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Published: June 24th 2009
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twiga
Just can't get enough of them. I don't like to pick favorites but I will say seeing these long-necked African creatures always makes me squeal. Things I love about being in Kenya
The fruit, passionfruit and mango especially, though sadly, mango is no longer on the diet. Tiny antelopes (dik-diks) grazing outside my window. The constant bird chatter around the Centre. Hyenas whooping outside my banda at night.* Distracting myself with birdwatching when I’m supposed to be working. The gangly, loping grace of a giraffe and the surprising enormity of them. Learning Kenya-isms (e.g., when I stumble, not an uncommon occurrence, the field assistants will say, “Sorry, sorry!” instead of “Careful!”). Hearing foreigners unconsciously mimic Kenyan English dialect when speaking to Kenyans. Every day, snapping photos on my way to work because everything is deserving of a picture out here. Trying to differentiate between Swahili and the tribal languages (just so I can have the satisfaction of at least knowing what language is being spoken despite having no idea what is being said). Picking up Swahili phrases and tossing them about in conversation. The whining squawk of the white-bellied go-away bird. Sundowners. Game drives where we take turns half-leaning out the window holding the spotlight and searching for eye-shine. Regal, stiff secretary birds. Using British terms such as torch, biscuits (for cookies), queue, football (for
hyena did it!
Turns out hyenas like couches made of rawhide. In the early hours of the morning, askaris saw a hyena curled up under the couch, gnawing away like a dog at the bone. soccer). The random American clothes Kenyans sometimes sport, such as a woman wearing a Santa Claus hat in Nanyuki or one of the field assistant's bright pink, flared exercise pants that he wears to work. Adding to my animal sightings list. Donkeys in the midst of Boran cattle herds.
*I love the musical quality of hyena calls but one night, I was at the lab late at night and a hyena was calling not that far away outside. Not a big deal really. I walked outside to find an askari to walk me home and I walked beyond the dull, orange porch lights of the lab, searching for the high-powered torch beam of an askari. Then I heard the hyena whoop very, very close behind me, not directly behind me but off to one side by the lab building where no light penetrated. Without pausing to search for it with my own dinky flashlight (torch), I high-tailed it back to the lab and another student called the head of security on her cell phone. Even though a) hyenas are low(er) on the totem pole and b) if it was calling out, it was likely not hunting, hearing that sound
Boran cattle
Pretty skinny right now so close when you’re outside will give anyone the willies. In the hierarchy of night-time fears, I would rate elephants at the top, then lions, leopards, and lastly hyenas. If I’m at the Hippo Pools, hippos would be first. They are dangerous in the water but also very, very dangerous when startled when they lumber onto land at night.
Trip to town
A trip to Nanyuki involves in-town hasslers, a multitude of booze/chocolate requests from other researchers, hoping that tires don’t bust, and constant vigilance about one’s possessions and purchases. The trip takes about forty-five minutes over a road that is now being graded by Kenyan engineers hired by the British Army (government favors in return for space for military training) but the part that is ungraded is treacherous to say the least, gullies, ridges, washboards, etc. Avoiding bicyclists loaded down with firewood (bundles the size of the entire bike) and mixed herds of goats, Boran cattle, and donkeys as well as the normal pitfalls of the dirt road never allows you to relax or zone out. Illegal charcoal stacks smolder in the middle of the day.
Once we hit the tarmak, Nanyuki madness begins. Bicyclists, pedestrians, speeding
Burros!
Why are donkeys so damn amusing-looking? And little ones are just so darn cute? They're often mixed in with Boran cattle herds. drivers, and random, unexpected road blocks make town driving a tricky affair. Today, I went with Renee to drop off three researchers to a taxi headed toward Nairobi. Parking in Nanyuki is a loose affair, anywhere there is a free space on the side of the road is fair game. However, you want to park where there is either a municipal employee or an askari who will watch over your car. As soon as we got out of the car, we were surrounded by vendors. Some have stalls, some just have a tarp laid out to the side of a store door with wooden animals, spoons, and masks, beaded necklaces and bracelets, soapstone carvings, and various other trinkets arrayed for your viewing pleasure. Other sellers walk around with all their wares, pirated DVDs, hand-painted cards, newspapers, etc. A group of mazungus (white people) immediately attract attention. (My favorite line right now comes from the DVD sellers. They see a white woman and immediately, the DVD “White Masai” appears at the top of the stack. “You want this, yes? White Masai, see? Have you seen it?” It’s a based-on-real-life movie about a British woman (I think) who marries a Masai man
in Kenya.)
