Captain Spaulding Chronicles: Photodump I -Nairobi National Park

My cab driver to Nairobi Airport, Charlie, was one of the rare good ones. He was honest, careful and gregarious. He was a Masai and discussed growing up in a traditional tribal culture in the Masai Mara. He told me about watching the tourists drive by in their 4x4 vehicles and wanting to someday ride in one. I can only imagine how anachronistic it must have been to be raised in a nomadic culture that has been largely unchanged for generations and have to include foreigners with outlandish clothing and technology into your worldview. Charlie would probably be better prepared than most for an extraterrestrial encounter. It is satisfying to know that he thrives in, as he refers to it, the "Modern World" and has worked as a game driver as well as a cabbie.

The part of Charlie's story that drove home the dichotomy of his life to me the most was his description of discovering cameras. He was impressed by the technological marvel but a bit nonplussed as to the use that tourists put them to. They took pictures of hyenas. The Masai hate hyenas. Hyenas stole their goats and killed cattle. Why anyone should want to waste a wondrous machine like a camera on a pest like a hyena baffled his young mind.

I try not to do the ordinary tourist thing where I take pictures of oddly phrased signs and squat toilets. Still I can't help but wonder how many of my pictures would baffle your average Ugandan or Kenyan as to why I felt the need to photograph something they would pass by without blinking.

Nairobi National Park was my first and rather spectacular introduction to the East African wild. Here is a selection of my better/more interesting shots from a very good day.