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.