The prospect of interesting things...

Well, I suppose I should probably update, seeing as I'm going off up to
Marakwet & Pokot on Thursday. Not sure realy what to update on though. I
pretty much said everything in the brief update the other day.
The thing that was frustrating me has got a lot easier to deal with now
that I'm going to Malta for Christmas. I generally just am not too
bothered any more.
I suppose there are a lot of little things that happen every day, like
Sarah witnessing mob justice in Kibera, and the little trials and
tribulations of communal living (the kitchen is worse than Cavendish!)
But on the whole not a lot is going on. Dave & I have done all this
organisation for the trip, and now we're finally going. Tomorrow we have
to get all the kit together and go shopping. Should be fun. And repair a
tent which has been sat outside getting wet since yesterday.

So the trip we're going on... It's basically me, dave, Hannah, Leila,
Matt and Matua going up to Tot for 3 nights, then up to Marich Pass for
a night, down to Kapenguria for another niight, and then early to
Eldoret where they're dropping me and Dave off to go to Baringo, and
Hannah to go to Kampala. God knows what we're actually going to be doing
there, apart from camping and cooking rice and beans for ourselves.
So then Dave & head off to Baringo. We're off in search of a couple of
villages for Dave's potential phd, then to have a quick field walk
around to see if we can find any surface material from the kapthurin
formation. Which should also be Dave's Birthday, so we'll be spending
that at Kampi on Lake Baringo and hopefully do something fun as well.
Dave is insistent on his Birthday treat being to throw me into the lake,
but I'm hoping that won't happen as there are some resident crocs.

Anyway, i've just been provided with The Host to read. Patience is truly
amazing. So as I don't really have anything interesting to update I'll
leave you all until I return from baringo, hopefully with much fun news,
and none at all about me falling into the lake. (that would probably
mean more if I'd gotten around to telling the full sudan story... I fell
in the river one day, a little embarrassing, all good fun though.)

xx

Time flies

Oops, it has been a while since my last update hasn't it. Things pretty much tootle along at a normal pace here in Nairobi. We've all got kinda used to just being here all the time, and having our little guest house community. It's quite nice really. I've been jogging a couple of times with Patience. She really does have the most suitable name. She's been encouraging and we've not been doing too much I couldn't handle it, well, mostly. Then since Thursday we've not been, but we're gonna go today.
Umm, we had thanksgiving due to the three americans in the house. Our oven didn't work so we decided on breakfast for dinner, and then I got the oven to work. Pretty much every evening since there's been a call of 'Jeeess, can you help us turn the oven on?'. There's no nob y'see, so I had to get a tool out in it's place (many jokes have already been made, you don't need to go there).

Then, Dave and I have been getting stuff ready for the trip up into the rift valley, we did budgeting and stuff, and then getting things ready for the open day, including a killer power point presentation which we tried to have running on the laptop on our stand but which because of the light nobody could see. The open day was fun though. Pictures on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?aid=2193063&id=202910330

Right, office is now open so I gotta go work!
x

Last couple of weeks

Well, nothing much has really happened in the last couple of weeks. But lots of little things have I suppose. Last Tuesday I went to the Arboretum for the first time with Sarah. It was nice there, we walked around for about 45 minutes nattering constantly about various things. Got some good opinion on how I'd been feeling about an issue, just basically that I was well within my rights to be angry and annoyed, (basically, to save being cryptic, someone spoke to me in a way that I was not very happy with, because I didn't know some pottery convention, quite how I'm meant to know everything I'm not sure, but he made me feel stupid and it took a while and quite a few conversations with the girls when I got back to feel better about it) but we figured that he probably realised afterwards that he shouldn't have spoken to me like that. But basically my opinion on Oxford academics has been set now and it's actually put me off going into academia, not that I was at all convinced that I would ever want to do a phd in the first place, but if it would mean I'd have to work with people like that then no thank you!Anyway, mini-rant over with, the arboretum is lovely. http://www.naturekenya.org/FONArboretum.htm It has monkeys which I have seen since, but I think Sarah & I were nattering too much for monkeys the first day. So since I have been a couple of times after work and before dark, just to get some exercise and to build up to when I finally get around to buying trainers and attempting to run around it. Although i went yesterday and it was so slippery as it had rained rather heavily during the afternoon (understatement), so I shall avoid it when it's rainy.I also walked to the Sarit centre on Thursday after work, to do some shopping in Uchimi which is a much bigger supermarket than the tiny one we have down the road, and while I was there I popped into the bookshop and found New Moon for 660ksh. So I bought it. I've already finished it though. Seems a shame. Maybe I could sell it on...Friday evening we lost our internet. Apparently the ISP had upgraded but then it all went wrong. We only got the internet back yesterday and it's such a bad connection it's almost worse than having it in the first place. On Saturday evening I went to Habeshas again for more ethiopian food, this time with the new american guy who had arrived the day before (Reynolds), Darren & Patience (american couple, he's doing phd research, she's writing a fantasy novel) and Sarah. It was good, although I think I would rather go somewhere new next time. Sunday evening we all pooled together and made a green thai curry, mainly under Leila's instruction. It was delicious! Darren & Patience had been at church (morman) and eaten earlier so they only joined us later when we were still sat around the dinner table talking. It was a really good evening actually. It's like having a dinner party where you all pitch in. Good fun, and we'll hopefully do it again this weekend, if we can think of something to make.

