Last Post from Africa

Our time in Nairobi is now coming to a close, and we fly out tonight at 11:15pm, putting us back in Canada on Friday night. It's been an incredible 6 months here in Africa for us, and we know that we're bound to return someday soon.

We said goodbye to all of our colleagues and friends here on campus today. We will really miss the international setting here, and all of the interesting people that we got to know over the past few months. We have gained excellent experience through the research we've done here, and our safari's and adventures in Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar have been some of the best trips of my life.

We're a bit sad to leave, but excited to get home to Victoria. It's been a great learning experience here in east Africa, and we're ready to move onto the next chapter of our lives. For me, I will be working in Dr Terry Pearson's lab at the University of Victoria full time on breast cancer diagnostics. We'll be working on getting an exciting new technology up and running in his lab, and I'm very excited to be moving into human disease research -- and also back to protein science -- for a bit. For Jessica, she will be studying up for the MCATs when we get back, working the odd shift at her brothers restaurant, and will probably be involved with the sexual health clinic that she volunteered with last summer. Both of us will be working on getting into our respective graduate programs which may see us studying & researching abroad in the not-too-distant future.

To all of our friends and colleagues here in Nairobi: thanks so much for all of your help and hospitality over the past 6 months! We've felt very much at home here, and are forever grateful for all of the friendliness. If anyone is coming to visit the west coast of Canada, please don't hesitate to contact me so that we can meet up in the great white north!

For those in Canada, we'll see you all soon!

Africa 2006-2007: Matt's Final Thoughts

This is adapted from an article I wrote for the newsletter of the project that I'm working for, so it's not really in my usual voice but it summarizes my thoughts, and was easy to copy and paste into a post (and perhaps illustrates the reasons I did poorly in English class):

When planning this working-trip back in Canada, the choice of Nairobi was at the top of the list. I had spent two months in Namibia and Botswana in 2003, and had been looking to get to back to the continent ever since. Jessica and I first and foremost wanted to get some wet-lab experience in Africa, and we knew that we needed to be in a major center for research in order to maximize our job prospects. In Kenya we would have no major difficulties with a language barrier, and east Africa would offer us some of the best opportunities for wildlife viewing in the world. The recent travel advisories issued by the Canadian government warning against travel to Nairobi – known to many travelers as “Nairobbery” – were somewhat concerning, but as with many big cities we knew it was just a matter of avoiding specific areas of the city at specific times. Once we got over the mental hurdle of committing to Nairobi, ILRI was a top choice for me since I was already involved with research on cell surface antigens of African trypanosomes.

Upon arriving at ILRI we were blown away at how nice the campus was, and how good the lab facilities were. Looking at the aerial view of the campus on Google Earth back in Canada I could see that it was beautiful, but the detail wasn’t quite sufficient to resolve the tennis courts, pool, volleyball court, rock climbing wall, and the other luxurious amenities!

At ILRI I was involved with the Shockmouse, Paramouse, Bigmouse, and C57lite projects. Not only did the projects have cool names, but through them I learned a great deal and got experience that I never could have hoped for back home. I found that one of the greatest things about working on trypanotolerance whilst in Africa is the heightened feeling of relevance and urgency for the work that we’re doing. Jessica and I had many opportunities to travel through the rural regions of Kenya in the beat-up ‘92 Suzuki 4x4 that we bought shortly after arrival in Nairobi, where it was easy to see firsthand just how vital livestock is to the people here.

Perhaps one of the greatest aspects of working here at ILRI was the people that I got to work and interact with every day. I was surprised – and very happy – to find that at the bench I was working primarily with local Kenyans. There’s no better to way to learn about a culture than to interact with the locals on a regular basis; you learn and experience things that most tourists visiting a country will never have the chance to appreciate. On top of the rich experience with locals, there are visiting scientists from all around the globe working at the facility, which makes for an incredibly diverse experience. At any given dinner out with friends there are often up to ten countries represented, usually from up to five different continents. This diversity is something which I particularly enjoyed while at ILRI, and one of the things I’ll miss the most when I return to Canada.

Life in Nairobi has been not without its drawbacks. In the time that we’ve been here two colleagues have had their vehicles carjacked or stolen by thugs, we’ve been bribed twice by local police, and an astounding number of western tourists have been killed in either car accidents or carjackings no more than 15 km away. Night time excursions for dinner or entertainment have to be weighed against the probability of carjackings, which spike every now and again, and are often made in convoy for safety reasons. These facts produce a certain amount of unease when outside the compound, which for a new visitor can take a while to get used to.

