Three cheetahs sat in the grass less than fifteen feet from our car. I could hardly contain my excitement, “Ahh look! They’re kissing each other!” In reality they were licking dead animal carcass off of each other’s faces, but that’s just getting technical.
I spent the weekend at Samburu National Reserve with Stephen and Alexia. It was incredible! We saw so many different animals and I took almost 700 pictures. When I got back I looked up all of the animals in my guide book and searched for others online to figure out what they were.
After paying an entrance fee to the reserve you are free to drive around on your own along the multitude of dirt paths that cut through the park. It was like a big game of hide-and-seek, except the things hiding could potentially kill you. I liked the added danger. You never knew what you were going to come across or where.
I was thrilled to be out enjoying nature, even if it was framed by the passenger window. After spending much of my free time inside the house, not knowing whether I should venture out for a hike on my own, I was just itching to be outside. This seemed to be the perfect place with its beautiful scenery, abundance of animals, and noticeable lack of trash, especially the burning kind.
While sitting in the car waiting for Stephen, and to begin our second trip of the day into the park, Alexia handed me her empty soda bottle and told me to throw it outside.
“No, you can’t throw that outside. That’s trash!”
She insisted.
“Just keep it in the back and we’ll throw it away later.”
Fast forward ten minutes…
“Give me this bottle” Stephen said, grabbing it from Alexia and chucking it out the window into the pristine park. I was bewildered.
“What? You can’t do that. That’s trash. This is a park.” I could hardly form full sentences I was so shocked.
“The animals will come and take it.”
“That’s bad. It’s bad for them. What if they eat it?”
“No, they will use it for carrying water” he said laughing.
“What?”
“Have you ever seen the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy?”
“No, I’ve never heard of it.” I had no idea where he was going with this.
“Oh I will have to find that for you. Yes, you should see that.”
He went on to explain the plot in which a pilot drops a Coca-Cola bottle from an airplane and a man from an African tribe finds it. They use it for different things until one day someone hits someone else over the head with it and it causes all kinds of trouble. Here is the trailer.
A while later we passed another soda bottle thrown into a bush.
“Look, someone else has been here.”
“It’s ugly.”
“No it’s not, it shows someone left their mark.” I thought art was about leaving your mark?
That orange Fanta bottle will forever haunt me.
I spent the weekend at Samburu National Reserve with Stephen and Alexia. It was incredible! We saw so many different animals and I took almost 700 pictures. When I got back I looked up all of the animals in my guide book and searched for others online to figure out what they were.
After paying an entrance fee to the reserve you are free to drive around on your own along the multitude of dirt paths that cut through the park. It was like a big game of hide-and-seek, except the things hiding could potentially kill you. I liked the added danger. You never knew what you were going to come across or where.
I was thrilled to be out enjoying nature, even if it was framed by the passenger window. After spending much of my free time inside the house, not knowing whether I should venture out for a hike on my own, I was just itching to be outside. This seemed to be the perfect place with its beautiful scenery, abundance of animals, and noticeable lack of trash, especially the burning kind.
While sitting in the car waiting for Stephen, and to begin our second trip of the day into the park, Alexia handed me her empty soda bottle and told me to throw it outside.
“No, you can’t throw that outside. That’s trash!”
She insisted.
“Just keep it in the back and we’ll throw it away later.”
Fast forward ten minutes…
“Give me this bottle” Stephen said, grabbing it from Alexia and chucking it out the window into the pristine park. I was bewildered.
“What? You can’t do that. That’s trash. This is a park.” I could hardly form full sentences I was so shocked.
“The animals will come and take it.”
“That’s bad. It’s bad for them. What if they eat it?”
“No, they will use it for carrying water” he said laughing.
“What?”
“Have you ever seen the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy?”
“No, I’ve never heard of it.” I had no idea where he was going with this.
“Oh I will have to find that for you. Yes, you should see that.”
He went on to explain the plot in which a pilot drops a Coca-Cola bottle from an airplane and a man from an African tribe finds it. They use it for different things until one day someone hits someone else over the head with it and it causes all kinds of trouble. Here is the trailer.
A while later we passed another soda bottle thrown into a bush.
“Look, someone else has been here.”
“It’s ugly.”
“No it’s not, it shows someone left their mark.” I thought art was about leaving your mark?
That orange Fanta bottle will forever haunt me.