easter sunday

Happy Easter!!

Easter in Kenya was surprisingly festive. For dinner we had tacos, a rare delicacy, and someone even decorated the tables with flowers and candles. And as we speak someone is whacking away at a pig pinata, in replacement of the easter ham, filled with candies and rehydration salts. Pretty fun easter!


Yesterday we got back from our 5 day expedition to Tsavo West National Park! It was a lot of fun, and really different from our expedition to Serengeti NP. One difference is that there were nearly no animal sightings. We did see a leopard eating a klipspringer, but other than that nothing very exciting. But the park itself was really beautiful. On our drive in we passed through a huge field of lava flows. It was pretty cool driving down a little road and being surrounded by black lava remains from hundreds of years ago.

We also got to go on a hike up the Chyulu hills, probably my favorite part of the expedition. It was a pretty short hike, but we had an amazing view. We first ascended a little hill, crossed a ridge, and then hiked up another connecting hill. All around us we were surrounded by green hills shrouded in clouds and covered in trees. At the top we had a lecture for environmental policy.

The last day of our expedition we went to a rhino sanctuary in the morning and then to the Serena Lodge again! weeee.
The rhino sanctuary would have been a lot better if we actually saw some rhinos.. the sanctuary was a 90km sqrd inclosure within Tsavo West. It only had about 60-70 rhinos, and we only drove through it for about an hour and a half, so it's not surprising that we didn't have a rhino sighting.

The Serena was a little disappointing, compared to the other lodges, but who am I to complain when I come to africa to study wildlife management/policy. The food was great, had pork steaks with mustard sauce, a turkey carving station (kinda unique), spicy veggie curry, lots of cakes, and a pasta bar. The pool was pretty small and didn't have a view like the other lodges did.. but the dining area had a landscape view of the park to make up for it.

We left early sunday morning, per usual, and got back to camp at around 12pm. We rested for the rest of the day, the first rest time we've had in what feels like weeks, and then went to bed early!

Tomorrow is my last final!! It's a combined test for all three classes, so it should be fairly easy and short. After the tests are over I just have a few papers to turn in and then we start our directed research!!!!! Finally! I've been waiting for this for a long time. I hope I get my first choice of Environmental Policy DR because it seems the most interesting and beneficial. If I get that DR topic, versus wildlife management or ecology, I get to interview locals, government officials, tourists, and lodge managers about the tourist industry and its implications on wildlife conservation. The other ones are based on habitat assessment and group ranch locations.. We'll see. We submit our top choices for DR tomorrow so I should know by Tuesday!

I realize I didn't post pictures for this post-- kind of tired and not up to it so I'll do it tomorrow maybe.