Hello from Kenya! Its been a few days since we left Tanzania for our second location. It was kind of sad to leave all our professors and the other staff in Tanzania, but the professors here in Kenya are very nice so far. The camp here in Kimana is much larger than the one in Rhotia was, and even has its own volleyball and soccer fields. There is also a lot more resident wildlife here. The baboons hang out all over campus, sometimes even sitting on the front porches of our bandas. This gets interesting when you are running around campus, because baboons are usually not afraid of white women, which means that a nice jog often turns into a game of chicken with a baboon. Luckily the baboons have decided that I am scary enough to avoid, so thus far I am an undefeated champion of baboon chicken. We also have to keep an eye out for black mambas which have been sighted but fortunately no one has ever gotten bit (although I secretly hope I get to see one up close :)).

We also have class in the same place that we eat our meals, which gets kind of distracting when you have an 11 AM class and you can smell the kitchen staff cooking lunch! We will be starting our directed research in a few short weeks, so today we went on a traveling lecture to learn about some of the things we may be researching. The wildlife ecology research is going to be assessing the water quality and quantity in the region and how this affects the local people (and will ultimately effect wildlife conservation). This was good news because it kind of sort of a little bit has something to do with my major! Although we have only been in Kenya for three days, we are leaving for a five day expedition in Lake Necuru tomorrow. Its crazy how fast this semester is going!

Location: Kimana, Kenya