The Mara

I have heard about the Masaii Mara like most people for over ten years probably and so finally arriving there it was no surprise to discover like in so many other places there is lots of change and a lot of it not good. It was a great idea that so many people decided to get over to Africa and discover the animals but the footprint has been deep and the locals don't like it. Like so many issues in Africa I believe this negative, this challenge, this natural disturbance does have a silver lining. They say we only truly appreciate after we have lost what we held most dear.

So it is ironic to be writing tonight after watching Darryl Hannah on CNN who will finally hopefully will get her fella americans guzzling biodiesel and organic food and HAND MADE RECYCLED T-SHIRTS! I believe the next 2 years will see the biggest environmental tidal wave for the better the planet has ever seen and the Americans will lead this charge. Nobody consumes like they do - it could just be for the good.

Walking along the Mara River in Southern Kenya I can hear the bottom of the inside of the belly of a hippo whaling out from the river as I pass by a 'regenerative fruit buffet' - a snack shop for birds featuring wonderfully decaying passion fruit. How elegant. How colourful. How thoughtful. If the birds eat the rotting fruit and drop their waste on the ground then maybe somehow this aerial excrement will refuel some grass that an elephant will eat who will then crap on the ground where bugs live who will creep and crawl back to the shamba and regenerate the papaya tree. Now if we humans can just stay out of the way. What a wonderfully humble agreement.

Waiting at the Mara airstrip I search the local crowd for kids and sure enough there is a 6-year old boy looking over curious at us. I signal him to come and see my camera, which he does hesitantly but reassured by the grandpas after I give him a grown up felt pen. Instantly he loves it and ferociously he is not interested in giving it back to me. We play around for about half an hour shooting silly self-portraits when finally we hear the plane coming. It has been hired by Kenya Airways to Boscovic Air Charters to come get us. How casual. How African. Can you help us out? We messed up today - a crowd waiting in the middle of nowhere for something to fall out of the sky.

As I say goodbye to my little friend I have to turn away in my inability to tell him in our different languages that I will be back one day. I will post him some shots he took so he can see an ability he may never have known before. My business could educate him. He could become a resident naturalist who takes pictures to teach us who come so far to see to rather appreciate and love what has always been, what needs to remain. And he could recharge the batteries with the solar panel down the road - send me photos from the wifi in the lodge. It's not too late for him, in fact, all this technology is just in time.

"It is in the shelter of each other in which the people live." - Irish proverb.