Unless you're an early riser, bring an alarm clock. You need to get an early start every day, and in nine mornings, three or four of our wake-up calls were not given.

Everybody scared us about mosquitoes, but in late June we only saw two or three. Of course, when you get bitten by something that could carry malaria, etc., you do get a little more nervous. Flies never bothered us.

Almost all the time we were outside, we were in a pop-top van. I never put on a hat or sunscreen. This was at a cloudy time of year and one of the two seasons when the sun is lowest in Kenya, though.

If you buy handicrafts you have to bargain—asking prices may be 10 times what the piece appears worth. I said "appears" because some of our carvings broke and proved to be painted wood instead of ebony, teak, or rosewood. (The bright side is that the trees used were no doubt much less rare than the advertised ones.) If my mother takes another tour, she plans to support the Kenyan economy by just donating to handicraft stores instead of buying things and getting ripped off.

On the other hand, most people were happy with dollars and everyone gave us a fair exchange rate.

Many craft sellers (and probably others) wanted to buy or trade for American T-shirts and caps.