So, this week, as well as digitising the notes from the Somalia excavations (I finished the negatives by the end of last week) we aslo had two ladies from the Ugandan Museum in Kampala visiting us. Rose & Jacqui. They were here to visit the Archaeology dept at the Nairobi Museum and learn how they organise their storage of artefacts, so that they can go back to Uganda and reorganise their stores. The BIEA is going to be providing them with a small grant to help, and they are also providing me! So I went with them and Matt on Monday to see the Director General and to organise going back to Archaeology the next day. So Tuesday I took them to the museum again and we had a brief lesson in how things in Archaeology dept work, then we had a very quick look around the museum itself, followed by a quick lunch as we had to meet someone from ethnography at 2pm. The lady from ethnography showed us around their storerooms which are currently in the middle of being reorganised. Then we went to see they man from Aluka, who is actually the man from Jstor now as they took over Aluka. we had a long hour and a half meeting during which he told us all about what jstor do, and how they provide access for free in Africa, and what they're doing with going about digitising collections (which is what I am doing with the Somalian stuff). It was really interesting, and I asked if he had any guidelines for what we're doing here and he said he'd look into it. I actually just received a phone call from him about it asking for my email address so he could send some things through, so that was great.

The evenings this week have been fairly quiet what with not having internet, we've all been doing a lot of reading. Apart from me and Patience. She's great, she's recommended and lent me a couple of books to read, which look really cool. And she's got a Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet book which I am eager to read when I finish the two I'm on at the moment. AND she likes a lot of the same TV as me (her and Darren have been watching Fringe but they're further ahead than me cos I stopped last year in favour of writing essays) so we've been watching a couple of episodes of Supernatural on her laptop every evening. It's great, and entertainment for the others too. Hannah & Dave were sat opposite us last night, and because we're using earphones (so glad I brought my splitter) they just see us jumping and squealing (mostly patience, honest, she's worse than me!) and so they get to laugh at us. Fun times.

So it seems that my itinerary for the rest of my time here is... Well, we're going up to Pokot on the 3rd, and before then dave & I have to organise everything that the trip will require, as well as organising what the two of us will need to take with us when we go on to Lake Baringo afterwards. Matt is going to drop us off at Eldorat on the 8th I think, and we'll make our own way to Baringo by matatu. Then we'll have until the 16th Dec to do everything we need to do and get back to Nairobi so that Dave has time to sort things out before he leaves on the 18th.We're also planning on leaving on the 18th (Sarah, Hannah & I) to begin making our way to Lamu for Christmas, although things haven't really been finalised yet. We have a plan but no-one else seems to be taking responsibility for booking it, although Hannah is going to be splitting off with her boyfriend when he arrives after Christmas and she's booked that. So when we got the internet back yesterday I emailed loads of places, although i had been planning on calling them but ran out of credit during the first call. So I did some internet research instead and just emailed every place with an email address to see if anyone will respond. I'm going to call Pole Pole Guest house in Lamu at lunch time to see if I can book that. But I'm a bit worried that it's all going to be very expensive, or that there will be nowhere to stay. I don't really want to end up stuck at the guest house in Nairobi, and if it's going to end up being really expensive I'll be wishing I'd booked to go to Malta instead!

After Christmas I will either be going to Pokot with Matt to carry on excavating a rock shelter there, and then going to Uganda for a couple of weeks just before I go home, or going to Uganda in Jan instead of Pokot. In a way I would like to go to Pokot, just so that I'm doing some actual excavations, but I would prefer to go to Uganda and help organise as I think I would find it so much more interesting. And I wouldn't have to work with someone I don't really want to work with.I haven't spoken to Matt since Rose & Jacqui left so I don't know what the plans are yet, but I'll go and see him later I suppose.

