fisi

A dust devil nearly blew us away a few days ago. It came on all of the sudden and took down our shower and a tree. The following day it rained. It was more like showers than good and honest rain, but some holy men sacrificed a couple of goats to make it happen. Michael explained to us that holy men here were wealthy men with around 10 children. I asked if a man had to be wealthy to be holy and he said that you also needed to be a really good man, meaning you haven’t killed anyone or gotten into any fights.
So we hacked up a dead zebra. There’s really no nicer way to say it. I thought better of making it the opening comment and gave you a nice little story about sacrificial worship instead. My role in the hacking was sitting in the car with the windows rolled up taking pictures. Paul has this wonderful habit of parking downwind of whatever decaying carcass he’s investigating. Some high school students walked by and caught him field dressing this zebra. “Research - Do you like science?” Paul asked them. They just smiled awkwardly and repeated the word research. “It’s all part of science.” He concluded to fill the void. They didn’t say too much, just stared and watched Paul separate one zebra hind leg with a panga (machete) and put it into a bucket. They didn’t ask, but in case you are wondering – this zebra that once was provides bait for the hyenas. We’ve been out four nights now, luring them with this scent, and getting closer every time. I think tonight will be the night. Night drives are spooky with all the eyes that you see. Paul is really good at differentiating between them without even looking through the binoculars. I’ll spot a cluster of eyes way off in the distance and without even stopping the car he will tell me that those are Impala or Bat Eared Fox. Most of the drive sightings are of Grant’s gazelle’s or hares and this group of six giraffes that we always seem to be surprising. We once found a baby Grant’s gazelle in the hiding spot its mom had left it in and I quickly took the spot light off of it so that its secret was safe with us. When we are driving through the thick salvadora bush, we like to play the game, ‘How much would I have to pay you to get out of the car and walk around for awhile’. This is a lion and hyena haven so I don’t think either of us has ever put a price on it, fantastical as it may be. Speaking of games though, we were out setting up cameras yesterday and Paul was dry skipping rocks across the dusty ground. He picked up a rock and hit it like a baseball and then asked his assistants if they knew what baseball was. Michael said that he didn’t, but he knew that the whites have a lot of games.
Since no one in the area really has a car, we’ve become a special treat for people who catch us driving down the road. Amref (African Medical Relief Foundation) – flying doctors – caught us the other day and asked us to give this guy a ride back to Olkiramatian – which is where our camp is. He had to come with us to set up a few more camera sites before we were heading back and as we were stopped at one of them, Paul asked him for the phone number of someone at Amref. This led to the guy reaching in his pocket and realizing that he had left his phone in the truck he had just come from. Panicked, he asked what he should do, then said something in Swahili to Patrick and Michael and took off running. We asked them what he was doing and they said he was running the two miles to the water hole where he knew the guys were washing the truck. He said he would just find us on the road on our way back. Unlikely we thought, but sure enough, we finished our sites and were driving back to camp and saw the man, shirt opened drinking a jug of water, waiting for us. “So about that number” was the first thing he said to Paul when he got back in the car.
So yesterday was inauguration day. Kenya is proud of the shared blood between us. We meant to listen to Obama’s speech on the radio, but then got sidetracked when we realized that an Impala had been killed and half eaten by a leopard the previous night right on the edge of camp. I can now add the relocation of large animal carcasses to my resume. We one, two, three, swung the animal by it’s legs over the bramble thorn bush wall that delineates our camp boundaries so that it would be on the outside rather than in. Then we packed our radio and some coffee in the truck and parked 15 yards away hoping to catch a glimpse of the leopard coming back for seconds or better yet, a hyena coming in for the leftovers. Neither of these things happened, but we sat there until 4 o’clock in the morning determined not to miss anything. I’d love to upload some images to accompany my words, maybe not of the dead animals, but Paul has those too if anyone is interested. Every time I even think about pictures the internet connection laughs at me. I spent five minutes the other day trying to upload this lovely picture of Paul’s and my feet with an Energizer packet lying next to us. Afterwards I had to laugh when I thought about the possibility of that being the only picture that made it. What a disappointment that would have been for all of you. I will keep trying though, with more important pictures of course. At the end of the month we will be going to Nairobi for a few days so maybe then.

Until then………………………………….