Game Census!

So this was it the day I extended my stay here for. The game census was quite the experience with it beginning at 5 am in order to catch most of the animals before the hide into the bush. Now the count works like this. The conservancy is divided into 9 blocks and each block gets a vehicle with 3-4 people. Then in the morning till noon you drive around counting every mammal you see. However, with huge herds sometimes you have to approximate. I was put into block 7a with Kirk, Michael (the AV group staff member and a ranger), and June who's a Soysambu resident. We saw lots of impala, zebra, gazelles, and jackals through out our drive with the occasional giraffe, vervet monkey, and warthog. For this count we were not counting birds though because that is a separate census. At the end we added up all the animals and handed in the papers to the main office. Then everyone dispersed and went on with their day. It sounds not too exciting but I thought it was a lot of fun and when I get home in two days I'll be sure to tell more stories that I haven't mentioned yet.

It's All Fun and Games Until Some Slides in Cow Crap

This Friday I donated a few soccer balls to the local Soysambu soccer team. After pumping up the balls for them they invited me to join them that night for a game. I was very excited to play and the rest of the day went very slowly because of it. Later in the after noon before they came to pick me up for the game another volunteer named Kirk from Michigan arrived. He was so overwhelmed by the beauty of Soysambu after we took a walk down to the lake and was really happy to be here. When the soccer players came to pick me up later I invited Kirk to come play as well. He accepted. We originally thought we'd be walking to the field but when two bikers arrived to pick us up I realized we'd be sitting on the back of the bicycle for this muddy and intimidating ride. It wasn't too bad though we ended up walking a third of the distance due to mud anyway. Once the four of us arrived at the field we started to warm up with the other players. Of course I am not the best soccer player but they said I was good so that boosted my confidence. Once the game started I was having so much fun in the rain but because of the high altitude I was panting like a dog. Boy was sprinting for two hours difficult at this high of a point but at least I scored a goal. By the end of the game (by the way my team lost but I scored once) we were all wet, both by rain and sweat and then walked back to the RC. Once we arrived there the power was out but luckily dinner was ready and after dinner Kirk and I were ready to go to bed.

BUGGY RACE IN SOYSAMBU

A Day With Kat

Yesterday Kat Combes the CEO of the Conservancy took a friend of hers and I on a tour of Soysambu for some fun. It turned out to be the whole day though, which is fine because plans change constantly here so I went in with no expectations except for some hopes to see the shy Colobus Monkey. We drove to the headquarters for lunch but we took the long way in order to see more game and we DID. We saw a troop of 8 Colobus Monkeys when we passed through the Acacia forest. I was so happy. Then we drove around and saw the regular wildlife that I have already seen plenty of. After lunch at Kat's place we drove to her close friend Juliette's house where we chatted, had tea, and went for a nice walk. Luckily we missed the rain. Then we drove a bit and visited Gram and Yoyo's house another group of friends at Soysambu. There we ate a little bit and then talked about the conservancy. After this we drove back through the dark to the research center at night. O and I forgot to tell you earlier in this blog that we found a dead impala by the research center (unsure what the cause of death was) and we had to carry its gross dead body to the truck then we had to carry it again to a pit where dead animals go. Otherwise things are great here and my time here is unfortunately winding down so that is a bit disappointing.

Another Crazy Weekend!

Phew! This weekend like most of our weekends so far was quite hectic. If you read one of my earlier posts there was a dirt bike race in Soysambu in order to raise some money. Well this weekend there was another race but instead of dirt bikes they were some kind of buggy like vehicle. It all started on Saturday where we had to spend 4 hours registering the racers that were entering the conservancy. After that Kerry, Jackie (who is a volunteer in Nakuru visiting for the weekend), I decided to ask Duncan if we could go for a walk to the lake. He made some calls and after the three of us took a half an hour nap at the research center, our guide arrived. Our guide Laoso, was very nice although he didn't have much protection with him aside from a wooden pole which didn't seem very promising incase we had to face a buffalo. We luckily didn't get rained on during our hike to the lake and it wasn't too hot. Later after the hike we played some cards the three of us and then made eggs for dinner out of laziness and went to bed.

Sunday was a much more exciting and fun day. We were originally planned to sleep in till 9am but Kat offered to take us on a morning game drive through Soysambu so we decided to wake up early for that instead. This was an amazing game drive because the view of the lake and pelicans was so clear and not too hot and we saw over 20 Rothschild Giraffes as well. After the game drive Kat dropped us off at the rally/race where all the buggies were. There we were going to meet Duncan but he didn't arrive for about an hour so we killed the time by talking and going on a small stroll with Lord Delamere. Boy did he have a lot of stories about his history and the conservancy but he was also quite funny and a character for sure. We had some local hamburgers for lunch at the race, which were extremely delicious and talked to a bunch of the racers, but of course there were only six so it wasn't too much of a crowd. After the race we all cleaned up the trash there and Duncan and I found a warthog and zebra skull but we didn't carry them to the research center due to the fact that they were covered in safari ants which bite you badly. We all met together at the monkey bridge campsite for some food and drinks and then returned to the research center where we met Zoe who is a very well known giraffe researcher from the UK and her assistant Les from New Zealand. For the rest of the day I did some school work and played cards, made dinner, and went to bed in hope that I wouldn't wake up to the buffalo again.

