2013 | Berkeley
We became good friends with Paul Ole Kitesho on our adventure in Kenya’s Chyulu Hills. The next year, we gave him a tour of California. In an LA shoe store, he asked, “Who owns this store?” The answer was corporate, so we made sure to take Paul to a familiar little town in Northern California, where we could introduce him to many of the proprietors. We also got to share the Pacific Ocean (his first view ever of salt water), his first hearing of the deep rhythm of the surf, and in a nearby inlet, his first feeling of a tidal current around his ankles. Fortunately, as part of the wildlife exchange, an elk herd came by for a look back at us.
Paul had been continuing his studies in Nairobi to qualify as a certified naturalist guide, so I thought he’d enjoy visiting the Cal campus, so he could say he had “gone” to Cal. I had never been around the back of the Campanile. Paul looked up and said, “Your best president!”