more sanctuary maintenance

more sanctuary maintenance today.. once again a bit of a monotonous day. we spent the morning driving around in the truck - the roads are so heinously bumpy - and stopping by trees to go collect seeds for the tree nursery. it was entertaining enough the first time but after over 2hrs of driving and god knows how many stops i think we were well and truly over it.. a lot of people had stayed back at camp and i half regretted my decision to soldier on with work but hey, i'm only here once, a bit of seed collecting isn't going to kill me..

the afternoon was meant to be 'wildlife monitoring' (basically just driving around the ranch and seeing if we spot animals) but we saw nothing too fascinating other than a giraffe here and there.. after a few hours of dullness in the truck we were dropped off at this place called 'sunset rock' so we could watch the sunset. the view around us was incredible as you could see flat plains vanishing off into the horizon but unfortunately the sky was really grey and the only glimpse we caught of the sun was juuuust before it disappeared. it was pretty cool though, massive and so red!!

i think the fact that we have to drive at least a good hour before we get anywhere is starting to take it's toll on us, i'm a lot more lethargic after bumping around in a truck for that long.. but although all in all it was a fairly boring day, i'm still just so glad to be out here.. and the knowledge that after dinner we have time to hang out and curl up in a pile of cushions and mattresses around the fire makes me so happy (: every single night without fail it's been joe, sam and i and every night different people will join us for a while. it's just nice to swap stories, laugh, stargaze, guess how many scorpions are currently surrounding us.. that sort of thing (; it's also just a bit of time away from our big group without needing to follow instructions or whatnot and i think it's meant that we've gotten to know each other a lot better as well (:

voi town

sunday was fairly dull, not too much excitement. we drove out to voi town and stopped off at the 'supermarket' (tiniest convenience store ever) so that people could use the internet. it was 1/6th of the price it is at forty thieves so i was ridiculously excited (: unfortunately it soon became clear that the connection speed was probably 6x worse than at thieves and i spent a very frustrating 45min attempting to talk to kids back home and update my blog.. i've been ok with not communicating much given our scattered internet access times but having a computer right in front of me and internet that just refused to make anything work was so infuriating..

anyway. i needed a few hugs to shake off the rotten feeling of it all, bought a few red bulls and we re-embarked the safari bus to continue our journey to the pool. the said pool was part of a hotel called the 'leopard lodge' and we unfortunately had to pay to use the facilities (camps international do this really annoying thing where they'll take you out for day trips you assume are part of the program and fail to tell you you'll need to buy access to a toilet, access to a pool, lunch, guides, whatever..) but regardless of price i was just so hot and sticky and exited to go for a dip. we started up a group volleyball game without a net that pretty much turned into don't-let-the-ball-touch-the-water-and-peg-it-at-the-other-team.. sam, being the annoying child that he is, decided him and i should compete for every ball we hit and spent the majority of the time just unnecessarily diving across the pool and splashing everyone in his attempt at sporting success (; there was also a general opinion that i was a very aggressive hitter of balls, which i thought was amusing..

it soon grew too chilly to stay in the pool - the sun vanished and there was a quite prominent breeze. from then on i don't really know what i did.. i downed a few red bulls and spent most of my time wandering from inside the bar area to the pool to the bar to the pool and talking with whoever was there at the time. i was so restless. we were all fairly bored and the pool soon got annihilated by 50 odd locals and a giant boom box run by what was probably the worst dj in the world. it was actually hilarious - he'd be playing a heavy gangsta rap song and it'd all of a sudden keep stopping and starting again really weirdly? and we eventually realised he was doing it on purpose, thinking it was epic mixing skills. funny shit.

back at camp was the general afternoon routine of football, dinner and fireplace chillout. fairly late into the night a group of kenyans (who were spending the night at tsavo) came to sit by the fire with us and to be honest none of us were really in the mood to make an effort and try to make small talk with them in broken english.. so we sat there and carried on our conversation and somehow it turned into the biggest fit of hysterical laughter i've experienced in a long time. jasmine has an absolutely incredible laugh that sounds like a hiccuping, dying pig-monkey-crow in labour and sam was laughing at jasmine and i was laughing at them both and then one of the kenyan men just lost his shit and could not stop. every time he and jasmine looked at each other they'd explode all over again and no joke we were there for a good half hour with tears streaming down our faces.. the night guards even came to see what was going on due to the intensity of jasmine's laughter.

in retrospect i think it just bears witness to the humanity in each and every one of us.. the fact that two groups of people facing a language barrier could be on exactly the same wavelength and united by something as simple as laughter is just awesome.

sanctuary maintenance

i'm currently sitting in the dining area post-dinner, legs covered in scratches, grazes and cuts and happy as anything... our job for the day was sanctuary maintenance and we walked a little way out of camp until we reached a big hole in the earth. a group of elephants had smelled a leaking water-pipe underground and dug the hole to try and find it.. once the rangers realised, the plumbing was deviated but the hole remains and other animals are getting trapped inside it. our mission was simple - fill up the hole.

