The Burn Intensifies, the Poop Falls, and the Rash Spreads

May 14, 2006
Thankfully, there is not much to say about today. We decided not to
set our alarm, hoping that Leslie would be well enough to go in and
leave us able to take a day off. Steffen did not come knocking,
though, Leslie did not go in. She finally moved back into her room at
4 this morning. Monica and I had a sleeping in marathon! We slept
until 10. It was pure bliss :). We finally got up, and then made
ourselves a pile of French toast before getting to the day's work …
watching a movie on the desktop. Since one of the desktops has failed,
we had the task of getting the other one to play movies. We finally
found them, and then took another 30 minutes to find speakers. It was
definitely worth it, and we had a good time getting back in touch
with American cinema. The film of the day was "Bourne Supremacy", a
movie we have already seen, but like a lot. We finished the day with a
swim in the ocean as the sun set, and then Monica gave Scott a quick
hair cut by headlamp light :), and it actually looks really good!
May 13, 2006
We were woken up this morning by the sound of a knock at our door at
1am. Leslie was outside saying she was terribly sick. She had been
camped out next to the outhouse all night vomiting. We were
immediately awake and found some good meds for her. She refused to
come and sleep in our second bed (her room doesn't have a bathroom,
but ours does), so we set our alarm to wake us up every 2 hours to
check on her. Needless to say, she stayed home the next day, and we
volunteered to collect poop in her group today. It was the day from
hell. We thought we were seasoned monkey watchers, able to
differentiate and follow monkey like K group, which we thought was
much slower and lower to the ground than ours. We were surprised at
the difficulty in identifying the individuals. They have nearly twice
as many females and a whole bunch of juveniles that are as large as
the females. Without knowing the individuals, the task was VERY
difficult. Despite this, we still collected 3 poops. By the time we
ended the day, we were ready to eat Putin's group.

The night was a bit more relaxing. We came back, showered, and then
came out to meet Steffen to go to Carol's house for dinner. Scott's
parents gave him a call right before we left, and he had a nice
(albeit short) conversation with them before we left. Carol's place
was fun. She, Sarah, and Veronique had spent the day cooking pilau and
mandazi. It was tamu sana! We also watched "Cats and Dogs", a strange
movie about dogs attempting the thwart a cat plan to rule the world …
the looks on everyone's faces when it ended was a mixture of horror
and shock. We all left.

May 12, 2006
Today was a lot of fun and pretty laid back. Veronique, a Canadian
volunteer for Turtle Watch, decided to come see the Gede Ruins today
and rode in with us. She had an amazingly lucky day: first we saw
Putin mating with a female right when we got there (a first even for
Scott), then she followed Putin's group in the morning, got lost, and
ended up at the eastern fence where a pair of the fabled
Arabuko-Sokoke elephants were just passing by! These elephants are
RARELY spotted, and many who have lived in Gede all of their lives
have never seen them. Unfortunately, she could not get her camera out
in time, and they left. While she was seeing elephants, we were
drawing our group's tails in preparation for creating a set of monkey
ID cards for a bunch of Earthwatch volunteers, who are coming in July
to watch our monkeys (at an exorbitant price). We all met up for lunch
and went to the Mobil Mart café, which was Veronique's first
experience with eating out in Kenya. We ordered fries, coffee, and
other Western goodies. We returned to Gede and took a tour of Kipepeo
with Salim. We finally got back to work and caught up with our monkeys
at the fort. When we went up to the office at the end of the day, we
interrupted what had been a heated argument between Leslie and Steffen
(they don't seem to see eye to eye). It turned out it was a good day
for a Happy Hour.

We left Gede and stopped off at the Pole Pole bar for drinks and met
up with Ben, Lispa, and Moses. It was, as always a good time and a
welcomed break from Mwamba. We returned and met the new guests from
Canada, a pair of professors and a pair of grad students from the
University of Manitoba, who are in Kenya to study the social
networking and knowledge transfer promoted by field schools. We also
discovered that it was Carol's birthday, which everyone had forgotten
to inform us about, and saw that they had a banner and a cake for her.
Shortly, after we started eating, Veronique received a call about a
turtle nesting at Plot 16! We all finished eating really quickly,
grabbed some cake (with chocolate sauce!), and then slowly got
organized to leave to see the turtles. When we were finally ready to
leave, we piled 9 people into Steffen's RAV4 and proceeded to get lost
in Turtle Bay (no small feat, since there is only a single, straight
road and fragmented frontage road). It was funny, and we ended up
getting to the turtle in time to see it heading back to the beach. We
watched the poor creature go straight for the most difficult path back
to the water. It was a full moon and low tide, and we could see the
large rock outcropping of shallow, jagged pools that she had to move
through. It was embarrassing to watch it flap its flippers
ineffectually and then finally go head first over the lip of a pool
into the edge of the other side of the pool. We finally had to leave
and walked under the full moon back to Mwamba.

