Moving on up...

Well, we have no adventures to report on from the weekend unfortunately. We're thinking of getting away for a 3 day trip this weekend down towards the Tanzanian border however, so we'll keep you posted!

Saturday was another big day for me at work because I had to "harvest" my remaining tryp-infected mice in my current project which is now almost coming to a close. The project isn't quite complete, but we are at a bit of a roadblock until some additional reagents arrive from the UK at the end of the month. I'm now moving on to two new and very interesting projects. One involves looking at a correlation that has been found between trypanosome-resistant mice and their physical size. The other involves looking at several strains of congenic (mice which genetically only differ at one genetic locus) mice and analyzing their response to trypanosome-infection. Both projects involve gene expression and immunology -- which are my two primary fields of interest -- and so I'm quite excited to get started on them.

In other news, we have been 'upgraded' here at ILRI with regards to our accommodations! We're moving from our hostel room into one of the staff houses tomorrow, and we're looking forward to having lots more space (especially in the kitchen!). We'll still be on campus, and the house is actually only about 200 meters from where we're currently staying. It's a two bedroom house, so that means that anyone coming to visit gets their own room! That means you Jenn & Paul, Chris, and Chelsea (and whoever else might be coming to Nairobi)! There's a garden area in the back, a fireplace, large living room with cathedral ceiling, dining room, and a much more functional kitchen than what we're currently using.

I also spent the weekend getting more familiar with the mechanics of our new 4x4. I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the purchase so far (knock on wood), and I'm excited to get it equipped for our planned longer-term adventures. So far we already have two spare tires, tools, and an extra jack. I have to say that the GPS we brought has already got us out of a few tricky navigational situations, so it too is indispensable. I'm currently sizing up some 20 L jerry cans which will mount on either side of the spare tire on the roof rack, and we will also need a fire extinguisher (not just for fires, but lions too!) and jumper cables. The goal that we still have in mind is to make it to a park in southern Tanzania called 'Ruaha'. It is supposed to be incredible, but quite a bit more remote than some of the parks in the north of Tanzania. Still lots more research to do, but we hope it will be a go.

That's about it for now!