Hey everyone!
I apologize for all the radio silence! We got to camp on Thursday, and on Friday as I prepared to load all sorts of amazing photos of camp the internet bundle we purchased expired. To top it off a stomach flu has appeared to sneak up on many of us and I was out of commission for about 3 days. I am beginning to feel better now but a few other camp fellows are still under the weather. Hopefully I can find a decent connection and upload some photos soon!
Here's a little something I scribbled about our first night here, I haven't edited it so I'm sure it's full of lovely ramblings :)
We arrived at
Salama camp just before dark. It’s great to be out of the city. There are
rolling hills and open sky. It’s beautiful. On the drive out we saw 20+
giraffe, a few herds of gazelle, plenty of zebra, and even one ostrich. A
Salama and the
surrounding area is made up of ranches. This means stretches of undeveloped land
for livestock to roam. Wildlife also takes advantage of these open areas,
competing with the livestock for resources. This is also where I will be
looking for cheetah scat. But more on the details of this later J
After unpacking,
we decided to get Florus (found out we had been spelling it wrong the whole
time once we finally received his passport. Yeah that’s right, this dog has a
passport - a Dutch one no less!) acclimated to his new surroundings. It began
when three neighbor dogs, with the fearless intact male, Beast, leading the
way, came to check us out. The dogs usually hang out around camp. We were
worried what Beast would do with Florus around. We were concerned there might
be some battle for male lead. Beast came rounding the corner, the defining
moment was about to occur… we all held our breaths, I tightened my hold on
Florus’ leash, prepared to break up some terrible dog fight… And THEN: Beast
took one look at big Florus and high tailed it home with his tail between his
legs... hilarious. The three returned a few times and barked
fiercely from behind the safety of the fence but no serious altercations
occurred.
After the
excitement we went for a walk with Ginger and Florus. It was nice, down a path
through some tall grass, appreciating the scenery. When we returned I noticed a
few small black dots on one of the intern’s pants. I looked down at my own leg
and saw one on myself. Ticks. So. Many. Ticks. It was chaotic paranoia. Four
people all dancing around asking… “OMG is this a tick?” while pointing to an
obscure area of their bodies.
There is a
partition in the tents so that they can be divided into two separate rooms, but
for now I am alone in my tent. After dinner talk of snakes, spiders, beetles,
roaches, and various parasites I found myself checking every nook and cranny of
my tent at least 5 times. After convincing myself all was clear (except for
that weird bug on the ceiling that I couldn’t reach enough to smush but didn’t
want to knock down because I didn’t know if it could fly or where it would land
and I might only have so much flashlight battery while I’m here so I just
stared into it’s eyes, possibly many, and said I won’t kill you if you don’t
lay eggs in my eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc. and then sealed the deal with an
un affirmed nod) I jumped into my sleeping bag. Well that wasn’t so bad (with a
shine and a glance still now and then at the bug on the ceiling to make sure he
kept up his end of the treaty). Ginger (who also sleeps in my tent) got up and
started manically sniffing about the tent. It led her to under my bed then
behind my sleeping bag… WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING FOR!?!?!?!? She stops,
stares into the corner, tilts her head then moves to a new spot and starts all
over again. Not to mention she’s probably still littered with ticks. Awesome.
Eventually she calms down and with one last concerning glimpse at ceiling bug I
turn out the light for good and try to sleep. I was warned of hyena cries and
hyrax screams but I don’t remember hearing any of those. What I woke up to was
a chorus of 4 dogs barking their brains out at 5 am in the pitch black. Florus
NEVER barks. Rarely have I heard him bark. He was barking a lot. WHAT THE HELL
IS GOING ON!?!? I hear clanking of metal. He’s flipping over his dishes. I
starting imagining the horrors occurring outside my tent. It’s probably a
baboon, no… it’s DEFINITELY a baboon. OMG. I’m not going to look out the window.
I’m not. That way there is only the POSSIBLITY, if I look out and it IS then
I’m screwed and won’t sleep for the duration of my time in the bush. After
about half an hour everybody calmed down (I am told there was no baboon, but I'm not sure I'm convinced).
Then at 7 it started all up again only this time the trio were lined up against
our fence barking at Florus and he wasn’t responding. Needless to say I slept
very little last night. Hopefully tonight I will be so tired from the adventures
and chores of today that I will just pass right out. To a good night’s sleep…!
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