Safari

 We went to a ceremony at Michael’s boma to honor the passing of his father.  Tradition has it that he was to be buried at Michael’s since he is the eldest son. Further tradition dictates that the family is not allowed to migrate from the boma for two years while the body and soul return to nature.  Elders of his father’s age group drank and ate and shared memories of their friend.  Then they went into each of Michael’s wives’ huts and blessed them by spitting on the ground.  I mentioned that part of the partaking of the day was drinking, and the men did indeed drink.  At one point one of the elders walked up to a group of children sitting on a goatskin mat and the conversation went as follows:

“Do you know who I am?” 

“No” 

“Well you should, I am very popular.  I’m very popular because back in my day I killed a lot of zebra and rhinos.”

One hundred elephants greeted us when we drove into Amboseli National Park.  Tiny black dots on the horizon turned into this spectacle.  We went to visit a pilot carnivore study that is being designed to mirror Paul’s.  Differences to note:  besides the expansive views and vast numbers of elephants, you can’t night game drive in national parks.  The 6:30 pm deadline was a bit of an inconvenience as we were sitting at a plush resort on the complete other side watching the sunset and would-be stunning view of Kilimanjaro had it been clear enough out to see it.  We raced back to our cabin through a series of parallel roads outside of the park and dove back in when we absolutely had to.  I feel that the minutes gained driving outside could be applied later while driving inside and that no rules were broken by looking at it in this way.  The delays of our day actually started with a grumpy old bull elephant that stood stubbornly on the road outside our cabin and threatened us every time we started to drive.  Ears pinned and trunk in mouth - I’m told these are the signs of true aggression - he turned to face us whenever we made an advance.  Finally we drove off road and gave him a wide birth to avoid his sour mood.  Amboseli is home to a lot of elephants.  David Western set up a fenced off area about seven years ago to show KWS how Amboseli would look if there were not so many elephants.  Seven years has produced an amazing amount of growth, you wouldn’t believe it.  They want to set up a number of these little protected areas and rotate them to invite many bird species and leopard back into the park that have left due to their habitats being destroyed.

We went to the Maasai Mara too – a 2-day trip to close out the visit of a friend - and were welcomed by our own private pool of hippos.  Paul asked the watchmen where we got in to swim and then we laughed and wondered how many other guests had come up with that joke and thought that they were being original.  Our game drives turned up everything but the rhino.  We saw cheetah, a leopard, lions, and a spotted hyena with a collar on it.  And we drove into the center of a herd of buffalo that were on our route.  I was driving and refused to stop for pictures, but our guide just laughed at me and said they weren’t going to charge us.  So I stopped and they didn’t charge us, but there were about 200 of them and we were the most protected members of the herd – being smack dab in the middle.   

Back in our familiar habitat - Mwanzo ate a hare – she pounced on it like a housecat when it turned up on her path of travel.  We gave her a brand new collar since hers was about to expire and the old one will remain a tattered treasure of Paul’s.  Our visitor christened the moment with a great title for Paul’s future manuscripts, ‘Mwanzo, my first, my last, my only.’    

Most children in Olkiramatian and Shompole excitedly greet you by repeating, “how are you, how are you,” many times and sometimes they efficiently answer your probable follow up question as well by saying, “how are you fine, how are you fine.”  Paul stopped at a shop in Entasopia and a group of children came up to follow suit in this ritual.  One of the boys stood silently waiting his turn, gently stroking Paul’s truck, and then said in perfect English, “This is not a car, this is a Toyota Land Cruiser.”