Jasper ‘ 25, reflects on how his safari experience has allowed him to grow as a person by understanding the extreme opportunities that he has been given.
For me, today was extremely conflicting. We woke up at 7am to depart for the Serengeti, each group (the elegant elephants, the lit lions, and the happy hyenas) to a safari car. My group, the elephants, were in a car with Samuel the driver and Jackson, our maasai. Throughout our two-hour drive through the farmlands of Tanzania, I watched out the window as almost all of the locals that we passed stopped to stare at our flashy vehicle. The children all waved while the adults looked on with blank faces. The reflective green land cruiser displayed that we were foreigners, drawing attention. There are few other times in my life where I felt this uncomfortable. My excitement for the safari faded as embarrassment and shame grew inside of me. However, after arriving at the entrance to the Serengeti, the sight of a family of little white monkeys drew back my excitement.
Within the first hour of our safari, Sawyer and I stood in the back of the car, admiring the countless of families of monkeys and baboons that we passed. We looked out across the windswept plains speckled with wildebeests, antelopes, giraffes, and elephants. Although the sight of these exotic animals invigorated me, I could not help but feel bad. A few days prior, I asked many of the girls at Mainsprings about their favorite animals. They all responded with the same animals that I was viewing in this moment. However, when I asked them if they had ever seen their favorite animals in real life, they all responded “no”. Although they lived their whole lives two hours away, none of these girls were given the opportunity that I had been given after only being in their country for less than a week. The shame returned. As the day went on, the sun blazed stronger. By hour 12 of being in the car, everyone was fed up with Sawyer and I for good reasoning. There are two types of people on a long car ride, those who get tired and easily annoyed, and those who get hyper. Sawyer and I were the latter, while the rest of the group were the former.
We are spending the night at an incredibly nice hotel in the middle of the Serengeti. We slept two students to a yurt and were able to take our first hot showers of the trip. However, despite how nice my hotel experience was, my prior shame returned once again as I thought of the conditions that many of the students at Mainsprings live in, and how their homes are incomparable to the place where I was sleeping tonight. Though, the discomfort of this shame is good as it gives me appreciation of all that I have, an appreciation that I will bring home with me and carry with me for the rest of my life.
Overall, I am glad that we went on safari as it gave me a new experience that I may never have again, and allowed me to grow as a person by understanding the extreme opportunities that I have been given.
