21:15, 13 June, 2011

I would like to start today’s entry with a shout-out to Caitlin Pingel in thanks for this ele-poo journal. The notes I am making on these beautiful pages made from elephant dung will save me much time in recalling what I wanted to write about as I went through the day, even if they do nothing to doctor the length of my entries.

Janie is amazing. She is a ball of outgoing energy, and will be an excellent addition to the little team we have going here. After meeting her this morning we said goodbye to Karen around 10:00, having loaded the research vehicles to the brim with camp supplies. I rode with Kay and Adrianna on the beautiful drive to Naivasha, which is where the Kenya Wildlife Service Headquarters is located. I tried to snap pictures from the car while we were driving, but the people here tend to be offended if you take pictures without asking, so it is very hard to give people who haven’t been here an accurate picture of what it is like; I suppose this could be viewed as a shame, or you could all just take it as incentive to visit here one day. Dad, Mom, and Joe, you guys don’t have a choice. But what I love about Africa is that one isn’t disappointed. It is how you would imagine it, with women in colorful garb working diligently in the fields, balancing baskets on their heads, carrying bundles of crops or children strapped to their backs. Passing through the more typical Nairobi neighborhoods, donkeys line the road, and people transport crops in carts pulled by them. Men ride bikes with stacks of yellow crates balanced on the backs (Dad, I would like to see you try that on the way to work some morning), or several woven baskets tied to each side. Geese run wild by the side of the road; if you fancy a goose dinner, you just go buy one and kill it right there. Maybe it’s sad to think about, but those geese can run free their whole lives until their day of doom, unlike the chickens America keeps in sick little cages where they have to stand on top of one another while being fed hormones. One of my favorite sights is the Kenyans who are taking breaks by the side of the road, sitting and talking or waving at us when we go by; I even saw a guy taking a nap in the sun by the side of the road amongst all of the little shops. In addition, people sell vegetables or flowers all along the roads; Mom, you would love the flower nurseries that are everywhere.

One thing I don’t like is driving past the places where people have next to nothing. No wonder Nairobi is so dangerous. I have a hard time blaming those who become upset because of the gap in wealth between them and a select few, mostly who are white. Colonialism really hasn’t phased out here. I feel like the Kenyans are still very subdued in the face of white people, and I don’t like it one bit. It feels weird the way they look at you sometimes, or how humble they often make themselves in your presence. It makes me very uncomfortable.

I learned a lot from Kay on the drive. We rode past the old railroad line where the Man-Eaters of Tsavo once lived. These were maneless male lions that developed a taste for human flesh, and killed many railroad workers by pulling them out from under the tracks. It sounds like they would make a better horror film than The Birds. Kay also told me the reason that it is the women who are always working in the fields; their husbands often have jobs outside of town, so they are left tending the fields and livestock, while simultaneously trying to raise their children. Talk about hard-workers. When I asked her about the pine trees along the side of the road that seemed out of place, she said they were planted by the British. When we drove past the Great Rift Valley (a site whose essence I wish I could capture in a bottle and bring home with me to share), she showed us Mount Lauganaut (surely spelled wrong), which is a volcano on the edge of the valley. But perhaps the most interesting subject was Kay herself. She is so fascinating! After getting married years ago, she and her now ex-husband came to Africa on some sort of a vacation trip. Her husband was so obsessive about packing light that he would break a toothbrush in half, and they wouldn’t bring tents along when camping. Instead they would just sleep on mattresses out in the middle of nowhere; I have no idea how they could have dealt with the intense storms. But on one of those trips is when Kay first became fascinated with hyenas; one wandered close to a fire and she saw others bring down a wildebeest, which made her curious since they were viewed largely as scavengers. Later she would sail around the world with her husband. Kay is so open about answering any questions we may have, even ones involving her, and it is fun fitting together her puzzle. I love her.

Naivasha is within the Rift Valley, and after driving down to it, we eventually came to a stone sign introducing the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Headquarters. Two fairly good-sized lizards sat atop it. KWS Headquarters is a training center for students going into wildlife management. The students here are college age to a little bit older, and the grounds are composed of humble cement buildings that serve as dorms, lecture halls, and dining centers. The professors live in an area separated from where the students live; there is even a sign that says “No Students Beyond this Point” where their grounds start. While we were waiting for lectures to start, Janie showed us a plant whose leaves contain latex (she is very into plants, like you Mom). She also discovered trees that look kind of like weeping willows, but they have berries with pepper on the inside! We further amused ourselves by watching the birds. Kenya has the greatest diversity of birds in the world, or so I’ve read, and I believe it. I saw a really weird one today that was orange and white, and it looked like its beak extended through behind its head the way its feathers were positioned. Very odd.

