Kenya: Another Big Sky Country

Some say that Montana is "Big Sky Country." They need to come to Kenya.

There is an openness of sky in Kenya that plays on many emotions, an openness characterized by, among others things, awe-inspiring mile-high and mile-wide blue skies that never fail to evoke wonder and, well, simple joy. They're beautiful to see.

So much of what we experience in Kenya is almost over-powering. So many emotions keep running back and forth in one's mind, and there is - especially for a visitor coming from a very different culture or society - a constant "pull" inviting the person to look at this ("I bet you've never seen this before") or to spend some time observing that ("This has to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience").

That emotional roller-coaster (I think that's the common description) is particularly troublesome when one finds that, because there is so much to see in Kenya, much of the obvious gets slighted. Add to the mix time spent with friends from previous visits and time set aside for personal socializing in this country of friendly and welcoming people, and it becomes very easy not to notice all the natural beauty that surrounds you as you move about the country.

For within that "obvious" is some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. Even without the wildlife (which, for many people, is why they come to Kenya), the beauties of nature are almost too hard to take in, so splendid in what we have before us. It's enough to make even the non-believer begin to think about the grand scale of the universe and the world we live in.

For me, going back to my first excursions out of Nairobi when I was working and living Kenya a few years ago, my opportunities for learning to love the land came early. Charles Masese, my driver, had considerable experience as a tour guide and driver, and when we realized that we would be working together (and, not incidentally, become the best of friends), he took up the challenge of introducing Bwana Guy to the Kenya countryside.

As it turned out, my work enabled me to have long week-ends free of professional duties, and while Charles and I didn't go off on safari every week-end, we easily arranged journeys around the country every two or three weeks.

A great experience, and while I was exposed to the beauties of the countryside, I also discovered that Charles is one of the best game-spotters in the country. It's amazing to me what he can see on a distant hillside, among the trees and undergrowth of the forest, and I was often delighted when he began a sentence with "I think, over on that hill about 11 o'clock...."

Charles didn't need to complete his sentence. He knew I would look where he was pointing me to.

[A slight digression, by the way: You notice I used the word "forest" for what we Westerners would usually call "jungle." The Kenyans don't say "jungle" when they describe in English the thick foliage growing in the wild and - truth to tell - this type of growth isn't what we think of as "jungle," as in the rainforest type of growth. Despite all the Tarzan movies and such from when we were growing up, there's little of that sort of growth left in Kenya, only in the Kakamega Forest in the western part of the country which, for anyone who's interested, I wrote about here.]

As part of Charles' tutelage, I not only got to see the wildlife. He is an expert in finding beautiful scenery as well, as he knows where to take his car so that he can share the best views (he knows a lot of them). For this post, I've decided to focus on the skies of Kenya, as it was the skies that fascinated me first when I began to go about the country. As you can see from the photographs, there is a connection to what we in America think of as "big sky country." When one travels about in Kenya, the clouds contribute to a view that would thrill even the John Constables of the world (what must the sky of Kenya have looked like in his day? imagine what he would have done with some of the views of the sky we get to witness!).

Go to Big Sky - Kenya to see more.

Kenya Photos - The First Batch (and Introducing Another "Other" Photographer)

While I published "preliminary" photos of the FOGs/FOAs Kenya safari a couple of weeks ago, and promised more later, I'm still not ready with mine, which I hope to offer along with my own blog posts and stories.

But that doesn't mean I can't share the good work of others who traveled with me on the safari. I have already mentioned that Jerry Jourdan - one of our group - is not only a serious photographer. He is also a birder and his blog posts are beautiful. Take a look at http://jerryjourdan.blogspot.com/. I think you'll be impressed.

And while other members of the safari group are pretty serious photographers as well, I want to give special recognition to Andrew Berner's stunning pictures. Andrew and Jerry and Charles (our driver) turned out to be the bird specialists on the safari, so we all benefitted from their bird-spotting (and bird-naming) skills. Like Jerry, Andrew has permitted me to reference his superior selections as yet another introduction to the record of our trip, so I'm happy to direct readers to my SmugMug site. At the site, Andrew's photographs are identified in each of his gallery titles with his initials (AB).

