By Jacob Graupmann
Today was SAFARI Day!! We got to go see exotic African animals at Akagera National Park. It was around a 2 and a half hour drive up there to the park. When we arrived at the park we had a guide with the name of Anaklet, he was a cool guy. He gave us a briefing on the national park and the animals they kept there. And he also told us to watch out for the Black Mamba snakes they can give a deadly poison injected into your body around 400 milligrams and 10 milligrams is enough to kill a normal human so that was a little bit scary. But we then headed out to our journey.
I first rode in the car with the guide Anaklet, he told us that there would be flies in the car when we drive, and boy were there. I would say we killed around 200 or more flies in that car. It was a battle zone in there! Right away at the start we saw some water buffalo, and they looked super cool. We then proceeded on the trail for another 2 hours, we didn’t see many animals during that time but after that it started to pick up. We started to see some Impala, Antelope and Zebras. Anaklet told us a joke about the Impalas. He said on the back of the impalas they have a black mark that looks like an “M”. Anaklet said that these Impalas are like the McDonald’s for the Lions because of the “M” on their butt and the fact that they are “fast food”. We then proceeded down to the Hippo Beach where there was a swampy place and we saw hippos. We then ate lunch down there. We all had hotdog buns with your choice of peanut butter or pieces of summer sausage. Also we had hard boiled eggs and fruits. My jokes were pretty “EGGciting”. And if you had to use the bathroom you had to be very cautious because of the black mamba. We then were walking back to the car and Serge saw the hippos coming out of the water. He was very scared and he was like (in his really low voice), “Alright guys we got to get out of here, this isn’t even funny.” It was really funny to be honest. We then went on our journey.
Later on the path for the next 3 hours we saw amazing animals up close and I really wish I could have touched them. I got some cool pictures of Giraffes, Baboons, Zebra, and Elephants. I was in the back of the car with Carly and Jasmine. We all made a remix of Build Your Kingdom Here. Jasmine has the lyrics if you want to hear them, plus she can sing a lot better than me.
After many, many hours in the bumpy car and our bums started to feel numb. We spent around 12 hours total of driving before we made it home. We all showered and ate, and finally devotions then worship. I was so happy to see all the amazing animals God has created for us.
You can also see trip updates on New Mercies’ Facebook page – updates will appear in your newsfeed if you “like” the page.