we soon discovered it was much too big to fill up using wheelbarrows of dirt and were instructed to fill it with logs and dead tree branches instead (which aren't scarce around these parts). i thought it was enjoyable work, though hard, as the plants are terribly thorny and the branches therefore a nuisance to carry. [to give you an idea - some of the thorns i stepped on went right through the sole of my sneakers and into my foot!] we teamed up throughout the day to transport entire trees that had fallen (once again, it's amazing what the power of numbers can do) and slowly but surely, the hole filled up. work like this is so encouraging/rewarding because you see the progress you're making as you go..

once the hole was filled, we gathered big bunches of dried grass to fill in the gaps (it was so itchy to carry!!). the group shot you can see below only shows about 2/3 of the hole and i think that's pretty impressive!

the afternoon was very relaxed - we just planted a few trees with a visiting kenyan school (i've never planted so many trees in my life as on this trip) and then the boys played a game of soccer (as it's become routine to do).

this blog entry seems really short and boring, i apologise (: but that's pretty much it. i'm just looking forward to a fire and another group chillout and am so looking forward to the pool we're apparently going to tomorrow. and i love the pace of work here - we're doing different things every day or second day which means we don't really have enough time to get bored and i feel like we've constantly got things to look forward to (: sending you all warm wishes and bright african sun <3

imani women's group

i am so happy here (:

for the past 2 days we've been working with the imani women's group. we drove out thursday morning and during the 40 mins of dirt track to the main road saw five lions!! it is apparently really rare to see one lion, let alone 5, on the ranch so it was a pretty exciting start to our day. upon arrival, the chairwoman of the group welcomed us and told us about their role and involvement in the community. imani is in a very harsh semi-arid area and water, food, poverty, hiv/aids and teen pregnancies are all prevalent issues. the women's group was formed so that the mamas of imani could unite together to organise projects and educate the locals in order to improve health and quality of life.

[something i found quite interesting, albeit shocking, is the way in which hiv is spread along the mombasa highway. it's pretty much the main line of access for shipments to travel around the country and therefore used by hundreds and hundreds of semi trailers. these semi trailers inevitably pass through imani whilst on the job and at night there can be up to 200 of them parked alongside the road where the villages are. a huge number of these truck drivers are hiv positive and they pick up local girls and women at imani, often offer them a sum of money, and spend the night with them. these women then take the money to buy food for their families and spread the virus to their husbands and so on and so forth..]

anyway. after our talk we were split up into groups to help with various projects - plastering the walls of a guest house, painting the community hall, building a cement base for a water tank and smoothing long slats of wood for construction. i got delegated the painting task (the boys got asked to do the 'manly' tasks.. -_-) i had so much fun with jasmine and we both got really into it, trying to make the job look as good as possible. we basically had to first cover up the dark patches of cement/plaster with a white undercoat and then coat the entire inside wall surface of the hall with a yellow colour. [i forgot to mention - we've been joined by a handful of new people who are here for the next 2 months] vitza, one of our newcomers, is massively tall and thus got delegated all the high spaces on the walls. i think we were getting a big high off the paint fumes because we were giggling so much..

unfortunately before the job could be finished on friday we ran out of paint so i went to help the cementers instead. they had dug a hole and started filling it up with concrete and rocks to make a solid structure the water tank could sit on, safe from shifts in the sand due to rain or wind erosion. it was glorious playing with the goopy cement again (: i also went around to the tree-shapers and for some reason was allowed to play with machetes.. still high off paint fumes..

all in all i was impressed by how much work we were able to do in two days, having a big group of people makes such a difference.. and the thankyou speech we received from the women was so touching and humbling. it's so much more rewarding when you know why it is you're doing the work and when the people you're working for show so much gratitude.. there are some really strong hearts and spirits in this small kenyan town.

on both nights a small group of us has gone to lie out under the stars or by the fire and just chill for a few hours. it's a nice change to have more than one area to hang out in, it's more intimate.. there are people here i'm really enjoying spending time with (sam is a legend, jasmine is amazing - there, shout out complete). after just over a month so many friendships have formed and i'm in such a happy place. i'm liking the vibes amongst us and the fact that a few people have really surprised me after getting to know them better (: i love it here. i like the space and the openness and the wilderness surrounding us, the red earth, the thatched huts.. i'd be glad to spend another month at camp tsavo if i could (:

'bush adventure'

today was our 'bush adventure' day.. the drive out was quite slow and dull as the camp kenya dudes kept stopping the truck to identify birds and animals (and i must say that a rogue antelope is so much less impressive after the game drive yesterday) and after a while we pulled up at a dried-up waterhole. there we were asked to identify two sets of tracks which was pretty cool (giraffe and zebra) and then had a look as some elephant tracks also. from there i think we spent at least an hour standing around listening and although our guide is lovely and meant well, many of us got quite bored after hearing about the tracks and faeces of every animal to ever wander through this waterhole haha (ok slight exaggeration but honestly, 20mins talking about a dead termite mound is a lot).

