A Good Place to Plant a Tree

I long ago lost count of the number of places I’ve stayed at in Kenya. I fell in love with this beautiful country and its people almost twenty years ago on an invitation to plant trees after filming an interview with Africa’s first woman to receive the Nobel Peace laureate, Wangari Maathai.  

Planting trees with the women of The Green Belt Movement and then at a rural primary school led to building a rainwater system for thirsty trees and thirsty kids. This then led to building a small computer lab, then classrooms, preschools, high schools, libraries, kitchens and dining halls through a nonprofit I created with my wife, The Nobelity Project. 

Today, almost two decades on, we’ve helped build significant parts of 50 rural schools, all still in use, and serving more children than we ever imagined. 

About ten years into our work in Kenya, I was introduced to the team from Angama Mara who were also considering how they could have great community impact. I made the long drive to the lodge for a lunch meeting and — like so many guests who come here — knew immediately that I’d be back again and again. Every visit was a cause for celebration.  

We worked with the Angama team to help the Angama Foundation’s ambitious effort to build a much-needed rural public school: Partakilat Primary.  

The small school started with only 44 students, most learning in classes made of sticks and mud. Today, there are now 445 students learning in light and bright classrooms: from preschoolers to 9th grade. Despite its remote setting, Partakilat is now the top-scoring public school in a huge district. Another cause of celebration.  This most recent trip, we opened a wonderful new library named in honour of a Nobelity Project friend who loved both Angama and Partakilat. We may have lost our Thomas, but we didn’t mourn him at the grand opening. Instead, we celebrated with the school’s Maasai choir and with all the children. And it was glorious.

While speaking at the opening of the Thomas Giamboi Legacy Library, I looked up and realised I was standing in the shade of an acacia tree I’d planted three years ago as a tiny seedling (I’m 6’7’ so a tree has to grow rather tall to give me shade). One of my Angama friends came up to me and said, ‘This was a good place to plant a tree. The kids will always be bringing books from the library and sit on the grass here and read.’ Sometimes a celebration comes with tears.  

In my heart, I’m always planting trees and hoping they’ll grow. The Angama Foundation — working with our nonprofit and even more with key Mara conservation partners — has had a profound impact on their area. All of that happens behind-the-scenes while the guests who make it possible are enjoying, in my opinion, the best food, views and accommodation, as well as the warmest smiles and some of the finest natural beauty and wildlife on the face of our planet. 

If you’d like to do something for Partakilat, the Angama team will gladly take you for a visit, and I promise you’ll find much to celebrate.

I am by trade a writer and a photographer (though you are more likely to know me as that narcoleptic guy in HBO’s The Sopranos). A fair portion of Nobelity’s work at schools in Kenya is funded through the sale of my photographs, and some of the best are from The Mara Triangle. Every visit to Angama and thanks to their great guides, I somehow end up with images that I know have captured the magic of the Mara.  And in that moment, I celebrate grand but unknown things to come.