Texas

We are often stopped by tourists while we're out doing some of our sampling.  Last week, we met some nice folks from Texas and Amanda got an opportunity to tell them some about our research and why it is important.  

These tourists were just getting ready to return to the US, after having spent some time working at orphanages in Kenya.  

The Guardian Article

The Guardian has just published an article on some of the politics of the Mara.

The Masai Mara: 'It will not be long before it's gone' As lodges and shanty towns proliferate in Kenya's Masai Mara, drastic and urgent steps are needed to save this beautiful game reserve from becoming an environmental disaster

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/aug/23/masai-mara-tourism-politics

An interesting read....although I'm guessing Dickson was misquoted in the article...because the Mara never dried up in 2009.

Take a look...

Sugru

We keep a bunch of Sugru in camp for fixing random things...including the Land Rover.  Last year, the plastic handle on top of our coffee making pot broke off.  Naturally, we fixed it with some Sugru.  The Sugru was working great...until a few nights ago, when some type of animal chewed it off.  I'm guessing it was a Serval Cat.  We've had a few Servals wandering around over the last few nights.

Servals are much less destructive than having lions in camp.  

Morning coffee with hippos

We camped last night with some of our friends who are staying at one of the Mara Triangle private campsites. These are beautiful campsites located right on the Mara River. This morning, we enjoyed our coffee on the bank of the river while watching hippos bask in the rising sun.

Camp Day

After spending the last week visiting our field sites and getting our monitoring equipment up and running, we're taking a camp day today to do laundry and make bagels for the coming week.

Big storm rolling in...

Mara - River of Death... and Life

Just this week, I returned to Kenya to join Chris at our field camp in the Mara. Last night, we sat on the "veranda" of our tent and watched a documentary called, "Mara - River of Death." (Unfortunately, you can't watch this from every country, but if you can watch it, you should check it out!)

This is a pretty spectacular documentary of the Mara River, and it does a great job of explaining the current state of the river and challenges it faces, while also just having a lot of amazing videography of all the wildlife the river sustains. This documentary was filmed by a fellow we met here in the Mara named Peter Glaub, a dedicated and passionate photographer and videographer who has spent many years here in the Mara.

This documentary also happens to be the same one my former boss, Michael McClain, sent me just before I moved to Kenya to start working on the Mara in 2008. I watched it at home alone in Texas, on the eve of this great new adventure, and I still clearly remember being filled with a combination of incredible awe and overwhelming panic. On one hand, the Mara is an incredible river that sustains "one of the world's last great ecosystems," and the opportunity to study this river and contribute to its conservation in some small way was a dream come true for me. On the other hand, I watched clip after clip after clip of mammoth crocodiles launching into the air to take down unsuspecting zebras, Thomson's gazelles and wildebeest, who surely had more natural instincts than me, whose only mistake was to come to the river for a drink. This was the river I was supposed to study? How do you study a river you can't even get into?

Six years later, I still feel a tremendous sense of awe in being able to work on the Mara River, and I still hold a tremendous amount of respect for the Nile crocodiles and hippos who truly call this river home. We have figured out how to work in this river in the safest manner possible, hiring armed rangers, using the same familiar sites, and taking a lot of time to study the river each time before cautiously entering only carefully selected areas. But today, as we worked at our most familiar study site at the Lower Mara Bridge, we watched a huge crocodile feasting on the body of a drowned wildebeest... in the place we normally get in the river to work.

It was a great reminder to hold onto those feelings I felt when I was first introduced to this river those six years ago-- the respect for the large wildlife in whose home I'm only a visitor, and the sense of awe and wonder at the opportunity to work here.

Fuzzy Math

I meant to write about this earlier...because it is insightful into the Kenyan economy.

Kenya has the perfect economy...people pay what they are willing to pay for a service or item and the seller sells it for what they are willing to sell it to you for.  Everyone is happy.  It is a sliding scale...some people pay more...some less.  (disclaimer:  I'm not an economist).