i wasn't particularly looking forward to the rest of the day after that and just tried to drink in as much of the landscape as possible during the remainder of our drive. we finally pulled up at this rocky hill in the middle of nowhere and were told to climb to the top. the view all around was breathtaking - just flat savannah and a few mountains in the distance. there we split into two group - my group was to make fire, the other to build shelters. now the day was designed to teach us 'survival skills' in case we get lost in the bush, however we were given pre-selected sticks to rub together and the others were handed a pile of thatched roof 'tiles', long polished sticks and a whole spool of rope.. which i felt was a little counter-productive.. but anyway..

fire-making began and i think it took an hour and a half to get a spark. it was quite tedious work.. you put some gravel and dried grass between two pieces of wood and rub one of them to create friction. even our guides who tried to help out found it took a long time and some of the boys got blisters on their palms from spinning the friction stick haha

after lunch we had a brief talk about two beneficial plants in the area - aloe vera and this weird twig the kenyans chew on instead of brushing their teeth. then it was swap-over time and our turn to build a shelter.. we had to pull down the first group's and come up with a design of our own. i love building cubby houses and, ignoring the fact that so much of our building material had been supplied, i had a blast. we made a basic eeyore house using rocks to hold up our frame and long grass to fill in the gaps in the walls. 5 of us could squash into it and it was surprisingly cool inside! (:

and that pretty much summarizes the day. i wouldn't say it was very informative but building a cubby on a random rock hill in the heart of kenya was brilliant :D back at camp we experienced our new showers - the builder was either really short or just didn't think girls would mind seeing each other nude because the walls separating the cubicles only reach as high as my chest. we're all taking it with good humor, it's quite funny..

given it's the 1-monther's last night, we asked the guards to help us make a fire and a bunch of us relaxed outside. once it died down a little and the generator was turned off, a blanket of stars appeared overhead.. it was so peaceful and such good vibes all over again, i really am quite happy out here in the wild (: i'm looking forward to the rest of our time here at camp tsavo

tsavo east game drive

tuesday morning sees us waking up early for breakfast before piling into the big safari truck for the drive to tsavo east and our first game drive (: we're all so excited to be off.. and then we realise how damn cold it is with the early morning wind howling through the open vehicle for a good hour and a half. [before leaving muhaka i asked our camp leader what temperature it'd be in tsavo and he told me to leave all my cold weather clothes behind because it's so much hotter.. thus far, as soon as the sun is low/down, it is the total opposite.. so angry..] after shivering for a while i decide to crouch down on the floor of the truck and go to sleep with my head on the seat - such a good decision. then before i know it, we've arrived..

we drive through the park gates and not even a minute later a herd of elephants crosses the road right in front of us. i pull out my camera to take some snaps and it's just so awkward to maneuver in the truck!! there are people's heads cramming in everywhere to try and get a closer look and i'm all of a sudden terrified at what this will mean for the rest of the drive.. there's a second, much smaller vehicle with us carrying jane, miranda, campbell and jasmine which has an open roof and pretty much a 360˚ view of the surroundings and i know i need to jump in it. it's against the law to leave your vehicle whilst inside the reserve but thankfully our guide makes an exception and that's just what i do.

from then on i'm literally in heaven. the five of us are standing up on the seats, 3/4 of our bodies out the top of the roof, wind whipping our hair back and savannah all around. because our open-sided jeep is so much smaller than the truck we can move much faster and more quietly around, stopping whenever one of us asks to take a picture. i just can't stop smiling.. i'm like a kid at christmas with my camera and new lenses, there's just so much to look at. we were so lucky with our safari and saw a group of lions up quite close, dozing and yawning in the shade.. i really do love big cats. even rolling around apathetically they look so majestic.. we even see a lion couple on their 'honeymoon' banging! the male only lasts 4 seconds, it's pretty funny.

there are giraffe with their little goofy heads sticking up out of bushes, antelope grazing around the place, warthogs trotting around with their big mowhawk-like manes.. there are so many elephants and they're all quite red in colour (which i gather is from mud/dirt).. we also get quite close to a group of zebras who all cross the road ahead of us and we spend a good 15 mins watching a family of baboons climbing on a big tree [one of the babies is awful and looks like a retarded old man gollum/dobby hybrid.. i'm sure you'll be able to tell which one in the snaps].

and ahh it's just big, flat plains stretching out to the foot of mountains in the distance..  typical 'african' flat trees.. red, red dirt and thorny bushes.. a lush, green waterhole filled with birds and a few flamingo.. within a few hours we see so many different areas of the park and it's just a joy to spot the animals as we go. there isn't really much point in me recounting any more as the photos will show you better than i could ever describe, but it really was a magical day and i think we were all pleasantly surprised by how much wildlife we saw..