Guest Post by Julie Curtis

The smell is a mix of something burning, exhaust, and food of some kind, maybe meat. The highway outside the sliding door honks and whines all night, past a cylindrical building with its roof angled like a lipstick and letters on top of that spelling out “INTEGRITY CENTRE.” Jet lag clutches the right side of my forehead like talons, and my feet, swollen from three consecutive long haul economy flights, beg to be elevated.

So I skip the complimentary breakfast they serve at the Sarova Panafric, which the bellman, Collins, highly recommends and hopes I will rate favorably on Trip Advisor. He spent more than a few minutes last night telling me which Kenyan foods to try at the buffet, adding that I really ought to wash it all down with beer.

My driver, Sammy, will be here early to take me to the little regional airport where I will board a 16-seat flight from Nairobi to Lewa Downs. I am too tired to shower, but I showered last night when I arrived, so I should be okay.

The airport building is a corrugated metal affair. A uniformed man with a gun stops Sammy, and Sammy tells him: “Job-job”. The man asks me if I am “sawa,” Swahili for “okay”. “Sawa!” I say, which must be the right answer, and he waves us through. Sammy parks his Toyota Noah van by the front door and escorts me into the security area, which looks like a small grocery store checkout line. I am the only person in line. My luggage is weighed and apparently scanned, although I’m not sure the scanner is operational. The scale works, though, and my two small bags are declared ten pounds overweight. Sammy tells the guy in the red vest that I am flying to Lewa to volunteer my time with a conservancy. The guy’s eyes dart sideways, and he says, in that beautifully lilting Swahili-drenched English that everyone speaks here, “Okay, I will be nice to you.”

“He is my friend,” Sammy tells me. I ask Sammy if I should give him something. Sammy says, “Give it to me and I will give it to him. Otherwise it could be said that he was bribed.” Sammy is a regular driver for the Northern Rangelands Trust, and I know he’s not going to keep the money for himself. I am further encouraged to know that taking bribes is frowned upon, since I watched a movie about Nairobi on one of the planes, and the main character was robbed three times and thrown in jail for no reason within minutes of arriving in the city.

I slip Sammy 500 Kenyan shillings, about six dollars, which Sammy acknowledges as an appropriate amount. We say our goodbyes, and I walk up a flight of steps to the airport coffee shop, where the big cup of black coffee, among the best I’ve ever had, goes to work on my headache.

The waitress is wearing jeans and Converse All Stars, just like I am. She tells me she hopes to move to the US. She’s applied to Marriott, and other American companies, but hasn’t heard back. I wonder if maybe someday the owner of a big American company will come through that coffee shop on his or her way to Nanyuki, or Ol Pejeta, or some other upcountry airstrip, appreciate her slow smile and welcoming personality and hire her. Fly her away from Nairobi, up over the rows of rectangular metal housing all crowded together. Up above the rusty red streets lined with old cars and long shadows cast by pedestrians as tall as trees. Past the pretty green hills to the north of the city, dotted with estates and their outbuildings. Above the craggy, cloud-draped top of Mt. Kenya which looks like heaven but probably isn’t.

The flight descends for landing at Lewa and I spot an elephant and a few zebras before we touch down. Just hanging out by the fence there. A man dressed in a red skirt and some necklaces made of bones is there to collect most of the upscale travelers disembarking. Anne and John are there for me, looking relaxed and happy, moving in the same easy rhythm as the elephant and the zebras. John lifts my overweight bags like they’re down pillows and tucks them into the back of a sturdy plain green jeep. And off we go to work, a complex of grass-roofed pavilions with open walls that let breezes in.