What is it About Mosquito Nets?

There’s something utterly romantic about mosquito nets. There shouldn’t be; they are scratchy, make for ineffective curtains, and were created to protect us from one of the more annoying creatures around, the malarial skeeter (the Texan term for the more commonly known mosquito, presumably from the Spanish (rhymes with burrito, no?). And, yet, they add charm and elegance to the Kenya Comfort Hotel, where I am staying in Nairobi. We, my two Indian colleagues and I, have just returned from a three day safari, and are holing up here for the night before we return to the good old Indian subcontinent tomorrow.

Wait, let me start from the beginning. I’m working. I’m working, damn you! Or, at least, that’s what landed me in “Keen-ya,” as my mom calls it. I run a microfinance magazine, and our most recent issue focused on microfinance in Africa., so we decided to launch the issue in Africa proper, and Nairobi seemed to be our best bet; two of our interviewees—James Mwangi of Equity Bank and Ingrid Munro of Jamii Bora are here. So, we put together a launch event and panel discussion from afar (I was on vacation in New York last week) and then parachuted in (not literally, mind you) for the event the day before. It went surprisingly well, allowing us to meet many of the microfinance practitioners in Kenya, and leave a good impression of our magazine and our company. Then, we left the next morning to experience some of Kenya’s wilder life.

The Masai Mara is Kenya’s most popular wildlife reserve, and home to Kenya’s most famous tribe, the Maasai. The brilliance of the Masai Mara, unlike other reserves in Africa and elsewhere, lies in the fact that the animals live a completely unfettered existence. Unlike Kruger National Park in South Africa, another popular animal-sighting destination on this continent, the lions, tigers, and bears in the Mara roam freely across the savannah. Granted, you have to search for them—it’s over 1500 square kilometers—but that’s half the fun.

I felt like a true explorer (and bit like a groundhog) as I stood in our van, turtling my head out the roof, surveying the plains for untamed beasts. On day one, spotting an antelope felt like an accomplishment. By day three, antelope and all other deer-like creatures were old news. Rhinos and hippos were on our wish list.

Loosely, from smallest to biggest, here’s what we saw under African skies: birds with plump yellow chests, birds with slim green chests, a grey kitten (not on the plains of the Masai Mara, dear reader, but at a roadside bathroom break, en route), puppies of all shapes and fur; a rooster; wild dogs; bigger birds; goats; sheep; a bird with a giant yellow Koosh on his head; baboons with obscene, swollen pink bottoms; Pumba from The Lion King; a hyena; a cheetah breakfasting on a gazelle; a gazelle being eaten by a cheetah; solemn looking gazelles, after the whole kill or be killed scenario which proved that “be killed” is their only choice; burros; impala (not the car, folks) and several other members of the deer family (I will spare you the list); lions and lionesses in all states including enjoying a buffalo buffet, napping, mating, post-mating cigarette-smoking type of behavior, looking ready to chase something, chasing something; buffalo; wildebeest; shy, psychedelic zebras; a family of giraffes and a pregnant lady giraffe; hippos scrambling to get back into the pool after they’d been spotted; a trotting rhino—very rare (the rhino…not the trotting); and momma elephants with their young’un, including a one month old baby.

I expected nothing. We emerged from the reserve having seen 4 of the “Big 5” (no go on the leopard) and many more of the innumerable Medium and Small.

More to come!