Outside of Nairobi things become much safer – aside from the highways – and I would say that 99% percent of the Kenya’s natural treasures lie outside of its capital city. During our six months here we’ve been on self-guided safaris to several of Kenya’s national parks, and we’ve enjoyed them tremendously. We’ve had incredible encounters with white rhinos along the shores of Lake Nakuru, we’ve marveled at massive groups of elephants in the shadow of Kilimanjaro in Amboseli national park, seen the rare black serval cat in the high plateau of the Aberdares, and watched the sunset on the gorge of Hell’s Gate national park. We’ve also made trips down to Tanzania and to Madagascar; both of which were incredible experiences.

Overall, the experience I’ve had in Kenya these six months has certainly exceeded my expectations, both professionally and personally. There are some unfortunate truths about life in Nairobi, but the cons are made up for by the pros. I’ve met incredible people, seen incredible wildlife and geography, and have no doubt that I will return one day soon.

-Matt Pope

Homeward Bound

Our last week in Nairobi.

I'm pretty excited to come home now. It's like hitting the home stretch when you get down to a week before you have to go home!! Things at ILRI seem to be the same. Our hostel room is looking better than it ever has before thanks to some of the accommodations we stayed at in Madagascar!

Speaking of which...Madagascar was wonderful! Kind of a mixed barrel of highs and lows but overall an incredible experience. Our trip began with Matt and I watching the weather report the night before, as previously mentioned by Matt in another post, and Madagascar was to be hit by a cyclone. Seeing as Matt filled you in on the fun bits of that trip I'll wait until I get home to add to the story!

However, the rest of the trip went a lot more smoothly. From the port city of Taomasina (previously known as Tamatave), we caught a boat down the scenic Canal des Panagalanes to a beautiful hide-a-way called the Bush House. The only down side to it was the mosquitoes. I did persevere though and Matt and I ended up spending a fun-filled morning with some lemurs at a private reserve really close to where we stayed. We got to feed them, pet them, and of course they jumped on our backs and shoulders (as seen in the picture). It was pretty crazy considering they were still considered wild animals and we NEVER feed the animals at home! But, when in Rome, right? Plus, it was an isolated incident...we didn't get to feed the lemurs at the other park...I think it was just that this one was private...

So, from there we went back to Taomasina and left for Ile Ste Marie. An island where I finally had my lobster...a whole one for 6 dollars US. It was CRAZY! And delicious. I think I must have had seafood every single day while in Madagascar. Heaven. Anyways, Matt and I pretty much just chilled everyday on the island until we had to head back to Tana...not a very pretty compared to the island...but hey, what can you do? I feel so hard done by...just kidding!

Well, I'm sure I could tell you a lot more but I think I'll wait until I come home in a WEEK'S TIME!! WOO HOO!!!!

Miss you all,

Jessica

Flight to Madagascar is Booked!

We have booked our tickets, and fly to Madagascar in less than two weeks! We are super-excited to go, not only because of the uniqueness of the flora & fauna to be found there, but also for it's incredible geographical features. Because of its long isolation from neighboring continents some ecologists refer to Madagascar as the "eighth continent". It's the fourth largest island in the world, and has numerous species which can be found nowhere else in the world.

The next two weeks for us will be quite busy. My sister & fiance are returning to Nairobi after volunteering in Uganda for the past two months tonight, and will fly back to Canada on Sunday. Next Tuesday two of my good friends from university, Chris Newcombe and Chelsea McCullough, will be arriving in Nairobi. They have also just finished up volunteering in Uganda, and are currently in Rwanda penetrating the "impenetrable forest". While they're here we hope to get in as much adventure as we can, but so far our plans are undecided. On top of the visits, Jessica & I will be wrapping up the projects we are involved in here at ILRI.

