Great Vibes in Kenya!
July 15, 2024
Hello from Kenya! We are already having such an awesome time, and it’s only been four days! This group is small but mighty, and we have loved watching these kids come out of their shells so much.
We started out our trip with a long drive towards northern Kenya to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Ol Pejeta sits on about 100,000 acres of land and inhabits essentially every animal you can imagine being in Africa. It took us all morning to get there after the kids had a long day of traveling before, so we had plenty of time to get to know each other in the car before the activities began. Upon arriving at Ol Pejeta, we went on our very first game drive of the trip! To say the kids were stoked would be an understatement. We saw elephants, rhinos, zebras, and gazelles within the first hour! Brady was killing it taking pictures of all of the animals. As the sun began to set, we drove back to the campsite we were staying at and had some dinner. Afterwards, we played a game called “Family”, which involves choosing a celebrity to be and then trying to be the last person guessed. Sophie and Jake proved to be very inconspicuous and each won a round! Afterwards, our first LODs of the trip, Jake and Riley, held our first Moon-up before heading to bed.
The next morning, we had a quick breakfast before heading into one of the local communities located on the perimeter of Ol Pejeta. We began our morning by potting and seeding over 200 acacia trees! MA and Gabe kept the group entertained with lots of stories and laughs as they planted. We had a quick pancake snack, which may have been Tison and Maddie’s favorite part of the day, before going to visit a man named Gilbert, who is a character to say the least. Gilbert builds sustainable stoves out of clay that reduce smoke and carbon emissions, and then sells them in the community. Our kids got the chance to learn about this process and actually build a stove with Gilbert from start to finish! This involved sifting the dirt, mixing with it water, and molding the new clay into the stove shape. All pretty standard, until we found out that mixing the dirt with water meant stepping in it with our bare feet. Tison, Brady and Gabe were more than a little concerned at how quickly Maddie, CR, Sophie, MA, and Riley were to hop in and embrace the mud in between their toes. Eventually, everyone warmed up to it and we all got our very own African foot mud bath! After learning about the process of cooking with the stove, Gabe and Gilbert got to talking about different methods of cooking without electricity, and Gabe was able to introduce Gilbert to some new ideas, which was awesome to see. After a picnic lunch and play time with his puppies, we bid farewell to Gilbert and headed back to camp. We had a free evening to just hang out, play games, and watch the sunset, which was super fun after a long day. Tison absolutely dominated the ping pong table and became the number one person to beat, even though it turned out to be essentially impossible. We also created the MSL, Moondance Speed League, which created high tensions that we never knew we were even capable of. Brady, Maddie and CR quickly climbed their way to the top of the speed totem pole, leaving everyone else in the dust. Before dinner, we walked to the other side of our camp to get the best view of the sunset, which did not disappoint! After a few pictures, we headed back to eat, do Moon-up, and then play Family Feud. This game got very heated very fast, and ended in accusations that Spencer (Steve Harvey) was biased towards one team because Gretchen was on it, despite the fact that they were just down a person and needed someone to make it even. However, it was still a great time and a hilarious way to end the day.
We had a jam-packed schedule for our last day at Ol Pejeta! We started out by going to visit the rhino enclosure, which is home to Baraka, a blind rhino, and Fatu and Najin, the last two remaining northern white rhinos in the world. Baraka was right up on the gate when we arrived, so we had the lucky opportunity to each hand feed him carrots! This was such a cool thing to do and the kids absolutely loved it. We said goodbye to Baraka, and then did a little service project repairing a road in the enclosure to better prepare it for the upcoming rain season. Jake, Gabe, Tison and CR were troopers shoveling gravel and moving it around, while Maddie and Riley stood strong distributing it out evenly around the area. The rest of the group did a truly incredible job cheering on these kids and offering to sub in when they needed a break. After finishing up our job, we got to go into the rhino enclosure and get a close up look at the last remaining northern white rhinos on the planet! We all piled into one truck and all got to see the white rhinos come RIGHT up to the car. The pictures do not do it justice. After the rhinos, the group got a chance to buy some merch and the Ol Pejeta store. Heads up parents, Tison, Gabe, and Brady all got awesome shirts either with a cow or monkey on it. They were more excited for the shirts than I think all of the safari’s :).
