mouth.

This baby's name is Ayabu. His fuzzy head feels bristly!

We then took a bus tour of Nairobi, seeing government buildings and asking our guides all sorts of questions about the country. We had a long stop at the National History Museum, where an excellent museum guide (a young guy named Julian, it's unclear whether he was an official guide or saw us as willing customers) gave a great tour of the museum's cultural and scientific collections. My favorite was the huge room of hundreds of bird taxidermies, as well as the serpentarium, where they even had a live black mamba, the most deadly snake in Africa. Unlike other snakes, it remains by it's victim after biting, and puts its tail on the victim's chest to determine whether or not it's dead. If not, it bites again! In the evening, we sang again for the hotel and got ready for our safari.

We left bright and early for the Maasai Mara, named for the native Maasai people from that region. It was a 5-6 hour drive from Nairobi, and 3 of those were on unpaved roads, riddled with potholes, flooded, or blocked by livestock. It was an adventure!

We finally made it to our camp, Mara Siria, at the top of a hilly ridge. It was a "luxury tented bush camp", with showers and toilets in each tent, but still right in the open bush. Zebras and giraffes were all around us at night! Torches around the camp keep the lions away.

Our activity for the first day was to visit the nearby Maasai village. Our Maasai guide, who carried a machete and blow and arrow (which only the Maasai may legally carry anywhere in Kenya), led us through the thick bush down the hill to the Maasai camp as it started to rain. They performed a traditional welcome dance for us, gave us a tour of the village and their mud huts, and the grand finale included selling us stuff. Then we hiked back to the camp for dinner.

Safari was the next two days, before heading back to Nairobi for one more performance. Here are photos from safari!

We're gonna see lions, only in Kenya!