While living Kingdom here on earth has been a central theme for me since the race, I got to experience a bit of a different kind of kingdom this week–the animal kingdom.
Saturday was the team’s day off, and many of them wanted to do a fun activity as a team. We ended up taking them just outside of Nairobi to visit the Giraffe Park. The Rothschild Giraffe that live here are actually an endangered species, but Nairobi is the main breeding ground for these beautiful giants. From here they are shipped out to other conservation parks to hopefully continue the process. Supposedly, this is the only area of Africa where this type of giraffe is found. Honestly, they all look basically the same to me, but I believe them when they say that there are several different kinds. It was pretty amazing to not only see giraffe up close, but touch them, feed them, and even kiss them. That’s right, you can kiss the giraffe. You put a pellet in your mouth and lean in for the big smooch. They lick it right off your face. It’s actually completely disgusting, but I figured I’d probably never have the chance to kiss a giraffe again…so why not!
On Monday, Caitlin had the awesome opportunity to hang out with her Compassion kids before heading back to the states. Driver and I took her, another team member, the two children, and three adults that accompanied them out to the walking safari here in Nairobi. It seems more like a low-scale zoo to me, but we’ll pretend it was an actual safari. It was a fun day with the kids, and I’m sure they enjoyed themselves, since they don’t typically get to do outings like this. We wandered around the safari park for a few hours. We even had the rare chance to go into the cheetah pen and pet it. It was very intimidating. These are the types of things I look back on and can’t believe. Like when we slept about ten yards from Lucky the lion in Swaziland. Crazy stuff! I love it, though, and I wouldn’t trade this kind of adventure for anything.
