It's been a busy few weeks here in Kenya! Right now, I'm in the middle of conducting research on meat-borne parasites in slaughterhouses and butcheries. I've been visiting various slaughterhouses and conducting surveys with the flayers and stakeholders there about their knowledge of parasites. It's been an interesting experience -- I had to go get gum boots, and borrow a dustcoat, so I didn't get bits and pieces all over me. Here's an example of what I've been seeing:
And here's a picture of me, conducting some research:
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| I think yellow dustcoats and too-small veterinary hats are really my thing. |
The whole experience has been eye-opening, certainly. But don't worry -- I enjoyed a beef stew without any hesitation this weekend. My carnivorous tendencies are still intact.
Kisumu is a wonderful place. It's cleaner than Nairobi, it's right near Lake Victoria, the people are nice. We've met some great friends here and have definitely enjoyed exploring the nightlife scene with them.
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| We claimed the bar at Octopus Bottoms-Up club... these are my roommates, one other American student, one Swedish NGO worker, two Brits, and one random Kenyan |
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| We put on our stunner shades for a night on the town! |
This past weekend, we took a trip to the Masai Mara, a wildlife reserve about 5 hours away. After an extraordinarily bumpy car ride which left me with various bruises and lumps, we arrived at the breathtakingly gorgeous open plains. We saw four of the Big Five, the safari-goer's ultimate "animals to see" list. Here are some pictures:
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| A herd of elephants crossed the road right in front of us. Reminded me of the marching elephants in Jungle Book : ) |
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| Fact: every baby animal is cute. Especially elephants |
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| A rhino crossing the road! It is extremely rare to see a rhino, and especially this close. |
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| Derp |
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| My very favorite animal: The Thompson gazelle. Not the rarest animal, or the fiercest, but there's something so graceful and gentle about these lovely creatures. My friend described them as "dogs with horns" because they wag their little gazelle tails all the time! |
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| Not the smartest animal on the savanna |
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| Three cheetahs! Also very rare to see. |
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| As we were leaving, the cheetahs began to stalk a nearby herd of animals. Super cool! |
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| It was a cool day, so the hippos came out of the water onto the riverbank. |
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| What a gorgeous creature. We were maybe 30 feet away from this male lion |
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| Cats are cats, no matter how big. Sleepy lion |
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| A gorgeous place, truly. |
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