Back to the Mara
*** UPDATE We won 7 Telly Awards for this piece including Cinematography, Writing, and Directing***
After winning NatGeo Wild’s “Wild to Inspire” film festival, we headed with both boys to Kenya where we introduced the boys the a country and friends near and dear to us. It was a beautiful experience to watch the boys see the country for the first time. Their wonder and awe were infectious. There, the met John Manie Kipas, a safari guide and Maasai warrior who took the boys to his village where they learned first-hand what it takes for a boy to become a warrior. They played soccer with elephant dung, made their own bows and arrows, learned how to brush their teeth the way the Maasai villages have traditionally done, and asked us questions like “why are there so many ‘African-Americans’ in Kenya. They learned more than just wildlife; they got a lesson on colonialism, even female-circumcision (now illegal in Kenya), geology, etc. The boys were incessant, curious and talkative. They asked about nature, life and everything else in between. It took one month to log all the audio to find the best clips, but I don’t think Mateo will ever forget his 9th birthday in the Mara.
