Lily Annenberg (R) with a Massai tribe member in Kenya
By Lily Annenberg
Last July, my father and I spent two weeks traveling through rural Kenya and Rwanda, two different but equally beautiful countries in East Africa.
I wanted to get a taste of African culture before starting my second year at The Thacher School in Ojai, California in the United States.
In Kenya, we went on a safari in the Massai Mara National Reserve and visited some local tribes. I was able to work with the African Wildlife Foundation and visited the David Sheldrick Foundation, a pioneering conservation organization in East Africa known for its orphan-elephant rescue and rehabilitation program.
After a busy week in Kenya, we arrived in the capital of Rwanda, where we visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which commemorates the 1994 genocide campaign against the Tutsi ethnic group. We ended our Rwanda leg tracking gorillas in the bush for a day.
Seeing natural wildlife in the savanna was intriguing. But it was difficult seeing poverty. Overall the trip opened my eyes to a new part of the world.
Below are some photographs from the two-week adventure.
Here’s a little boy who came up to me in the Massai Mara with what seems to be a runny nose!
A tribal woman in the Massai Mara during a dance ceremony
Children in the Massai Mara
A tribal man in the Massai Mara who participated in a dance ceremony
A little boy wearing a plastic bottle wrap on his head walking through a village in the Massai Mara
A tribal elder in the Massai Mara who led a dance ceremony
Children hanging on the wood rods of the wall of a house in the Massai Mara
A little girl at the base of the Virunga National Park Trail in Rwanda
A boy at the base of the Virunga National Park Trail in Rwanda
Here I’m taking a picture of some kids I became particularly close to in the Massai Mara.
Lily Annenberg is in her second year of high school at The Thacher School in the United States. Ever since she was little, she has been passionate about exploring the world. She loves to immerse herself in other cultures and to take photographs along the way, which she shares on her travel blog.
Hi Lily .. just saw your video on the use of dogs in Kenya to try to stop poaching … thought you’d be interested that I made several trips to Kenya to teach the Kenya Wildlife Service pilots how to fly small planes to find and track poachers. I believe it was the third trip my wife and I decided to donate several Israeli Defense Force trained Malinois combat dogs … that are trained to track and attack poachers in the bush … it has been a very effective tool in the fight against poachers!