There were towering dust devils which hummed through the savanna, tribal boys guiding their cattle with canes in the shadow of the white crowned Kilimanjaro, and antiquated butcheries hung with meat – young men competing for work and setting up stalls. The spirit of adventure is tangible here, dwelling within the people and their land – in this place. In the work that they do, even in the trucks that they drive. It lives through feeling as if we have stepped back into time, where danger is expected and comfort is not. Where a meal is prepared over fire and the price of labor or leisure is haggled. It is only in Africa where this adventure lies, where tribal men must stand vigil over your rest and where the howls and trumpetings of great cloaked beasts ring through the still night. It is only here, where adventure is embodied in the way you must live, in the manners by which we must endeavor to alter our perceptions and expand our connections to the natural world in order to thrive. My experience so far embodies that spirit, the innate adventure of Africa, and I experienced even through travel – tedious as it was.
Watching Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai on my flight without any English subtitles for the Japanese was certainly an arduous experience to say the least HA, and I have spent much deliberating whether it was a good or bad one. Some highlights: the Turkish love their sour dairy (I do not), in-flight meals are pretty scrumptious, and sleeping instead of trying to be productive and reading stock investing for dummies is smart – I should have thought of that sooner. The African roads are weathered, and the small towns and people are charming, and although we have spent much time in both studying for and traveling through the continent, I nonetheless find Africa to be an ever increasing enigma.
There are roadside gardens and nurseries next to cement plants, people are just hangin out on the side of the road wearing two piece suits of all things and sitting on a rock two miles from any landmark, and raw meat is at room temperature in shop windows with names like “Arusha Meat Den” hanging over the store front. Therefore, it seems to that although man claims more land and works hard to tame more of its nature, and even as the people of Africa innovate and industrialize – Africa retains its spirit, obdurate in the face of change. We saw impala and giraffes, cattle and tribal maasai, and I have heard the trumpets of elephants and the scary sounds of hyenas (they are scary, whatever they are technically called) just as I have been writing this very post! No stops at the border were made, nobody in the group turned out to be an international felon or anything, and of course we ended it off with the “African massage” as the range rover struggled its way on over to the lodge. And by then the sun had set and the stars had come out, and so we were greeted with Swahili, cold drink, and cool towels. There striking me that although life here is by no measure easy, it remains as certainly worth the effort.
I am looking forward to tomorrow, and of course to seeing the folks upon my return.
Pray for some big termite mounds.
Godspeed gentlemen,
Kamden