May 11, 2006
After yesterday, we were glad to have a day off, though we did not
sleep in. Instead, we decided to hang out with the bird ringing guys
(Tom, Nathaniel, Max, and ? from Taita) and learn how to do bird
ringing. It's pretty neat! They put up the nets called "mist" nets,
which are thin, black nets that hang in loose sheets from 3 horizontal
lines. This has the effect of creating long pockets, in which the
birds are trapped. We watched the extraction process and were amazed
at how docile the birds are. Apparently, you need to check the nets
almost continuously so that the monkeys do not have a chance to raid
your nets and eat your catch. They weigh, measure, and take their
"molt score", a measure of the bird's age based on the age and growth
of its primary feathers (the first 10 feathers on its wing counting
from front to back).

After the ringing, we decided to work on the computer, which was
short-lived since the power went out. We were so happy that it
happened, because we finally had an excuse to do the other, more fun
things we had on our list. We first went to see Colin's wife, Ronnie,
who has been recovering from a nasty case of hepatitis. She was doing
well, and their new Jack Russell terrier, Bonga, is keeping her good
company. We talked about a lot of things then finally went back home a
few hours later – very fun time. We got back, did a little reading,
and then went to the beach for a bit to read, taking care not to be in
the sun, since Monica had been sunburned so badly. It did not matter,
though, since she was sunburned again anyway.

We decided to go with Veronique and Leslie down to the beach with a
bottle of Amarula to vent and relax under the very pretty full moon.
We came back and received some nasty looks from Carol and Stanley, who
seem to believe that drinking is right next to child molestation in
the eyes of God.

May 10, 2006
Not much happened today. We had a full day with the monkeys. We were a
bit frustrated with them and ended up going for our full lunch break
today by walking to the Mobil Mart Café in Gede. It was a good time,
and we had a chance to rest and decompress before returning to the
forest. Patrick had to leave today to attend the funeral of his aunt,
which is being held in a town about halfway between Gede and Voi.

May 9, 2006
Today, the weather and the monkeys behaved again. It's a welcomed
change from the previous week. Steffen suggested last night that we
photograph the monkeys when they are on the ground in the ruins, to
which we replied they are never on the ground in the ruins. Today they
spent about an hour wandering leisurely on the ground in the ruins
without much apprehension to Monica's camera lens (which they usually
avoid like the plague). We caught some great head shots as well as
some very funny looks on the monkeys' faces.

The interesting event today was that Scott saw a monkey get shocked by
an electric wire. The monkey just all of a sudden fell off the wire
onto its side on the ground, not breathing. A few seconds later, its
chest began moving rapidly, and it slowly raised its head and started
screaming. One of the females came out of the tree, chirped in each
direction looking for the source of the danger, and ran down to
retrieve the fallen monkey, which she had to hold to her chest as she
ran across the ground into the bush.

We ended up working through the day again and then leaving early to
catch a swim in the heavy surf followed by some downloading of our fun
new photos.

May 8, 2006
It was another great day! The sun was shining, and, as my brother
says, the monkey poop fell from the skies like manna from heaven! We
worked all day without a break. Monica was pooped on today by our
dominant female … well, it was more of a trap she fell into. She saw
Shujaa poop, but only found a small amount on the ground, then the big
piece fell off a limb right onto the back of her neck. Monica went
home slightly early (not because of the poop), so she could stop by
the chemist, which was not open yesterday to fill her prescription.
Scott stayed and put our little monkeys to bed. They are great!

May 7, 2006
Today did not begin well for Monica. Her rash had been quite itchy
last night and kept her awake; putting on clothes was no fun either.
These problems seemed pretty small, though, when we arrived at
breakfast. Everyone who was supposed to be on safari today was seated
in the dining room looking shell shocked. Another driver (still drunk
and reeking of alcohol 4 hours later when the police finally arrived
on the scene) had run head-on into Moses' van as they were driving
through Timboni. Luckily, everyone had their seatbelts on, and Moses
only broke a toe and seriously sprained his ankle. The driver's side
of his van was crumpled seriously, and the steering wheel was very
close to pinning Moses to his seat and crushing him. The other
passengers only had minor cuts and bruises. On our way to Gede, we saw
the remains of the van near the side of the road with a crowd of
people looking at it.