Anyway, I'm going to wrap up this update and then try and actually send it, which could be a mission. Then this afternoon if I'm not trying to organise anything else I'll try and do my brief write-up of Sudan.

Interesting article

This is an article by a Kenyan reporter about Juba which is interesting to read and can tell you a little bit about what it is like in Juba!

http://www.borglobe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=542:sudan-the-wild-wild-south-sudan&catid=37:opinions-articles&Itemid=103

Writeup of first day in Sudan

Sudan trip writeup
So it appears I may have time to write up my Sudan journal while I’m doing archiving as I get a couple of minutes inbetween each scan free. Ooh, well I might be able to get some done! The amusing bit it that I look at my first page where i’ve written brief notes to help me remember what I wanted to write about, and I can’t remember the stories behind them!
Monday 26th Oct
Dave & I met Matt outside the institute at 7am where we loaded all the luggage and equipment into the back of the landrover and then I braced myself at the back for the journey to the airport, picking up Matua and Kameo on the way. And then we arrived at Kenya airport, where myself and the other Uganda trip people spent many long hours waiting for flights to and from Uganda earlier on this year. This time I only had 15 minutes to spare to go and buy some water and find a cheap pair of sunglasses to take with me ($5 – bargain).
Getting off the plane in Juba was like stepping into a sauna. It was so unbelievably hot. We met Michael at the Airport, and perhaps I should let you know who people are before going any further. Matua and Kameo work at the BIEA. Matua, well, I’m not sure what his job here is really, I think he’s the general will fix anything man and loves engines, but he’s great and really good at spotting pottery while ‘field’ walking. Kameo is the GIS and general surveying enthusiast. Mike, who met us at the airport, is our contact with Smec who were doing the environmental impact assessment for a dam that the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) want to build. The likelihood of this construction ever taking place was looking very unlikely by the end of the trip, as Hakim (also with Smec) who used to be a member of the SPLA (http://www.splamilitary.net/) was told by an SPLA friend shortly before we left that he should start getting work stuff wrapped up as things are going to probably kick off quite soon.
Anyway, I digress. I think I’m going to have to keep this very brief unless something very exciting happened as it could get a bit long!
The arrival hall at Juba airport was very interesting. We scrambled to the front of a crowd around a desk to show passport, visa & vaccination card, write our name on a list (basically signing in to S.Sudan) and get our passports stamped. Then our luggage got chucked through a hole in the wall next to a desk where we had to open it up to let some guy stick his hand in and feel around...because obviously the bombs and guns would be at the top of the bag where he would find them straight away.
After the airport fun we drove to our hotel. There seems to be about one tarmac road in Juba, and the dirt road leading to the Oasis camp (hotel) was horrendous, but just a hint of the bad roads to come. Our rooms were $125 metal boxes. We were in prefab structures, divided into two by a thin wall to make two rooms they could charge $125 a night for. The larger ones were the whole box with no partition wall, and they were $180 or thereabouts. Crazy. We did have AC, a mosquito net, a tv, and a cold shower from which the water smelled like sulphur. Lurvely.
So in the afternoon it rained, and then we went for a drive to a supermarket, where we bought biscuits, sweets and squash, then drove to a more local shop where Matt bought two crates of the cheapest possible beer. Then back to the hotel where we relaxed for a while and then met up in the bar by the Nile. Some really nice views. Met with Michael who told us some stories. One about a Guinea worm which is a parasite that enters your body and grows into a worm. Apparently you get a blister which it comes out of, but you can’t pull it out as it’s grown to over a metre so you have to wind it round a pencil a little bit more every day until it comes out. Sounds like laugh riot.
He also told us something about him being arrested at some point, but I didn’t write the whole thing down so I can’t remember what happened. And about a driver involved in a fatal accident involving the SPLA, but I’ll talk about that more later. After dinner (included in room price!) we all went our separate ways to while away the rest of the evening in front of a tv. I watched so much National Geographic channel (it was that or sport).

Photos!

Some pictures to illustrate where I am, and of the museum we visited on the bank holiday.




pictures from the plane on the way to Nairobi















living room in the guest house (it now has far more furniture since we came back from Sudan)


Sarah coming in the front door


The Institute building. I saved a bird from the the front glassed bit by the staircase!


