As a seasoned world traveler, I’d been to Europe, Mexico, Southeast Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the South Pacific …but never to Africa. Africa was an unknown, and for that reason, I had some hesitations about going there. Would I be safe?
My friend Tish had a vision of going to Kenya, and she needed a support crew to live out her dream. I decided to put my fears to the side and signed up as her partner. We ended up with a crew of five, and spent a month researching, organizing, and preparing for a grand adventure—an initial stay in Nairobi, a couple weeks in the Maasai Mara near the National Reserve, and a final week in the very remote Samburu territory, with a couple days in Istanbul thrown in en route.
The series of adventures that awaited us turned out to be even more extraordinary than we imagined. In Nairobi, we walked through the slums accompanied by a local ballet teacher who runs a free after-school program. In the Maasai Mara, we visited rural schools where we handed out school supplies and soccer balls and entertained the kids with magic tricks and a puppet show. Our men worked side by side the villagers to install a water catchment on top of the village library. In conjunction with an NGO that supports women and helps keep girls in school, Tish and I distributed sanitary kits to a very appreciative class of high school girls. And of course, we saw the African animals!
One of the most memorable moments for me was when we first arrived at the Women’s Center in the rural outskirts of the National Reserve. We had contacted the founder of the NGO while still in California and had arranged to work with the local women during our visit. After a challenging drive on a very rough and unmarked dirt road, we pulled up to the modest building and there were seven Maasai women in full traditional costume singing and dancing for us, in greeting. I felt like I was in a scene from a movie—in Africa!