Monica's rash intensified today, and it was enough to convince her to
leave in the morning to see the doctor in Watamu and then head home.
She thinks it might be an allergic reaction to a fuzzy caterpillar she
saw crawling on her yesterday. It's amazing how efficient the doctor
here is: Monica was seen right away; they asked a lot of questions and
took the time to make a diagnosis; then they gave her a shot of
cortisone to ease the itching, wrote a prescription for a stronger
cortisone cream (not spending 20 minutes trying to hawk the newest
prescription drugs), and sent her off … all in less than 1/2 hour and
for less than US$10! We need to come to Kenya for health care; $10
would not even pay for a doctor's time to sneeze back home, and taking
the time to make a proper diagnosis … unheard of!

Monica had to talk with Jeffrey, the crappy boda boda driver, on the
ride back to Mwamba that included:
Jeffrey: "I will kill a goat for you."
Monica: "Why?"
Jeffrey: "It's a Maasai tradition!"
Monica: "Are you Maasai?"
Jeffrey: "No, I'm Giryama"
NOTE: Ben told us later that this is not a Maasai tradition
He also launched into a diatribe about: how can people call themselves
Christian if they drink alcohol? It's weird riding boda bodas
sometimes.

May 6, 2006
We had a much appreciated ride to Gede from Steffen this morning. It's
amazing how much hassle a car can eliminate (no 1 hour commute … only
20 minutes). The monkeys were good to us this morning; they must have
heard about Steffen returning and wanted to show what good little
monkeys they are … or something. Steffen visited our monkeys at 2 and
took notes. He thinks they might be habituated enough for the Earth
Watch volunteers who are coming in July. Our favorite quotes of the
day were "these monkeys are quite peaceful" (in reference to the fact
that our monkeys did absolutely nothing interesting socially; they
just walked and ate the whole time) and "Yes, this is a bit difficult,
but I don't know if paths will help" (in reference to the tangled mass
of thorned vines and brambles our monkeys like to go through that we
have affectionately named "Crappyland").

After dinner, we had a typical Mwamba moment, when Monica wanted to
use the printer. Dave's response was "it isn't hooked up properly or
something" without the slightest hint of concern or any promise of it
being fixed ever. Luckily, Scott got it going, but the response is
very typical of the "oh dear, it's not working; how about that?"
mentality. Monica also developed a rather annoying rash today, and it
has been driving her crazy (and spreading).

May 5, 2006
Today, Monica did not want to wake up. The cursed sunburn had kept her
up much of the night, leaving her tired and raw. Putting on our work
clothes was no fun. At least we found the monkeys immediately. The
poop collection was decent, and we had our first chapatti na maharagwe
delivery right to our office … and free! It was great. Alice and her
sister Zanabu, who is deaf, came to collect the dishes. We ended up
conversing with Zanabu via a notepad in English and Swahili (our
written Swahili is much better than our spoken) for quite a while, and
it worked out great.

After work, we stopped in Timboni to pick up a Kenyan soccer jersey,
but it didn't happen. Bargaining put us both in a bad mood, since we
still have trouble communicating in Swahili. We stopped at Turtle Bay
to buy some kaimati (Kenyan donut holes), catch boda bodas, and we
were walking down the driveway as Steffen drove past. It was good to
see him, even in our bad moods. We ate pizza for dinner and brought
Steffen up to speed on our habituation work as well as the data we had
gathered.

May 4, 2006
Today was our day off (strategically planned for the day after Happy
Night). We slept in a little bit, and then Scott was ambitious enough
to go make French toast. It was wonderful; so good in fact that it did
not need anything on it! Since it was a bit sunnier than it had been
for a week, we decided to take a trip to Mida Creek. We took a matatu
to Mida and then walked a long but very pretty walk. We paid 80KSh to
enter and another 100KSh per hour for our guide, Sammy. He told us
about the various types of mangrove that grow along the creek (really
a mud flat that floods at high tide, providing the
saltwater/freshwater interface necessary for the mangroves to thrive),
as well as birds, crabs, and little mollusks. A lot of it he told us
in Swahili, and I think he was surprised and happy to see that we knew
a fair amount, though, we did not know some of the more technical
words like "chini" = "root".