Battlecat has been sold, and we have been prepping it for the transfer to the new owner by fixing up the radiator and muffler (the Kenyan roads rattled the exhaust manifold loose once again). The "bad gas" problems seem to have been resolved.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Update on Galdessa the Elephant

Sad news about our adopted elephant Galdessa from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust:

"Washed down the flooded Galana River, tossed around against rocks as he was carried by the raging torrent, eventually ending up in the Generator House of Galdessa Camp on the Galana River in Tsavo East National Park, having lost his elephant loved ones when just 6 weeks old, little “Galdessa”arrived in the Nursery in November 2006, battered, bruised, grief-stricken and a prime candidate for the dreaded pneumonia and internal injuries exacerbated by teething his first molars, which invariably pose a problem for infant African elephants. From the start, he had never thrived and was obviously in pain. Having suffered four bouts of diarrheoa treated by administering the usual Sulphadimidine, he appeared to recover slightly after bout No. 4., but soon the tell-tale signs were back – stools that were too copious, although of the correct consistency, apathy, reluctance to feed and generally “off-colour”. Yet, he was still taking his milk, albeit slowly, until 6 a.m. on the 23rd February 2007, when the Keeper reported blood in the stool. Four large boluses of Sulphadiazide were administered orally, rolled into a soft ball and inserted down his throat; another two inserted up the rectum, and a drip inserted into an ear vein, but two hours later, before the Vet could even reach him, he breathed his last and died.

As usual, there were tears from every member of his human family who had grown to love him deeply, in the 4 months that they had cared for him, fed him three hourly throughout the day and night, and been by his side at all times, even through the hours of darkness, caressing him, encouraging him and trying to will his recovery. Perhaps there are those that think that after having lost so many baby elephants over the years, we at the Trust should have learned to accept tragedy more stalwartly, but, sadly, it never does become easier. Each little elephant is an individual and a character, just as are human children – each is unique, with just one thing in common – the tragedy of losing their beloved elephant family and ending up an orphan. Each one is loved dearly and treasured by us all who work tirelessly to offer every orphan another chance and a quality of life in wild terms when grown.

We know that there will be people all over the world who will be shedding tears for little Gladessa, and there is just one word we can say to console them – the Swahili word “Poleh” (which means Sorry). He, like others who have left for somewhere in the great somewhere before him, will remain in our memory and our hearts forever. Rest in Peace baby Galdessa, and at least you died surrounded by two legged loved ones, who loved you as their own."

Poor little Galdessa! He would have died a long time ago if it wasn't for the David Sheldrick Trust, so we're not too sad (well, maybe Jessica is a bit more sad than I am). The center has notified us that we will automatically transfer our fostering across to Galdessa's little friend 'Lempaute'. Here is a photo of the two of them:

Bad Gas in Nairobi

It wasn't the beans...

Our faithful steed, Battlecat, has not been so faithful over the last two months. In fact, we have renamed it "Cringer" (those of you who grew up with late 1980s cartoons will understand this reference). It started out back in January when the clutch had to be replaced. Shortly after the clutch was fixed the Kenyan roads rattled our muffler off and the complete exhaust system had to be replaced. Fortunately, big fixes such as these are significantly cheaper than they are back home, but one does have to worry about the quality of the repair. We're lucky that we have a fairly reputable mechanic here who usually gets the job done -- and if they don't quite get it done, we can bring it back in for completion at no extra cost. This would be a pain back home, but hey, this is Africa. The clutch repair went great, the muffler repair is still pending (the Kenyan roads have since rattled our new exhaust manifold loose twice), but now we have a new problem. A big dirty problem. About a month ago we filled up at a gas station that wasn't a Shell or BP. It was a gas station that looked quite reputable, but boy were we wrong.

A few days after the fill-up the engine starting hesitating -- jumpy as it accelerated -- and backfiring regularly. Locals would duck, no doubt fearful of gunfire, as we drove by. We brought the car in to our mechanic who discovered water in the fuel filter and informed us that we must have got bad gas. This was a new concept to me that I really should have been more aware of. Call me a naive Canadian. An Australian colleague was quite familiar with the problem, and refered to it as "Kangaroo Gas". Anyhow, the mechanic cleaned out the carburetor, changed the filters, and sent us on our way.

In one week we were back with the exact same problem. This time he told us that in addition to the water, there was also dirt (DIRT!) in the bad fuel that we got. He said that the fuel probably came from the bottom of the reservoir from the gas station. Another free cleaning and filter change, and we were on our way. The car worked great for about 100 km, but soon it was back to coughing and sputtering and frightening the locals. Yesterday we took it back to the mechanic where the gas tank and fuel line are being completely removed for cleaning.

So, in the end I suppose it was a valuable lesson to be learned. While in East Africa, only fill up at internationally recognized gas stations such as "Shell", "Caltex", or "BP".

