Today, we went back to the Nairobi National Museum to make some arrangements for our trip to Loi Tok Tok in Maasailand (The Maasai pronounce it “Loi Toki Tok”.) Jenn, Bill and I had some time to visit the Giraffe Center and the Kazuri bead shop, both NGOs that support community development. At the giraffe [...]
Jenn, Bill and Komande photographed the 13 cairns around Mpala Ranch and found four more. The cairns seem to pop up everywhere, but it takes a keen eye to distinguish a random pile of rocks from a burial cairn. They usually have a reinforced edge around the perimeter, but this isn’t always obvious. Peter, from [...]
Komande had to drive us through the wait-a-minute trees to our bomas because the herd of elephants was not budging. We teetered over the uneven packed dirt and two huge elephants appeared in the headlights just a few meters away from the door of my boma. I had been given two keys and I didn’t [...]
Last night the elephants herd took over the camp. They hung around until 6am. When I asked Jenn how she slept, she said bluntly, “I had elephants.” They surrounded her banda and started rubbing up against it. They were kicking stones around and actually broke a water pipe to drink the water. Jenn said she [...]
Mulu’s philosophy on the mental state of archaeologists There are elephants outside my banda right now. I can hear them trumpeting. I also found out that the whooping noises are hyena. As the ascari (guard) walked me through the darkness, I shined my flashlight into the acacia bushes and saw the most sinister eye shine. [...]
I was finally able to upload Jenn’s pictures from the Elephant Orphanage.
Kathleen and Jenn have arrived! They were finally able to eat dinner by the time they got here. Paul Kunoni, Kathleen’s Maasai translator, who is a medical doctor, was tending to both of them and determined that it might have been the gailardia virus on top of a food-born parasite. We still suspect the chips. [...]
Chapati is my new favorite culinary fixation. It’s a simple wheat tortilla, thick and floury, but yeasty at the same time. It’s cousin is the mandazi which is like a round puff ball with the perfect combination of sweet and salty. Last night we had chapati with lentils and carrots. I was in amino acid, [...]
I am in the Mpala Research Library. Again, this place is right out of a movie. I expect Robert Redford or Ben Kingsley to walk around the corner with jodpers and a machete. The swallows are chirping and swooping right outside the window. Maybe they’re showing off for the ornithologist who is staying here. I [...]
We divided the luggage into mushable and non-mushable piles, jammed the mushables into the back of the van and headed north with Komande, me, Bill, Simon, Paul Watene, Chris, and Mulu mushed into our seats. Komande drove us through some of the most amazing countryside, punctuated every few miles with small towns, some of which [...]
