The Dark Continent - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 354

abound; tropical people are subject to diseases bourn by insects (think malaria), diseases
carried by rivers and streams, and those carried by the earth (think ringworm).
“From the safety of our Land Rover we watch the lioness hunt. As male and female
devour their prey; buzzards fly above and slathering jackals wait their turn for what is left.

E GYPT
“Set in the eastern corner of Africa, Egypt (as Herodotus also said) is the gift of the Nile.
It is an oasis set in the desert, with fertile lands and abundant crops. From the apartment
lent by friends, we could look down on Cairo's thronging streets with its eight million plus
population. Young men are everywhere to be seen, looking for jobs, still living with their
parents, unable to marry without employment. Many sit at the doors of government agen-
cies, hoping to get inside, and thus to begin a humble job that will eventually move them
upward. Unfortunately for them, their university degrees are not practical for employment.
Gentlemen, they are told, do not work with their hands and rather than studying, say engin-
eering, their degrees are in the liberal arts! Shoddy builders substitute cement; and all too
often, buildings collapse in the streets, injuring many and sending most to the protection of
other streets.

K ENYA
“Most travelers have their favorite country. Ours is Kenya. We go and visit old friends. We
admire the tall stately Masai warriors, who shout and shake their spears as in days gone by
when they could still hunt lions, and the Zulus, fierce warriors whose tactics were much
in the style of Alexander of Macedonia. Let the enemy penetrate your ranks, and when
he thinks he has triumphed, attack him from the rear and finish him off. Zulus were the
implacable enemies of the British whose soldiers admired their tactics and bravery. Their
stories are told in movies: Zulu (1964) with Michael Caine and Richard Burton, and Zulu
Dawn (1979), which tells the story of bull-headed and downright stupid British command-
ers.

“Most of all, we are fascinated by the big game: lions, giraffes, water buffalo, and ele-
phants. From the safety of our Land Rover, we watch a lioness kill a deer. As lion and li-
oness devour their prize, buzzards circle, and jackals cringe and slather. We rise early to go
to the water hole to watch the animals drink. And our guide takes us to the foot of Mount
Kilamanjoro. We climb part way; then return and sit in our camp chairs to watch the clouds
encircle the mountain.
“Nairobi is the center of urban life. As we exit a bank after changing money, the bank
guard warns us, those men with clubs are watching and waiting to rob you. The guard, gun
in hand, delivers us to an Indian shop where earlier we had bought souvenirs. The shop-
keepers understood and bundled us into their car, followed by a second car as escorts.
“Our friends and saviors had come to Kenya a generation earlier to help build a rail-
road. Its trackage spanned rivers, hills, and swamps. Thus was born what Kenyans called
the Lunatic Express. Within a few years it would link with other railroads, thus completing
a generation's dream, by train from Cairo to South Africa.