* * *

Not too much else to report on from here in Nairobi. Jessica & I have a bit more than 2 weeks until we depart on our "end-of-trip trip". We are still hoping to go to Madagascar, but right now it is depending on how much money we get for our car when we sell it. We've posted ads, and received calls to view it, but as mentioned above it's not quite ready for viewing yet.

We still haven't heard anything about the proposal yet, so continue to keep your fingers crossed for us. I will post once we find out if we got the 'yay' or 'nay'. I have a great backup job lined up if the proposal falls through, so either way the summer should be a great one.

The situation here in Nairobi has gotten much worse with regards to crime recently (I'll save the horror stories for you when I get back): one reason why Jessica & I are definitely looking forward to getting home. We really feel very lucky that we ended up at ILRI however; not just because of the great work experience we're getting here, but also because of how safe the site is.

Hope everyone is doing well! Only 6 weeks until we see those of you in Victoria.

Working hard

A mad scramble to write up the proposal for the grant mentioned in the last post made for an incredibly busy week for me. It was an interesting process that I learned a great from as we had about 5 people contributing to it from 3 different continents. Keeping the draft synchronized could have been very difficult, but was made easy by using Google Docs. It is now almost finally almost done, and just awaiting a few signatures before we submit.

I was glad to see that my ploy to get more comments in the last post was somewhat successful! We now have only about 8 weeks before we depart, and here is yet another clue for those of you that haven't figured it out quite yet:


Jessica will soon be off to Mexico for her brothers wedding for two weeks -- I will let her blog about it, but I know that she can't wait. I wish I could go too, but a Nairobi-Cancun return flight is a bit pricey at the moment! In the meantime we don't have too much planned since we are basically saving up for our upcoming big trip. We'll probably go on another small safari pretty soon, and we are leaning towards one of two parks down towards the Tanzanian border: Amboseli or Masai Mara. We'll keep you posted...

Happy New Years!

Christmas & New Years were good to us, and now we're back to work in what we're calling "Phase 3" of our African trip. We will only be here in Nairobi for another two months or so, and then we'll be spending a month or so traveling before returning to Canada somewhere around mid-April.

The holidays were great, and we had good times with Jenn & Paul on our return to the Aberdares, our trip to Tanzania, and lounging around the house playing cards and drinking holiday concoctions.

In late December we were somewhat annoyed to discover that Housing had made a mistake here at ILRI which would necessitate our moving from the house back into the hostel. We put up quite a fight, but in the end nothing could be done. The guy in charge of Housing felt pretty bad about the whole affair, and ended up hooking us up with the one of the nicest rooms in the hostel. It is much nicer than our previous room here, and in addition to having our own balcony and a queen size bed (we used to have to push two singles together), the room has a killer view:

It's much brighter than our house was too, so all in all things are pretty good in our new abode.

Things at work for me are going quite well. Without nixing myself for talking about it too much, a team I'm part of has just advanced to the final stage of a competition for a fairly significant governmental grant. We find out in mid-Febuary if we get it, and if we do it'll have a huge impact on what I will be up to for the next 3 years. I'm crossing my fingers...

In other news, we have finally decided where we will be going for our end-of-trip trip (that's not a typo). Here is a big clue:


Can you guess?? Post your answer in the comments if you know...

Weekend Wrap-up

I see that it's been a week since our last post, and thing have indeed been quite busy here in Nairobi. At work I've been heading up an intensive experiment involving hours and hours at the microscope each day. In fact, I haven't really had a day off for quite some time until just recently. Now that the experiment is pretty much finished up I've been enjoying some relaxation around the house doing some reading, fixing up the car, and preparing for the arrival of Jenn & Paul (my sister and her fiancé). Jenn & Paul have been working in Cape Town, South Africa for a few months and have just finished a 3 week safari though Namibia and Botswana. They will be with us for 2 weeks and then heading to the Seychelles, and then to Uganda before they return to Canada.

The rains seem to have finally ceased here in Nairobi, and we have been enjoying the sunshine and 25 C weather that recent days have afforded us. Last Friday was the big ILRI Christmas party which was a great experience. Several tents were set up on one of the main areas here on campus, there was live music, lots of food, drinks, and good fun. Senior management played the women of ILRI in an exhibition game of soccer (with the women winning of course), and there was even a tug of war. Things here on campus now are quite quite as most people have gone on Christmas leave.

Jenn & Paul arrived today, and this week we are planning a return to the Aberdares! We wanted to show them something quite different than what they saw in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. We figured the Aberdares would be perfect, and plus now we are experts in the terrain!