But don't let me leave you with the impression that Andrew's photographic talents are limited to bird pictures. At the site, you'll see amazing wildlife photos (including this, my favorite elephant photo which will have an entire post devoted to it at some point). Andrew's photographs capture - in amazing detail - the awesome experiences we all shared during the safari (and why not? - the "A" of the safari's title, which our friends and we took to calling "the FOGs and FOAs Kenya Safari" is for "Andrew").

So until I can post my own impressions about the safari, please enjoy Andrew's images, taken during our visits to such spectacular Kenyan destinations as the Amboseli National Park, Tsavo East and West, the Nairobi National Park (complete with the Nairobi skyline providing the backdrop for much of the wildlife), the Nakuru National Park and the Menengai Crater, and of course Masai Mara (where we were able to view the first days of the Great Migration). And, not surprisingly, there are very pleasing photographs of our visit to our Africa "family" in Nyanguru Village in Kisii. We had a lovely time with Charles and his beautiful family, enjoying ourselves with his wife and mother and his handsome children, including my namesake "Angel" Claire. We shared such a good visit with the family and with all the neighbors who, with the entire Masese family, made us feel very welcome. And thanks to Charles's good driving and his perfect navigation skills, we traveled to Kisii via the great tea plantations, stopping for lunch at the famous Tea Hotel in Kericho, all beautifully captured in Andrew's photographs.

More Kenya Thoughts

Before I get into describing my impressions of Kenya and what we experienced there during July, I'm finding it of interest that we're seeing recent news and stories from that beautiful place. Having just returned from our great safari in Kenya, my traveling friends and I are surprised to find so much to read about Kenya. Especially in August (when the overall news cycle is pretty slim), it seems unusual to have so many stories - other than our own, of course! - to attract our attention.

First of all, we were sadly disappointed for all the travelers in and out of Kenya, here at the high season of the Great Migration, when we learned of the awful fire at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport last Wednesday. While most of us traveling in and out of Kenya don't spend much time at the airport (except for bureaucratic reasons, and even those situations seem to be getting better with each visit), the airport is an essential passenger and cargo hub for East Africa. I'm happy to learn that operations are getting somewhat back to normal, thanks to quick action on the part of airport officials and the Kenyan government. And specially happy to learn that the fire is generally understood to have been an accident, particularly as it came on the 15th anniversary of the bombings of the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people. That's a major relief for those of us who love Kenya and have friends there.

More directly connected with our safari is Michael Benanav's Through the Eyes of the Maasai, a long description of Benanav's stay with the famous Maasai community (published in The New York Time Travel Section on August 9). I explored the historical riches of the Maasai when I lived in Kenya, and we were lucky on our recent safari to meet up again with Thomas, our Maasai friend who had been our guide and companion on two prior journeys. Thanks to the good detective work of our driver and good friend Charles Masese, we were able to connect with Thomas when we were in the Masai Mara National Reserve (also spelled Maasai Mara, as Benanav notes). Here, in one of the photos from the trip, is Andrew Berner, Thomas, Charles, and Guy.

Thomas took some of our group into his own manyatta. The term manyatta seems to have several meanings, depending on who is involved in the conversation. For some reason I earlier had the impression that the term referred to a village in which there were several houses and a large central area where the cattle are brought in every night (for security, especially from lions, the entire village is round in shape and surrounded by thorny bushes, with a single opening that is enclosed with more bushes at night). It's true that there can be several houses in the village, but the term seems to be a little more family connected, you might say, in that the entire collection of houses are related to one family, so in that sense manyatta can mean something like one's "home" or "where one lives."

This trip I did not visit Thomas's manyatta, but two of our traveling companions, Sandra Kitt and Deborah Tibensky went with Charles and Thomas and returned with glowing tales of their adventures visiting with the people they met in the Maasai community. Don't have a photo of Deb with from the visit, but here's Sandi with Thomas.

