Camp Salama

Welcome to Camp Salama! This is where I will be staying the majority of my time in Kenya (though as I write this I am currently at the house in Nairobi... Muahahaha!). Camp is pretty sweet though, I actually enjoy it more than being in the city.

At camp we have no running water (we collect rainwater and during the dry season there is a pipeline that brings it to us). We have electricity only in the office/kitchen building. This is where we cook/prepare most of the food and also where we do our computer/data entry work.

Office/kitchen building. Ginger standing in the doorway :)

Everyone sleeps in tents, but I have a nice twin bed in my tent (sort of fancy camping?). We also have this great little shower system. If you want hot water you heat it up on the fire and then pour it in a bucket with a spout attached and raise it up on a pulley. They toilets are pit toilets but they are very deep and don't smell at all.

Shower system

Entry way to the pit toilet! :) On the other side of the wall is the shower.

For now Florus is in a kennel in the middle of camp near the fire pit. When we aren't out in the field and he isn't resting from getting back we tie him to a post just outside the kennel so he can relax in the grass and say hi to everyone who passes by!

Florus resting after a training session. My tent is the one off to the right (I share it with another student).

The neighbors keep finding tortoises in their bean plant garden so they bring them down to release by our camp. This is one they brought down my first day at camp. She's super cute. I also pulled a huge tick off of her foot!

It's the end of the rainy season so we still get a few showers with a bit of sunshine. One early evening we were treated to a double rainbow (not all the way) broken up by clouds. Kind of awesome...

It was a double rainbow, but you can't really tell in the photos... :(

There is also the tree house/stand, where we have a snack and watch the sun go down. It's very peaceful and a great way to end the day, just don't have too many beers up there or you'll never make it down those slanty stairs alive. For real. Consider this your warning.

You can barely see the outline of the tree stand in the tree... great views from the top though!

Headed to camp tomorrow for a couple weeks so stay tuned for more updates!