I am not sure exactly what I expected, but it wasn't this. There is more furniture: I have a bedside table with some storage, a desk with more drawers, and a big cabinet with hangers. There is an attached bathroom with a sink, a toilet and a shower. I probably won't use the shower since they are currently only heating the water in the more public showers in the research building. My bed is bigger and, most importantly, the mattress still has some life to it. It's a foam mattress, so by morning when I've slept the whole night in the same spot, I've sunk down so I can feel the bedboards, but it's cushy when I first get in and am falling asleep. My pillow is better too!
The strangest part of my new accommodations is the space. The room is massive and the furniture does not even begin to fill it. There are four lightbulbs in the whole place, and two small windows, so it is usually fairly dark. With the concrete floor, the space, and the low lighting, I feel like I am sleeping on a dancefloor or something. The room definitely does not feel like it was designed to be a bedroom. There are also bugs. Many more bugs than in the smaller room. They tend to stick to the walls though, and since there is room for all of the furniture to be pulled out slightly from the wall, the bugs haven't been a big problem. That is, except for the first night which was after a big rain that brought a lot of bugs out. It was difficult to sleep that night.
So while I think I prefer the coziness and relatively bug-free atmosphere of the smaller banda, given the length of my stay the big banda is definitely the way to go. Having the attached sink and toilet is excellent and falling into a comfy bed after my long days in the field is a blessing.
In other news, a new researcher has arrived. He is very welcome, since I was mildly dreading spending the month alone. His name is Robin and he is British, doing a Masters at a University in London (I forget which one). His father is a diplomat in the foreign service and is currently stationed in Nairobi. Robin is doing some predator monitoring, mostly of lions and hyenas. Benoit, the last of the guests who was here when I arrived, has ten more days left in the country and may or may not be spending most of them at the coast. So I have a small group of friends, and come June at least Lisa the undergrad and Jennifer the new grad student will be coming to join us. So I have gained some privacy with my new accommodations, but am spared the solitude of being at the research center alone.
As a side note, I am working with Mike's sister Kate to promote the products of Kolo, the company she works for. They make high-quality photo albums and scrapbooks and a neat little travel journal called the Essex. I have an Essex here with me, so I send periodic updates for the Kolo blog at http://www.koloist.com/ showing how I am using the journal on my trip. Check it out for more photos and snippets about my travels and research, and check out Kolo's excellent products.