We should have some pictures soon from the next couple of days soon. We depart for the Aberdares on Thursday and return on Saturday. Then we will be here for Christmas, and will then depart for Tanzania on the 27th. We will be at the foothills of Kilimanjaro for 2 days, and then will return back to Nairobi for the 29th.

Blog Update

The blog has a few updates to the way it looks now, including a much-easier-to-navigate archive section for those of you who want to find older posts. There are also 'labels' for each post now which you can use to filter specific posts. For instance, if you just want to see the videos that have been posted on this blog just click "videos" under the "filters" section in the sidebar to the left.

Also, comments are now enabled (there were some issues before!), so posting comments shouldn't be an issue anymore. Comment away!

Work has been quite busy lately, so we have no new adventures to talk about. Jessica did a great job of heading up a sexual health workshop for some grade 8 students here which she's posted about below, and we've been getting into the Christmas spirit by decorating the house and listening to Christmas carols! Here are some shots of our lovely advent calendars, as made by Jessica (click to enlarge):

STD Workshop

Hello Everyone!

Nairobi is still great! Of course, it's not home. I miss everyone so much and, much to my surprise, I miss the cold weather! I look outside everyday expecting to find cloudy skies, drizzle, and biting winds but only see the odd white cloud amidst blue sky and no breeze. Really, I'm not trying to rub it in or anything but I really do miss the cold!

Anyways, like I may have told some of you, I was invited to do a sexual health workshop for grade 8's this passed Saturday. The kids came from a slum here in Nairobi called Mathare. There is an association here called the Spanish Speaking Women's Association and they help out at the slum by pretty much providing the whole school! The teachers, the building...everything! They're even sending some of the kids who are graduating from the primary school (1-8) to secondary school. Unlike how it is back home, parents have to pay for their kids to go to high school. It's really sad because most parents don't have the capital to do so and even if they do, they prioritize their kids and usually send the boys.

So, this Saturday I gave a half-day presentation on everything I know about reproductive health! It was...interesting! I got a lot of giggles when I pulled out the banana for my condom demo, but other than that the kids were really great. I didn't get a lot of questions but I chalked it up to the kids being shy. Plus, the questions I DID get were really good. There are some really smart kids in the group! I talked to this one boy, I think his name was John, and he said his favourite subject was mathematics. I really liked him. I was also challenged a bit by the teacher. He commented on my HIV/AIDS section on being a little dark, I think. I was trying to explain to the kids that viruses can't be cured and HIV happened to be one of them. So, of course if you contract HIV you can't get rid of it! I think the teacher wanted me to give the kids a little more...hope. Haha, I explained to him that I would try my best but wanted to give them the grim facts and perhaps scare them into using condoms!

Other than that, nothing more to report! I'm still having a good time! Now, I am excitedly anticipating Matt's little sister Jenn and her fiancee Paul to arrive in Nairobi for Christmas! We will be heading down to Tanzania for part of it as Matt and Jenn's Aunt Mary and Uncle Duncan has generously given us a two-night stay at a hotel near Kilimanjaro! I want to take this opportunity and thank them very much!! I'm looking very forward to it and can't wait to write about it next!

See you all soon!

Jess

Sorry so long no post!

Hello Everyone!

I know Matt is doing all the blogging so I thought I'd just write something so you all knew I was still alive! Things are going well here...Matt and I just came back from Aberdares National Park. It was...interesting! Haha, I promised Matt I would let him do the post on our adventures there so you'll have to wait!

Work is going well here though...I'm really busy. I started my own project no too long ago and am going full steam ahead with it. STD research doesn't seem to be happening right now unfortunately but I am still trying. I'll keep you all updated on that. Anyways, I must go now but I promise to get in touch on a more frequent basis from now on!

- Jess

Farewell Dr Lee PhD!!

A good colleague of ours is departing back to South Korea today after a 3 month stay here at ILRI. We have enjoyed lots of good times with Lee, and just last night the three of us even survived an encounter with a corrupt Kenyan policeman that wanted to take us the courthouse on bogus charges!!! (more on that later!). Lee and I shared an office together, and he will definitely be missed! Best of luck Lee, and we'll see you at the sauna in Korea!

Off to Africa Night!

It's been a busy week. Tonight is "Africa Night" here at ILRI, and as you can see there is a strict dress code in place!