Damn Buffalo!

Over the past few nights I have been woken up at 2am in the morning because a whole bunch of water buffalo keep grazing on the grass directly outside my room. It is cool but pretty loud and hard to sleep with. Oh well, nothing I can do about it.

This is what a water buffalo looks like and they are extremely dangerous due to their aggression.

Picture Trouble :(

I know a lot of you want me to post pictures but unfortunately my computer is having memory issues and can't load all the photos so you might have to wait till I return to see most of them. Sorry!

All Was Well Till The Car Shut Down

Yesterday I decided to organize a day trip to Lake Nakuru National Park to do an entire day of game drives in order to get an understanding for the wildlife there and to have some fun. Unfortuantly this was supposed to happen on Monday but because of things going wrong with the driver and the car we had to do on Wednesday. We (being Duncan, Kerry, the driver, and I) left the research center at 6pm but the car wouldnt start unless we pushed it a few feet so we had to bring it to the mechanic in Soysambu before we could make our way to the park. This delayed us a little bit but the sunrise was nice and we still got to the park gate entrance at 7:30 but once we arrived there the driver realized we had a flat tire and that the spare was somewhat deflated. So we had to pay the entrance fee and switch the tires and then go to the mechanic in the park to put pressure into our tires. We eventually got to the game drives around 8:30 - 9:00 but once we did we saw lots of unique animals. Rhinos were everywhere, both black and white, baboons were too, zebras were common, we saw a secretary bird or two, lots of flamingos and pelicans, giraffes, a hyena, and some rock hyraxes. Towards around noon the vehicle that we had been driving broke down right next to Lion Hill. Unfortunately we saw no lions and our car wouldn't start. We tried pushing it, towing it, and just plain restarting the engine but it was too over heated and old to restart again. We eventually got a jeep from the KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) to tow us to the entrance of the park where Kat Combes was going to meet us in order to assist us and drive us home. Her car could only fit a few though so Kerry and I and two others including Kat drove home in the rain and then we had to wait at Kat's home in the conservancy till she returned but she got caught up with other things so her friend Alex drove Kerry and I back the research center but we took the long way because we were in search of some animals. We saw one Sykes Monkey and a Peregrine Eagle which was cool but other wise it was the usual wildlife. Dinner was normal that night and I went to bed early after a very stressful day. I hope some more fun stuff will happen soon.

Easter Weekend

This past weekend was all fun and games because of the fact that it was Easter. Literally though all we did was NO work. On Saturday another volunteer that is working in Nakuru invited Kerry and I to visit her and stay overnight where she is staying so we can have some fun in Nakuru. We arrived in Nakuru after hitchhiking our way there with a local family, and met up with Rosemary and Jackie. Jackie is the volunteer staying in Nakuru and Rosemary is a representative of the program she is in Kenya for. We said goodbye to Duncan and began having some fun by going to a national rugby tournament that was being held within the town. This activity lasted the entire day. However, it was a lot of fun because I got to meet some interesting people and see a Rugby match which I had never seen before. That night we went to a very local Kenyan bar/restaurant and ordered lots of food. We got Nyama Choma which is chopped up goat on a huge metal platter, some uglali, a salad, and some cabbage mush. All of which we had to eat with our hands. Dinner ended around 10pm and we got back to the house and decided to watch the Lion King which was a lot of fun because we could translate all the swahili terms in the movie. For example, Rafiki means "friend", Simba means "lion", and asanti sana means "thank you very much". But it was also simply fun to see the Lion King while being in Africa myself.

On Sunday we arrived back at the research center at 1pm because we were stuck in the Matatu for 1 1/2 hours. This was because we had to wait for the Matatu to fill up before leaving and we were the first ones in. For the rest of the day we relaxed of course because it was Sunday and then later I got a call from Valerie (if you dont know Valerie, she is a family friend and my old next door neighbor) telling me that she has arrived in Soysambu. Later that night I met up with Valerie, Tom, and a whole bunch of other people and we went to the top of a mountain to watch the sunset but because we sorta took the wrong way we missed the sunset and sort of had a night time get together. But it was a lot of fun. After catching up with Valerie and meeting her friends and Toms family we went back to Toms house for dinner at 11pm and then went back to the Research Center at 12pm. It was a long but interesting night.

