Mongoose Blessing

Ok, continuing on...

On Sunday we learned that the power was going to be out again while they repaired the exploded generator, but Cassandra, Nancy and I are all horsey people so Nancy took us to a horse show she had somehow heard about! I stupidly forgot my camera but after we drove through the weird deserted fairground roads with buildings of every color and shape, past the practicing polo teams, the horses and the riders pretty much looked exactly how they might in one of my old home videos. Despite the picture of a black man riding a horse in the flier, it was just a bunch of little blond white girls on cute ponies riding around and jumping over stuff. The white Kenyans there were a weird bunch. I assumed at first that they were all foreigners, but Nancy explained that they mostly had lived in Kenya since colonial times. It was like a new species...or culture at least. They were all blond and sun dried and spoke with a really old British accent that most modern Brits make fun of. They seemed to keep to themselves and from what I gathered, most of the riders had been coached by their moms. They were not the best looking or cleanest riders I have ever seen, but they were brave! One little girl who couldn't have been over the age of 4 placed 3rd in a 2.5 foot jumping class after her horse crashed through the third jump. They were both fine and it was pretty impressive considering the pony was doing it completely by himself. Other horses refused all over the place but these little kids kept flapping, kicking, and yelling until they got over all the jumps.

After the horse show, I went to Derek and Kashia's house for tea and also to learn how to take care of Basil the dalmation and the cat with no name while they are on vacation. The cat might have a name, but it was not included in the half our instructional tour of how to open all the doors and windows, how not to flood the bathroom while showering, and why I shouldn't use their semi-manual washing machine. Various neighbors were over as well with 8 or so kids all under age 6, all with South American fathers and/or Scandinavian mothers. I didn't have much to contribute to the conversation, but the cake was good.

The beginning of week 6 was noteworthy because I completed as much work in 2.5 days as I had in the first 2.5 weeks. Finally things are going smoothly and I have learned to be very efficient. I am looking forward to my meeting tomorrow with Phil to discuss what I will do next. We have also had a lot of seminars recently from visiting scientists who are in the area for various conferences. It is exciting to sit in on these really cutting edge high level presentations that have been published in the best scientific journals. Plus there is always tea and cookies.

I have also been making progress with my running. I have been a loyal member every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and I am now one of the faster members of our group. I even beat a few of the guys up the hill today! Recently the local government was persuaded by ILRI, after two years of negotiations, to move a nearby garbage dump (the one that was attracting all the Maribau storks). So, the storks are gone, the dump has been removed one truckload at a time, and most of the trash has been redistributed all along the road. This makes for a variety of sights and smells to entertain us on our runs, including 2 dead dogs (perhaps unrelated to the garbage transport), but not to be topped by the garbage fires at 20 foot intervals all the way home on Wednesday. Nothing like the smell and heat of burning rotten plastic to make you want to breathe deeply and run really hard. But it was nice to see people making an effort to clean up.

JJ got home yesterday night, bringing with him German cherries, chocolate, cheese, wine, sausage, fashion magazines, and every possible cosmetic product for dogs. He is preparing for the arrival of his 6 month old German Shorthair puppy Naddel in one week. We are all very excited. He packed everything in an old green suitcase of his parents which he then gave to the maid. He was not here when she was leaving to go home this afternoon, so she asked me to write a note giving her permission to carry it off ILRI property.

JJ's arrival also brought the ability to unlock and open the sliding glass door into the back yard. A day I have been dreaming about for weeks. As we sat eating cherries and drinking wine last night, I looked over and saw a skunk monkey coming towards us (I use this term for purely descriptive purposes, not to be confused with the urban dictionary's definition of a person who can shave his butt and walk backwards and no one would know the difference)! Ok, it was a white tailed mongoose but it was really cool and came about 2 feet from me. I even got some pictures (coming soon). It sniffed around, unimpressed with fresh cherries recently flown in from Germany, and then sauntered off. I'm taking the appearance of the white tailed mongoose as a sign that things will get more exciting in the weeks to come.