More pictures to come...

Two adventures for the weekend!

We have two one grand adventures planned for the weekend. First, a day trip where we return to the Rift Valley once again to the southern-most lake in the valley called Lake Magadi (something came up at work today, so we're going to save Lake Magadi for next week!). Second, a two day trip to the ILRI-owned ranch in Kapiti. Here is a shot from Google earth that shows lake Magadi to the left, and Kapiti to the right (click to enlarge):


Lake Magadi:
During the dry season, Lake Magadi is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including flamingos. It is a saline, alkaline lake, approximately 100 square kilometers in size, which is made up of a dense sodium carbonate brine. In places, the salt is up to 40 m thick. The lake is recharged mainly by saline hot springs (up to about 80°C), and there is a single species of fish, a cichlid called Alcolapia grahami, that inhabits the hot, highly alkaline waters of this lake basin. The lake is featured in the film The Constant Gardener, although in the film the shots are supposed to be at Lake Turkana.

Kapiti:
We don't know too much about Kapiti, other than the fact that it's a ranch that ILRI owns and there's lots of animals there. In fact, some lions apparently got into the sheep pens not too long ago and killed quite a few of them! It's not too far away from Nairobi, and the road is good getting there. We were invited to come by some friends here at ILRI, and we couldn't pass it up!

Pictures/video to come!!!

update: We still managed to have the afternoon off today, so instead of Magadi we got some supplies at the local market. One new piece of kit that we picked up is a spotlight for our 4x4 (which is henceforth named 'Battlecat'). One of the really cool things to do when on safari is not just day trips, but also night trips because it's a whole different game at nighttime. You have to have a spotlight though, cause that's how you find animals and also identify them from afar (ie predators eyes tend to reflect a bit different colour than grazers). Anyway, where we're going tomorrow is apparently very good for night trips, so we're excited to have the new gear. It's also probably our best chance of finding lions since they're often hard to spot during the daytime cause they're hiding out from the heat. Hopefully we'll have some good video ready for posting sometime next week (I've now figured out a way to get footage from our real video camera online instead of our digital camera, so the quality should be much better!).

Our new house:
Also, here are just a few shots of our new place for those interested:

This is the view coming down the stairs into the living room & dining room:


And this looking across the dining room into the kitchen:


And this is looking up the stairs:

I Felt the Rain Down in Africa...

Hello All!

So I thought I was leaving the West Coast and its rain behind...but...I was wrong. Right now Nairobi is getting a taste of the "short rainy season" where there are huge dumps of rain all day in short or long spurts. The positive side is that it's still quite warm except at night when it can get quite cold! I know what you must be thinking, "This doesn't sound like African weather! Kenya is situated on the equator for gosh sakes!" But I assure you it rains every day and gets cold every night! My only consolation is that it will get smoking hot in December/January...temperature should rise up to about 35 degrees!

In other news, Matt and I have been upgraded to a house at ILRI! It's quite a bit larger with two bedrooms, a living room, dining room, and huge kitchen with more cabinet and counter space than I can use! I felt kind of reluctant to move in at first because it's so huge! We can hardly fill it up with our meagre possessions and I'm sure as heck not about to buy a whole bunch of stuff to fill it up with! So Matt and I are having to listen to our echoes every time we talk for the time being.

I'm hoping to visit the Masaii Market soon so we can try and find some cheap decorative things to place about the house...not to mention try and find an Africa get up that I can wear to Africa night! I'm really looking forward to it! It's an annual soiree that they have here at ILRI where everyone dresses up in African clothing and there's a night of dancing, entertainment and games! Excellent! And, even though Matt and I haven't been out safariing for a while, we're definitely still having fun meeting people and going out for meals. In fact, we went out to a restaurant yesterday where I tried Eland for the first time! It was delicious! So as you can see, life continues on in Kenya for us! We really miss everyone, though, and I can't wait to come to Mexico and see some of you! YAY!! Well, will post again soon...I promise!

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!

Heading back to the Rift Valley in our new 4x4!

We have finally secured ourselves a 4x4, and we're going to be testing it out this weekend (assuming we get our insurance sorted before then) on a trip back up north to the Rift Valley. It's a 1993 Suzuki Sierra, which is similar to the Suzuki SJ's or Samurai's on the North American market. Sort of like a small Jeep. I'll have a some pictures/video of it up soon, but for now here's a shot that I pulled off the internet which is somewhat similar:

The roof on ours is quite a bit taller, with small windows above the rear windows. Also, there is a cargo rack on top for storage and an extra spare tire. It's a small little 4x4, but it's supposed to be great off road, and also very good on gas.

