I recently volunteered in Kenya in Cosmic Volunteers' wildlife volunteer program for a month and had the best experience of my life. I thoroughly enjoyed the program and was received and taken care of with open arms and prompt contact when needed.

Kenya is a wonderful country, I enjoyed the weather immensely and was impressed with the beautiful scenery and wonderful people. My host family was perfect, I grew to care for them all very deeply and hope to see them again someday. Culturally, I found the small town I lived in to be lacking in modern technology such as running water (we used a well) and that few people had refrigerators. I must confess I had doubts about being able to cope, but within 24 hours I was totally comfortable, due mostly to my host family and the town residents. Everyone was friendly and I was greeted by all.

During my stay I worked with lions, cheetahs, hyenas, monkeys, birds, antelope, and even went on Rhino capture-and-release where they were darted, given health care and tagged before shipping to another park. It was a dream come true for an animal lover whose profession also cares for animals.

Despite originally visiting Kenya for wildlife, I must say I was most impressed with the people of Langata. They are extremely hard working, very proud and considerate of others. I was humbled by how few amenities they had yet they live contented in what I considered to be hardship. I learned to love seeing simple things like women hand washing clothes, carrying babies on their back and old men gathered for a game of checkers. My next visit will be people oriented (women’s issues, orphanage etc) and animals second!!!!