My own experiences with Thomas and the Maasai community were captured in several posts here in 2010. See the Blog Archive to the left to find the following under May, 2010:

• (4) Sopa Lodge
• (5) Maasai Manyatta
• (6) Maasai Fire w/ Sticks
• (7) Maasai Dances (Men)
• (8) Maasai Dances (Women)

As for Benanav's good article, I enjoyed spending time with it. Several of the friends with whom I was on safari and I have discussed some of Benanav's descriptions and stories. His focus is on a particular person (as have been ours, with Thomas) and it's clear that he and Salaton Ole Ntutu, a Maasai chief, share a very special bond (as did we, with Thomas). Salaton is an informative companion and provides much background and commentary about life in the Maasai community, and Benanav makes a good case for visitors to come to the Maji Moto Maasai Cultural Camp. At the camp, part of the village of Maji Moto, Benanav notes that - as he puts it - "visitors stay in his tribal community, learning about the ways of the Maasai and getting a feel for the landscape they live within."

It's a far deeper experience that what we did, and I'm sure visitors who embark on a stay at the camp come away with a strong sense of what life is like among the Maasai. Indeed, in a way I wish I had done something like this, just to "drill down" a little deeper into the Maasai community structure and life.

Benanav's article also describes his visit to the Masai Mara National Reserve (about 35 miles away from Maji Moto) and his delight - with Salaton as his guide - in the Great Migration. Actually, while I don't know the dates when Benanav was there, it's possible we might have been viewing the migration at the same time. I just hope some of his experiences were as much fun as ours (and perhaps - for some of ours - a little less exciting).

It's a good story, and another valuable resource for anyone considering a safari in Kenya. Lots to see and write about.

Preliminary Thoughts about Mr. Guy's Elephant "Infatuation" (and Some Preliminary Photos)

Despite the first post (yesterday) referencing the FOGs/FOAs safari, I realize now that I didn't give any "preview" for what the later posts might include.

I wrote that one of the purposes of the safari was not only to experience the Great Migration with my friends, but to also share with them Mr. Guy's great infatuation for the African elephant. So it seems appropriate to send along a link to some of the photos, a "preview" you might say, to what I hope to share on this blog. If you would like to see the photographs, go to 2013 Preliminary Safari Photos here.

And my friends seem to agree that infatuation is probably the best word to describe my enthusiasm for these magnificent creatures. Indeed, at the birthday luncheon, this excerpt from Karen Blixen's Out of Africa was shared, and I came away with a new nickname.

In this section of the book (1937), Blixen writes about the value of the opinions of white visitors/expatriates, the value that is found, as she put it, by the Natives "in their mythological or theological mentality":

.... The Europeans have lost the faculty for building up myths or dogma, and for what we want of these we are dependent upon the supplies of our past. But the mind of the African moves naturally and easily upon such deep and shadowy paths. This gift of theirs comes out strongly in their relations with white people.

You find it already in the names which they deal out to the Europeans with whom they come in contact, after a very short acquaintance. You have got to know these names if you are to send a runner with letters to a friend, or find the way in a car to his house, for the Native world knows him by no other names.
...

And there is magic in words: a person who has for many years been known by the name of an animal in the end comes to feel familiar with and related to the animal, he recognizes himself in it. When he is back in Europe [back in America?] it is strange to him to feel that no one ever connects him with it.

Once, in the London Zoo, I saw again an old retired Government Official, whom in Africa I had known as Bwâna Tembu - Mr. Elephant. He was standing, all by  himself, before the Elephant-House, sunk in deep contemplation of the Elephants. Perhaps he would go there often. His Native servants would have thought it in the order of things that he should be there, but probably no one in all London, except I who was there only for a few days, would have quite understood him.

So perhaps I am beginning to think of myself as Bwâna Tembu, as my friends seem to be doing. However, as one Kenyan friend pointed out, Blixen's spelling appears to be incorrect, since tembu is the Ki-Swahili word for "beer." The word for elephant is tembo (confirmed in the online English/Swahili dictionary). Even though I would like to have my new nickname spelled as Karen Blixen spelt it, Blixen seems to have been mistaken. Or - more likely - perhaps that's how the word was spelled in 1937 by expatriates living in Nairobi.