The last activity for the day was our long awaited night safari. The night safari started off eventful with the wires to the light in Spencer’s bus getting burned by the car motor. Luckily, they reloaded with a new spotlight and quickly spotted a herd of elephants grabbing a late night snack. Spencer’s bus was lucky to see a baby elephant trumpet at us. That noise was followed by a mama elephant doing the same, but much louder. Sophie described it as being one of the coolest things she’s seen. MA said it sounded like Jurassic Park. Gretchen’s bus was a little ahead and got to see a female lion hunt down a rabbit. All the kids were in awe of seeing a hunt and truly got the full African experience. Spencer’s bus matched their awe with seeing four male lions and one female walking very close to the van. We joked about what would happen if one jumped into our car. Sophie said she would just give it a hug. Riley claimed how she doesn’t think a lion would hurt her because they are just too cute. Good thing we never found out.
Our final morning at Ol Pejeta was one for the camera roll. We started off our day heading to the cattle farm. We hyped the kids up a lot for the cattle because it is so fun to see the cows and get to pet and interact with them. We all shared a big laugh when, instead of arriving at a field covered in cows, we arrived at an empty plot with just gates that should have been holding cows. The group was then tasked with taking down all the cow pen gates and relocating them a few yards away in untouched grass. The group showed great teamwork moving the gates and all had a bunch of laughs seeing who stepped in cow poop. MA and Tison get the biggest poop stepper awards and Jake 100% gets the hardest worker badge. After some much needed physical work, we drove over to where 60+ cows were grazing a field. Madie and Riley got some awesome pics with a baby cow. Everyone loved taking pictures in the open field with all the animals with Mount Kenya being in perfect view. Usually Mount Kenya isn’t able to be seen due to the clouds but it was crystal clear on our last day. I mean it was one of the most gorgeous days Gretchen and I have seen all summer. To top it all off, we finally checked the last box off the bucket list when we saw about 10 giraffes wandering near us. Everyone was so excited to get eyes on our last ‘must see’ animal.
We are currently on our 5 hour bus ride to the Maasai Mara camp and can’t wait to update everyone soon! This is genuinely perfect!! They are meshing so well and everyone is having a blast. Below are some shoutouts all your kiddos wanted you to read. See y’all in a few days!
Until next time,
Spencer + Gretchen
Shoutouts:
Gabe – hi im having fun and i love it here. Amazing trip super super fun! Just finished the safari and saw so many things!
Jake- hey y’all (im southern now). I miss you guys so much. I’ve made so many new friends, southern hospitality is real. The safaris might be the coolest thing ive ever done. We were so close to elephants 🐘 and giraffes 🦒 that we could almost touch them. Next we are going to the Massai Mara tribe for a few days. Miss you guys so much. Love you,
Jake
Sophie: Hey guys!! I miss you all so much ☺️ Tell everyone I said hello! Thank you (mom and dad) for blessing me with this opportunity. I have met the most amazing people, this is truly a beautiful experience. The past few days we’ve been staying at Ol Pejeta Conservatory! 🤠 Lions are my new favorite animal, we were probably 7 feet away from them! Eek! Love y’all ❤️
Much love,
Sophie
Brady- Hey guys! I’m having so much fun here and this is the coolest experience of my life. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to come here. I love y’all and I can’t wait to see y’all!❤️❤️
Brady
Madie – Heyyyyy. 😜This is literally the coolest thing ive ever done. I saw a snake 🐍 in the bathroom🚽 and yall would be so shocked by how chill I was. 😎Its actually so fun here and were playing SO many games. I’m so excited to show you pictures 📸( i got one with a giraffe) love yall🥰
Madie
MA- Jambooooo!!! Hello guys!!! This experience is so cool 😎 i miss you so much! I am so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you guys for all of this. I can’t wait to tell you more about it. I saw giraffes today and it was so surreal. Also Emily and Emily, if you guys are reading this, i miss you guys! Hope our streak is going strong!!
Tison- Hey y’all it’s awesome here. Seeing all the animals is really cool, but I wanted to see a cheetah and that didn’t happen. Yall would be proud of me because I had to use a towel multiple times. I love yall and will see you soon.
Riley -hey y’all! I’ve had the beet time and can’t wait to tell y’all everything! The safari has been so cool and it’s so fun to see all the different animals! Hadley would love it. My bags still not here, but i’ve got a new closet! I miss y’all so so much and can’t wait to see gall and tell y’all everything! Love you!
CR – hey y’all! I miss everyone so much and cant wait to tell y’all all about my trip!! I hope everything thing is great at home and ill bring back so much to show and give to y’all! Give bear a big big for me, i love y’all and see you soon ❤️❤️
Safe Arrival in Kenya!
July 10, 2024
Hello Kenya + Zanzibar Families!
All students have landed safely in Nairobi and the group is headed to their first activity! The trip is off to a great start and we can’t wait to share more updates from their adventure.
-Moondance HQ
