Karibu Kenya

It’s been awhile since I have been able to post anything, but I’M IN KENYA! Our camp is located in the Kimana Group Ranch, which is in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The nearest town is Kimana, and it is about an hour walk or 30 min drive away. It’s Maasai country here, so most of the staff is Maasai and like our staff in Tanzania, they are wonderful. Our camp is absolutely amazing. Not only is it huge (we seriously had no idea how bad we were cramped in Tanzania until we got here), but you can see freaking Mt. Kilimanjaro outside our bandas. Kili also serves as awesome motivation when I’m up at six in the morning sweating on the running track (I almost squeal every time I turn the corner and see it). The professors here are also fantastic. It’s exciting to be able to start thinking about our directed research, which starts in about two weeks, and interacting with the professors who will advice us through the process. I’m crossing my fingers that I get to work on the water resource project with the Wildlife Ecology professor, Kiringe. Not only is the project extremely interesting since water rights, allocation and availability are a huge issue in East Africa, but also the project relates directly to my geological interests.

We had our first official holiday in East Africa, Halloween, a few days ago, and of course us twenty-some-year-olds HAD to dress up in costumes to celebrate. Our social committee also set up pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating- I don’t think I’ve had so much fun on Halloween since I was a child.

Today, the rains really started coming down. It’s the beginning of the short rains here in East Africa, and so I’m fully prepared for the epic mud fest that is about to happen around camp. Tomorrow we leave for expedition to Nakuru National Park, which is about an 8 hour drive from our camp. We’ve been told to expect cold and rainy weather the entire time there, and I am beyond excited to escape the heat (especially after fighting it through our expedition in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania).

I'm sorry about the lack of pictures at the current moment, but the past few days have been extremely hectic- I promise to put some up after expedition.