The guest house - used to be the old BIEA building until they built the new one above.




Dave and Hannah admiring some information on rock art in the Nairobi Museum while resting their weary legs.

And about the best photos I took from the museum, of animals. Sorry they're not very exciting, so it portrays the museum well. :)






One of the many painted lions around Nairobi, they are everywhere but I only took photos of the ones at the museum as I don't like to have the camera on show out on the streets.


a lovely little mosaic garden with plants with little cards telling you what they can be used for...such as the one below...

Hopefully it's readable enough in this small pic!


The front of the museum


another painted lion at the main gate


The sign outside the museum.

back from Sudan

Hello all,

I am back from South Sudan. Fantastic. I have many stories, of fires and landmines, car crashes and general tense situations, and of nice people and bathing in the Nile too. So I'll start trying to write a summarised version as it could take forever otherwise. For tonight though, I shall just try and upload some pictures to previous posts.... fingers crossed.

Since coming back I have mainly just chilled out, done all my washing, and got back into the swing of Nairobi. We went to an Ethiopian restaurant called Habesha's. It was really good fun, nice food, cheap (450ksh each, bargain!) and eating with your hands from a communal plate always gets the banter going. We had a slight incident on a matatu on the way there as we'd left it a bit late so it was actually dark by the time we had got there. There was this drunk guy and he was harassing us a bit, and then Leila (the new attachee) got her chest groped as she was sat behind him, and when Hannah and I were trying to get off he grabbed our hair and was holding onto it quite hard. A lesson to not take a matatu after 6pm really, and to not get too complacent. A couple of the others stayed out at the home pub down the road until about 1am on friday night and got harrassed on their way back by some guys who got out of a car with what was apparently the most massive gun, and so were a bit shaken up by that. And then Saturday night Hannah, Leila & James went to this carnival club thing, which had loads of different stages and was set to go on til morning, but then James has his fancy phone stolen and so after some stress they came back at about 2.30am. So yeah, many things to warn us to be much more careful. Taxi's everywhere after dark etc. Not that I would have done anything otherwise myself, but I'm obviously far more sensible than most (or overly cautious, whatever). :)

So with work today I had to write up some notes from the only proper site we found, and then Dave showed my what to do with the spreadsheet to archive this stuff from Somalia. So I created the new spreadsheet and then spent forever trying to make the scanner recognise negatives, which I did in the end, but only about 2.30pm so I only had 2 hours to get stuff done. I still managed to scan in 50 negs though, which I was quite pleased with, but I need to try and get more done as there are hundreds to do.

Anyway, now I shall try and upload some photos, and then Hannah, Sarah & I need to sort out what we're doing for Christmas. Mmm, Christmas in the sun.

xx

Another weekend in Africa

Wow, so another weekend eh. Time does fly.
Now because my mother has been requesting to know what flotation is, here is a link to a site about it http://archaeobotany.googlepages.com/ which incidentally was done by Dorian Fuller from UCL. Groovy.
And while I'm thinking about it a special hello to my Aunty Wendy who is reading my blog even without the internet. Hi Wendy! Hope you're well! xxx

So, back to the update. My Friday went okay. I was slightly impatiant with the flotation though, I just wanted to do stuff to get ready for Sudan so my heart wasn't really in it. In the afternoon though, Dave & I went through boxes from certain sites in the store cupboard to look for grinding stone stuff for Paul Lane, which was slightly more interesting. I think I would be happier with the flotation if we were doing the bucket method rather than using this tank which just seems to waste a load of water. Even more so than buckets. Anyway. That done we packed the bag for Sudan and then had mini party for Matt as it was his 28th on Friday. His wife, Laura, brought home-made cake and little chocolate cornflake cakes, and we sat around with all the staff and had drinks and cake. Then me, Dave & Hannah went with Matt & Laura to the home pub down the road for another drink, and then went back to theirs for dinner and wine. It was a really nice evening. Matt & Laura's flat is very nice! But yeah, just a generally pleasant evening with good drinks and chat and lovely food. It was really good.

So then Matt drove us home, which was ok as their are no laws against drink driving here. It was only around the corner anyway, but it's funny how your thoughts about these things change as soon as you get here. Anyway.