We took the boardwalk, a series of spans of suspended planks, to the
bird watch tree house. The boardwalk can be a harrowing experience, as
it sways violently as you walk, and some of the planks don't appear as
though they will hold up. We then went out into the shallows of the
mud flat to see the birds closer and to see the jellyfish and other
creatures trapped in the receding tide. At this point, we began
regretting leaving everything (including sun block) at home. We
thought we would only be gone a short time and be covered by the
mangroves and that (like the rest of the week) it would cloud over;
instead, we were exposed in the open mud flats for an hour in the
blistering equatorial sun. We started to truly bake, and Scott gave
Monica his shirt. We finally had to tell Sammy we were cooking to
death ("ngozi hawaistahamili jua" = "skin has not yet caught up with
the sun"). We stopped back at the desk to have some juice and meat
from young coconuts (good) then took the shortcut back to the matatu
stage with our guide in order to get him some change (it is impossible
to get change for a 1000KSh bill anywhere).

We ate lunch back at Mwamba and although we knew we were fried, we
didn't know how much and went to the beach anyway. We covered
judiciously and laid out, but we only lasted before retreating from
the jua kali ("harsh sun"). By dinner time, Monica was so red that
everyone in the room stared at her with a mixture of shock/pity/awe.
Ben had never seen a sunburned mzungu.

May 3, 2006
Today, aside from the monkey difficulties, it was a great day! Monica
got a new necklace (very pretty) that Joro had made for her, and she
also received a little present from Unis, Mike, and Joro: a drum made
of a baobob pod and stretched, tanned goat's hide. The drum is
inscribed with a very personal message: "Monica – Sima na Nyuma;
Karibu; Rafiki" (referring to the "Sima na Nyuma" incident) It was
perfect! We then took a much too crowded matatu to Turtle Bay (we both
had 3 children on our laps). Monica was also sitting next to a kid who
was really jamming to his music.

We arrived at Pole Pole for a much needed before everyone else and
began to wonder if anyone would join us. Then everyone came … Leslie,
Lispa, Moses, and Ben. We had a great time! We finally took a taxi
back, had dinner, and also had some interesting conversations about
the U.S. before we went to bed.

May 2, 2006
More rain … what more is there to say? We salvaged part of the day by
going to Malindi and getting a few things done. The interesting event
today was watching Maurice (our group's male) go crazy when he saw one
of the farmers heading down the path along the southern fence. He
heard him coming and started pyaoing, then when Maurice saw the
farmer, he began running along the fence barking at him and stood at
the fence after he passed threatening and then pyaoing. We have only
seen him do this when there is a very big danger, like a pack of wild
dogs or large birds of prey and never this strongly. We are wondering
if the farmer is either a tree thief or, more probably, if he
hunts/traps the monkeys in the shamba (farm) to the south.

May 1, 2006
Not much happened today except that the monkeys drove us crazy (I
know, you're thinking that it was a pretty short drive for us). It
keeps raining off and on and the monkeys are nearly impossible to find
these days. It does not help that they are zipping around in the tops
of the trees, dodging behind dense leaves while the rain blinds us and
leaving us well behind as we drive through thorned bushes in a vain
attempt to follow them. We have been ending up wet, dirty, cut, and
usually without any poop or follows. The morning was particularly
frustrating, as we had before been used to getting all of our work
done then. It's amazing how much of a workout your neck muscles get
while watching the tops of 30-meter high trees.

Our food has returned to normal rotation of African yumminess. After
dinner, we watched 2/3 of the movie "Out of Africa". It was
interesting to watch in the presence of Lispa, who is Kikuyu, and Ben,
who is Maasai.

April 30, 2006
Today we had a day off, so we of course slept in and then did the
emails and stuff we cannot do on normal days. The local people here
are quite cool. Ben is one of the people we've gotten to know; he's a
Maasai from Nairobi who is getting ready to study wildlife
conservation in Lake Naivasha. He is being sponsored by an American
who works at the California Academy of Sciences (the same one that
Monica's new master's thesis advisor belongs to). He's definitely
working hard enough; every night we see him pre-studying for the day
when he goes to school (he says he does not want to disappoint his
sponsor; he won't). He wants to visit his sponsor in San Francisco, so
hopefully we will get to catch up with him in Cali. Lispa is great, as
always. She has been exhausted by her cooking classes at Turtle Bay in
addition to her regular duties at Mwamba, but she liked the classes a
lot and is now rejuvenated after a week of resting.