I barely know how to describe these first 24 hours

I had no idea when I woke up Saturday morning what an experience I was about to have. Having slept very well through the sound of barking and howling dogs throughout the neighborhood, I woke up early -- right about first light -- and was soon treated to the sound of singing birds and the sight of my lovely surroundings, which I hadn't seen as I arrived in the dark the night before. Quite a contrast to the eery sounds of dogs and coyotes throughout the night. After a leisurely morning with Alice and Tom, and a stroll through the lovely gardens here at her house, we set out for Nairobi to do some chores, and then on to our day's work.

We picked up a Masai friend of Alice's named John, and his friend Moses, who is a Masai chief. They were to be our companions for the day, together with John's sister-in-law, Elizabeth, whom we picked up along the way, introducing us to Masai people in a large area of scattered villages -- families that Alice is interviewing for admission of their children to the Beverly School. Elizabeth was beautifully dressed in traditional Masai dress (as were all the women we met throughout the day). She had prepared to go to a wedding, a plan which she abandoned so that she could go with us -- "for the sake of the children." Elizabeth is a first-generation girl to go to school herself, having graduated from the 4th Form (10th grade in the American system). She helped provide a sense of trust that the women we met would need when meeting strangers like Alice, Tom and me. The two men, John and Moses, were also obviously very well known and respected in the villages. John works in a government agency helping to secure education and other development programs for the Masai. He was given a chance at education as a boy, and he is absolutely dedicated now to seeing that other children get the same. Moses is the chief of this area. He knows everyone by name, including each and every one of the children. They also served as translators from Masai to Swahili for Alice, and to English for Tom and me.

The Masai are spread out in small settlements of usually one polygamous household each. At each one of these stops we were met by usually two generations of women and lots of children. Most of these families had children who had been orphaned, with one or both parents having died, many (or most) of them from HIV/AIDS. The Masai used to think they were "immune" from AIDS beause of their relative isolation from the rest of Kenyan society. However, once it hit, it spread like wildfire because of the polygamous nature of Masai culture (most men have multiple wives), and also because of the widespread practice of polyandry (it is common for a man to offer a visiting friend one of his wives or a daughter "for comfort"). AIDS is now killing many Masai, but it is still something of a taboo to talk about it. The government and NGO communities are working hard to address these issues among the Masai, primarily by encouraging education for both boys and girls (who have traditionally not to school). Traditionally, both boys and girls get married as soon as they reach puberty. They do not, however, if they go to school. Some parents resist sending even their boys to school because they need them to look after the livestock. We saw many boys doing just that.

Because of the Masai diet, which consists largely of milk, and because they do not wash their faces, young children have flies all over their faces and especially around their mouths. It was difficult to look at. The children barely seemed to notice. Both the women and the children were delightful, friendly, somewhat shy, but seemingly happy people, even in the midst of the tragedy of their lives. The children all came to greet us walking up to us in a line and passing by offering the tops of their heads for us to touch, which is the traditional greeting for children. The adults all freely offered their hands for handshakes, beautiful smiles on their faces.

The women are all dressed in Masai dress, with beautiful colored beadwork necklaces, bracelets and belts over brightly colored print fabrics which they make themselves. Some (most) of the women (and men, too, we later saw when we met some the the men in town) have long, drooping, stretched earlobes, which they also decorate with elaborate beadwork.

The houses are all simple mud huts only about 4-5 feet tall, and some houses are made from corrugated tin. Some mud huts have tin roofs. The rolling hills of Masailand provide a stunning panoramic view of grasslands that extend to the horizon in almost every direction, dotted by acacia trees. Wild animals in the area include zebra, cheetah, and lions. We saw only the first -- and they were beautiful, beautiful animals.

We learned so much about Masai life and culture -- more than I can possibly write here. The pictures will help, but they will not tell the whole story either. I finished our visit with an overwhelming sense of the privilege it had been to get a glimpse of these people's lives, up close and personal -- on this my very first full day in Africa. After a brief stop in the nearby town of Kiseria where the chief's wife runs a little shop, and where we met some men of all ages, some also in traditional dress, we dropped our guides off and headed back to Nairobi, still in disbelief at all I had just experienced.

In town, we met Martin and his cousin, Lillian, at Safari Park, a beautiful restaurant and conference center for dinner and entertainment. Dinner was a carnivore's delight of barbequed meats including roast beef, pork ribs, chicken, lamb, goat, ostrich, crocodile -- and assorted other goodies I can't now remember. The Tusker beer helped it all go down nicely. I have to say it was all very tasty -- except the crocodile, which was sort of a combination of the taste of chicken and a very oily fish. I won't need to try in again.

The entertainment was amazing -- a Kenyan dance troupe of men and women performing modern dance with an African flare. I enjoyed the irony of a woman (possibly Malaysian?) at the next table in front of us, covered in modest Islamic dress with head covered, videoing the scantily clad dancers in all their furtive gyrations. When I commented on this to Martin, he said, "Well, she's not only a Muslim." After nearly an hour of non-stop dance numbers, a troupe of acrobats put on the most amazing display of human contortions, fire eating, human pyramid building, and other near-cheetah-like acrobatics. Mind-blowing stuff. Then the dancers returned for a grand finale. What a show.

I can't imagine a more perfect first day in Africa.

Tomorrow morning we will go to the 11 am service at All Saints' Cathedral, famous most recently in Massachusetts for the consecration of Kenya's newest missionary bishop to the United States, Bill Murdoch of Amesbury. Ah, this wonderful, complex Anglican communion of ours. I just hope I will be welcome there. I will go anonymously in shirt and tie, but will be happy to say who I am and where I am from if I am asked.

Martin will leave early on Sunday for some meetings in Kigali, Rwanda, and will return on Tuesday, when he and I will set out for Kakuma refugee camp in the northwest corner of Kenya. On Monday, I will visit the Beverly School of Kenya with Tom and Alice.