Typhoid Bad, Horseback Riding Good!

May 28, 2006
We decided to delay our day off so we could see Maurice again before
the week is out. We don't want our monkeys to forget us. They were
very welcoming and provided us with 8 poops! And this was even with
sporadic rain throughout the day. What good monkeys we've raised :).
We ran into Salim later in the day, and found the students from Miami
University at Kipepeo. They let us get a ride with them back to
Mwamba, and since Salim was planning to come see Leslie, he hitched a
ride as well. When we got to Leslie's room, she looked rough.
Apparently, she thought she was better and decided to go all out and
eat a bunch of pili pili (hot peppers), which were not well-received
by her colon. The result was a very pained Leslie. We had dinner with
Salim then he caught a ride back with Moses, who was going to
Comeback.

May 27, 2006
Today was a better day. We both worked with Putin's group yet again
and I think we have them figured out! Also, the weather was nice all
day so with both of these factors going for us, we ended the day with
a record 11 poops (6 from me, which was also a record)! (All of you
reading this must really find this poop talk quite strange!) Laura,
the new monkey researcher, appeared in Gede and we spent the day
talking to her, showing her around, and introducing her to the
monkeys. Laura is from NYC and will be here for the next 6 months.
She seems quite nice and it was interesting to hear about her career
switch. Before monkey poop she was doing laser hair removal. Those
she worked with joked with her saying that when she finishes with
these monkeys, all of the monkeys will be hairless! J She also told
us her adventures getting here, which seem to always be numerous. We
ate lunch at the Mobil Mart Café to welcome her and Patrick came along
later. We ordered him a hamburger, seeing as he had never had one
before and were pleased to find that he enjoyed it! J

The monkeys today were very different. I don't know if they are just
getting used to me or what, but I was charged/attacked by an adult
female about 3 times. I accidentally got between her and her infant
and rather than just retrieving the infant, she ran right at me and
pushed me several times. It didn't hurt, but seeing as I had never
been touched by a monkey before, this scared me to death!! I have
since found out that this is not unusual and that Putin's group is
just a lot more bold than our group. Next, my leg was groomed twice
by a male juvenile, Kito, and then later in the day when I was
watching an adult female, he jumped on my head!! I just froze and
said to myself, "What should I do?" I just stood there as he made
himself comfortable on my head and then I felt a little hand start
patting my face. It was very amusing!! A minute or so later, he
tired of this and jumped off only to return to my head again a few
minutes later to take off my hat. I have since found out that he used
to do this to Nadia, the monkey researcher from England who left in
early March. We think Kito must think I am Nadia, as she had a
similar hat, was also short, and wore her hair in a braid. I feel
honored to be accepted into the group…I guess!? All of this attacking
and jumping on me, along with a few wasps that decided to run into my
chest (I'm glad they did this rather than stinging me) left me quite
jumpy the entire day. From one moment to the next, I didn't know if I
was being attacked or played with.

After work, Laura came back to Mwamba for dinner. After dinner we
went to the office for a "monkey researcher meeting" which consisted
of some celebratory drinks since Steffen leaves tomorrow, some real
monkey questions, and some random stories. We had a good time and
toasted with the phrase "Mavi Mengi" (many poops!). I think Steffen
was amused by this and will likely use it in the future with his
researchers!

May 26, 2006
It seems the more cool people who leave, the more the rain picks up.
Today it rained all morning so we headed into work late. Today Scott
and I both worked with Putin's group and began to start to actually be
able to tell these new monkeys apart. We managed to collect 6 poops,
not bad for a rainy day with a new group. We ate leftovers for lunch,
but unfortunately we had forgotten to pack spoons. We took a 30
minute nap on the benches and finished out the day. Not much else
happened that day. I was a bit bummed the entire day and just decided
to go to bed a bit early.

