Adventure Collection

While preparing for a two-week safari in Kenya and Tanzania, Don George encounters a small-world serendipity, goes shopping for a good cause, and waxes wistful about the books he wishes he had time to read before he departs.

I forgot to mention in my previous post that in the midst of doing my human pin cushion imitation at Kaiser, I encountered one of those wonderful small-world serendipities: The woman who was gently injecting me had grown up in Kenya and still returns there every year to visit family. As she efficiently filled and emptied needles, we talked about Nairobi and the game parks I would be visiting,  the weather at this time of year, the abundance of wildlife and the relative greenery right after the rains (though the rains have been late and light this year, she said). She had a wonderful warm laugh and flashing eyes and a musical lilt to her speech that were like a magic carpet whisking me ever so briefly to Africa. Life is full of beautiful unexpected bridges.

Since my last post, the calendar has turned to May and I have taken on a certain wildebeest-in-the-headlights approach to getting ready for this trip. When it was still April, May 12 seemed so lazily, infinitely far away. Now it is May 6 and my departure date careens toward me. OK, triage. I’ve prepared all my medicines: My anti-malaria pills are ready to be taken the day before I fly to Nairobi; and I picked up some Zithromax on the advice of friends just in case I get some kind of infection on the trip.

I’ve prepared a video camera and a digital camera but I wish I had more time to experiment with them before I leave. I’ll do my best in the next few days to make all the mistakes I don’t want to make on the ground in Africa. There’s batteries and tapes and connectors – oh my! I have to get a photo card and a card reader and an adapter plug and I have to make sure I know how to recharge batteries and download photos and everything that you, dear techno-assured reader, consider a walk in the cake, but I consider a challenge of numbing proportions.

And then, of course, the clothes. Today I finally got around to pre-packing. I went through the lists Micato sent me and spread out all my clothing candidates on the bed. I was happily surprised to discover that, sartorially speaking, I have everything I need for the trip.

But I did go shopping this afternoon because one of the wonderful aspects of this safari is an adjunct program called AmericaShare. AmericaShare is a nonprofit organization funded by Micato, whose aim is to help children orphaned in Africa. Travelers on Micato Safaris trips are given the voluntary opportunity to bring over an AmericaShare duffle bag filled with supplies that the children need. The organization provides a list of needed materials and I spent some time this afternoon happily buying an overflowing duffle-bag’s worth of towels and blankets. This initiative seems good on so many levels, and I’m looking forward tremendously to visiting one of the schools the organization supports during the course of my trip.

I’ve also been looking with longing at the reading list Micato has sent along. Had I but library enough, and time… There are a half dozen books I’ve been meaning to read for years:  “Out of Africa” by Isak Dinesen, “West with the Night” by Beryl Markham, “The Flame Trees of Thika” by Elspeth Huxley, “I Dreamed of Africa” by Kuki Gallmann, Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa,” and “The Man Eaters of Tsavo” by John Patterson. Then there’s two really interesting-sounding books I hadn’t heard of: “The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography,” by Ole Saitoti, and “Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family,” by Cynthia Moss.  I’ve been having trouble making time to read Micato’s 26-page trip description, much less these intriguing tomes. Alas!