# Return to Kenya: A DNA Test Leads to a Safari Adventure > The story of Tracy Cheetham, who traced her roots to the Ol Lentille reserve after a DNA test. Discover how a search for ancestry turned into a safari adventure. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/vozvrashchenye-v-kenyiu-test-dnk-pryvodyt-k-prykliuchenyiam-na-safary/ - Language: en - Published: 2026-01-04 - Categories: Culture, Hotels, Tours, Kenya, Animal Rides, Relaxation --- Tracy Cheetham did not come to Kenya for the animals. She came for the people. The Las Vegas doctor had spent an entire year planning this trip with her husband, an attorney named Mark McIntyre, to celebrate her 50th birthday. They took a 300-kilometer flight from Nairobi to the Ol Lentille reserve, set on the far northern edge of the Laikipia Plateau, because beyond being a luxurious and secluded safari lodge, it is a social enterprise owned, run and directly benefited by the local Maasai and Samburu communities. «I did one of those DNA tests to figure out which countries I come from,» Cheetham says. «When we got the results back, it turned out I was from all sorts of places, except for Morocco and Egypt. Everywhere else, it seems I have a little bit of African roots.» Having visited Tanzania before, this is her next step in exploring her heritage. «As a Black American woman, coming here matters to me,» she says. ## 40,000 acres of solitude A stone paradise on a rocky hilltop (picture the Flintstones as reimagined by Mies van der Rohe), the Ol Lentille lodge sits at the center of a conservancy three times the size of Manhattan. From the four villas, from the pool, from the open-air dining and lounge areas, panoramic views surround you. An immense desert of sandy hills and valleys, dotted with acacias like the markings on a giraffe's hide, stretches across 40,000 acres. The resort hosts a maximum of 14 adults at a time (plus children), and gazing out over the sprawling, untamed reserve, it feels as though the whole world belongs to you alone. «You can do whatever you want, whenever you want,» says the reserve's English director, John Elias. Elephants, antelopes and other animals live in the conservancy, and you can watch them on safari, on quad bikes, mountain bikes and even on camels. And since there is no need to worry about lions or buffalo, «it's fantastic terrain for walking,» he adds. Along with the infinity pool and its breathtaking views, there is a spa and plenty of places to relax in your private kitchen and living areas. ## Conservation tourism For Cheetham and McIntyre, though, the first adventure they want to take on is a drive in a four-wheeler over rough dirt roads to visit a local primary school, a mobile clinic and a manyatta (or village). Timothy ole Mosiani, the operations manager, is our guide. As a member of the Maasai community, he explains the Ol Lentille Trust's model of community-based conservation tourism. «The Ol Lentille reserve was created by the local community together with the African Wildlife Foundation about 15 years ago. Before that, the conservation area was used as grazing land by the local community, who own the land.» The tourist lodge in the reserve appeared a couple of years later, in 2007. «This way, the community benefits from conservation, improving their land, while also running a tourism business.» ## Meeting the locals We arrive at the Nkiloriti school in the glorious mid-morning sunlight. Clouds like little tufts of cotton are scattered across the vast blue sky, and children in red sweaters stroll or sit in the shade of an acacia. Goats wander the grounds without a care. It is a picturesque scene, but the children had to walk up to 10 kilometers to get here. Many pupils could not come at all today. It is mid-March, and the rainy season has not yet arrived. The prolonged drought means the children are needed at home to carry water or tend the livestock. Cheetham and McIntyre meet with the teachers and children and hand out fresh supplies of notebooks and stationery. The school was built by the Ol Lentille trust, and the trust also covers the teachers' salaries. The mobile clinic makes a monthly visit to the community, and a crowd waits patiently to be seen. The trust «was able to build a 24-bed hospital for our local community, where before there was nothing,» ole Mosiani explains. ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-223-1-2025.jpg) ## Changing the world for the better As a physiatrist, a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, this is a subject close to Cheetham's heart. Only about 2% of actively practicing doctors in the US are Black women, and her path here was not an easy one. «I graduated from high school when I was seven months pregnant,» she explains. She studied law, dropped out of college and had a second child. She adopted her niece and nephew, and after her nephew suffered a traumatic brain injury, she was inspired to become a doctor to help other people like him. She started medical school as the mother of four young children and became a doctor by the age of 31. «Life was hard. I tried to make the best of the situation I was in, and I knew I had a long-term goal. I wanted to make a difference.» Our visit to the manyatta, a small village of just a few families who warmly welcome us with singing and dancing, «was another layer of emotion that I wasn't quite ready for.» ## Coming home Here, in these simple huts, there is no water or electricity, but there are solar panels on the roof so the villagers can charge their mobile phones. Phones are the community's way of staying in touch with relatives who have gone off to Nairobi and beyond for higher education. «Being a descendant of a slave, and then being given the chance to come home and see people who look like you \[and\] welcome you into their community...,» Cheetham reflects. «People don't often talk about privilege. I believe I'm privileged to a certain degree, being well educated and having seen so many different things, and being able to show my children so many different things. These children don't have that opportunity,» she says. «The fact that they got to see me, I think it meant a lot to them, because tourists usually don't look like me when they see them. I hope it was a blessing to them. I know it was a blessing to me.» ![](https://test.langandtrip.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/de_import_uploads/june-article-image-223-2-2025.jpg) ## Solving problems The trust is funded in part by the reserve's profits and by donations from visitors. «Most of our guests are thoughtful, intelligent people,» Elias says. «We show them the problems, and their response to that is, "How can I help?" Over the past eight years, we've been able to put around 5.5 million dollars of investment into this community.» What they offer at Ol Lentille, he says, is «experiential travel. It's not about ticking off the big five mammals in some huge game park.» «It's about giving a deep understanding of how completely different people live, how they earn a living, what family structures look like, what it means to be Maasai or Samburu.» ## 'Struck by every moment' Cheetham and McIntyre still have several days of relaxation ahead of them, of sunsets and dinners in the bush, and of watching the wildlife. It is not the first time they have been on the continent, and it will not be the last. Elias, the reserve's director, says: «I'll openly admit that I've got the "African disease," and a lot of people catch it.» «The people who catch it come back. Our repeat-visit rate here is 40%. One of our guests was here at Christmas, and it was his 43rd visit; that's an obsession by now.» «The reason a vacation is so important to me, and to Mark as well,» Cheetham says, «is that it's the only time, our protected time, that we have for each other, where the outside world doesn't exist. On every trip, we learn something new about each other.» McIntyre tells Cheetham, reflecting on his day spent with the local community: «Over the years we've spent together, I've watched the evolution of how you've embraced your heritage and started talking about doing something like this. Yesterday was what I always imagined you wanted to see and to feel.» Cheetham agrees with a broad smile. «I'm struck by every moment I've had being here.» Ol Lentille reserve, Laikipia, northern Kenya; +254 795 440 411; from $1,500 per person for a four-night stay, all inclusive