I'm a boss...

I hired my first field assistant ever today.  As I mentioned before, it was an interesting experience and ordeal.  I ended up choosing a guy named Zachary.  I think I was biased since he shares my brother’s name.  I think it was a good choice b/c he seems quite enthusiastic, smart, and seems to know his natural history quite well.  Aflred, Zachary, and I spent the day practicing some methods in the UHURU plots.  Alfred and Zachary are both very good with safety and were teaching me lots about how to make sure there are no animals in the area and what to do if we should see a buffalo or elephant up close while we’re away from the vehicle.  Alfred is amazing b/c he can smell elephants even when they are quite far off.  Alfred and I have bonded quite well, and I think he wishes he could work on my project.

Saw the usual animals today including a large heard of elephants.  New species included a family of warthogs, a plains Zebra, and a puff adder (very poisonous snake) on the way to dinner tonight.

Pretty much all the grad students and researchers went to Nanyuki today to go to trivia night and karaoke.  They’ll spend the night with some researchers who live there and then come back bright and early.  I would have liked to go, but I had a skype meeting with one of my collaborators, Kath, this evening, so I stayed here

Todd and Elisha are coming soon!  Very excited for that!

5-24

Went out this morning to practice more field methods with Zachary.  On the way back from the field station, I saw a couple new species:  cory bustard (largest flying bird in Africa), Grant's gazelles, Thompson's gazelles, gerenucks, and a male ostrich.

This afternoon, I accompanied Kirtsen and her husband Tom and their daughter Morgan down to Nanyuki to get some supplies.  They also took me out to eat at an Irish pub right smack dab on the Equator