We spoke with some Kenyan students while waiting in the lecture hall. One was named Angel (a guy), and the other Hadithi (a girl). Hadithi means “story” in Swahili. Kay gave an excellent lecture on the ecology of carnivores. Surprisingly, KWS doesn’t teach much about carnivores, which is a shame since they are in such dire need of help. After Kay was finished, a Kenyan man named Charles (but not Charles Edward, so not as cool), who works for KWS as the head of all other species of wildlife outside of the main ones focused on at the Center (rhino, elephant, and zebra/other ungulates, I believe), gave a lecture on carnivore conservation. One of the biggest problems (besides the obvious one of habitat destruction), is human-animal conflict surrounding livestock. Lions, hyenas, etc. are taking down the livelihood of people, whose population keeps increasing, and with it the population of livestock. The problem is extraordinarily hairy for several reasons. But the bottom, worrisome line is that carnivore numbers have been declining at an alarming rate. The lecture just made me want to really get up and do something about it. Excitingly, we were informed that we are going to be designing our own research projects. My head was reeling with ideas all throughout the lecture. It’s going to be so hard to choose! On the side, I know that I would like to try and get an estimate of the leopard population, but it is doubtful that I will be able to do so since KWS has found it so challenging. There is no current estimate, and I think this is dangerous since they are the only carnivore around here not listed as at least of special concern. My thought is that they are probably suffering just as much as the others and need to be put on the map for conservation efforts, but because of their cryptic behavior, biologists have a hard time determining whether or not they are struggling. Other ideas of mine include trying to find something that deters lions from taking down livestock; are they particularly turned off by a specific scent or sound that could somehow be useful? But most of all I am interested in the neurobiology of these animals, and how it can help people to understand them, and (perhaps this is overly optimistic), come to respect them more because of that understanding. I am reading a book focusing on studies of the animal mind, and communication seems to be a good route, so perhaps I could do something with that. So many possibilities!

After lecture there was a subadult bachelor herd of impala grazing right on the periphery of the campus. I sat down and watched them for awhile, and then wanted to see how close they would let me approach them. I got within about 10 meters! They are so beautiful, and it was hilarious the way they’d look at me, trying to figure out what in the heck I thought I was up to.

After dark we were informed that cape buffalo are in fairly high density at the periphery of campus, so to be careful not to wander far. Even Kay didn’t want to walk the short distance from where she is staying to where we are staying, and opted to drive. When Kay is uncomfortable with something like that, you know that you had better be wary.

Dinner was delightful-so healthy with spinach and colorful salads, and the most delicious mangos, papaya, watermelon, and pineapple. The meat and rice tasted delicious as well, just like Professor Ngonyani makes it when he invites our Swahili class over to eat. During dinner a dung beetle flew down from the ceiling onto Adrianna’s plate. Her reaction had us all in fits of laughter, as her eyes got huge and she flung her arms around Aurelia in terror at the foreign insect. I still can’t stop laughing when I think about it.

Each successive conversation centered around camp life is escalating my already immense excitement over living there. I have learned that the only snake that is really aggressive is the black mamba (Katie Vanderwood, I hope you are reading this part, because your exclamation would be a perfect insertion here). I am excited to view a snake! I guess they are not terribly uncommon in camp, which surprises me since I didn’t see a single one previously on the study abroad. But don’t worry Dad, I won’t be stupid. Just thrilled. I also have to check to make sure monitor lizards do not occupy our toilet-hole before sitting down and having an unpleasant surprise. Hippos are increasingly common at night, along with giraffes. I guess a lot of the girls opt to keep a pee-bucket at night to avoid running into potentially dangerous wildlife...ewww. Luckily my bladder tends to hold up at night. And I’m not so sure I wouldn’t want to see some of that wildlife, but again Dad (and Mom), I won’t be stupid, so please stop worrying. One of the camps has mongooses that come around at dinnertime, and the other has bushbabies and genets that come around. As Miss Ania Pathak would say in sheer excited joy, A;LSKJDFIOEWOPIAF!