“Hakuna Matata”
Hello and welcome to today’s episode of The Memory Keeper. I’m your host, Bram Groen and if you were with us last week, I promised that today I’d like to take us for a journey to our planet’s compatriots, the animals of the Serengeti. My wife, Sherry, and I had the experience of our lives at the Grumeti River, and truly had us saying “Hakuna Matata.”
The term “Hakuna Matata” is Swahili for “no worries” and “take it easy,” popularized by the Disney Movie “The Lion King.” It can be aspirational or a way of life. And what a way of life it was when we signed up with “&-Beyond” and spent 5 nights at the Grumeti River in the middle of the Serengeti. You get there by air taxi from Arusha, Tanzania and that trip alone is a thrill seeing the animals from above.
The Grumeti camp basically consists of a number of large private tents and no fences. Right on the river full of hippos and otherwise amid roaming elephants, lions, snakes and who knows what. A raised open-air wooden platform served as our “lounge and dining hall.” The crew treated us like Lion Royalty, for sure. Our trip’s destination was “the trek” and one morning our private “Hakuna Matata host” so to speak woke us up at 4.15 AM with tea and breakfast. Shortly thereafter, still dark, we were off in the jeep with our ranger for a two-hour bush ride to see the wildebeests and zebras.
At this latitude’s regular 6.45 AM sunrise we arrived, and it was an astounding experience. Thousands and thousands of animals all around us, all running in different directions as if this trek was not yet organized, or never was. You must hear them too: it amplifies the entire experience as all evidently communicate in their hoofed animal ways.
To our royal delight, our ranger set out a table and there we were sipping Bloody Mary’s and having ham and eggs at 7.30 in this gorgeous morning to watch National Geographic in real life. Hakuna Matata.
Back at camp that night, the staff organized a bonfire with dinner – wild pig - and we sang the popular Swahili song till we heard some male lion’s roar. Nothing safe there. When it was time to hit the sack, the guards brought the guests back to the tents, my wife included, as she was tired. Several of the male guests stayed back on the wooden platform to enjoy the pitch-dark night with an after-dinner drink. Watching the milky way as many have never seen it. Until…a huge hippo came out of the river and started heading in our direction. No guards: no idea what this colossus was up to and whether he could walk stairs. We chose to hide behind the bar as there was nowhere else to go.
“Gentlemen, what are you doing behind the bar? I can make you a drink.”
“No, no, we are hiding from that hippo who walked up to us.”
“Hakuna Matata as I saw the beast just took off towards the tents. Let me serve you as for now better not go there.”
When he finally brought us to our tents, my wife sat on the bed - still shocked - as she had heard some animal sniffing the perforated fabric at the underside of our tent. She kneeled to see what it was and looked straight into the face of…the hippo.
Hakuna Matata, sure! It is after all the animals’ song as if they want to tell us:
“This is our territory and way of life, and we expect you to respect us.”
Yes, travel can be tricky, and my daughter often asked us why we were at all traveling to dangerous places or situations. It’s par for the course, as they say. And to stay in this vein of danger, why not tell you about our South Korea trip next week? North Korea had just announced again that they were testing bombs and our stay was at the time of a recent border incident. Tensions were high. Just the right time to visit, right?
See you next week to talk about “Diversity and Exclusion at the Korean Peninsula.”
Many thanks to those who helped me develop this podcast, including Wesley Rose and his team at Lost Artistry and Amy Alexander and her team at Story Collaborative.
My name is Bram Groen, and I AM the Memory Keeper!
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