May 25, 2006
Today was a day off and I had high hopes for it as it would allow me
to spend some time with Ben before he left for Lake Naivasha.
However, the weather was super crappy! It rained all day. It would
have been perfect for a movie, but there was no way to watch one. We
had hoped to go swimming, but that wasn't going to happen either. I
just fixed some scrambled eggs with cheese, wrote some postcards,
listened to my iPod, and chatted with Ben and Leslie in the living
room, while Scott carried on some more "serious" discussions with
Susan regarding politics, etc. Around 3pm, I decided to go to the
beach whether there was rain or no rain. I thought maybe I would nap
under the banda or read for a bit while watching the waves.
Unfortunately, the banda leaks and I was soon getting quite dripped
on. I went and sat on the beach itself, which was actually drier than
the banda and just watched the ocean and took some short naps. Awhile
later, Thomas, came out to walk on the beach and he came up to me to
tell me he had found a shark or whale head up on the beach. I went to
see it and saw Ben coming to the beach. I waved him over and the
three of us pondered what kind of decaying skull this was. Ben and I
decided it was a dolphin or porpoise. It was quite interesting , yet
also disgusting. We walked along the beach to where Mida Creek meets
the ocean (or close to it) and then walked back to Mwamba. I wrote a
couple more postcards, exchanged contact information with Ben and we
all said goodbyes to him before Colin drove him to Gede. Hopefully we
will be able to stop by and see him in Lake Naivasha during our safari
and/or he can meet us in Nairobi before we leave for the US.

May 24, 2006
Today was a frustrating day. Steffen had asked one of us to help him
with Putin's group. Since neither of us wanted to do this, we flipped
a coin and I lost the coin toss. I began the morning with a poop
sighting, yet since it dropped from about 40 ft up and hit a zillion
branches on the way down, it was a lost cause. I simply couldn't find
it. I then tried to hoot for Patrick and Steffen to see if they could
help me look. They were far off in the forest somewhere and when I
tried to find them I couldn't find them either! I am not very
familiar with the northern part of the forest or with their monkeys so
I found the whole situation quite frustrating! I decided while I
waited to "cool off", I would label all of their trails, for if I
couldn't find my way around the upcoming Earthwatch Volunteers would
not be able to either. After doing this, I felt better and managed to
get 2 poops (along with another one I couldn't find). At noon at
switched back to my group.

Scott had also had a frustrating day. He got very few poops as a
result of the morning rain. He had also gotten stung again. He did
however, get to see Maurice go nuts again at the whistling farmer.
This guy seems really weird and he keeps staring at Scott funny.

Around 3pm I left Scott to go into Malindi to get prints of some
digital photos I wanted to give to Ben and Moses before they left. I
will likely get some more printed for others before I go. This was an
interesting experience. I went to what I think is the only place in
Malindi you can have this done, one of the local chemists (or
pharmacies). They had a Kodak Kiosk like the ones you find in any CVS
or Walgreens in the US, but it was behind the counter covered up by a
cloth. When I asked about printing the pictures, they unveiled the
machine like I was the first or last customer to ever use this
machine. It worked well though and took no time at all, although it
definitely costs more to print digital photos than in the US. I don't
think there is much demand for it here yet. After getting the photos
and buying some cheese from "The Cheese Shop", a new discovery in
Malindi, I texted Ben who I knew was in Malindi to see if he wanted to
head back to Mwamba together. I did some emailing while waiting for
him then we headed back to Gede. We decided I still had some time to
go back to work and this would give him the chance to see Gede and our
monkeys. He had planned to go on Saturday, but since he was having to
leave early, this was not possible. We got to Gede, I showed him
around a bit and then we went back home with Steffen. On the way
home, we stopped at Villa Veronica, a hotel in Watamu, to book a room
for Laura, a new monkey researcher who we just found out yesterday was
coming in a few days.

After dinner, I spent some time chatting with Ben and showing him a
lot of our "goods". Since we are likely to leave a lot of stuff when
we go, I thought he could see what he might want. He has to buy a lot
of camping stuff anyway. I also showed him the computer which we
might be giving to him as well. We brought it with the intension of
leaving it here with someone who could use it, so we will see if this
works out.

