Our Trip to Africa;

Wow, what a vacation this was.

Mrs. Jingles and the children and I were in the care of our lovely young women,
Njoki and Natasha, they are usually not quite this sedate and composed, but considering the awesome responsibility they had of taking care of all of us, it was good to see them so Zen !

There are additional photos I will post, but check out all we have so far.

As I was saying, thank goodness they were so Zen like, because we got lost in transit. It was quite scary. We had ridden in Natasha’s suitcase ( since we heard some passengers might be afraid of mice….go figure!) Anyway, when we were found finally, it was time to go on Safari. This picture gives you an idea of just how big Africa is!

The Lion and the Mouse
A small mouse crept up to a sleeping lion. The mouse admired the lion's ears, his long whiskers and his great mane.
"Since he's sleeping," thought the mouse, "he'll never suspect I'm here!"
With that, the little mouse climbed up onto the lion's tail, ran across its back, slid down its leg and jumped off of its paw. The lion awoke and quickly caught the mouse between its claws.
"Please," said the mouse, "let me go and I'll come back and help you someday."
The lion laughed, "You are so small! How could ever help me?"
The lion laughed so hard he had to hold his belly! The mouse jumped to freedom and ran until she was far, far away.
The next day, two hunters came to the jungle. They went to the lion's lair. They set a huge rope snare. When the lion came home that night, he stepped into the trap.
He roared! He wept! But he couldn't pull himself free.
The mouse heard the lion's pitiful roar and came back to help him.
The mouse eyed the trap and noticed the one thick rope that held it together. She began nibbling and nibbling until the rope broke. The lion was able to shake off the other ropes that held him tight. He stood up free again!
The lion turned to the mouse and said, "Dear friend, I was foolish to ridicule you for being small. You helped me by saving my life after all!"
I just wanted to include this story in case you weren’t aware of it, Mrs. Jingles and I wanted to make sure the children knew about it and would not be frightened of Lions since they will be staying in Africa. Johnny ran across this lions back but he stayed asleep.

Native Americans believe that when certain animals come into your life they are there to teach you something. The GIRAFFE - is about grounded vision. The giraffe, the tallest of animals, may be as tall as 18 feet, with a neck as long as 7 feet. Ungainly as this animal may seem, its weight is well distributed, and it's vulnerable only when it bends down to drink water. Giraffe teaches us to view our lives in a way that is both grounded and expansive and that in our desire to evolve spiritually, we must always remember we are physical.

When I saw this I immediately thought of all our good friends back at home that work so hard to help by being supportive to others, yet maintain their individuality in the group setting.
The ZEBRA - teaches us the beauty in individuality. The zebra's distinctive stripes serves as a protective camouflage against predators, who are often unable to pick an individual out from the herd. For herd members, the stripe patterns, unique to each zebra, have the opposite effect of helping to identify individual zebras. This power animal thus helps us to both maintain our individuality in group settings and helps us to be supportive members of our communities. A third spiritual meaning for the stripes has to do with the integration of opposites, thus enabling us to see a deeper truth.

FUN FACTS
1.
Hippos were once thought to sweat blood. Actually, hippos secrete a pinkish colored oil that helps them keep their skin moist in the hot African climate.


2.
Hippos spend most of their days in the water or wallowing in the mud, generally coming up on land to feed at night.


3.
Hippos are efficient grazers - their lips are almost 70 cm. or about two feet wide!


4.
Baby hippos swim the moment they are born because they are born underwater. And female hippos will actually baby-sit a group of other female's babies.

We felt really small when we saw these guys! Of course they are the 3rd largest living land mammal on earth. The kids thought it was funny about how big their lips are, they were telling Njoki and Natasha,,,,,” Now that is a smile a mile wide! “

Here is our Njoki with a member of the Maasai. The Maasai (also Masai) are a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well known of African ethnic groups.[3] They speak Maa,[3] a member of the Nilo-Saharan language family that is related to Dinka and Nuer, and are also educated in the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania: Swahili and English. The Maasai population has been variously estimated as 377,089 from the 1989 Census[1] or as 453,000 language speakers in Kenya in 1994[2] and 430,000 in Tanzania in 1993[2] with a total estimated as "approaching 900,000"[3] Estimates of the respective Maasai populations in both countries are complicated by the remote locations of many villages, and their semi-nomadic nature.
Although the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have instituted programs to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle, the people have continued their age-old customs.[4] Recently, Oxfam has claimed that the lifestyle of the Maasai should be embraced as a response to climate change because of their ability to farm in deserts and scrublands.[5] But while the Maasai run cattle farms, they invade the habitats of the endangered lions in Kenya. As of 2010[update], there are only about 2000 lions left in Kenya and at the rate the Maasai warriors kill them, the lions in Kenya will be gone within two years. ( from Wikipedia)