Once again reporting from the infirmary – I have now been attacked by an acid bug. It may sound made up, I think its official non-official name is the Nairobi Eye. Its defense mechanism, upon death, is to release a smear of acid on the point of contact – which happened to be my face on this occasion - a full on red bubbly burn from the slope of my nose to the crevice of my right eye. I’ve been assured that it will go away and I’ll be as good as new – if so maybe acid is too strong a word for it.
2 more months and this blog is scheduled for a sabbatical. I can’t believe how fast August is approaching. When I was in school I operated on strict moral principles of not truly starting any of my projects until it was absolutely necessary. Sleep was for those who needed to operate heavy machinery. I reached optimum inspiration when I could count the number of hours I had left to achieve it on my hands and a couple of wiggling toes. So we’ve started to see the end and increase our production. 25 tree cuttings have been planted along the paths of travel. I’m told that they are fast growing trees so I look forward to them towering over my head when I return in January, shading the walk of death between my tent and the kitchen in the middle of the afternoon. January 2010, being only six months away may be a stretch of the imagination but I’ve always been a fan of positive thinking. Camp beautification will also include some stone paintings to delineate traffic accompanied by the skulls and tracks of the various animals we’ve been able to collect. We collected the stones from up the road in Entasopia - the shamba, farm area. The pictures I've posted are from that area to show you what a five minute drive closer to the streams of the escarpment will get you.
Quality over quantity - we’ve taken a break from trying to collar more animals and have spent the last couple of weeks tracking the ones we already have. Mwanzo was found with another lion up in a tree answering the question, do lions climb trees? Yes – although, to be fair, the trunk of the tree looked more like an escalator, there was nothing vertical about the climb. The new lion, Ren, was found with 6 other female lions one morning and he was mating with one of them. The five others kept their distance and begin to mimic the behavior from time to time. Even Pizza Hut, the hyena, allowed us to follow her for a couple of hours one night. She usually holds us to a 200 meter distance, but we graduated to a mere 50 and saw her sleeping next to a couple other hyenas and two little cubs. Hyenas’ kind of look like hunchbacks, a design that’s build for endurance rather than speed, and the little ones hopped quickly, straining to keep up. On our drive back that morning we came across fresh elephant dung and baby elephant tracks, though I’m not convinced that there are really elephants here seeing as I’ve never seen one. I’ve heard them, seen their tracks and dung, but this could just be planted evidence. There are supposedly hundreds of elephants here and it’s bewildering that such a large animal could stay so utterly elusive. The buffalo are the same way, though one night when we were having dinner at a watering hole, 40 of them walked right in front of us to have a drink. We were busy nibbling on chips and refried beans – a meal completely beige – when they snuck up and butted in front of us. Somehow they missed our presence at first because they all filed into the water and then instantly got spooked and all ran out.
Paul’s advisor and his family will be here for the next couple of weeks so look forward to the following blog entry detailing the numerous new collars we’ve put on and intense scientific breakthroughs. I, myself, plan on being amazed.
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