Saturday: Yesterday I went into town to do some clothes shopping. I walked in with Hannah & Sarah but then Sarah went off to the library (workaholic phd student) and Hannah went to talk to some DJs about the project she's working on, so I wandered off on my own and found a book shop. of course. I spent quite a long time in there, truthfully I was really only looking for the next book after Twilight (how sad) but got sidetracked by standing around for a while when the lights went out, wandering if they were going to go back on again or if I should leave the store, all the time keeping a firm hold on my bag. But then the lights came back and I found Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods. It was something like 1600shillings, which is about 15 pounds I guess. Far more than the 50p Ryz paid for his copy at the car show.
After my book shopping I found Mr Price, which i had been told was a good place to go to look for clothes. I went from a bustling african street, into Mzungu world. It was quite a shock. I wondered where they all came from as well, as there were barely any white people on the streets, yet suddenly it was like walking into New Look or Top Shop. Even the clothes were the same. Once I'd gotten over the shock i finally managed to find a pair of combat type trousers that were thick enough to wear through tangley undergrowth, but not too hot for humid african weather (I hope) and eventually cracked the crazy sizing and bought a pair that fit me. Then I went to a little cafe place down the road and bought lunch, which I was still waiting for when Hannah found me again. It was delicious though.

And that was my excitement for the week. A trip into Nairobi for the afternoon. Ooh. Then today was spent sorting stuff out for Sudan, doing last minute washing and packing my bag. And also trying desperately to find something to read. I'm settled on Mansfield Park and something Dave suggested. I decided against Iris although it took me a minute to recognise what it was about. Maybe when I don't want such a cheery book. I also got bored with Lady Chatterley's Lover, although everything about it suggests that I should read it. It was almost banned for goodness sake! But no, it's just too meandering for what I need at the moment. I was tempted by Hot Arctic Nights but decided that would just raise a few too many eyebrows. We also retrieved plastic chairs from the conference room in the intitute as Matt was in doing some work, so that we could sit outside as it was a really lovely day today. Then at about 6ish we all went to the pub again, dragging matt out with us. Another very pleasant evening, although I really fancy some ice-cream now. Damn.

Anway, I must get an early night tonight. We're leaving at 7am tomorrow morning, flying to Sudan and then staying in Juba for the night before travelling down to our camp the following day. We'll be somewhere between Juba and the Ugandan border looking for a couple of forts and surveying any that we find. Might be interesting. Although the camp we'll be in is managed and the tents even have electricity, I won't have internet and probably not phone reception, so I'll be in touch again in two weeks time!
Take care
xxx

More power and water issues.

Hmm, oddly our building has power (the guest house) but the institute doesn't which is why we couldn't get online until they turned the generator on this morning. Quickly updated now. We had no water again this morning, because the pump had been turned off! Not happy bunnies. Hannah & I are dying to shower and wash our hair. But we have plenty of water now in the tanks so Dave & I are off to do flotation in a second. Woop woop. I'm hoping it stays dry long enough for my washing to finish drying and then rains so we don't have to do flotation. It is looking very black outside.

Best go as I don't think this computer wants to stay on any longer!
xxx

Trees fire and a distinct lack of power and water

Well hello everyone.

I'm writing this on Thursday at about 10pm, but we won't have the internet switched back on again until tomorrow so I'll post it then. We had a bit of excitement this evening. Just as the sun was setting and we had started to put lights on just after 6, we heard a crunching crashing noise, a bit of a crack, and then the lights went out and our power went. So Hannah and I headed upstairs to see if we could see what had happened from the window and met Dave who said that a tree had fallen. We went outside and found that a tree had indeed fallen and taken some of the cables with it. We're still curious as to why the tree fell, it wasn't the slightest bit windy, but apparently that just happens sometimes. Anyway, one of the cables nearer to our building was leaning against a tree which was then catching fire. We went back in to sort out what we were going to do for food and stuff, and cooked communal rice to save on water, and then all washed up together for the same purpose. The water is run by a pump y'see, so with the electric being off there was also no water, so we had to use the emergency supply from the jerry cans. Anyway, as we were washing up a fire truck turned up to put out the tree that was luckily only very slowly burning, and about an hour ago (9.30) we got power back so I was able to carry on sorting out my photos.

So that was our excitment. Now I'll try and remember what we did yesterday. Ah yes, after a morning of boredom we went to do the flotation. This didn't work hugely well. We spent about half an hour filling up the oil barrel which was our home-made flotation tank, and then about an hour trying to figure out how to work it properly without losing anything. We finally figured it by the end of the day, but then in the evening at the house we ran out of water. So we were lacking until this morning when the tanks had filled up a bit more. We decided to leave the flotation for today to let the water be replenished.

