PPS Destinations Report
Maasai Mara, Kenya
Date: January 2009
Reported by Dr. John Griffith, Port Hadlock, Washington, USA
Greetings fellow PPSers:
Anne & I recently returned from a
junket to Africa encompassing a 20 day trip that, alas, included no fly rods or
fishing. Nearest thing to fishing
was snorkel diving with
porpoises off the south end of Zanzibar
Island in the Indian Ocean. This
required motoring in a dhow-like motor boat out ahead of a school of porpoises
and, once in front of and maybe 50 ahead of the leading mammals, leaping head
first into the water and starting to swim as fast as possible to intercept and
stay with the graceful beasts as long as possible.
Each episode would last from 20 seconds to maybe a minute or two and then
we’d re-board the boat and repeat the process.
It was a bit zany but aerobic, rewarding and fun nevertheless.
The guide wanted to pack it in after about 8 encounters but I and the
other participant convinced him to continue for three or four more successful
assaults. The animals made modest
diversions to avoid us but made no attempts to speed up or in any way act much
more than mildly interested or slightly bored with our shenanigans.
I found myself face to face and only a few feet away from a porpoise on
at least two occasions.
Our purpose for this trip was to travel
with half of my dental staff to a dental clinic in the Maasai Mara of western
Kenya, and hopefully a discussion of this visit will resonate with some or all
of you.
On December 25 (remember the weather in
Seattle on that day?), Anne & I took off for 5 days of R&R at the front
end of the trip choosing Zanzibar, Tanzania because of its magical sounding name
and its romantic place in history as a center of commerce in the days of the
Silk Road east/west trade route and the importation of spices to Europe.
Our hopes for enjoyment there were surpassed.
We spent three nights in a funky resort on the east coast where the
hospitality was phenomenal and the good meals being made from the fresh catch of
the day picked out each morning from the fishing villages.
The beaches there are unique with white sand the consistency of flour.
There is no sense of granularity as you walk in it or when you pick up a
handful. We saw red collobus
monkeys, sea turtles, tortoises that compare with the Galapagos species in size
and age, and many interesting bird species as well.
Spice Town, an old town enclave in Zanzibar Town, was our chance to
partake in the “spice tour” that helped us to learn about and taste a myriad
of eastern spices and herbs that we normally only see in powdered form at home.
I’m sure it would be no surprise to learn that cinnamon in the form we
use is not even close in flavor, texture or enjoyment to that which gets peeled
off the tree or extracted from underground roots and chewed on the spot.
However you would have to experience this to realize the true meaning of
the statement.
On January 1, we departed Zanzibar early
in the morning for Nairobi in a twin turboprop ATR.
We deliberately picked seats at the left front of the aircraft hoping
that the clouds, typical of this time of year, would relent for a display of
19,000 ft. Mt. Kilimanjaro in NE Tanzania. The
weather gods cooperated and we witnessed painfully clear evidence that
Hemingway’s “snows” are a thing of the past – and perhaps the future –
but not the present. In
Nairobi, we joined our staff who had just arrived from the States and we were
all picked up by Ray & Gail Damazo, who operate the Maasai Dental Clinic at
Siana Springs Intrepid Lodge, in
preparation for the 4 and a half hour trip.
They arrived in a large Land
Rover designed for driving in the bush on safaris and to survive the punishment
of road travel on the highways and byways of this somewhat impoverished nation.
Ray & Gail had set out in our direction the day before in the brand
new Toyota Land Cruiser they had purchased for the clinic only 5 months earlier.
Half way to Nairobi, the engine seized up due to improper service done
during an oil change just a few days before.
The vehicle had to be towed about 100 miles for engine rebuild in Nairobi
and the Damazos were forced to hire the somewhat dilapidated Rover and Michael
our terrific driver, for the next week and a half.
A
little background on Ray and Gail is in order here.
Ray is a dentist retired from Bellevue, WA.
He is 79 years old and he and Gail have been operating a mobile dental
clinic in eastern Africa, primarily Kenya, for 20 years.
It’s significant to note that Ray has funded the effort almost
completely on his own and has delivered dentistry to natives and to lodge
employees in the region tirelessly for several months each year for the entire
period. He works under the umbrella
of the WHDO (World Health Dental Organization), a not-for-profit corporation he
formed some time ago. He is
instrumental in establishing an oral maxillofacial surgery department at the
University of Nairobi and continues to work tirelessly to gather funds that will
be used to support a major renovation of the facilities there to turn out 30
surgeons per year. Ray tells me
there is one surgeon at present for
about 11 of the surrounding countries including Kenya.
