And then there were 13...

8/14
Now I'm back at Mpala.  We had a sundowner at baboon cliffs to say goodbye to the last of the Princeton kids.  The sundowner was cool b/c there were lots of baboons and we saw two African Porcupines.

Now we are down to 13 people.  Me, Mike (zebra researcher), Matt (hippo researcher), Katherine (Yale PhD student working on birds), Tyler (Princeton PhD student working on UHURU), Laura (UC Davis Postdoc studying primates and leopards), Kato (Princeton grad student studying ecohydrology), Georgia (UC-Santa Barbara PhD student studying ticks and grasshoppers), George (Smithsonian postdoc studying insects on a solanum), Gavin (UK postdoc doing pollination), Billy (Gavin's undergrad assistant) and 2 Princeton undergrads: Sally (Princeton in Africa fellow who is in charge of outreach) and Julia (doing something with local schools).  But soon it will be just be 6 of us: Me, Matt, Laura, George, Sally, and Julia as the rest go back for school.   The wild dog/cheetah people (Stef and Helen) are also here, but they live 20 minutes away and don't eat meals here, so they're not technically staying at Mpala

8/16

Last night we had a sundowner to Lizard rock, which is one of my favorite sundowner spots.  I had previously taken the palmer lab there once.  It involves a bit of rock climbing to get up (I made it without difficulty even with the knee) and has a magnificent view across the bush and is one of the few places at Mpala that you can actually see the sun set.

After dinner back at the centre, we went for a night game drive.  It was crazy successful as we saw 6 zorillas (members of the weasel (mustelids) family that look like skunks), white-tailed mongoose, some hippos out of water, a baby grevy's zebra, several elephants, buffalo, 2 genets, several bushbabies, tons of hyenas.  But best of all, we saw a lioness with a freshly killed warthog.  There were lots of hyenas yipping around and she was fending them off while the warthog was still in her mouth.  And on occasion she would drop it to roar.

Nairobbery and National Museums of Kenya

On Friday, August 9th, I had to head to Nairobi (Nairobbery as it is known to some folk at Mpala) to get started on and arrange for experts to ID my insects.  We caught a ride into Nairobi with Pat and Tyler's gf who were leaving.  Traffic was crazy though as the drive which usually takes 4 hours took nearly 8 hours.

On Saturday we walked to the museum to drop off my specimens and meet with Laban the head of invertebrate zoology.  We had packaged up all my insects and tied the boxes together as they are actually quite fragile.  As we walked from the hotel to the museum, our boxes attracted quite a bit of attention (or maybe it was just Mzungus walking in the city...as is the case with my travel life in general, locals are always surprised that the supposed rich white person is walking everywhere... actually just this trip when it was raining, neither the doorman of the hotel, nor the security guard at gate 1 nor the security guard at gate 2 could possibly believe we wouldn't take a taxi to the museum instead of walking in the rain). But it was funny b/c the boxes initially looked like pizza boxes, but then when strapped up, they looked like special cake deliveries.

We only met with Laban in the morning and then in the afternoon we explored Nairobi (on foot of course).  Walked downtown and saw some of the important buildings.  Really nothing too interesting.  Nairobi is probably one of my least favorite cities.  Smoggy, polluted, super busy, no good cheap street food.  But we went to the "Maasai Market" in one of the big squares and haggled really hard for some good souvenirs and gifts for our families.  Having lived here, Elisha and I are pretty adept and bargaining, and I think we get quite good deals.  Actually, one of my bargaining tactics here (besides not being too interested in the product) is to let them know I live in Kenya, that I've been here for a while, and that I know what prices should be and to just skip with the Mzungu price.

We had Sunday off to continue our exploration of Kenya.  We considered heavily going to Nairobi national park (this is the one main, and it's huge, redeeming quality of Nairobi).  The park is home to black rhinos, lions, leopards, cheetahs, and the whole range of herbivores.  We were pretty close to pulling the trigger to go, but the cost just kind of held us back.  So instead we took a bus to Karen, which is a suburb of Nairobi named after the famous Karen Von Blixen, the author of Out of Africa (well her pen name was Isak Dinesen).  This was my 2nd adult classic type book (the first being Moby Dick) and it was one of the reasons I continued falling in love with East Africa and where a lot of the images in my mind of what E. Africa is like came from.  Karen is on the complete opposite spectrum of Nairobi central.  It's lush and green with nice air.  It's full of rich expats with gorgeous mansions built on huge pieces of land.