So instead Dave and I played with bones from Kilwa in the store-room. We had a bit of a giggle, as usual, I think it must have something to do wth the dust levels in that room, it makes us go slightly loopy. But it was interesting. I know nothing about human remains so he was doing some identifying while I wrapped and labelled. We were unwrapping these bone frags from a site that had been dug, we think in the 60s, but everything was so poorly labelled, and what was labelled was wearing off or in terrible handwriting so you couldn't tell what it was. It was wrapped in newspaper from 1965 mostly, which was very interesting to read headlines and little snippets of news. Apparently there are diamonds on the moon. Oh yes.

So yes, that was fun with foil. Then this afternoon we all had a trip to the doctors. The guys had their 2nd cholera drinks and I had my first, and I also had my meningitis jab. The doctor made me look at it, which was a bit annoying, and very lucky that I couldn't actually see the needle sticking in my arm otherwise I probably would have fainted. I really hate people who think it's just cos I don't like looking at it. I really wouldn't mind if doing so hadn't made me faint in the past. Silly. Mind over matter my arse. It probably has something to do with why I get travelsick. Which, btw was the other bad thing about going out. We were taken there in the landrover, which has two long benches in the back. I was sat clinging on to the sides as we hurtled through the streets weaving in and out between cars and going over countless speedbumps. I felt so ill by the time we got there, and convinced I was about to die the whole way. But I think that may have been a bit of a combination with the fear of getting an injection in a little office in Kenya that made me so bad. On the way back I sat on the other side where Dave had managed to open the window for me, it was a lot quicker (less traffic) and there were hardly any speedbumps so I didn't feel quite so bad. In fact the clinging on while weaving through traffic was actually quite exciting.

Anyway, then Dave and I had the pleasure of getting together the stuff from the store cupboard that we will be taking to Sudan on Monday. This gave us fun with climbing around on shelves, looking at ancient equipment, and me being smug when I found a load of stuff that we were looking for where Dave had just looked unsuccessfully. Once we were sure we had everthing set we called it a day a little early, and came back to the house. I did the rest of my washing and hung everything out, even though it was already getting late. I'm hoping it won't rain tonight so that it'll be okay and finish off drying tomorrow. The attachee who left just before I arrived left a bag of clothes, which Hannah had already pilfered a few things from but told me to have a look. So I did. There are a couple of quite nice casual shirts, although they are quite well worn, which I have been wearing open over my tops to cover my arms, but they're a size 8 I think, which is tiny, so I'll know if I lose weight while i'm here by if the nice shirts fit! But don't worry mum, I am eating properly, just healthily! Lots of rice and vegetables.

Anyway, time for bed methinks. I finished reading Twilight in 3 days, and now am going to have to look for the following books while I'm here. Very addictive, if a little trashy. I was tempted to read some Austin next as there is a great collection on the bookshelves down here. Mansfield park is the only Austin though, but War and Peace, Moby Dick, Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess, but I just couldn't resist picking up Thor Heyerdahl's The Kon-Tiki Expedition. Should be a giggle. Otherwise I might start with the Tempest as I've been curious to read it properly ever since my failed attempt to watch the operatic version at the Royal Opera House with Tamsin.

Anyway, I seem to have babbled on again. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some photos up, otherwise this is going to get really boring. I do wonder if anyone actually makes it to the end.....?

Monday & Tuesday

Well, I've been meaning to update for the last couple of evenings but after dinner I get to the stage where it seems like such an effort!
So yes, Monday's highlight was that I saved a small red bird from the Institute. There is a staircase at the front with windows all the way up. I was sat in the library upstairs trying to read when this little chirping started to disturb me so I got up to investigate. Anyway, it was very cute but flying headfirst into the windows so I tried to guide it towards the door and eventually it settled on the paper I was holding so I could actually take it to the door. I wish I'd had my camera!
Other than that Monday was just reading and research. I did a lot of research into masters I want to do, and I think I've decided to take the plunge and apply for Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology even though it will be a huge challenge.

Tuesday was Kenyatta Day and we celebrated by having a lie in. I sat in bed until about 10.30 reading Sarah's copy of Twilight that I have borrowed. After reading it last night before bed as well I'm already halfway through it! Then Hannah, Dave & I got ready and headed out into town. Dave & I are looking for trousers for all the hiking through tall grasses and bush we'll have to do in Sudan, and I could also do with another warm jumper layer as I really didn't bring enough and when we're sat around the institute and the guest house, especially in the evenings and when it's raining, it gets very cold! But the cheap shop was shut and we were hungry so we had lunch instead. I And then off to the Museum. It was quite good actually, I particularly like the fossil skull room. Photos to upload later.

