East Africa Day 27 (Thurs June 9): Game Drive & Jason comes home.

When I got to breakfast this AM I learned that Jason Dougherty, one of Daraja’s co-founders and the school’s principal, made an appearance during Study Hall last night at about 8:30pm. I think I might have heard the Daraja students screaming from my banda, which is about an eight minute walk from the classroom buildings. Jason and his wife, Jenni (the school’s other co-founder) have been in the USA for the past 2 months, fundraising and visiting friends and family. Jenni is still in the USA, but Jason returned to campus yesterday. I’ve been looking forward to meeting the Dougherty’s, so I am excited that he’s back on campus, too!

I spent the day organizing my research and transcribing my notes from yesterday’s meetings in town. Nothing terribly exciting! I finished “Three Cups of Tea” last night but haven’t yet started the author’s next book, “Stones to Schools” –that’s tonight!

This evening I went on my first game drive to see wildlife! Andy borrowed the Dougherty’s car and took Pamela, Sue, and I for an approximately two-hour excursion up the road to see wildlife during the evening feeding time. We hadn’t gone very far (maybe 20 minutes from campus) when we spotted our first giraffe and zebra! It was my first time seeing them in the wild.





We saw more giraffe, some smaller mammals (whose names I forget) and two different kinds of large birds.





We were driving on a public (?) road, between two privately-owned ranches. When we got to our turnaround place, we got out of the car to listen to the world around us, and to snap some photos. It was such a beautiful spot. Welcome to Kenya!





When we returned to campus, Andy took us up to Jenni and Jason’s house to meet Jason. He’s been sleeping since his return to campus, understandably completely jet-lagged:) It was such an honor to get to meet him. I can understand why the students are so excited to have him back – he brings so much positive energy to a place. After meeting Jason (and seeing some of the interior of the Dougherty’s beautiful house - which has more bookshelves full of books in it than you can imagine – I stopped by the office, where Maria was teaching Victoria and Teacher Carol about the nuances of Facebook. Cali was hanging around the office – Maria had just fed her. Maria is awesome:)