May 23, 2006
Veronique left today at 1pm, but we found today was a very rough day
for other reasons! We had stayed up a bit too late and were VERY
TIRED and VERY SORE from the horseback riding!!! I guess we weren't
the only ones who were tired as we ended up having to wake Steffen up
to get him to come to work. He just kept turning his alarm off! We
decided if ever there was a day to have coffee, it was today. Boy
were we wrong! While it tasted good (Scott even put some hot
chocolate into it!), it went through us super fast, made us jittery,
and played complete havoc with my system. Around 11am, I felt like I
was going to be sick in the forest and had to sit down. I lost the
monkey had been following, but happened to see another one poop.
Unfortunately, I was feeling so sick I was having trouble collecting
it. Scott saw me and how pale I was and came to walk me back to the
trail. I didn't even want to walk to the office so I just laid down
on the trail and went to sleep until I felt a bit better. As the day
progressed, I felt better. We also managed to see another bush baby
when we were in the southern part of the forest. When we got home
from monkey watching, I began to feel worse again. To add to this, my
legs were so sore, I could barely walk! The electricity was out so we
all had dinner via candlelight. I was in the middle of a conversation
with Ben later that night when Liz came and told him he had to be out
of his room by Friday. He had planned to be around until Sunday until
he was hit with this news. I was so annoyed. First of all, I didn't
want him to have to leave early. Secondly, the situation was not
fair. This is not the first time they have decided to kick people out
of their rooms for other "full-paying guests" (non-volunteers) who
plan to only stay for a night or so! This is not good business
practice and will likely end up hurting their business in the long
run. GRRR! I did the best I could to not give her a piece of my mind,
vented to Ben afterwards, and then headed to bed quite annoyed at the
situation.

May 22, 2006
Today was another fabulous day! It started with a very early morning
with the monkeys, but was okay as we knew we only had to make it to
2pm when we would leave to go horseback riding! We managed to
accomplish quite a bit of monkey work and then we met Ben and
Veronique on the matatu and headed into Malindi. We stopped by the
ATM machines first so Veronique could pay her rent and then grabbed a
tuk tuk to the Kibokoni Riding Centre. On the way, I discovered that
Ben had not only never ridden a horse before, but had also never
ridden in a tuk tuk! So many "firsts" in one week! I'm so glad he
decided to join us in all of them! When we got to Kibokoni, we
immediately knew there was something wrong…there were no horses! We
found someone to ask and they explained that the place had been sold
and the horses were taken to a new place nearby. I'm glad Ben and the
tuk tuk driver were there as we couldn't understand anything that was
being said! We decided to find the other place and after some time
turning around, asking people nearby, etc, we managed to find the
horses new home…Seaview Hotel and Resort. The place was quite fancy
and beautiful and we learned that the horses had just moved to their
new home about 3 days before. I believe that we ended up being the
first people to ride the horses under this new management. Our guide,
Thomas, was the same guy we had talked to the week before, so he must
have moved from Kibokoni along with the horses. He was very nice! He
made sure to give us horses that were appropriate for our levels of
riding experience and then we were off to the beach! We spent the
whole time just riding in the surf and along the beach. It was
beautiful! You could even see the Sabaki sand dunes off in the
distance! This was the best paid riding experience I have ever had as
rather than the horses just plodding along one behind the other, these
horses were independent and spirited and they let you ride your horses
side by side, and walk, trot, canter, or gallop as you wished! It was
so invigorating!!

I loved my horse, Minimax, who always fought to be in the lead. While
he was full of energy and rearing to go, he was also very well behaved
and listened to my commands beautifully. Scott and Veronique enjoyed
their horses as well, which trotted along at a nice pace, but didn't
go any faster than that. Ben, unfortunately got the "slow" horse who
seemed ancient and who just didn't seem to want to go faster than a
slow walk. I kept galloping back to see him and tried to explain how
to kick and click to them to get them to go faster, but every time I
tried to demonstrate how to "kick and click" my horse would just take
off! He eventually got the horse to trot, which is probably
sufficient for a first time horseback riding venture to ensure you
come back in one piece. I had a wonderful time and I think everyone
else did as well. I plan to try to get large group from Mwamba
together to go again and negotiate a discounted price, although,
compared to what it costs in the US to go horseback riding, this place
was very reasonable! I'm so glad we did this!

