Since I have been back, everyone is compelled to ask... “How was Africa?”  I thought that when I got back, this would be an easy question to answer... right?  I mean, Africa... and epic journey that since the beginning of western civilization has been the holy grail of expedition travel.  When I told people I was going to Africa, they reacted very different that if they were to converse about my upcoming to say, Italy. 

Rather, a look of amazement on their faces, as if I had reached a point of personal development that had driven me mad.  Why I would chose to spend my vacation time in a difficult experience, with dust, dirt, challenges like altitude, and weather.  Limited luxuries and amenities that we take for granted every single moment in America?  Why would I go to Africa?  And how did I get to this point.

Ironically, this look of bewilderment also has a subtle tinge of jealousy to it.  Not that I’m going on vacation, but that I can choose to take my time and spend time at a place where the things we define as real here, are not so real there.

The idea of a fine sports car representing a certain level of social achievement does not hold merit there.  Maybe in the “polluted” cities where the people live and operate under similar social rules inflicted on them by us.  But in the wild, things are different.

In the wild you are brought face to face with the rules that have existed millions of years before us.  Millions of years before we made courts and banks and economies.  These rules are simple and everything, EVERYTHING that operated in that system was intrinsically operating within them.

Being in that environment gives you a new appreciation for what matters in our “reality”.  When you are placed in that kind of environment where the wild is only a tent thickness away from you, being back in this version of the wild seems simple and mundane.   One can argue that spending time in the wilderness here in America has the same effect.  But it doesn’t.  The predatory load here in the US is not the same as in Africa.  When we conquested and stole this land from the Natives, we spread rapidly from the east to the west and along with the extermination of the Native people, we exterminated the majority of diverse wildlife in our country. 

Where these animals roamed freely in mass numbers like the Wildebeest of Africa, now there are farms.  Sections of land called “National Reserve” or “National Parks” hold the remaining lot of these once free creatures.  We visit these well regulated sections of land and fin ourselves amazed at nature, but in reality, this little piece of what once dominated this world is still, really under our control.  Like everything else, we dictate when hunting season opens for various species to regulate their populations.  So it’s a “Natural” amusement park for those of us who are interested in Nature.  The real wild... is in Africa.

Over there... you are food.  Even in a Land Rover, it’s when you have an 11,000 pound African elephant standing 10 feet away showing aggression because you are too close to her calf.  Then is when you realize... you are still a little speck on the food chain. 

How do you explain this experience?  I mean really get the listener into the experience?  Not easily.  Hence my difficulty in writing about Africa and talking up conversation with you in person about it.

But I recently came across that can start giving you that feeling by proxy.  I found a site that a group of remarkable people in Africa started to bring “reality reality” to you.

Earth Touch is this group.  Their web site www.earth-touch.com is a daily updated video site.  Here you can view videos that are done with amazing class, simplicity and respect for the objective view of this “reality reality”.  Sometimes you might not watch one... it might “gross you out”.  But I have a challenge for you all: I want you to sit through some of the most disgusting ones.  Take this one for example (http://www.earth-touch.com/result.php?i=Maggots-writhe-on-nyala-carcass) where maggots writhe on a carcass... up close and personal.  These are also available through the iTunes Music Store in the PodCast section.

Just to reassure those of you who are concerned, I haven’t lost my mind, I am trying to shock you and let you observe your reaction to what happens every day in nature.  This balanced circle of life that we are “not” supposed to be part of (according to our modern philosophy and way of life).  If you really watch the complex relationship of this little bugs and how everything depends on everything else, and how no action stands alone and is dependent and resultant to, a series of other actions, you might begin to get the effect this trip has on a person.  So I posted some photos to show you.  You can view them HERE.