Hurry Up and Wait

Yesterday my goal was to get my car and get to Ol Pejeta. But that wasn't going to happen until 8 or 9 am, and a group of Masters students from University of Leeds needed an extra pair of eyes in their van for a morning ungulate transect. They were driving a 14 km loop along the river, up to the airstrip and back to MRC, counting and recording locations of ungulates along the way. I was eager to see Mpala in all of its green glory, not to mention check up on the state of the ungulate populations, so I volunteered. They were leaving at 6:30 and expecting to be back by 9:30 so that would leave plenty of time to get the car and get to Ol Pejeta early in the day.

We didn't see much of interest on the transect, but the greenness was amazing in its own right. I proved to be useful in the identification of species and genders and had a good time. When we got back to MRC, I sought out Joseph, who told me that my car was in fine mechanical condition, but had no insurance sticker. The sticker should be here Wednesday. Great. If I drove without insurance and the police stopped me I could be arrested, so in the interest of avoiding African jail, I am grounded until Wednesday. There is little I can do here to prepare for Ol Pejeta, so I am stuck spinning my wheels. I read a bit, dithered around on the internet and generally hung out. In the evening, I went on another ungulate transect with Leeds. Again, nothing of particular interest. No young babies, which I am trying not to worry about. Same thing for the transect this morning, although there were a

couple solitary females, which are promising baby-wise. I am re-honing my ungulate spotting ability, which will be helpful at Ol Pej, but not being able to get anything done is frustrating.

In other news, elephants have been causing mischief around the center. The first evening I was here, I was in the library sending email before dinner. There was another girl in there with me who left about ten minutes before I did. When I left it was very dark and I had forgotten to bring a flashlight. I walked hurriedly towards the dining hall and got about halfway before I was met by an askari (guard) who was alarmed because I had walked within ten meters of an elephant that was browsing calmly on the nearby greenery. Apparently there were elephants all over the Mpala lawn, but no one had bothered to tell me or check the other buildings for unaware people. Great. The girl who had left before me told the askari that I was still in the library, but he didn't do anything about it. Wonderful. Luckily everything turned out alright and I have a permanent mental note to not forget my flashlight again. We watched the elephants grazing on the lawn for awhile before dinner.

Yesterday evening there was more elephant trouble. I returned from the evening transect eager to freshen up a bit before dinner, so I walked back to my banda. When I emerged to go to the washroom to wash my face, I noticed three or four elephants coming out of the woods right for the washroom (or rather, the basins of water behind the washroom). I decided to forgo the facewashing and booked it to the dining hall, where I found some others who were living in my building cluster and an askari. The askari drove us up to the bandas where there were now at least a dozen elephants, all but one of which were directly in front of my door. A little revving of the engine got them to move off, but I was stuck in my room until the askari returned to fetch me for dinner. When I arrived at dinner some of the elephants had taken up their place on the Mpala lawn and we watched them again before dinner.

While I was confined to the bandas, I decided to take a shower. Easier said than done. There was not enough water flow to allow me to get water out of the shower head. I could only get it from the thigh-high faucet. So ensued a bent-over head washing and an awkward series of contortions to get myself lathered up and rinsed. Somehow, despite the miniscule amount of water (inexplicable given the amount of rain that apparently has fallen) and the abundance of sun yesterday to bake the solar panel, the water did not even approximate warm. Oh well. I was cleanish and it was probably worth the effort.

This morning's attempt at cleaning myself was less successful. I just wanted to wash my face before heading out for a transect. I wet my face and lathered it up and then found that I could get no more water from the sink. Not even with both handles turned on full blast. No water from the shower either. Rats. I wiped the soap off with a towel and used a handful of water from my water bottle to rinse a little. So much rain! Why no water? Perhaps because the elephants drink it all.

There is a slim chance that my insurance sticker may arrive today, but I am not getting my hopes up. It looks like another day of reading and emailing, dithering and waiting. I will probably look back longingly at these low-key days once I get into the full swing of my research (at least I hope I will be that busy!)

Hopefully my next post will come from Ol Pejeta!