A very early start at 6am for the film crew Mike and Rosie, who drove out on a safari to try to catch animals at their early morning routines. They saw a pair of black rhino, and also a white rhino, some gazelle and zebra. The film quality was good because by having the back of the truck to themselves, they were able mount a camera on a tripod as well as use a handheld.
Al joined them on the back of the truck to sort out the server in UK that had gone down during the night. This was an essential task because without the server, no one could access the Great Primate Handshake website, among other vital linked services for the volunteers. Alasdair, Geek Supreme as always, magically resolved the problem…this time working off the back of Nox bouncing along dust-churning tracks at 6.30am. This little incident underlines yet again, how vital to a modern expedition the maintenance of a communications and data network is in this 21st century. Long gone are the expeditions to Africa that relied on runners carrying handwritten mail, reports and photographs to a major port for the long sea passage home. Technology communications and electricity have become almost as essential as water and food to us westerners.
Interestingly, the mobile phone networks in Kenya are very sophisticated, and most town-based adults have a handset using either the Safaricom, Zain or Orange networks, usually on a Pay As You Go basis . Although phone masts can be seen occasionally, the bulk of mobile phone calls are made by satellite link over Africa.
Breakfast was provided by Lisa, Jamie and Jonathan. Lisa had decided to healthily improve the taste of tea, coffee and porridge for us and was offering ginger powder. Great idea Lisa; ginger is a healthy ingredient, especially for digestive systems and tastes good too. The response was good too and many people agreed…except that the ginger taste was a bit odd…more like curry. Yes the ginger got a bit mixed up with cumin and curried porridge for those of us who ate it, is a once tried never forgotten taste.
Conversation turned to the sounds of the night, heard through canvas. Apart from snoring and natural gas, there were the animals investigating our camp. Some came softly discrete and probably small. Others were larger, snorting or grunting indiscreetly. The possibility of predatory animals with sharp teeth and claws visiting the camp is very low. There is an electric wire running around perimeter. There is one rule, always. NEVER leave food or scraps or food packaging lying around, especially at night. We are visitors in a wild game reserve where animals fight to survive to keep their place in the great food chain of life. Their senses are acute and it is said that a lion or jackal can smell food up to 5 miles away.
At 8.15am Nox pulled us out of camp for a day’s work at the Ol Pejeta Centre where the manager had kindly allowed us to work. We were allocated a large “summer house” overlooking the pool and an animal watering hole, with western toilets and showers that we could use. Moving all the boxes of computers and photographic equipment, prepared lunch, personal kit, tables and chairs discretely from Nox to our summer house; we must have looked like a long line of ants carrying supplies along the back lawn to our nest.
Everyone got on with setting out the work place tables and chairs, connecting power to laptops, and then just got on with their editing work. At the same time there was much “housework” to do, cleaning the cameras and lenses, recharging all batteries for cameras, mobile phones, laptops and iPods.
We all took it in turns to shower in the gents and ladies facilities…everyone appearing clean, dust-free, hair gleaming for the first time in probably a week, and guys faces shorn of beard stubble. It is these moments, emerging elated at feeling clean, where one really appreciates how lucky we are in the UK, and how much we take our western lifestyles for granted. Each person on this expedition has grown by their varying experiences and the things they have seen; no one will return home unchanged.
We watched an ant colony living in a long crack in our summer house floor, bringing in supplies from outside. Just like us, they were carrying stores and provisions. I dropped a peanut and someone dropped a sliver of banana skin into the path of the ants. Wow they were fast as word of food got around. Ants came from everywhere, crawling over the two items, and pretty soon the banana skin piece was hauled up in the air and carried to the main entrance to their nest. The entrance hole was too small to accommodate the skin slice, so the ants had to cut it up with their mandibles. The peanut was heavier to carry so they organised themselves into a heavy duty team to break it up reducing the weight and size. It really is fortunate that ants are not our size.
At 10am Al and his team gave a presentation and training to Richard Vigne (the Managing Director of Ol Pejeta) about blogging to better understand his needs, and what his intentions are for Ol Pejeta. The blogs for Ol Pejeta revolve around conservation and education directed towards the local people and how they are best placed to further local conservation endeavours and goals.
The training given was blogging tips and tricks, how often to blog, image optimisation for photographs etc. They then showed him “SWITCHIT” a sophisticated, yet simple to play game the Geek team have just designed for use by schools in Kenya and the UK. The rollout plan starts with the local Nanyuki community, and also all other schools who have a link up with a UK school. All that is needed to play SWITCHIT is the email address of each school. The game is imaginative and educational, about building the perfect primate sanctuary. Children learn how to create and manage all the components of a sanctuary such as roads, power, water, food, vets care etc, prioritising them to come to an optimum design. The design is then emailed to the counterpart school for comment and discussion and learning more about each country’s perceptions.
The Video and Education teams worked at Ol Pejeta, on an informative video covering the bush-meat trade and poaching, aimed at 11 to 18 year old children. Victoria worked on her script for the presentation tomorrow.
Jocelyn and David of the Anthropology team went out interviewing again. Today it was to the north of Ol Pejeta, to visit the Ereri Multi Cultural Village where pastoral farmers of different tribes (not just Masai) farmed their livestock. The north area is more arid receiving less rain than south of Ol Pejeta, and so is unsuitable to arable farming. Both Jocelyn and David interviewed two members of the community, including Mr Julius B Lengerded, the chairman of the village. The main purpose of these interviews was to gather information independently, for the Ol Pejeta management, so that with accurate feedback, they can refine their strategic plans for the future of the community of which they are such a key part.
Interesting issues that arose were:
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- The community enjoys a kindergarten school and secondary school, but no primary school. Under the Kenyan education system, both schools are fee paying by parents, but primary schools are not. This is the vital point the parents are making.
- The parents want education for their children because they can see their own way of life disappearing, and their children having other needs for their future careers.
- Would Ol Pejeta help them with marketing their wares and dancers to visitors and tourists?
These are all very important issues to feed back to the management to consider.
The evening was a quiet one with the cook team making a delicious meal while everyone who could, worked away on their laptops catching up and finalising their work for the showcase presentations and films tomorrow afternoon.
The evening wore on and as the temperatures fell, people drifted off to their beds.
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