This man was mentored by Ray and, with Ray’s encouragement, managed to
get a scholarship to Harvard where he earned his training and his degrees.
Ray tells me he is a genius and I have seen numerous photos of the
miracles he has performed for people with disfiguring problems.
As for the Maasai Dental Clinic, this is
a beautiful facility that Ray and Gail conceived of and built with their own
resources having completed it in the fall of 2008.
It has three 'state of the art' dental operatories.
There are living quarters with individual bath for
up to four supporting staff (two in each of two bedrooms), onsite living
quarters for a paid clinic manager, and a somewhat luxurious upstairs apartment
for the dentist and spouse.
I was privileged to be involved in the
effort to raise Rotary matching grant funds that paid for the dental units and
the cabinetry in the three operatories. After
a few weeks of shakedown dental care provided by Ray and Gail, my staff and I
were the initiating volunteer dental team to work in the clinic, working for 2
weeks from 1 January to 16 January. If
you’ve ever done pro bono work in a third world environment you know what I
mean when I say we got back much more than we gave in this venture.
I can’t imagine anyone participating in something like this and not
having it impact their lives – changing it for the better, never to be the
same again.
The icing on the cake was the chance to experience first hand interaction with the wonderful, friendly Maasai people, to travel into the Mara game preserve on several occasions, witnessing a breathtaking array of wildlife in its natural habitat. We saw numerous kills, one or two shortly after the event and several more well after the meal was mostly or partially consumed as a smorgasbord for many different diners of varying species. Anne & I were even fortunate enough to join a commercial hot air balloon ride because one of the pilots developed an abscess tooth and he wanted to show his gratitude for the care we provided. These rides normally cost $800 per person so that was quite a perk for us both.
We participated in an all day dedication
ceremony with about 1,000 Maasai dressed in ceremonial costume and performing
various dances and songs throughout the day. 
The day before we were present for the killing and butchering of two
large bulls and 10 goats that Ray had purchased to feed the crowds.
We also were able to spend time in the village manyatas, which are
usually circular enclosures of dung homes protected by branches of sticker
bushes piled up on the perimeter. The
cattle are driven outside in the mornings for all day grazing and watering then
to be brought back into the protection of the enclosure at night.
The goats not being so valuable or desirable for lions and other large
predators are tended outside the enclosure at night.
The cattle are said to be the measure of a family’s wealth.
They are only rarely used for food, but mostly they are a form of
currency. A bride is normally worth
eight cows. A wealthy Maasai warrior
can afford several wives if he has maybe 50 to 100 cattle.
We met a missionary family who resides
outside the gate of the preserve and who have several ATV’s.
This guy took me and Dr. Bill Shewey of Washington, my replacement
dentist at the clinic, out on an afternoon ATV run. We found a valley that was
full of gazelles and other antelopes, giraffe, wildebeest, and assorted other
species. The giraffes were quite
interested in us and would actually approach if we moved slowly, but the
gazelles were absolutely inspiring because it was impossible to resist the
temptation to test their running capabilities by chasing them across the
savannahs at top speed. We could do
about 40 mph in the ATV’s and they would only run fast enough to stay ahead of
us. We knew they could do a lot
better. I think they were playing
with us.
As you can tell, we had a tremendously
fulfilling experience on several levels. The
Maasai Dental Clinic represents an opportunity for any dentist to travel with a
purpose, to have support on the ground of folks who take great interest in
making sure your stay is special and your enjoyment of their culture and
resources will be unique. The locals
will work to see that your experience will be infinitely more rewarding than you
would encounter on a commercial tour of any sort.
If you’d like to learn more about this
clinic or are considering participating, surf on over to the website at:
www.safaridentist.org
On a different subject, I am off to
Esquina, Argentina in March for about 10 days to do a little Dorado fishing,
hopefully, but more importantly, to investigate with Oscar Dono the resources
available and required to support the volunteer dental clinic trip Ernie, Justi
and Oscar are generously researching for 2010.
To refresh everyone’s memory, following the Esquina trip in 2007, many
of us realized a dramatic need for basic dental care for most of the folks we
encountered and we agreed that it
would be a great venture to combine a future fishing trip with some volunteer
dental work in Esquina. FFP, Justi
and Oscar’s company have been amazingly gracious and energetic in supporting
this effort and it appears that with their and Ernie’s untiring efforts, we
will likely be able to pull this off. www.flyfishingpatagonia.com
Regards,
John Barrett, DDS
Port Hadlock, WA
Following are some thumbnails of trip photos. Please click on them and then return to this page by hitting the ' back ' button on your browser.
