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Category:Kenya


Seek and Ye Shall Find

By: Paul Mitchell

More updates on the dig in Laikipia, Kenya, to come soon. I’m cooking up a longer post, but it needs to simmer for a while. For the moment, enjoy these beautiful molars that we’ve uncovered!


Maasai Life

By: jenjen

I am Jennifer Chiappardi, one of the photographers at Penn Museum.  I am currently working with Kathleen Ryan in Kenya.  The team was recently excavating in Laikipia.  My children, Sara and Zac, and my niece, Beverly, have joined the team to travel to Maasai land.  Berverly is 16, Sara is 12 and Zac is 7.  […]


Kenya 2012: A Petit Primer on the Genetics of Lactase Persistence – The Suckling Saga 2/2

By: Paul Mitchell

(Continued from the first part of this post: “Lactation, Lips, and Other Mammalian Curiosities”) Now, consider the facts in the first part of this post about the mammalian milk bar and take a look at these orphan elephants at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi. I visited these trunky critters with Kathleen and Louise […]


Kenya 2012: Lactation, Lips, and Other Mammalian Curiosities – The Suckling Saga 1/2

By: Paul Mitchell

Below you’ll find some of the thoughts that have bubbled up in my mind while I’ve been pleasantly bumbling about Kenya. All of these things connect to the project which we’re undertaking in some way, but I hope you’ll indulge by ramblings on natural history just a smidgen, even if they seem somewhat far afield […]


Kenya 2012: Bones, Bodies, Misbehavior*

By: Paul Mitchell

Note: The internet comes and goes at Kenya in the moment. Mostly goes. As such, this post is a few days late. Pardon our tardiness. We’ll get back on schedule lickety-split. ***** I would say the weather in Nairobi is temperate. Gray clouds floated by today without dropping their contents, except for the short but […]


How does Louis Vuitton Imagine Fashion?

By: Gabrielle Niu

For the Imagine Africa project, the Penn Museum wants to know how you imagine different aspects of African cultures and societies, from religion to art to medicine. One particularly interesting theme is Imagine Fashion, which, as its name suggests, explores the sartorial trends, bodily modifications and adornments of African cultures. Perhaps one of the last […]


On to Kitengela

By: Amy Ellsworth

That night, we all invaded the bar at the hotel. The owner operates on the honor system, and simply counts the Tusker bottle caps the next morning to put it on your bill. Another guest joined our group. He works for the African Wildlife Federation and does a lot of work in Laikipia and at […]


Ole Koringo’s Malaria Medicine

By: Amy Ellsworth

I woke up to the hee hawing of a very articulate donkey. He seemed to be practicing his hee haw for one of those pull string toys with recordings of farm animals. The donkey says… Hee Haw. (clearing of the throat)… Hee Haw. No, once more with feeling. HEE HAW! Well done! Today we picked […]


Visiting the First Boma in Ensukero

By: Amy Ellsworth

We drove south to Loitokitok in Maasailand, a sprawling district of about 40,000 people at the foot of Mount Kilamanjaro. We passed through Emali, which Paul referred to as the onion town because the road is lined with vendors with wooden carts hung with red bags of onions. We stopped at a restaurant that Paul […]


All the Pretty Photos

By: Amy Ellsworth

I have been uploading images on a very slow international DSL connection so I haven’t been able to post all of Jenn’s photography on the blog posts. See all the photos on flickr or in this slideshow: Created with flickr slideshow.