The world within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area seems almost surreal. There is an inexplicable energizing quality to the rolling hills speckled with bomas. During Judy’s latest trip to Tanzania, the Maasai Partners crew was able to visit our service villages and connect with members of the Maasai community.

As we walked up to Tumaini Junior School recently, students were running around celebrating the end of examinations and the start of the Easter holiday. The Maasai Partners team was visiting our sponsored students at the school during Judy’s most recent visit to Karatu.

Walking more than 60 kilometers over a steep, high-elevation landscape while carrying 30 kilograms of medical supplies on his head, Dr. Shemagembe’s first assignment was to reach remote villages suffering from a measles outbreak.

When she woke up parched in the middle of the night, Liz Reilly instinctively reached for the water bottle she had packed. The one, partially-filled bottle she had grabbed in the rush of packing for the village. The water that was to last her the next four days.

Hours from what is typically considered civilization, in the midst of a vast landscape on the edge of several craters, among people whose ways have hardly changed over the course of several centuries—staying in the boma is almost like stepping back in time.

Seven years ago, Judy Lane made a decision that would not only change her life trajectory but set in motion the workings of a partnership that would grow into the full-on nonprofit organization that is now Maasai Partners.