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River Camp
The dining hall at River Camp 4th of July, Kenya style
No burgers, no hotdogs, no fireworks, no Texas-size family grouping. 4th of July at Mpala consisted of kickball, football (soccer), multiple small and big dance parties, and Tusker beer. After working in the morning (Saturdays are half work-days), we trooped down to the River Camp to have lunch. Currently, the Princeton crew, all of Dan Rubenstein’s students, live at the River Camp but it’s also used for large groups of students who travel through on research abroad programs. It consists of a series of tent structures with canvas walls and ceilings but permanent foundations. There’s no electricity and no running water; shower water is doled out every day to each individual. However, there’s the sound of the river, bush-babies leaping within the fever trees at dusk, and all sorts of animals filter down to the water day and night. While we were there, we saw three hawks and a warthog mother with two skittering wee ones.
After lunch, there was a gradual move toward the football field, a tiny soccer field demarcated by the road and tufts of grass. Since it was the 4th of July, Stefan and Zach had decided that kickball was
warthog mother and family
There are two little ones right around the adult's legs suitably American. A mass of field assistants showed up for the afternoon festivities and after a 15 minute powwow, where the Americans tried to explain kickball to not just Kenyans but also the Canadians, the game started. There were usually about six people in the outfield as well as the base players and the kicking line-up had no rhyme or reason. There were some classic moments such as the first time that someone kicked a pop-fly and all the non-Americans just watched it soar through the air, including the kicker and the people on base. And the time that a kicker made a solid kick to deep center field and ran to first base, decided to skip the other bases, made a bee-line for the third base line and started back to home. I think that it was a basically strange concept for the Kenyans, thorough football players, to be expected to catch a soccer ball. (Strangely enough, they don’t sell kick-balls in Nanyuki. We had to make do with an over-inflated, rock-hard soccer ball.)
On the sidelines, people watched and danced to the Tanzanian tape Janet had playing in her vehicle. David, first name Kimiti, is a student
kickball!
Renee pitching with the hard-as-a-rock soccer ball. We used the football practice field and had big, flat rocks for bases. from Nairobi so he knew all the club dances. Since the early 2000’s, there’s been a new dance step every year. Each one has a name but I can only remember the mosquito and the slide. They are simple and easy to follow, involving a lot of hip rolls, little hand movements, and the occasional strike-a-pose. From Halima, the IT guy’s girlfriend, and David, we also learned a few of the basic Turkana and Masai moves, traditional dance steps adapted to pop music. (Note: Two non-researcher women, Halima who lives at the Centre with her boyfriend/husband George and her friend Dina from the village, actually showed up to the festivities! It's all due to Janet's power of persuasion. She is definitely the social ringleader around this place.)
After the kickball players decided they were done, one team was leading by about fifteen points after all (the concept of innings did not come up), the two crates of beer that had arrived in the meantime dissipated within about ten minutes. People danced for a bit and then a football game predictably sprang up. Only three researchers, Janet, Stephanie and Stefan, were brave enough to join in. The rest of us loitered,
Cheerleaders
Lamojo, Janet, Dina, Halima, and Stephanie cheered and danced on the side. Really, just Stephanie (the American) knew when to cheer. danced, chatted, until the game started to wind down and then the first true dance party started up. Vicky put on salsa-esque music followed by reggae and everybody got down. The head of the camp came up wearing a silver crown he’d made and Wesley, a young Montana mountain man working on the gazelle project, cracked everyone up with his loose, lanky dance moves. (What is it with tall, lanky dudes and their ability to move like rubber?) Reggae, R&B, and hip-hop are very popular here and a lot of the Kenyan/Tanzanian music is infused with those type of rhythms and singing style as well as salsa beats. Makes it very easy for Americans to dance to actually. Everyone knows American artists such as Rihanna, Akon, and Michael Jackson so David, who was DJing (literally, he has pirated software that allows him to mix music), had just as much American music as African on his computer.
After dinner, we rallied again and trooped back down to the River Camp where a fire had been lit in the swanky brick fire-pit. We danced until 11:00 which is super late for most of us here and despite the fact that the beer
outfield
Vicky and Matthew both going for the pop fly in left field. Note the three dudes in the background covering center field. Redundancy just made it more exciting. :) (aka social lubricant) was long gone, people kept on moving to the beat. One of the field assistants told Renee last night that this was the first real dance party that has happened at Mpala. I’m so happy to have been a part of the first Mpala dance party. 😊
Animal sightings
hippos big and small
baboons
greater blue-eared starling
scarlet-chested sunbird
Nubian woodpecker
brown parrot
Eastern pale chanting goshawk
hamerkop
gerenuk (regular antelope body and coloring with a precariously thin long neck)
chestnut sparrow
African firefinch
tawny eagle
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