Please join me in enjoying the 2013 Preliminary Safari Photos.

Dateline Nairobi: Returning Home, and Birthday Thanks to Many Kind People

The Great FOGs/FOAs Safari has come to an end. Designed to share the Great Migration and Mr. Guy's Elephant Infatuation with a group of friends (both American and Kenyan), it was a splendid time for all of us.

Wonderful trip, wonderful interactions with friends (including many Kenyan friends from when I worked in Nairobi), and - very specially - wonderful memories to keep forever.

Recording safari memories begins with the birthday. While I've reached that point in my life where birthdays are best left unmentioned, I was amazed - once Stateside again - to see the number of greetings sent in my direction. Loved all the cards and "catch-up" letters from all around the world, and I can't get over the number of email messages and greetings awaiting me once I opened the trusty iMac.

Wow! So gratifying (and so humbling). In the future, I will assuredly try to be a little more charitable with my sometimes loose comments about the place of personal social media in our lives (like most people of my generation, I can sometimes be a little spiky about how too much focus on social media is not necessarily a good thing). This has been a very sweet experience, and I just might get over my usual "birthday-avoidance" syndrome!

So let me pause for just a moment to say a big Thank You to all the people who took the time to wish me a Happy Birthday. I'm very grateful, and I very much appreciate it.

In Nairobi, with no idea what was being sent to me via the Internet or the USPS, we celebrated with much enthusiasm. While some of our safari group of the last few weeks had returned to America, those of us remaining managed to share two good meals and an afternoon visit together. And despite the fact that there were just a few of us (Andrew, Sandi, Nerisa, Charles, myself and - joining us in the evening - Nerisa's niece Angie, whom we had come to know well during our time in Kenya), we managed to make Mr. Guy's birthday yet another Kenyan day to remember.

And perhaps mention should be made here about one of the cultural differences I learned about when I lived in Kenya: birthdays are not a big thing amongst most Kenyans. While there are occasional birthday observances (probably going back to the European expatriates in the 1920s and 1930s), you won't find many Kenya people paying much attention to birthdays. I don't know why. Perhaps it's economic, since there isn't a lot of discretionary cash floating around for most families. And there is a little more of it nowadays, with some sections of some shops - larger shops - selling greeting cards, including birthday cards. But I don't really know. I just know from my own observations and the comments of many of my Kenya friends, birthday celebrations are pretty rare.

Did that stop the St. Clair Gang? Not at all. While - as noted above - I might have preferred a little less fuss, we had to have lunch, we wanted to have a visit with Charles, and we would have to have dinner, so it all seemed to fall into place. Again, as with the other well-wishers, I'm very thankful to my little group for this day of fun. 

The first of the birthday meals was at a lovely upscale Nairobi restaurant specializing in Kenya food. The restaurant takes its name from amaika, a Luhya word that refers to the traditional Luhya cooking area or kitchen. Although the spelling is sightly different in the restaurant's name, Amaica is a very pleasant place for Sunday lunch (and it apparently becomes very crowded a little later on Sunday afternoon - when we arrived we were the first customers). This photo gives an idea of the space and the splendid decor, with Sandi and Nerisa waiting for me to take yet another photo.

Amaica started out as a restaurant focusing on food from Western Kenya, the part of the country which, in the words of the restaurant's owners, "boasts the widest variety of delicacies." Now the restaurant's cuisine has expanded to include specialties from all parts of Kenya, and the overall mealtime experience is delightfully Kenyan. The restaurant's flagship meal, a delicious dish of smoked beef, is joined together with other pleasurable indigenous foods such as wild traditional mushrooms, bambara nuts, groundnuts, and white ants (which our group did not try). Much of the food is cooked in African clay pots, using techniques and methods learned from traditional food experts throughout Kenya.

