Thank you St. Louis Missouri for your zoo, and the bonus free admission too!

This is a moment

I was busy enjoying our trek along the zoo pathway as Mathayo and Sifa skipped off ahead of me, or should I say thundered like hippos as they jumped from one footprint to the next. I lost them as they rounded a corner but it didn’t take long for me to figure out that Sifa found the hippo tank! Screams of excitement and exasperation and awe and wonder and disbelief and fear and every other emotion was heard by all who visited the St. Louis zoo that day. “She must have found the hippos (kiboko)” said Kim.

The Hippo Tank.

Come to think of it, it’s not everyday you see what hippos look like under water. Though not well conveyed in these photos, hippos are ginormous. Talk about only ever seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Our highlight of the day was seeing Simba. Now, at a zoo, you’re gonna be hard pressed to get the attention of any of these animals. First of all, lions sleep about 20 hours a day, secondly, they could not care less about if they look like the ultimate lion king in your picture or not. For all it’s worth, they would rather find the shade. However, I am convinced that this African lioness found interest in her new admirers today. She must have said to herself “oh I’ve seen these Maasai (Masai) before when I used to run free, and I’ve heard this song!”

So we sung songs to the lioness to keep her attention, and it worked for a good 5-8 minutes. The women sang a song called “Kuna Mdudu” meaning “There is a bug.” The song talks about a lion and metaphorically addresses the subject of AIDS and how traditions that bring  AIDS into Maasai (Masai) life need to be fought, as we fight the lions.

How strange it must be for the Maasai (Masai) to see the lions caged up. Many of the warriors stories are of killing lions, and defending their people, goats and cows. What a different context.

Elephant (Tembo)

“Talk to the bird (ndege), Nadine” Nemburis thought that may be if she spoke to the bird, the bird, (like Zazu in “The Lion King”) might speak back. He didn’t.

The Tiger got a LOT of Maasai (Masai) attention.

“His feet are SO big”.

“He must run SO fast.”

“If I jump in there he’ll eat me SO fast!”

… of course, we did suggest not jumping into the tiger cage…

“What kind of animal is it?”

It was hard for the Maasai (Masai) to get their minds around the fact that this was it’s own kind of animal… this is a Bear (Dubu).

Let me introduce you to the ‘battered’ fox. We searched this guys little caged-in home with not much luck. And then, we spotted him beyond the electric fence looking, well, a little battered. We hope he’s not dead, but what can we expect with a name so easily confused with ‘battered’ fox.

“We know this one. He bugs us every day at home.” Hyenas (Fisi) are a common threat to the Maasai (Masai) herds.

“Why?” – has quickly become Yona’s favourite English word.

When he saw the Rhino (Kifaru) he looked at me and said “Why?” among many other things that I did not understand in his own language Maa.

We had such a lovely time with Kim’s family, and enjoyed Kim’s mom’s company immensely at the Zoo. Thank you for spending time with your new friends from across the world!