Then we walked back to the Institute. All in all we did an awful lot of walking yesterday so that I was quite stiff in the evening. My legs are a bit better now, but I really need to get back into walking more. Anyway, today Matt isn't in yet so we're 'doing our own thing' which generally means reading. So I decided to do this for a bit as I've already read loads this morning.

I'm getting quite into the swing of things here, it feels like I've been here longer than a week, even though I haven't done much. I'm quite enjoying being brought round cups of Chai in the morning and afternoon while I'm here in the institute, especially in the morning while I'm sat shivering. The sweet milky goodness really helps wake me up. Mmm. It's quite easy to stay within the area of the Institute as well, but I'm going to try and venture out further at weekends and stuff. We're also trying to plan what to do for Christmas. Hopefully there will be someone around who I can go up and down the coast with, but Hannah's boyfriend is coming for New Years so it might get a bit complicated. Anyone want to come to Kenya for Christmas? Flights on STA are quite cheap at the moment.

On Friday we are planning to go down the road to a bar for a few drinks, then spend the weekend getting ready for Sudan. We'll have no internet access unless we stay in Juba the first night, and no phone reception either, so I'll be out of touch for a couple of weeks. That'll be so weird after being in constant contact while I'm in Nairobi. But I guess at least I'll feel like I'm actually away on fieldwork!

Anway, enough rambling, I'm gonan get back to doing my reading. Matt is in and has promised us flotation in an hour. Oooh. At least we'll be doing something I suppose, and being up and about might warm me up.
Brrrr.

First weekend

Well, doesn't time fly. I can't believe I've been here 5 days already. It's quite easy just to slip into it, and everything seems really normal. We've kind of been a bit confined since Thursday as well, as it's been raining pretty much all the time. It's the short rains which are apparently a bit late, and I'm sure they're meant to be characterised by short bursts of very heavy rain, but we seem to have had n almost steady patter with not much relief. It's quite cold inside as well, as it's designed to keep cool, when it's cool outside and you're indoors not doing much it's quite chilly.

So anyway, apart from the rain i've not done a huge amount. Thursday I just spent reading really, and it started to rain. Friday morning I read and then Dave and I sorted out the finds storage room, which looked like quite a task but because there were the two of us doing it it went quite fast. I kind of took on the organisation as well and decided what would go where, and we had a bit of a giggle so the afternoon went quickly. oh, also there were monkeys in the garden during the afternoon. It seems they came out after the rains to eat the fruit or something. They were cheeky critters and because I'd left my window open I half expected to go to my room and find one in there later on.
At about 5pm Matt took us out for a drink, which was nice, although as we got to the place it had just started raining, and there was a torrential downpour just in time for us to get soaked trying to run to the bar. So I was sat there with my cold Savannah shivering because I was soaked through. But still, it was nice. It was an Ethiopian place and we're gonna go there when Dave & I get back from our Sudan fieldwork, which will be nice, and there's a new attachee arriving while we're away so it'll be a nice chance to meet her.

So, yesterday we got up fairly early, well, to leave at about 10.30, to go to the Sarit centre which is like a shopping centre with a few shops selling clothes, books and stuff to the more middle class people. There's also a food court and a cinema, which is going to be showing MJ's This Is It while I'm in Sudan, so I might not get the chance to see it. *sniff* But anyway, we split up and had a wander round, and then accidentally met up at a coffee shop which wasn't the one we'd planned to meet at, early than planned, cos there isn't actually much to look at there. So we had lunch and then Hannah went off to her sex talk (something to do with the research she's helping out on) and the rest of us went food shopping in the supoermarket and then walked home. Then that afternoon I moved into Hannah's room as that is where the girl attachees usually stay, and they had 2 new guests coming this weekend so needed my room. It's nice to be finally unpacked, and hopefully I don't have to pack up again when we go to sudan, it'll just be a case of packing what I need and then when the new girl arrives she can have my bed and I'll have a camp bed in the room when I come back.