One of the joys of the restaurant is the great mass of trees behind the building. The dining area overlooks a large, deep ravine just full of tangled growth, and of course some of Kenya's famous birds - including this trio - come to visit. Very nice.

The afternoon was spent with Charles at his home near Nairobi. Readers of these posts know Charles well, as he was my driver and became my Kenya Brother when I lived in Nairobi (and it was Charles who led me off on my many safaris during my time in Kenya in 2009-2010, with many of these experiences described here - see the 2009 to early 2011 posts in the Archive to the left). Back in October, 2010, I had written The Children of Gachie and Charles' son Justine Ombongi and his cousin Steve Onpinta provided the photographs.

The birthday visit took us to Charles' new home, and we had a very nice time, enjoying the Masese hospitality and sharing much good conversation (and meeting up again with cousins who came by to say hello).

The birthday dinner took us to Mr. Guy's favorite Nairobi restaurant, Osteria Gigiri in the Village Market enclave. The name of the shopping center is a bit of a Kenya joke, since the rather grand establishment is nothing like a traditional village market and in many respects the location is one of the most "Western" spots in Nairobi (it's in the area where many of the embassies, including the United States Embassy, the United Nations, and some of the city's finest homes are located).

Nevertheless, Osteria Gigiri is anything but pretentious or grand. There is a terrific wine bar, and the restaurant is both intimate and expansive, with a large outdoor dining area under a large canopy. Very pleasant, and the staff and management go out of their way to make all customers feel welcome, including bringing along a complementary bruschetta once the diners at the table are seated. It was my "home away from home" when I lived in Nairobi, the perfect place to close out the birthday celebrations.

So. A few notes to begin the story of the latest Kenya experience (a few more photos are here). There'll be more. Watch this space.

Kenya and the 2013 Great Migration

There is great excitement as this year's vacation gets underway.

And as we plunge into our special experience, I can't help but think about what-has-been (as Beryl Markham or Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen might have written). The difference, though, is that this experience is not about leaving somewhere. It's about going back.

Even so, Markham herself shared that sort of reverse mental picture as she wrote about a big change she was experiencing in her life.

Here's what she wrote at the opening of Chapter IX of her memoir (West with the Night):

Somebody with a flair for small cynicism one said: "We live and do not learn." But I have learned some things.

I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesterdays are buried deep - leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. The cloud clears as you enter it. I have learned this, but like everyone, I learned it late.

I'm not sure I'm in agreement with Markham on this.

Yes, I very much support the contention of many, including our special Peter Drucker, whose thoughts about re-inventing one's self connects here. It is best to move forward, "opening a new page" as we move into an unknown (or perhaps - in this case - known) future. In my way of thinking about it, though, I tend to be more focused on what's coming, and what that future will bring and - I must admit - that I'm not too concerned with that "dead hour." It's gone, it's respected, I've learned from it, but I'm much more interested in what I will learn.

All this comes to mind and resonates with me as I think about my visit to Kenya. My pleasure in this journey is sweetly strengthened by the fact that this time we bring with us four "new" visitors, introducing them to our (almost) favorite place in the world. We brought two people into the I-love-Kenya camp with our safari in late 2010 (after I had lived there for a year), and now four more people will return to America to share Kenya adventure stories with their friends.

What pleasures do we expect? Certainly high on the list are visits with friends and loved ones who live in Kenya, people who have become part of our lives and who are simply referred to as "our Kenya family." Other people? Of course. If there's time I'll head over to the client with whom I worked for a year and, perhaps, have a few "professional" conversations to review and be pleased with (I hope) progress made since my assignment ended. And perhaps some more casual encounters, perhaps looking up my barber, the lady who took care of me where I lived, and other people I came to know in my time in Kenya.

In truth, though, this year's journey is holiday, a vacation from from the workaday world of my life in America. And the timing this year is carefully chosen, as it has been specifically determined by Africa's Great Migration. As this is truly a natural phenomenon, the dates for the migration are based solely on when the wildebeests and other ungulates figure out that the grass is greener on the other side of the Mara River and dare to endanger their lives (some of them) to get across the river, attempting to get through the crocodiles to make a path for the thousands of others behind them, all of them trying to get to the green grass they need. And once they get across there's another gauntlet, as other predators - larger carnivores - are waiting hungrily for them.