By the way im now rescheduled to stay till the 10th of May instead of leaving the 2nd.

Hope to see you soon!

Working in the Bush

Jambo everyone,

I know I haven't been in contact for a while so I am here to inform you on the lots of awesome things that I have done here in Kenya over the last few days. The AV's which are a group of volunteers that are camping in the bush, invited me to stay with them for a few days and to help them with their work. I was thrilled that I could do this because I can only spend so much time at the Research Center. So I packed my sleeping bag and day pack and headed to their campsite. I had my own little visitors tent and there was a kitchen tent where everyone socializes. The campsite was really cool because of its remoteness in the wild. That afternoon when we arrived at the camp, we worked on the game hide, which is a pit with wall so you can view the wildlife at night from ground level, and then relaxed and played cards for the rest of the night. Although, these games were fun, sleeping wasn't. I slept horribly due to the fact that I am not used to all the animal noises. I heard a leopard pass my tent (but I didn't see it), a group of hyenas came into the campsite at 1am and in the morning I could hear buffalo running around only a few feet outside the camp. Even though I slept horribly, this was a great night. That morning we split into two groups. One group would work on the game hide for the first half of the day and then the other group would work on giraffe monitoring, which involves tracking down the animal and identifying it. Then the groups switch jobs half way through the day. Both of these tasks were amazing experiences and there are more stories I'll tell about them when I arrive home. We did this same routine for the next 3 days and then they returned me to the Research Center in the morning. At the Research Center another volunteer named Kerry arrived so she will be staying here as well. So my meals wont be too lonely anymore. Camping and working in the bush was amazing and I hope to do more work like it when I am here.

Sunday in Soysambu

So it is sunday here and I have officially been here at Soysambu for a week. What I have learned here, aside from all the wildlife conservation education, is that there is not much to do on the weekends. I am so used to having plans all the time that I am not used to this much downtime in an unfamiliar place. So, Duncan made the most of the Sunday. I was originally supposed to be going with the patrols but because it's Sunday Duncan suggested not to because I wouldn't be doing much work. Instead, Duncan explored Soysambu with me (on foot) and we visited three locations. The first place we hiked to was a cliff called "sundowners point" where people go to have drinks and picnic while watching the sunset over the lake. The view there was magnificent. You could see the entire area of Soysambu and the entirety of Lake Elementaita. I thought the view of the lake was coolest because there were blotches of pink and white everywhere, especially by this one nearby corner of the lake. These pink and white areas were HUGE groups of White Pelicans or Greater or Lesser Flamingos. After taking photos and resting for a few we walked to the next destination which was to check in on how the Serena Camp is coming along. The Serena Camp is an eco-tourism lodge/camp that is being built in the conservancy for tourists and guests. The camp seemed to be in good progress but there is lots to do seeing as that it is supposed to open in May. Lastly, we walked along the breezy shore of Elementaita, passing lots of skeletons of animals, to the location where there there were hundreds of flamingos and pelicans. It smelled and was very noisy here but it was quite the site. On our way back to the research center we passed some impala, saw waterbuck, saw hyena tracks, and some running zebra, and even found an Eland skull with antlers which we brought back with us. For the rest of the day we have been relaxing because here apparently that is what they do on a Sunday. However, I think we made the most out of the morning.

De-Snaring with the Ranger

Today was an interesting day. I was originally going to go in the patrol car for the day and view what the rangers/patrol do throughout the conservancy but their car broke down. So instead, Moses, one of the patrol people took me around the conservancy to do some de-snaring. De-snaring is where you walk (for us it was around 10km in total) and search for snares, which are a trap that poachers use to capture wildlife like impala and waterbuck or even birds. We hiked through the bush and found around 3-4 snares and 1 Guinea Fowl Trap which is a ground trap used to capture guinea fowls (a type of bird). After searching for the snares and also keeping an eye out for dangerous Water Buffalo and possible poachers, we went to a view point by the railroad on a mountain which is one of the boundaries for Soysambu. When we returned to the research center it was 1:00 and for the rest of the day I did paperwork and relaxed. Tomorrow if their car is repaired I will be spending the day with the patrol and if not then I dont know the plan.

A Few Photos of the Things I've Done

Too Much Downtime

Since we are lacking in vehicles I am stuck here at the Research Center doing almost nothing for the day. Unfortunately it is also raining/hailing at the moment so I can't even hangout outside. But in the more exciting terms Duncan found a snake in the building yesterday so I am making sure all my windows are closed when I leave for the day. Tomorrow I might be touring Soysambu with some University students and taking wildlife photos and then if I have time and access to a vehicle we might search for some snares in the bush. De-snaring is a huge "to do" here for the patrol. Also in terms of photos they will be posted soon.

