Once upon a travelogue...: Out Of Africa

June, 2015

Kenya – Tanzania

My introduction to Kenya was in December of 1981 when my best friend, Jeanne was living in Nairobi and teaching at the International School. My visit lasted six weeks and it was a time of shared discoveries and experiences that bonded us even more closely than before. The sights, the sounds, and the smells remain with me to this day and became vivid once again almost 34 years later with my return last month. About eight months after that first trip, Jeanne was tragically killed in a car accident while coming back from Mombasa; after that, any memories of Kenya brought excruciating pain and I put them in a box and left it closed. I hadn't planned on going back, but, having gone on a remarkable safari in Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Botswana three years ago, the desire, and maybe the need, to touch and be touched by Africa once again was the catalyst for signing up for this trip. I didn’t know, at the time, that being in Kenya after so many years would unleash a wave of emotion; the joy of being in a place of such beauty coupled with the grief washing through me yet again over all that I had lost. Jeanne's beautiful soul, her accepting and loving friendship, her quick laugh, and her unabashed love of Kenya were with me each day...and so, with gratitude and love, I dedicate my stories to her.

Landing in Nairobi is an experience in itself; albeit one that I would do over again in a heartbeat. There is the long waiting in line for getting one's visa and then there is a health screening for yellow fever. After that it's like any international airport with a wait at baggage claim and customs. Having successfully completed the arrival procedures, I walked outside looking for my ride and was surrounded by very excited crowds of people and photographers. A popular senator from Nairobi was leaving the airport the same time that I was and, evidently, this man has a lot of charisma; even I got caught up in the “thrill” of it all.

Nairobi has changed a lot since last I was here. The dirt roads are now paved highways, the empty lots are tall office buildings and hotels, and the number of cars and the traffic all reflect a city on the move. There is a definite pulse in the capital; one can feel the energy of growth and forward movement, but, like anywhere else, there are the “haves” and the “have-nots”...the well-dressed business people I saw in my hotel and walking on the streets and the extensive slums outside Nairobi proper where people live in abysmal conditions. I was told that just about everyone in Nairobi comes from a rural village and that, really, is where people's roots are. I had a lovely conversation on my last evening with Kariuki, one of our game park drivers, and he told me about his home in his beloved village where there is no shower and he washes with cold water. When he is in Nairobi, there is a place he can stay, but, when not working, he goes back to the culture and customs that have been with his people for centuries.

My stories of Africa will not be about historical landmarks or history, although there’s plenty of that and so much of it is tragic, but about the land, the animals, and the lovely local people I met along the way. It’s hard to capture in words what being on safari is like; the thrill and the absolute awe of being in the wild where we are small in the presence of majesty. The somewhat comical and always endearing baboon families, the bull elephant so big that one cannot even imagine unless seeing him up close, the dancer’s grace of the giraffe, the mesmerizing lion, leopard, and cheetah all of whom held us enthralled as we watched them, the wildebeest in its beginning stages of migration, the cape buffalo with a face that only a mother could love, the courting dance of hippos, and the rhino whose long and pointed horn is a clear message to stay away…only the pictures can tell the tale and then not completely...