This time we will be going a little bit further than last week to a lake called Lake Nakuru. It's about 150km away from Nairobi, and is just north of Lake Naivasha where we were last weekend. The lake is famous for it's numerous flamingo which come to the lake to feed on the abundant algae which thrive in its warm alkaline waters. There is a larger variety of animals at this park than at Hells Gate (where we were last week), and we're hoping to see Rhino, leopards, lions, waterbuck, and possibly even pythons! Here's a satelite photo of the park, and you can see Lake Naivasha just beyond it (looking south), and Nairobi (where the 4 thumbtacks are) at the top middle of the photo:

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In other news, this Friday is a big day for me as I will be sacrificing half of my 40 lab mice to test their blood for specific type of bacterial toxin. We infected them with the parasite that causes African Sleeping Sickness about a week and a half ago, and the whole experiment is now two weeks in the making. Hopefully the results are good! Since we are testing for bacteria in their blood, the big risk is contamination during the experimental procedure which could lead to false-positive results. That's what we have controls for though, but if contamination does occur then the past two weeks will be lost!

Connor and the quest for a vehicle

We've now been in Nairobi for almost two weeks, and we do not yet have any pictures of wildlife other than cow, goat, mice, or sheep! Our lack of wildlife viewing and adventure is going to have to change very soon or else we're going to get a bit stir-crazy I think. We have had a bit of wildlife viewing in the form of a new roommate named Connor. I saw Connor on the very first night that we got here just by the door of our new residence. He's a local, and likes to eat lots. I didn't see him for about a week and a half, and then only a few days ago he moved into our room. Jessica was a little hesitant -- and even a bit frightened -- at first, but I explained to her that Connor moving in was a good thing because he could help out with the household chores. Namely, getting rid of the mosquitos which never cease in their craving for Jessica's sweet blood.

Speaking of which, here is a shot of Jessica in her mosquito-proof fortress:


And, here is a picture of our new roommate, Connor:


Connor is now a proud member of the family, and he is welcome in our house anytime.

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Anyhow, back to the wildlife sightings. Right now, our wildlife viewing is contingent upon us securing a car. So far we've been focusing on private listings, and notice boards that you find in shopping areas. These avenues have produced a few leads, but nothing too promising. This weekend coming up is a long weekend, and we are dying to get away to one of the nearby lakes, or wildlife areas. This desire has given us the motivation that we really need in order to find ourselves a vehicle, and we are both going to take Thursday off so that we can search some of the dealerships surrounding Nairobi which specializing in importing vehicles from Japan. Toyota, Mitsubishi ... and at relatively cheap prices. So! Hopefully we will soon be planning our first roadtrip!

Some more shots:

Here is another shot from the pastures at the southern end of the campus:


Here are some goats and myself:


The Jacaranda trees here are in full bloom right now:

Jess's First Day on the Job!

Hi Everyone!

Well well well! I hope everyone is doing well! I am doing great! I just started my first day of work in the lab today. I won't go too into the scientific details but my work has to do with goats rather than cows like Matty's working on!

There's a type of goat that is somewhat resistant to a certain nematode parasite. People have since crossed this goat with another species of goat that is larger and yields more product. So my job is to correlate resistance and size to mix and see which mixed breed yields the most product and is most resistant to the nematode! Fascinating isn't it? Haha, I'm sure you are all just nodding your heads in agreement! But trust me, all the lab work I'm doing is very relevant to my field and it's great just getting my 'feet wet' so to speak, you know?
But, alas, before I work on that project, (which I think will be my very own) I'm training with two people who are working on the phylogenetics of chickens! The importance of this is to observe the evolution of the chickens throughout Africa and compare that with chicken samples all over the world. Very important today with avian flu going around! Very tedious too! I worked on over 200 samples today! It was very tiring since I'm not used to sitting over a bench all day working! But I think I'll get used to it!

So, in short that's my account of what I'll be doing. I haven't given up hope yet with finding STD research work, but, as I said before it's kind of hard starting anything without being able to get into town. So I'll be phoning around once we sort out our car business. And, of course, I'll be looking into doing some work at a sexual health clinic of some sort as well...ahhh...getting busy already! Excellent! Talk to you all soon and take care!