The other night a whole bunch of us went to a local village and showed an anti-poaching video in the evening to raise conservation awareness. This was an interesting night because the movie was in swahili so when all the people laughed at the funny parts I had no idea what was going on. Also all the little kids loved shaking my hand and asking my name.

The next day all the volunteers, staff, and other members of Soysambu Conservancy did a 5 km highway pollution clean up. This was so exhausting because the heat drained the energy right out of us. Although some school children assisted us and it made things go faster. The only thing I had against this clean up was that it was an attempt to be "greener" but after we collected all the garbage they just BURNED all the trash. Way to be green. After the clean up we all watched a movie on conservation with the school children, and yes I had to sit through the same film.

Today I went with Kat Combes (the conservancy CEO) and Duncan to an LANNECA Meeting which is a gathering (4 hours long) of all the wildlife officials to discuss merging the 3 main conservancy's into one wildlife containment. This was interest but very exhausting to listen to. For all those LIFE schoolers, just imagine old business during community, gone bad, times 10. With a whole lot of money and sociology issues. Then on our way back to the conservancy we stopped at the hot springs and felt the hot water of Lake Elementiata and saw some children fishing. Then as we drove back to the research center we found an impala skull, which i hope to bring home, and saw lots of animals.

ALthough it has been busy I have no idea what is coming up the next few days. Also here are some photos I owe you.

First Nakuru Day

So yesterday was a very interesting day, it began with a meeting to introduce all the volunteers and staff to Soysambu Conservancy and talked about projects we'd be working on. These include environmental events, giraffe monitoring, the removal of the prickly pear invasive species, snare removal, plantings of flowers, and other data collecting. After this meeting duncan and I went to the nearby town of Gilgil where we walked a mile to get to an archeological site museum about Louis Leaky and her prehistoric finds in the Great Rift Valley (which is where I am). This was really fascinating because we saw the exact discovery site and I could relate back to my 9th grade Global class.

Then today was an even busier day. We woke at 9 and hitched a ride to the highway where we took a Motatu (public shuttle bus) to the town of Nakuru. This day was to be my introduction to Nakuru because I will going there often for supplies. The bus ride was one of a kind for multiple reasons. 1. I was the only white person of course so I stuck out like a sore thumb 2. It was soooo crammed tight that I could move and felt like a clown car, and 3. There was a priest yelling out Swahili prayers the entire ride. And this was just the beginning. We arrived in Nakuru and Duncan says to me "I need a haircut" so I assumed him being a jokester and all that he was kidding but the next thing I knew, I was waiting for him outside a barber shop in an alley way, while having a talk with a Kenyan woman about America's economy (hows that for a briefing steve). After this lovely stop we explored a furniture store, bought a wifi flash-drive device for myself, went to the bank, bought some soda, and got lots of groceries to stock up for the next few days. Once we had everything we need from Nakuru went hopped back into another Motatu bus and went back to Soysambu Conservancy.

At the moment, some conservationists just arrived to stay at the center tonight and will be showing a conservation video in a local community center, which I am going to with Duncan and Betty (betty is another staff member here). Otherwise things are dandy, I hope to do more wildlife work, and I am having camera troubles so give me some slack in terms of posting pictures. Hope all is well in the U.S. talk to you soon.

Hey everyone,

So my 20 hours of travel finally ended and I am now here at Soysambu writing to you in my room. The internet is limited but accessible for me to post. Today was an interesting first day. It was all surrounded by a dirt bike race that went through the conservancy in an attempt to raise some money. Before the race I hung out with the guards and Duncan (my supervisor) and we helped with the entry fees and preparation of the course. Then the real stuff began. We drove to the Monkey Bridge campsite which was the starting line and the atmosphere was so crazy but friendly. I met Tom (whos the relative of Lord Delamere) and he owns a lot of the conservancy and I actually got to hang with him for most of the day. He invited me to join his crew to watch the race from one point and Duncan said "go with him I'll meet up with you at some other point" I was a bit worried I wouldn't run into Duncan. But 2 hours later as Tom and his crew and I are watching the racers and counting times, Duncan turns around the corner (in the middle of the jungle) and we made eye contact and laughed. After the race finished we hoped in the pickup truck and went to the award ceremony and ate hot dogs. Once everything finished Duncan and I got dropped off at the Research Center and had a relaxing afternoon.

So it is now my last night at home, and I probably wont get any sleep out of nervousness. However, hopefully I can make up that sleep when I get on the airplane. Which should be fun!

Packing

Hey everyone,

it's two days till the big trip and the packing is getting pretty rushed. But I'm really excited. In the photo on the left is all my supplies and the right is at least some of my clothes. I still need to pack a bit more.

Its two-three days before I leave, which is exciting, but I have a fever and headache so things aren't looking too good.