23:03, Tuesday, 11 September, 2012

Avarice has come back!  When I first came she was always around, and then she seemingly disappeared until recently, a few days before Michelle and I left for Nairobi.  Avarice is the delightful subadult with a light color and calligraphy “M” on her side.  She always seems to be poking about in everyone’s business, even though she’s a low-ranker – kind of like her sister Vanity.  I’m glad we’re seeing her again.

I had some company running for the first time!  Dave stayed in Talek for a while around the 25^th of August to start his censuses on this side of the park, and he came running with me!  I always work harder when running with someone because it increases consciousness of my pace.  We made it further than I ever had before, reaching a lovely bush thicket something like that surrounding camp but not quite as dense.  A little path ran down toward the river, and I’d like to return and explore.

Michelle and I took Vanessa and Delorance, some girlfriends of ours from Talek, out to see the hyenas on the night of the 25^th.  They absolutely loved them, and it did my heart good to see some Maasai so excited about fisi.  One mind at a time.  All we have to do is change one mind at a time, if only the biological world can continue to gasp air in the meantime.

The same night Michelle and I returned home to find a dinner of chipate, guacamole, lentils, and salsa (probably my favorite meal here).  Dave and Charlie had gone to give a talk at a lodge and were invited to stay and eat; therefore, Michelle and I had the whole chipate dinner to ourselves.  I ate three chipate, which gave me a horrendous stomachache afterwards.  Michelle also made me spit up my tea by making some funny comment whilst I still had my mouth full.  I’d known it all along,  but somehow it really hit just then how much I am going to miss her.

22:23, Wednesday, 12 September, 2012

On the morning of August 26^th we saw a lion/hyena interaction, or at least the aftermath of one.  Seven lionesses and a whole bunch of our hyenas were way out by Euphorbia Lugga, the lugga which appropriately houses a couple of prominent euphorbia trees.  The lionesses soon walked off, and our hyenas dispersed shortly thereafter.  I’d never seen so many full-grown lionesses together all at once; it’s a shame I couldn’t get pictures to see if some are the same from last summer.

Michelle had her leaving party that night.  We ate with the balloon pilots at G and G’s, the little restaurant in Talek that makes delicious kuku choma (grilled chicken).  We have to call ahead so they can go outside and catch a chicken to kill, a chicken that has lived its life as it should – roaming free outdoors and behaving like a chicken.  (I’m currently reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollen, and am abhorred at the food system in America.)  After G and G’s, we went to a tiny bar in Talek and danced.  Something about Africa has got me liking to dance, which is a feat level with moving mountains.  Or maybe it’s just Michelle; I guess we’ll see now that she has left.  Also at the party, I hit it off with our mechanic Maina (who I mentioned meeting back in May), and that is all I’m going to say about that.  Well, that and sorry Kay, but no discounts on car repairs yet!

On the following evening, we saw Carter at Dave’s Den!  I have never seen Carter before, the mysterious bottom-of-the-hierarchy hyena from Navaho’s presidents’ lineage who disappears for months at a time.  I really hope we can get a GPS collar on her, because everyone is dying to know where she goes.  We hardly ever see her cubs, either.  Michelle did see her sister Obama the next day though!  Her snare scar is enormous and black, but it’s looking better and better every time we see her. 

Back to G and G’s for goat with the boisterous balloon pilots on the 28^th.  As the others finished their food, I went off to Rafiki Garage (Maina’s place) while our car was getting fixed; the gas tank had to be completely removed from the bottom and cleaned.  Those gas tanks are amazingly huge.  It makes me ache to think of all the fumes we put into the air with carnivore research.  You just can’t win 100% toward conservation in a world so sunk in oil.

Michelle had a rough go that night on her final obs.  She told me she doesn’t know as she has ever cried so hard.  I started to cry when she was saying goodbye to Benson; good grief, I’m gonna be a wreck when my turn comes.  Don’t really want to think about it.  Jackson made her a goodbye cake, and on the morning of the 29^th we set off for Nairobi.  Wrenched away from the hyenas yet again.  But I’m glad I got to spend some quality time with Michelle, that’s for sure.

Along the way, we gave a ride to two Maasai guys and a young girl of probably 15.  I tried not to nod off as Michelle drove and the man in the back talked endlessly about his insecticide business.  When he finally mentioned the reason for their trip, that the young girl was feeling ill in the stomach, I didn’t think anything of it and asked, “Oh, and is he her father?”  The other man had to be at least 50.  “Mume.”  Oh, mume, not baba.  Husband.  That old man was her husband.  I know it happens regularly in this culture, but to witness that beautiful girl with such an ancient husband who is very possibly older than her father gave me the urge to knock both men’s heads together and ask them how this is acceptable.  I can’t imagine she’s happy or wanted such an arrangement, and briefly entertained ideas of throwing the two males out of the car and driving her away to a place she might smile.

I drove up the escarpment, along the freeway, and later on in the week downtown with something akin to confidence.  Don’t know where that confidence came from, especially with some of the stories I have to tell (coming soon...), but I wasn’t much scared this time.  My knuckles didn’t turn white as Newt Gingrich’s hair like before.