Once we got home we couldn't stop talking about our day's adventures.
We had dinner and then had some wine with Veronique, Steffen, Lispa,
and Susan as a send off to Veronique as she will be leaving tomorrow
for Canada. L I even managed to take a candid photo of Steffen, who
hates having his picture taken! Score! This week has been so much
fun; we are dreading the departure of Veronique, Ben, Moses, and
Steffen, whom we have enjoyed having around Mwamba.

May 21, 2006
Today was a fabulous day off. I had decided to go to church with Ben
and Colin in Malindi. Thus, I woke up early and got ready for church.
I had some chai and had a discussion with Ben about the complications
of ordering cappuccino along with its caffeine-related effects.
Church was interesting; it was an Anglican service, a type of service
I had not yet been to. It was quite similar to a Catholic Mass. I
was a bit intimidated being the only mzungu there (aside from Colin
who does the music), but it ended up being quite a pleasant
experience. After church, Ben and I walked to the internet café to do
some web surfing. This was the first time he had been walking with me
in public I guess, because he immediately commented that he felt like
everyone was staring at him. I explained that that was because they
were!! Welcome to my life! He was amused! Our regular internet café
was closed so we went to another one, which was so slow we got nothing
accomplished. The next one we went to was much better. We then
headed back to the Matatu Stand and on the trip home I got to hear all
of the Mwamba gossip! Apparently without Ben to keep me updated, I am
completely out of the loop! J We decided to take bodas back so we
would be home in time for lunch. However, when I looked back, I
noticed that rather than "riding" on the boda, Ben was actually in
front pedaling! I, on the other hand was struggling to stay on, as I
was wearing a skirt and I still haven't quite managed to get the
"side-saddle technique" down. Ben paid for both of us (I offered to
pay, but he refused) then he vented his frustration that wazungu are
charged more for bodas than Kenyans (even if a Kenyan pays for them)!
I told him that I understood and that it frustrates us every day, but
we have gotten tired of fighting for the cheaper price. He had also
paid for himself and that was something I didn't understand, as he had
been the one pedaling the other guy!! Oh well; it made for a good
story!

After lunch, which didn't get started remotely on time (as usual), we
went to the beach. After learning last night that Ben didn't know how
to swim, through the course of the day, I had managed to coerce him
into coming to the ocean so I could try to teach him how to swim. I
had never taught anyone how to swim, seeing as I only recently learned
how to do so myself, but we had a great time! It took me quite awhile
to figure out why he kept sinking and I found myself having to lift
his legs up over and over again. I had him use the mask and snorkel
(minus the snorkel as this seemed to only complicate matters) and that
seemed to help a lot. Finally, it all clicked and he easily floated
to the top. He had managed to make himself relax (not an easy feat)
and that was all it took! From there he began actually swimming,
although the kicking and the breathing will have to be perfected in
the future. Still, this was much more than I had expected us to
accomplish in such a short time! Also, during the lessons, he had
mentioned to Susan who was also swimming with us, that he had never
actually been in the ocean before! Wow, I felt so honored that he had
mustered up the courage to try with me as the teacher of all people!
J

While these lessons were going on, Scott had decided to go snorkeling
out on the reef with Veronique and Drew. Drew was a new guest from
the US (Boulder, CO) who was in the area to teach GIS (Global
Information Systems?) workshops using software donated by ESRI (the
makers of ArcGIS). Scott also learned of his future plans to do a
6-month circumnavigation of Africa on a sailboat. He will have his
own blog at www.serviceatsea.org. We are intrigued. They had a great
time on the reef where they saw several sea turtles, brightly colored
sting rays (beautiful blue-spotted rays in pairs all around).
Veronique and Drew got some great photos with their underwater
cameras. Drew's camera was especially cool as it looked like a regular
digital camera. We saw him come into the water to take a picture of
Ben and I, and Scott was thinking, "Wow, this guy better be careful
with his camera!" He then explained that it was waterproof to 3
meters and how he liked to trick everyone by "accidentally" dropping
his camera into the ocean and seeing everyone's reactions. Another
way he will get a reaction is by say, "Hmm…this camera seems a bit
dirty. Let me just rinse it off." He will then just dip it in the
water and wait for the reactions! J

