On safari in Kenya

MASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE, Kenya — The world is subdued in the hour before dawn. Birds have just started their morning song. A hippo rises to the surface in the river below, takes a breath and then slides again beneath the muddy waters.

With the noise of nature comes a collective hush from all other distractions.

For the past three days we have traveled throughout the Mara. We have watched awesome displays of nature: lions stalking a kill, a herd of zebra running, an African sunset. It's morning now, and as I sit outside my tent, listening to the sounds, I can't help but think of the surreal beauty of this place; the earthiness and simplicity.

Despite the fact that we spend each night in lavish comfort, eating seven-course dinners and staying in tents with warm beds and hot showers, you quickly realize this is a place where man is not the master.

Here, in one of Kenya's largest game reserves, there is no cell phone service, no Internet. When your vehicle gets stuck near the spot where you just watched a male lion disappear into the bushes, it's evident that the only thing truly protecting you is the knowledge and skill of your guide.

I traveled to the Masai Mara with 18 friends this past July. We had just spent the past two weeks volunteering at a school for the deaf in Nakuru, a city two hours north of Kenya's capitol, Nairobi. The safari was an add-on to an already rewarding trip.

While Kenya and neighboring Tanzania have several well-known game parks, the Masai Mara is one of the largest, covering about 1,500 square kilometers within a segment of the Great Rift Valley. It's one of the only game parks where guides can drive off the trails to get close to the animals.

The Mara is a reserve that belongs to the Masai people, a nomadic tribe that still clings to ancient traditions and ways of life. Outside the Mara are small Masai villages, where the homes, made of sticks and dung, are arranged in a circular fashion. Thick brambles with inch-long thorns encircle the village.

Inside the Mara, it's not uncommon to see Masai boys herding cattle that belong to their village. At age 13 or 14, these boys will take part in a ceremony to become a Masai warrior. They will live for eight years in a warrior village, later emerging as tall, red-robed men.