Still, many wildebeests, zebra, Thomson's gazelle, and eland make it through (some 2,000,000, it has been estimated), and seeing them all as they transverse this great expanse of land is truly a spectacular site. As usual with me, once I experienced the Great Migration I couldn't stop talking about it, which is why we're going now and taking people back with us. And for those who are interested, my version of my earlier Great Migration experiences was told back in 2010 here at my personal blog. Take a look at the archive dates to the left; go to the posts between August 22 and September 25, 2010 and you'll learn much about Mr. Guy's experiences with the Great Migration. On top of that, there's also a good picture of the Great Migration is the CBS News (90 Minutes) feature from 2009. It's a good story, well-told.

As for what we'll see, naturally we're going to enjoy the spectacle of the Great Migration, but in introducing our friends to Kenya we'll see lots more, including the spectacular scenery (lots of photos of that as well, in the 2009-2010 blog posts here at the personal blog). And Mr. Guy will of course take his pals to see his elephants, especially at the Amboseli National Park - in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro. [And no, we won't be climbing Mr. Kilimanjaro - I've wanted to do that for years but there are a very practical couple of reasons I've not done it: 1) I'm not really a climber and 2) I can't find anyone who will train with me for the time required, so I've come to realize that Mr. Guy's climb up Mt. Kilimanjaro will remain in the realm of fantasy!]

But there's more at Amboseli, although it will be probably the elephants that will have my attention. As it turns out (I don't know why) Amboseli is the one area of Kenya where the elephants have lived somewhat protected lives, and many of the animals are very old indeed. Very old and, as far as any of us visitors can tell, very gentle. The poaching that is ravaging Africa (and even taking place in Kenya, to some degree, even though Kenya seriously outlawed elephant poaching about ten years ago) does not seem to have made its way into Amboseli, making this park absolutely perfect for two spectacular game drives a day. And we intend to take full advantage of them.

We'll also have game drives at the Nairobi National Park, the Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks, have a drive through the beautiful tea country to get to Kisii (where we'll see more friends and other members of our Kenya family), and visit the museums and some of Kenya's historic sites in and around Nairobi. We're having a splendid adventure!

Come August, watch this space. [But don't be disappointed if there isn't be much written before then - I'll do what I can but I expect I'm going to be pretty busy!]

Much to see in San Diego

With a new camera and off on a business trip to one of America's most beautiful places, I had a good time in San Diego last week.

Before I get too far away from the trip I want to note a couple of monuments I've observed on previous visits, both of which I got to see again this time. It makes me very happy to share these with friends and colleagues.

San Diego - long an important center for U.S. Navy operations - is the site of the museum build around the U.S.S. Midway, and there's no denying that it's an important ship for a visit (particularly when you've had a little bit of American history and you understand the role the Midway played over the years). It's an amazing space, this ship, and when you stop to think that more than 225,000 sailors have been assigned to the ship, walking its decks is an awesome experience. Commissioned just after the end of World War II, the U.S. Midway was for many years the largest ship in the world.

In the shadow of the Midway are the two monuments I refer to in the title, a huge statue based on one of the most famous photographs of the war, taken during the victory celebration in New York's Times Square. The iconic photograph, turned into a massive sculpture for San Diego, honors all the nation's servicemen and makes it clear that they had every right to be celebratory when they came home.

A second monument honors longtime comedian and star Bob Hope (1903-2003), who spent much of this career supporting the nation's troops and traveling wherever he needed to go to entertain the country's service personnel. This sculpture depicts one such occasion, with an appreciative audience made up of members from all branches of the United States armed forces.

So a quick immediate impression of San Diego begins right next to the U.S.S. Midway and very naturally sets up a happy and wholesome mood for enjoying the beautiful city. Go here to see a few of my photos of the monuments.