Today we wake at 6 am.
The plan is to go to Ol Jogi...one of the most exclusive conservancies in Kenya. They are exclusive for their privacy, their views, and their rhinos...their land is home for some of the last in the world. The last person to stay there was Beyonce. It's a place we've been hearing about since arrival, and we are so excited to finally go.
We need to collect the fecal samples of some of their captive and wild rhinos so that one of the project groups can do analysis on the rhinos' microbiomes. So, bright and early, we stumble out of bed and into the sunrise. We make ourselves lunches, scarf down some coffee, and load into the jeeps. It only takes a few minutes, but the combined sensations of sunrise and cool valley air wakes us quickly. Every vehicle we travel in opens at the top and we spend most of our drives standing on our seats to view the world as she passes by.
Twenty minutes in we are stopped to switch out one of the vehicles. In the interim we have a funk off...our vehicle plays funk on one speaker, while Julian's and Jen's (our professors) vehicle plays music on another. We sit atop our respective jeeps and dance until it's time to go.
The British military is training with the Kenyan military on Mpala land, and we've been warned to stay away from their camps. We were not warned about the men.
Oh my god the men.
Vans full of gorgeous soldiers roll past us on the dirt roads. Seeing them, we stand out of the top of the jeep and wave. They wave back, smile, wink, and follow our gazes as we move down the road. With each acknowledgment, we squeal. Soon after, we roll by a Kenyan military base and two gorgeous tattooed men with mustaches (mustaches??!!!!) grin at us as we drive by. We swoon.
Soon, though, we enter Ol Jogi. Kopjes rise from the land every two hundred feet or so. Around their base zebra, impala, and swara tigwa (antelopes with looong necks) gather and graze. The ground is lush and green, and the sky scoops around the tops of the rock formations in stunning blue. The absolute best, however, is the moment we pass a cheetah. Utterly unperturbed, she lies on the ground, and watches us as we frantically take photos.
Once there we run into some logistical issues. A miscommunication between parties means the rhinos have been released before our arrival, so we won't be able to collect skin samples from the captive ones today. Poop, however, is still on the ground, so we go and cheer as four of our ten scoop warm feces into ethanol filled containers.
Afterwards, we mean to go back to Mpala, but one van takes a wrong turn and so we accidentally head to the confluence instead. The confluence is in the northern part of Mpala, about an hour from the research centre. It is where the two rivers, one from Mt. Kenya, the other from the Aberdare range, come together. Here, the land is lush with palm and figs trees, the ground is soft and sandy, and tall grass floats in the wind. Across the banks, there is a Maasai community, one which Raphael (a driver and researcher with us today) belongs to. A couple of boys shepherd goats, sheep, and cows to the banks. The younger ones (maybe six to eight year old?) are dressed in shorts and t-shirt, with plaid material wrapped around their shoulders almost like a cape. The older teenager with them is wearing bright blue wrap without a shirt. Orange beads wrap his head and chest.
We are not allowed to go into their community, and they are not allowed to come to ours. A crocodile filled river stands between our selves. But we are similar in age to the older, it seems, and as we wave across the river, he raises a hand to wave back at us. We communicate this way, in gestures and occasional translated shouts, until he has to leave. On the drive back we beg to be able to go into the communities. The world is both open and shut to us here. We have full access to the wilderness, but are kept intentionally by Columbia and Princeton administration from interacting with people. This is the first time we have really had the chance to speak with people outside the research world, and we cannot help but want more.
On the way back, I stand and watch the world spin by around us. Last night we went on a night drive. Standing atop the vehicle, I dropped my head over the edge to watch the horizon from angles unseen. The sky turns from pink to purple to gold to orange to blue all at once across the vast expanse above. And when the moon rises, she does so in red.