My mom called right after I finished swimming so I had a nice long
conversation with her, although the connection was not great for us.
After dinner, I fell asleep while "helping" Scott plan our upcoming
Uganda trip. I woke up in time to talk to Colin to see if Ben could
come horseback riding with us. Scott, Veronique, Susan (a new
Community Development researcher here from Canada), and I sat out on
our porch talking and listening to each others iPod tunes until
midnight or 1am.

May 20, 2006
Today was another day with the monkeys. We went the wonderful Mobil
Mart Café again, this time for chapati mayai (chapati with egg). Even
though it was not on the menu, they were more than happy to fix this
for us as we are now giving them so much business. It was wonderful!
After work Steffen dropped us (and Patrick) off for a dinner with
Andrew McNaughton. Scott was going to take a look at his computer,
Patrick wanted to see his artwork, and I was just along for the ride.
He started us off with drinks, for me a very welcome vodka and coke
and for Scott a Tusker Beer. We then had a delicious dinner of
tilapia, beans with mchicha, and some soy thing that was fairly tasty.
Before dinner, when Scott was busy working on the computer and
Patrick was busy looking at artwork, Leslie and I sat out on Andrew's
hammock swing and had some nice girl talk under the stars. It was
very nice. Andrew even offered to have Patrick come and help him with
his Turtle Bay Beach Club renovation project the next day. Patrick's
face simply lit up at the suggestion! Since we had to get Patrick
back home and Steffen had the car, we had to leave for Colin's place.
They were having a movie night at his place. We made it there before
the movie ended so I got to see the last part of "Castaway". I forgot
how much I like that movie. After the movie ended, I went back to
Mwamba with everyone via the beach. I left Scott to talk with Ronnie.
Once I got back, I realized that Scott had our room key. Also, I
hadn't left him with a sufficient flashlight so Ben and I went back to
get Scott. We had a nice talk on the beach. The weather was
wonderful and the stars were amazing! It was close to midnight by the
time we left with Scott to go back. The moon was not out and the tide
was very low so we accidentally passed the entrance for Mwamba and
ended up at Plot 35 (about twice as far as we should have gone). When
we finally found our way back it was close to 1am and we were all
exhausted.

May 19, 2006
Today was our day off, but didn't bring the much needed rest we had
hoped for. We had to finish a photo project for Steffen, but we had
to wake up extra early to get access to the research computer before
everyone else got up. This left me quite grumpy. The day got better
as Scott made French toast, we ate lunch with Leslie on the roof, and
went to the beach to catch up on sleep there. I attempted to plan the
horseback riding trip for Monday, but ran into the problem I had
foreseen. The phones didn't work, or the phone numbers were wrong,
etc. Anyway, I couldn't get through to them and even my lengthy text
messages that I was sure would work, kept getting erased and would not
send. I had to give up on this and decided to just try my luck and
bring Scott, Ben, and Veronique to the riding place and hope the
horses were available at that time. The rest of the day was pretty
uneventful.

May 18, 2006
Today was another sub-par day, and we just wanted to get some sleep.
We went to the Mobil Mart for egg sandwiches, which lightened up our
moods a lot. Not much else to report.

