The following is the seventh in a series of journals written by members of the SRU Athletes for Forgotten Angels service group chronicling their trip to the Hekima Place orphanage in Kenya. All entries in the journal can be viewed at the Forgotten Angels page.

Day 7 (Written by Nicole Krueger and Brooke Edwards)  |  Photo Gallery

Today started at 4:30 a.m. for us here in Kenya. We woke up, grabbed our PB&Js, hopped in a taxi and rode all the way to Nairobi National Park before the sun was up. When we got to the park, we bought our tickets, opened up the roof, and prepared for a 7-hour safari adventure.

It was absolutely breathtaking. We saw antelopes, gazelle, eland, baboons, monkeys, rhinos, buffalo, giraffes, zebras, warthogs, crocodiles, ostriches, many birds, wildebeests and LIONS! After seeing just antelopes and buffalo for the first hour, we stumbled upon a pack of three beautiful young lion cubs. They were just chillin' by the road. We were only about ten feet away! We thought that our day couldn't get any better until Emily spotted a fully grown male and female lion (Simba and Nala all grown up). We were even closer to this set of beasts. It was exhilarating to be that close to those amazing predators.

The most intriguing animal of the day was definitely the zebra. We were within arms reach of several packs throughout the day. They grazed around many of the paths that we took. The babies were so cute and adorable! Combined, we took approximately 1,000 pictures of all of the animals we saw today. (Our Internet connection here is difficult. We will try to send Jon back at Slippery Rock some more photos tomorrow to include in the galleries, and we'll get a bunch of them loaded when we get back to the states, but we did get a couple sent today)

After we returned, we did some work in the shamba (garden) until the girls got home from school. When they got back, we hosted another soccer clinic for them, which included a hot and heavy game of handball and a soccer scrimmage between houses. The girls were exhausted afterwards, to say the least.

After dinner and homework, we finished watching Half the Sky, a documentary about women's struggles and empowerment. Now we are so ready for bed it's not even funny!

Special shoutout tonight goes to all the Forgotten Angels alumni from previous years!


- Freddy and Brookie Sue 141