An Idea Is Born

Last summer my wife Susan and I were thrilled to host Salaash Morompi for a few days during his US visit. We have been friends with Salaash for years, always making sure he is part of our Africa trips as he is not only an amazing guide, but also a colorful and very engaging human being. We felt we needed to share Salaash with some of our friends, so we decided to put together “An Evening With A Maasai.” We catered some African-themed food, put together a picture “slide show” to run in the background, and invited about 25 of our closest friends. The idea was to just let people meet this man from such a different world than ours.

When we announced Salaash and he started speaking off the cuff about his homeland, guiding guests on safari, life in his village and more, you could have heard a pin drop. People were simply captivated. After he spoke, we finally had to rescue him from folks who couldn’t get enough and kept asking questions. It was a special evening and those who attended thanked us profusely.

The next afternoon, Salaash and I were just relaxing and chatting. We had toured him through one of our friend's Class A Diesel Pusher motorhomes which made Salaash grin from ear to ear. We talked about where he had visited in the states and how most of what he had seen were just big cities. I told him there is so much more to the US than just big cities. As we chatted, it came up as kind of a joke, “What if we combined a motorcoach, travel to some of the most amazing spots in the US, and an evening with a Massai and called it Maasai Across America?

The idea grew and grew. We bounced it off of some of our Africa enthusiasts and everyone loved the idea. We decided it needed to be more than just a vacation, so we wove into a great purpose and cause. The mission became “A cross-cultural adventure to help conserve magnificent lands” We hope you will join us along the way, or at least virtually through our website and social media platforms.