DAY 1

Hello Graland!

I'm here!  After 25 hours of traveling, I arrived late in Narobi last night, and left my hotel this morning ready for adventure!  I had my ticket for a short trip out to LEWA where I am staying and working, on the smallest plane I have ever been on- a little Cessna plane with only 14 seats (including the pilot!).  Imagine a big van with wings... I was a little nervous but very excited to see Kenya from the sky.  As we flew out of Nairobi, buildings became more and more scarce...in many parts it looked like a living patchwork quilt of different greens and a few houses as we flew over farmland...

Hello Graland students!

Hi guys!

I am so excited to meet all of you tomorrow and talk about how we can Bolg when I go to Kenya next month.  Start thinking of some good questions for me, ok?   I am happy that we can meet before I go to Kenya, and look forward to keeping in touch with you all from the other side of the world... :)

See you guys tomorrow!
Jen

school visit

I'm really excited because today we will go to the school here on Mpala to visit the kids and paint a mural with them on their school wall.  We'll see how it goes, because some kids have never used paint and brushes before!  When we return tonight, I will post some pictures.  For now, I will leave you with a picture of a dik-dik.  They can be seen a tthe zoo too.  They live in pairs, and mate for life.  You see them always together in their little territory, and a pair lives just out side my banda.

More later!

Day 3

Hello Graland!

Yesterday we went to town for some meetings and on the way back to the research center we had a BIG moment.   The drive is about 1 hour or so (mostly because the road looks like a moon surface with multiple craters in it.... and we were just saying how we hadn't seen many animals.  Then we saw them, a big herd of elephants started crossing the road!  Here is a picture of one of the matriarch females- she was the last to cross.  I slowly drove by after she was on the other side and she turned to look at us.  It was a beautiful picture but we didn't stay to take one because her ears were spread wide and she gave us the signal to keep going.

my banda

I wanted to share one last photo today for you guys, here is where I sleep at Mpala.  It is a stone hut, called a banda, with electricity from 6pm-10pm.  We sleep under mosquito nets because malaria is possible here, but not prevelant.

Last thing, last night a gigantic spider (ok, maybe about an inch and 1/2 with legs) fell on my arm while I was asleep.  It had crawled up the mosquito net from the floor and fell from the top- he was heavy enough to wake me up!  You experience so many memorable moments here, (sometimes tremendous and beautiful, sometimes really hard, and sometimes just gross)...

on our way to Nanyuki

Nanyuki is the nearest town to our research center.  As we drove yesterday (about 4 hours) I thought a lot about how the people here live closer to the landscape and weather in so many ways.   In the United States many people (unless you are a farmer) are so far removed from the weather and climate; we have air conditioners and heaters.  The concept of climate change can seem so distant.  But when you meet people that are affected by drought and weather pattern shifts, it is a profound connection.

Thankfully, it has been raining this year.  Mpala is so much greener than last year, and it is nice to see the animals looking healthy, and the people with the water that they need too.  When water is around, problems for the Grevy's zebra and other wildlife diminish greatly.

Day 1

Hi Graland!

Well, we woke up to our first morning at Mpala Research Center with plenty of bird calls- there are so many loud sounds in the morning, and some nights you would think it is the day with all the animal vocalizations.  Last night, we heard elephants.  They have been coming into camp recently, and just last week completely broke apart a solar panel used to heat the water for showers (they were comign to access water in the pipes, and are strong enough to beak them open too)..  That is something I wanted to share with you guys, how excited I ahve been this year to encounter many examples of conservation in daily life, not only here, but in the city as well.  The hotel we stayed at in Nairobi had a huge composting operation, and even a vermi-compost system (using worms to compost).