Tuskers, Ping Pong, and Spears

A travel memory from Kenya

Three six-foot-plus Samburu warriors sat at the bar, their left hands curled around half-liter bottles of Tusker. Their right hands caressed the shafts of long, lion-killing spears.

The bar was in Maralal, Kenya, where the pavement ended about a day’s drive out of Nairobi. It was August and hot. The radio was playing Christmas songs by old country singer…