To the Editor:

Having just returned from Kenya, and specifically Masai Mara, I was rapt while reading Marshall Rabil’s “World journey continues” column (June 6). I had been with a team doing service work in children’s education and community medicine in Kawangware, a Nairobi slum, and we went on retreat afterward at Masai Mara.

At the lodge where we stayed, I met a few of the Maasai tribesmen who work at the lodge and live in nearby villages. The group performed traditional Maasai dances for guests of the lodge, and their leader was very accommodating, holding long conversations to answer questions about the Maasai tribe. He invited our group to visit his village when we return to Kenya next summer, and I can’t wait to go.

The Maasai have a fascinating history, and the few whom I recently met are possessed of true warrior spirits. They also exude the spiritual wealth and extend the gracious hospitality that I had come to know of Kenyans earlier in my stay.

I applaud Marshall for sharing the Maasai culture through his writing and also for taking advantage of the opportunity to experience it directly in Esalailei.

Katie Burke

San Francisco