In Karen is the Giraffe Manor, which is a mansion on a huge piece of property that is run by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife.  As two of the species of giraffe (reticulated and rothschild) are highly endangered, it is a breeding (and educational) center for giraffes who are later released into the wild in national parks.  At the Giraffe Centre, you can go up onto platforms so that you are eye-level with giraffes and you can feed and pet them.  They have the craziest tongues.  So long and dextrous like fingers.  If you put the treats in your mouth, some of the giraffes will also kiss you as they take the treat.  So we had a lot of fun there.  We also did a short nature walk that ended in a view of the Ngong hills which is one of the places that Karen von Blixen spent a lot of time at.

On Monday, I spent the whole day at the museum working on ID'ing insects and coordinating insect ID.  I also attended a small conference/seminar on pollination that happened to be going on there at the time.  Kath and Gavin arrived later in the afternoon and I also met with them.

Tuesday was the sad day.  We went to the museum (in the rain) to finish up there and have a meeting with Kath and Gavin and a museum administrator.  I then had to say goodbye to Elisha :( as she was flying home.  Kath was also flying back to the UK, so Gavin and I took a van back to Mpala that afternoon.

carrying the insects to the museum

all my insects packaged up

Downtown Nairobi

The Ngong Hills

ID'ing insects

a small part of the museums large insect collection

Visa Extended! and the thrift store of your dreams

As Kenya only gives you a 3 month visa, you have to somehow extend if you want to stay longer.  For most tourists, the simple thing is to leave East Africa (Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania don't count as leaving Kenya as far as visas are concerned) and then return.  This is simple enough as there are amazing things to see in Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Congo, etc.  However, when you are working here, that's a bit difficult.  The traditional thing was to go to Nairobi to the immigration office, a process that was difficult, took forever, and was full of bureaucratic bs.  But recently, Mpala has found a "friendly" in Nyeri who makes visa extensions quite painless and quick.  I had gone before with Kirsten and Laura, and it was very easy for them.  I was expecting similar ease when Elisha and I drove to Nyeri.  We had a bit more trouble, but not much.  I still had about 10 days left on my visa, so they told me to come back when I just had a couple days to go.  Problem is, it's an over 2 hour drive to go there, so we argued that they should be able to just give it to me now.  We argued back and forth for a bit, with them spouting out some crazy prices (15,000ksh, nearly $200), but eventually I ended up with a visa extension good until mid November for free and a submitted application for my alien registration card for 2,000ksh (25 bucks) as well as black fingers from a whole lot of fingerprinting.  If I am able to get that card, it is super helpful.  For example, the main parks here cost US 80 to 90 dollars, but with that card, I am technically a resident, so the price would be 1000ksh (just over 10 bucks).  It also give you discounts at hotels (resident rates).  But even the fingerprinted application card is useful.  At the giraffe park in Nairobi, Elisha had to pay 1000ksh, but I only had to pay 200ksh.

Since we were down in the "city" it was a shopping day.  We first stopped at the equator market (curio shops) so that we could get some gifts for family members.  We then went to this open air market called Matumbo.  This is one of the places in Kenya where the huge shipments of non-purchased salvation army and thrift store good are dumped by the dumptruck load.  You can get all sorts of things, for example t-shirts ranging from 50 cents to $1.  But it's just this giant market full of all the unwanted things from thrift stores in the States and Europe.  It was basically Elisha's heaven.  She was so upset she hadn't heard about this earlier.  We've seen some pretty sweet things in Kenya, but I think this might have been her favorite

Field assistant Zachary and me

Mount Kenya

Rejected clothes in America and Europe are loved here.  Matumbo Market

Elisha's Heaven

Dr. Brett from CSU had the women at the women's village learn how to make beaded bracelets in the design of the Colorado Flag.  My favorite Kenyan bracelet thus far!