Two weeks ago, I stopped in Narok to purchase two boxes of wine...a red and a white.  Boxed wine is an essential research supply because you never know when an unexpected guest will stop by your camp.  We may live in the bush and go for days without a decent shower...but we'll always greet you with a nice glass of wine if you stop by.  If you do stop by...you may have to help process samples or perform some preventative maintenance on the truck...but you'll get a nice glass of wine.

In Narok, and most places in Kenya (except the large supermarkets like Nakumatt, Tusky's, and Naivas), there are no price tags on anything.  You negotiate the price.  You pay what you're willing to pay for the items and the seller sells them for what they are willing to sell them for.  That's why it is important to know what things cost and what your'e willing to buy it for.

I asked the seller, "how much for two boxes of wine, one red and one white."  She said, "6,000 shillings."  I knew that one box of good wine would cost between 2,000 and about 2,600.  I was willing to pay no more than 5,000 shillings.  But of course, I don't tell her this....and she doesn't tell me the lowest price she is willing to sell them for.

She was aiming high.  They always start off high...because some people will immediately agree to that.  But, I wasn't willing to pay that much because I couldn't afford it.

So, I shot low.  "I'll pay 3,000 shillings."  She laughs.  I laugh back.  I knew that it was ridiculous to think that I could buy two boxes of wine for 3,000 shillings...but you have to start low...but not too crazy.

She starts to tell me how expensive these boxes of wine are and how much it costs to bring them to Narok.  She says, "I can go no lower than 5,900 shillings."  She then converses in swahili with her colleague, some of which I understand.

Now...the fuzzy math comes in.  All shop keepers will have a handheld calculator.  Usually, one of those solar powered ones.  They will always punch numbers in make it seem like they are making legitimate calculations as to what the price should be. In reality, they are just trying to justify their elevated price to you by backing it up with a calculation.  Sometimes...this can work to your favor.

I told her that I always buy my wine in Nairobi for 2,000 a box and I would be willing to come up a little bit since this is Narok.  That wasn't totally true, but since I'm the buyer, I have to keep shooting low but show that I'm willing to come up a little.  

She then gets her calculator out and demonstrates to me that she cannot sell it to me for lower than 5,900 because she pays 2,400 for the red (punches it into the calculator) and that she pays 1,900 for the white (punches into the calculator).

This comes out to 4,300.

I ended up giving her 4,500.  She came down from her initial offer of 6,000 and I came up from my initial offer of 3,000.  We both negotiated to find the ideal price I was willing to pay and the ideal price she was willing to sell it for to me.

A perfect economic transaction.

Done with repairs...

I think I'm finally done with the much-needed maintenance for our truck.  It took us about 7 days, but we...

• Overhauled the main gear box
• replaced the main gear
• replaced 4 syncromesh rings
• Replaced the housing for the center diff - attached to the transfer case (it cracked last year)
• Replaced the ball joint
• Changed the fuel and oil filters
• Changed the motor oil, diff oils and main gear box oil
• Greased both propeller shafts, both front wheels and all u-joints
• Replaced the accelerator cable
• Replaced the rear brake pads
• Fix the welding for the two spot lights
• Changed one brake light
• Welded five cracks found in the supports connecting the chassis to the frame
• Replaced the driver's door striker
• Greased both bearings in the driver's side rear wheel

I have now moved onto other projects...including working on a steel security/protective case for our experimental water logger with the guys at the garage.

Macho

Kenyans have the best shirts.

This is Macho, the best car washer in Narok.  I'm not exactly sure if that's really how he spells his name...I doubt it.  It's his Kikuyu name so it probably isn't spelled like "Macho" - a man who is aggressively proud of his masculinity.

In case you can't see it clearly, his shirt says, with an arrow pointing up, "Up there for Thinking", and with an arrow pointing down, "Down there for Dancing".