Page 51 - Humanism 2019
P. 51
Looking into the eyes of a Tanzanian opportunity to honor our mother and her love for this
four-year old, I stay human. beautiful land, unseen by most.
With great thought and planning by my daughter and her
Looking into the eyes of a Masai amazing photographer husband, the trip was planned and
warrior, I stay human. the four of us were ready to begin this exciting journey.
This was the first trip to Africa for the three of us. In a
Looking at the majesty of the African delicate way, the ashes of my mom were packed with the
25 pounds of allowed clothing in my luggage. We headed
grasslands, I stay human.
to LAX, where our journey began. Many hours later, we
landed in Amsterdam, where we spent a day to enjoy
Looking at the size and magnificence
some sites and prepare for our two weeks in Africa.
of a bull elephant, I stay human.
We left Amsterdam the next day and arrived in Africa 12
hours later. We touched down at Kilimanjaro Airport and
were greeted by our guide. He told us his name was Saidi,
and asked us what was important for us to see on our
trip. We told him we wanted to see anything and
everything we possibly could.
n October 2017, I had the opportunity to take a trip to
All of what I had been told about Africa and the pictures
ITanzania, Africa. The trip was mostly intended to
that I had seen were true! It was 11 days of sheer
honor my mother, whose favorite continent in the world
excitement. It was also a very rugged trip.
was Africa. This was a woman who had traveled to all
but one of the continents and had been to different There are so many words that come to mind about being
countries in Africa on eight different occasions. on a trip to Africa. Majestic, massive, wild, serene,
breathtaking, lush, vast, exciting, thrilling, magnificent,
The trip that I went on would have been my mom’s ninth
powerful, and tranquil are words that describe the
visit there. She was unable to make this last trip, as she
animals and the land that we saw as we gazed across the
succumbed to cancer and passed away four days shy of
savannah. Diverse, courageous, cultured, united,
her 82nd birthday.
determined, family-oriented and trusting are words that
The trip started out with my daughter, Kristen, and her describe the amazing people.
husband Josh. They invited me, and I knew this would be
the trip of a lifetime, so I took them up on it. After talking The first thing you learn on the first day of your safari is
with my sister Lisa about the trip, she was invited to go trust. You will have complete trust in your guide, who
along with us. This was one of many trips to Africa for my you will be with for 11 days in an open-air safari vehicle.
sister, as she went on all of the other trips with my mom. Saidi was kind, intelligent, knowledgeable and funny. We
got to know his sense of humor after a few days. He
My sister had an idea after we discussed what we would thought we were pretty funny, too, and we had many
like to do on our trip. We knew we wanted to go on a hot laughs together.
air balloon ride over the Serengeti. She said, how about
we spread some of mom’s ashes over the Serengeti? We all Our first encounter with wildlife was about five minutes
thought it was a great idea, and it would give us an after we left camp on the morning of our first game drive.
HUMANISM IN THE HEALTH SCIENCES 2019 • VOL. 22 48
