17:31, Sunday, 13 May, 2012

Well, here I am in the airport again, ready to return to the Masai Mara in all of its wonder.  Who knew I would be returning in less than a year from the day I began this blog?  Time to continue the adventures.  I can’t believe I will get to see Zenny and Centaur, Shadowfax, Obama, Adonis, Alderon, and all of the other hyenas again!  I bet the cubs have gotten so big!  I wonder what Twister looks like when he’s not a cute little stinker-bug.  Here’s to hoping they’re all alive and well! 

And I will get to see the lions, although they will not be my focus this time, don’t worry Kay!  I am not on Team Lion, as Dave so often accused me of.  I am especially excited to see Creedence and the M.J. Meowmorial Lion (such a ridiculous name...).  Oh gosh, and Triple B is probably all grown up, and little Kelsey the genet too.  I just cannot wait to see everyone!  Homo sapiens included, of course.  Eli and Old Joseph and Joseph and Jackson, Steven and Lasingo and Bensen.  And of course Kay.  I will be working as a research assistant in Talek Camp, but hopefully I will be able to visit beautiful Serena often as well.  That way I can see everyone over there, including Filiman, Jorjio, Moses, the lions (Mumford, Murdoch and Daisy May!!!  I would especially love to see them), the elephants, and my beloved little dwarf mongooses.  Not to mention Rotten and Skittles.

I will be staying for a year this time: Incredible!  Mom, Dad, and Grandma did not do a very good job holding in the tears when they dropped me off.  Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.  At least my dad still had his humor, as he yelled, “Have a good Thanksgiving, and Happy Labor Day!  We’ll go trick-or-treating for you.”

One good thing – I will be forced to be more concise this time around since I will have a great amount of work to do.  It will be good to teach myself that I needn’t write EVERYTHING down, although I know it will be hard.  So many amazing things are always happening in Kenya.  For now I will stick to this blog; Kay may want me to change to the official camp blog, but I don’t know if she will want me to write quite so constantly about the great repertoire of Kenyan exquisiteness as I have a habit of doing.  Perhaps it is supposed to be reserved mostly for hyena news, and the out of the ordinary occurrence of hippos crashing through tents, or the need to evacuate all tents in the middle of the night due to flooding.  I will have to check out the logistics in more detail.

Kwa heri, Marekani!  Take good care of Bus, Mom and Dad.  I will miss everyone more than I can say, but good grief, am I ever excited!

23:08 Kenyan Time, 14 May, 2012

I AM HERE!!!  It’s almost as if I never left.  The stars are so close, the air so African-even Nairobi is bringing back feelings of utter bliss!  It has this unique warmish smell, and the rolling hills and red dirt and people walking along the side of the road told me I am back. I got to practice my Swahili with Joseph, the taxi cab driver, for near an hour due to traffic.  He drove us IRES students back to the airport last summer, and he remembered me.  I can hold a conversation with next to no English at last!  It’s about time.  We talked politics – Libya, Iraq, Bin Laden, Romney, Obama.  Joseph is such a brilliant man; he taught me much in such a short time.  I hope he is wrong with his prediction that Obama will lose though.  He said he’s promised to do many things and hasn’t done them, and I said he has done what he can, and I believe he is an “mtu mwema” (a very moral person), not to mention crazy intelligent, and really tries, but there are so many things in the way.  We agreed that being president must be horribly difficult.    

Eli and Kay met me at the cottage with hugs.  So good to see them!  Up the trippy stairs with my luggage (they are the oddest stairs ever, jutting one way and then the next so that they exercise your brain every time you ascend or descend), quick chats, and now I am going to sleep at last.  I did not sleep well on the plane, but I did meet a new friend who graduated MSU in 2009 and is returning to the Peace Corp after visiting home for his sister’s graduation at MSU.  We are hoping to meet up later and climb Mount Kenya or something.

I think I have encountered more mosquitos tonight than both my other trips combined.  It must be a rainy season thing.  Some strange bird just made an excellently exotic sound, and “mbwa” (dogs) are barking like mad.

Back to the Mara already tomorrow bright and early!!!  Eli says there are “multiple kelseys” now, and an especially small baby!!!!!  AND more bushbabies.  Heaven.