My Summer in Kenya

Today was pretty typical. I followed two monkeys in the morning for good periods of time, like over an hour each. I am usually tracking with another teacher, Allison, these days, and a researcher assists us when we need it. Sometimes we need help confirming the identity of a monkey or sometimes we loose one into heavy foliage or to another tree and Laura or Monica help get us back on track. They were given almost a month just to get the know the animals before doing follows like we are, and we only had one or two days! Sometimes it’s frustrating and others, when I can ID one and stick with her for a while, it’s very fun.

This afternoon after work we saw a short African drumming and dancing show right outside Gede. I enjoyed seeing them heat up the drum skins on the fire to get them taut and the right tone before beating them. Some dancers performed and they made us get up and dance too! The performance was very simply and fairly primitive—not very polished at al, but authentic.

Tomorrow is our last full day working. Our hours are so long that we haven’t really had a chance to enjoy the ocean, which is close enough to hear all night. It is rough and full of seaweed here but some have tried to swim. I think I’ll wait until I get to my nice hotel the last night and try from there.

I think we will have an opportunity to go to DreamWorld tomorrow after work for our last Internet Café time. It has been impossible to do it more frequently and also there has only been one time this entire time that we have been near a bank. I was able to use my charge card a couple times, but otherwise there are no opportunities to get money. I truly understand what it is like to be in a third world country and not be living in touristy places.