Four years ago, my good friend, Marti, and my sister, Barbara, stood at my dining room table with me in front of an open suitcase. My flight to South Africa was the next morning, and I was not ready. They started picking from the various stacks of clothes and gear and forcing me to make decisions.

This week, as I packed for my upcoming trip to Kenya, I thought a lot about Marti, my dear friend of over 40 years. Marti understood the importance of travel as a way to educate and enlighten long before I did. But now, in what I call the third stage of my life, I’ve come to understand, too, that travel should have a purpose — to give, to learn, to share. Not simply to consume.

In a few hours, I leave for a volunteer program, Big Cat and Elephant Research and Conservation, operated by African Impact in the Masai Mara National Reserve. Similar to my South African volunteer work in pre-pandemic 2020, I will assist in collecting data for conservation research by monitoring and counting, among other animals, lions and elephants. The two beasts that took my breath away in 2020.

As I did then, I will write and post pictures of my experience during the two-week program. I will also think of Marti, who two years ago, succumbed to that son-of-a-bitch we call cancer.

As I zipped up my suitcase this week, I believed that this would be my last African adventure. But then Barbara visited and we talked about what I’ll be doing there. She, too, is interested in traveling as more than a tourist. She said maybe she’ll go with me next time. She said this as if, of course, there will be a next time. Why not?

But for now, I am looking forward to meeting the elephants and lions of the Masai Mara in Kenya. I will imagine having my sister with me and miss my friend Marti.