Rains are Coming

March 23, 2006
The boda bodas were not around for the second time in two days and
walked a couple fo kilometers before they came.

The interesting event today was that a black mamba was killed in Gede
today. The story we were told is that the snake was attacking a
monitor lizard when a local walked by. The mamba left its kill to
chase the local man, who eventually was able to save himself. People
arrived later to find the snake attempting to swallow the lizard, and
they killed it. Highly unlikely that a mamba would drop its pray and
go after a human you say? Well, yes, but it's interesting to hear
there are dangerous snakes in the forest.

Some of the people we knew were also arrested for a false traffic
violation after they refused to pay a bribe. The police block off a
major intersection, and if your friends did not tell you about it you
get caught, and you are either guilty or guilty ... unless you pay
them off with what amounts to a rather large sum for Kenyans.
Unfortunately, the police found out that the people we knew worked for
wazungu (the better to extort a bribe), so it did not go well.

March 22, 2006
We had another good day. Monica spent the morning tracking several
groups in the North and West. She even ran into a VERY guilty looking
woman who had been grazing her goats in the forest but was trying to
push them out as Monica walked past. Meanwhile, Scott tracked
Maurice's group and recorded several new GPS points to make our maps
more accurate.

We met for lunch and actually made the walk into Gede to eat at a café
we had wanted to try. We had pilau (rice and meat mixed together),
maharagwe (beans), and chapati (a tasty flat bread) with Fanta Citrus
to top it off. It was very good, but they tried to give us the wazungu
(i.e., double) price. We paid what was advertised and left. We were
strangely not annoyed this time that they tried to overcharge us.

We returned to Gede and immediately started taking GPS points for the
places Monica had been in the morning, which demonstrated an
exceptionally ability to tell direction on Monica's part, as her
points were exactly what the GPS said. She also pointed out where some
illegal logging had been going on.

We stopped off at Ocean Sports on the way back to return a book to
Steve (scuba guy) and decided to have a nice walk back along the beach
at dusk to watch the stars come out and watch the crabs swarm into the
receding tide.

March 21, 2006
What a great monkey watching day! We were awake and refreshed all day.
It helped that about mid-day there was a wonderful, drenching downpour
that cooled us off. The only downside was that while trying to make
sure he did not step on anything nasty in the forest, Scott missed
that there was a wasp nest above his head and received a nasty sting
on the back of his neck. The monkeys probably thought it was funny to
lead us through a hive. We also had our first collected monkey poo
samples (2)!! It was very exciting to capture, prepare, and bake them
just like REAL primate researchers.

March 20, 2006
Nothing much to report today. Sleep was a bit fleeting last night, as
it was mefloquine night. The monkeys were at least pretty nice to us,
and we gave one of the guides a hard time for giving Monica a hard
time yesterday. It actually did some good, we think. The best part was
stopping at the "Pole Pole Bar" for a much needed drink and to wait
for Mike ("In God We Trust" matatu tout) to drop off a tape of Swahili
rap for us.

We were joined by a Kenyan who was quite entertaining (though probably
would have been less so without the drinks). He spun a wonderful
(though rather improbable) story of how he was a shooting instructor
at the Kenyan Police Academy for 8 years but is now a police officer
in Malindi (likely true, as his friend actually is a police officer in
Malindi and knows some of the A Rocha people). He had ostensibly been
on secret assignment in "the bush" for the past 8 months. There he had
had to arrest 4 Somali bandits, but he had no vehicle. He and his men
had to hike 50 miles to find them. Just when they were so tired they
thought they would collapse they came to the place where the 7 Somalis
were hiding. He waited until nightfall when he poisoned the 17 Somalis
(yes, the number increased as the story unfolded) and told them to
give themselves up before he would give them the antidote. Also,
Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world.

I tried to capture the essence of his drunken stream of consciousness
monologue, but I cannot do it justice. He also bought us our first
round of drinks, so cheers to him! We had a fun time on the boda boda
ride back, too. It's amazing how a few drinks can make everything a
bit more fun.

March 19, 2006
Scott had a full day off and Monica a half day off today. We started
off nice and lazy … stayed in bed to write some emails, blog updating,
etc. then walked up the beach a couple of kilometers to the matatus.
Monica got off at Gede and Scott went on to Malindi. The only things
open on Sunday in Malindi are the ATM and the internet café, so
Scott's day was pretty relaxing. Who could complain about AC and a
fast internet connection? Scott returned to Mwamba to help Stanley on
the database until dinner.

Monica went in for a frustrating day: an hour to find the monkeys,
lots of forgetting things in the office, and it was ridiculously hot.
The guides were giving her a hard time, and to top the day off the
matatu ride was smelly.