The sellers introduce themselves, point out their shop, ask you how long you will be in Kenya and exchange pleasantries. You get to know many of them since they are always open for business every time you go into town. Everywhere you stop, gas station, Boulangerie, grocery store, people walk up to you. But I have never felt uncomfortable or nervous. Everyone I have talked to is pushy but never rude, just determined and understandably so. Renee makes constant promises to visit people’s stalls on future visits which means on the day when we finally go shopping for souvenirs, she will have many, many stops!
A trip to town always takes longer than you think. We only had three stops to make but it took us an hour and half. Despite the constant rush of people and vehicles on the streets outside, things just move slowly inside the stores. Service with a smile and quick-to-help-you employees are not common in Kenya. Then you step back outside and vendors reach and call out to you once again. Retreating into the cool, quiet of the Boulangerie or some other restaurant is a must when spending all day in town.
watching it come down
Everybody stood outside to watch what hasn't happened in four months. Unfortunately, it only lasted fifteen minutes. Mpala suddenly becomes an even greater oasis and once you leave Nanyuki, you’re ready to get back as quickly (but safely!) as possible.
Singin’ in the rain…briefly
For fifteen minutes, it rained today, poured down in fact. All the people working in their offices/labs stepped outside onto the covered porches and watched it come down. There’s nothing like the smell of freshly moistened soil, full and heady. But the sky was blue across most of the horizon and soon enough, the rain stopped, leaving behind only thin clouds to shade the afternoon sun. It has rained a total of 10 days since the beginning of this year, this makes 11. Rainy days at Mpala are usually full mornings, sometimes an entire day of rain, constant and steady. There are typically three rainy periods around the Laikipea Plateau, April and November being the heaviest with a smaller one peaking in August. Highly variable but that’s the long-term average. November of 2008 was pretty normal but the typically heaviest rainy period in the spring passed over Mpala and the entire region entirely. The yearly average is around 500 mm. So far it’s been less than 100 mm.
The northern part
on the move
Not a great shot but it was out the car window. Herds like this from all over northern Central Kenya are being moved en masse to Mt. Kenya. of Central Kenya is hurting, badly. On our way to town (Nanyuki) today, we saw the exodus of cattle, goat, and sheep herds all moving slowly to Mt. Kenya. There is no water on the way, and the grass, normally lush at this time of year, is white and brittle. Carcasses of the starving animals dot the way. The national park has opened its borders to herders, but everyone in the region is converging on the mountain. One mountain, however lush and enormous, cannot sustain all the herds in Central Kenya. The hovering specter of malnutrition has darkened, and several of the human ecology grad students at Mpala have made several rushes to doctors bearing suffering children. I don’t think that the situation is yet a national emergency but it has all the makings of one.
Animal sightings
Little bee-eater
Warthog family (male, female, and four wee ones)
Brown-headed sparrow-weavers
Dwarf mongooses
Baboons (one perched on top of a spreading acacia tree! He clambered down before I could snap a photo)
Vervet monkeys
Pearl-spotted Owlet
Green wood-hoopoe
Speckled pigeon (so fat!)
Northern white-crowned shrike
Wire-tailed swallow
White-crested helmet shrike (they look slightly insane with Einstein-like gray feathers sticking up on their crown and a ring of yellow around their eyes)
Purple grenadier
Emerald-spotted wood-dove
*PS- The two pinkies have now died. Janet’s menagerie briefly swelled to four and now just consists of Ivan Batsky.
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