May 17, 2006
Today the really cool birder guys left to go back to Taita. We said
our goodbyes to them before heading to see the monkeys. Today was
still frustrating and stressful as we felt we had so many things to
catch up on. Liz had also been driving me crazy with her insistence
that we visit Leslie all of the time. I'm afraid her badgering had
the opposite effect from what she intended. Today, we also spent the
day helping Steffen with Leslie's monkey group. Since we do not know
this group at all, it was very difficult for us to be helpful. The
whole things just made us feel rather dumb and unhelpful. When we got
back to Mwamba we went straight to see Leslie. We had a really good
conversation with her and got to hear her extremely funny dream…

We were living in a poorly decorated shack full of horrible 1970's
décor. She was spending time with us when we were in San Francisco,
but she was horrified to see our taste in décor and our taste in
clothes for when she saw us we were wearing matching plaid polyester
pants! We had both decided to give up on the world of academia and
pursue another path instead. We were planning to market a "Hello
Kitty"-type product, only this product would be called "Hello Maurice"
(Maurice is the dominant male monkey in our monkey group). We were
showing her albums and albums of our "Hello Maurice" prototypes for
stickers and "shrinky dinks" (I don't know what these are!) that we
were sure would make us a fortune. Leslie truly felt we had gone
crazy! She decided to try out her new gumboots (rubber boots) in our
huge eternal puddle outside of our '70's shack. She laced them up,
for these gumboots were bright red knee-high boots that laced up.
When she stepped into the puddle she discovered they had special
propulsion powers and she would bounce right out of the puddle every
time she tried to step.

We thought this dream was hilarious! Soon after we heard this story,
Veronique and Andrew McNaughton arrived to visit with Leslie.
Veronique (in case we have not yet mentioned her) is a Turtle Watch
volunteer from Canada. Andrew McNaughton is the cool artist whose
house looks like a museum and he is very into the drums. He is
redesigning parts of the Turtle Bay Beach Club and I can't wait to see
it. Just for a visual on the guy, he is British and wears the
tightest, shortest spandex shorts you could ever imagine! He has been
titled Andrew Mc "tight pants". He is very eccentric, and his art is
amazing!

May 16, 2006
Today was not the best of days. We went into to watch the monkeys,
but were preoccupied with how Leslie could have gotten typhoid.
Typhoid is generally spread via bad food or water so we kept trying to
figure out where we should avoid eating and whether we might be
incubating it ourselves (since we often eat/drink at the same spots).
Leslie had also been immunized for typhoid, yet she still got it,
leaving us extra worried (we have since discovered that the
immunization is only 65-75% effective). On the way home from work, we
stopped at the internet café and read up on Typhoid. This made us
feel a bit better, although the thought of going into her
"contaminated" room to give her company did not seem like the wisest
of ideas. I was also stressed because I realized just how behind we
were on inputting our monkey data. We decided to eat dinner, work on
data and see how much time we had after that. Unfortunately, since we
had brought our computer into the dining area, we were faced with many
interruptions.

A new guy Harrison interrupted us because he wanted Scott to help him
fix his pen drive right away. Scott was taken aback by the
not-so-subtle demand and bluntly told him he might help him later, but
not now. One of the birders, Tom, started up a discussion about his
birding research at Taita and what he plans to do for his
dissertation. This really got Scott's mind going and they got into a
very long (albeit very interesting) conversation. However, this meant
that I was doing the data inputting by myself and it took me twice as
long. To make up for this, Scott stayed up late and worked on some of
it by himself. Needless to say, we didn't get to bed until quite late
and Leslie was fast asleep by the time we were ready to visit her. We
vowed to visit her the next day.

May 15, 2006
Leslie could not come in again today. We ended up going from work
straight to Malindi to take care of some emailing and other errands,
skipping lunch so we could take our break at the end of the day. We
arrived back at Mwamba approximately 30 minutes late and found that
all of the food was gone. This is never a good thing to have happen
when Scott is hungry! He was quite angry until we realized there were
ingredients around to make something for dinner. I had an egg
sandwich and he made a French toast and mango sandwich. While we were
cooking we were told that Leslie had finally gone to the doctor and
had found out she had typhoid. Everybody was very worried since
typhoid can be quite contagious. Scott and I decided that we would go
learn more about typhoid at the internet café tomorrow. We visited
her briefly and then went to bed.