Mbwa Kidogo

 

Where have I been?  Is it too late to report on the World Cup?  I don’t care about the end, flash back to when the US was still in it - apparently soccer is one of my more obvious emotions.  My surprise 30^th birthday party produced a mere smile on my face.  Yes I realize that was over a year ago, I’m just building up examples here.  I’m bad at excitement, apparently, but US verse Algeria - England verses Slovenia was the day Sam said she saw a whole different side to me.  Two flat screens side by side in the bar - they were gracious enough to allow the US game to be on one of the six TVs in the room.  The tense situation pulled all USA supporters out of the woodwork and we became instant friends, sharing in screams at the pathetic offsides call and high fives at the climax of victory.  When the room grew calm we said our sheepish goodbyes to our new best friends, probably never to see them again.  We had our own soccer match at the local primary school that ended with the C.O.O. of the Cincinnati Zoo and I colliding head on - we were on the same team.  I lay motionless for a few moments in a bloom of dust before getting up and deciding it was time to sub out.  Most blame was directed at him although he claims that I elbowed him on the way down.   

Cincinnati Zoo?  Oh yes, camp has been a revolving door since I last reported.  Sam turned 30 and half of British Kenya came down to celebrate and then Earth Expeditions - affiliated with the Cincinnati Zoo - came out to do their annual inquiry based education program for teachers that includes a lot of interaction with the local community.  We brought the cheetahs out to celebrate.  The Cincinnati portion of the group has a strong liking to cheetahs and the first week of July every year when they come out seems to be about the only time we see cheetahs here.  This year I told them that the cheetahs were pets and we bring them out for good PR.

Monster had 8 puppies – none of them look like Bucket.  I actually don’t think there was a father involved, they all seem to be clones of Monster.  It’s my first batch of puppies to watch, but I sense that Monster is trying to get rid of some of them.  At night she distributes puppies around the camp and they are left crying which can’t be good.  She sits off in the distance and just watches them cry.  Tough love?  If I’m around, I veto this decision, scooping puppies up and taking them back to where they belong.  They are famous puppies in the community, booked before they were even born.  For some reason Bucket gets a lot of respect and is deemed a special dog and everybody wants one.  

As our time here comes to an end, I’ve been given the task of another blog to design, a website to figure out, and some CAD drawings to do to help a friend.  Nothing like piling it on at the last moment, it really wouldn’t be natural any other way.  The director of ACC came up to me and said, “Christine, I’ve just seen the website for SORALO, I didn’t know you had skills in web design.”  I replied that I hadn’t known either.  We’re in Nairobi for another week while Paul fumigates all of his poop samples for export and then we’ll head back down to camp with our replacements, Dave and Erika, for the final few weeks.  I think there’s one more blog left in me.   

17 pigs, 9 cats, and 3 dogs – all with free range of the household – just some closing remarks for your consideration.