So yes, on to today. I slept in late, which was lovely. Then got up and pottered around not really getting much accomplished all morning, before getting ready to go out to this play that Hannah had seen was on. So the four of us went along to that, which was fun. it was quite funny, about a married couple and another couple who were meeting for the first time from an internet dating site, and people getting confused with each other, and it made us all laugh out loud quite a lot. It was kind of like a sitcom on stage.
Then we went for drinks in this ridiculously expensive hotel over the road. It's very snazzy but I felt completely out of place there with my muddy trousers and trainers. Then by the time we'd finished it was getting dark so we caught a taxi back to the institute. And thats me about up to date with what I've been doing really. It's not incredibly exciting stuff at the moment. Just kinda plodding along.

Tuesday is Kenyatta Day which is a public holiday so everything will be shut, so I'm going to have to get some reading out to do a bit of research as I won't have much else to do. Matt is off until Weds so I've been told to think about what kind of thing I might want to do for my own research, as well as doing more reading about the sites I'm going to be going to. We're also all going up to the Rift Valley together (Me, Matt, Dave & Hannah) which I think is going to be a kind of educational trip or something, and on the way back Dave is going to Baringo for a week to do his own research, so I'm probably going to go with him. I think we'll camp by the lake and then have to do a hell of a lot of walking to find the villages hes looking for. But it should be good, and then on the way back we're going to stop off at a couple of places including Hyrax Hill and Olorgosailie which I'm quite looking forward to. And I'm going to have a look and see if there is anything else MSA related I can visit in the area while we're there. So I'm going to have to research the area and see if I can think of something I might want to do for something like masters or phd research. Which is really good that they encourage us in that direction, I suppose as it works in their favour in the future. So yeah, lots of reseach over the next couple of days. I've been completely relaxing this weekend anyway, so I feel almost guilty because I haven't done as much as I could have already. But it's been nice, and it's good to get adjusted for the first weekend, catch up on sleep and stuff.

Although last night was the first night I was sharing a room with Hannah, which was a bit weird. Also I woke up with a really bad sore throat and felt really coldey and ill so had to get up and find tablets and stuff. And then it must have been a combination of having seen Zombieland twice before coming away, and then watching an ep of Supernatural, but I had the weirdest dreams of being chased by zombies and stuff, that kind of carried on a bit while I was sort of awake as well, so that I knew I was dreaming but was unable to get away from it for ages. Weird. So obviously I watched more Supernatural today which was enough to put you off camping, which is great considering thats what I'm going to be doing in Sudan. Hmm, I may have to give it a rest. Might be a bit too scary for me to watch on my own. And after I went to all that trouble to download them and everything!

Ah well. I think that's pretty much it for now. I'm sure something exciting will happen eventually. At the moment its just rain and reading.

Oooh, but I did have to do some washing yesterday cos Dave spilt soy sauce on my jeans, so I got to use a twin tub for the first time in my life. Most exciting. It worked really well as well, although everything was kind've covered in blue fluff but I don't know where it came from. But yeah, excellent. Things came up so clean, even the mud stains from my jeans! Brilliant!

Right then. Enough of that. Please email me and let me know how everything is going back home! Miss you all.

xxx

Flight and First day

Hi All,
This is my first post! Woo! Excitement. Do pass the address onto anyone who is interested, I don't know if I'll manage to tell everyone.
So anyway, yesterday I arrived in Nairobi. The flight was about 8 hours long, in which time I managed to fit two meals and three films (Night at the Museum 2, The Proposal & The Day the Earth Stood Still - awful film). I arrived in Nairobi airport and managed to get my Visa and get passed the guy asking my questions about what was in my bag...I had a horrible fear that he was going to ask to go through it and the thought terrified me. Not because I had anything bad in there (I knew I shouldn't have packed the inflatable sheep) but because it was so well packed there was absolutely no way I'd ever get it all back in there. But luckily I escaped and made it through to where I was greeted by lots of people holding up signs until I finally found the one with my name on it. I was greeted by Fabian, the BIEA driver, who drove me to the Institute where I was to stay at the Guest House. I arrived and met the two fellow attachees, Dave and Hannah, and a researcher, Sarah. Hannah and Sarah are anthropologists and Dave is archaeologist, although he did arch & anth at Oxford.
So I was shown around, shown my room (Bedroom 4, although I have to move to share with Hannah by the weekend) and made tea which I drank while we sat and chatted and I got to know people. Then at about 11.30 I realised what the time was and unacked enough for me to be able to go to bed.

Today I woke up at 7.30am. Although technically I was awake off and on all night and more on than off from 5.30. I went next door to the BIEA offices for 8.30 and met Matt, the assistant director. He showed me around and then charged me with the very important task of reading a book. It's called Ismalia by Samual Baker and is supposed to give me background to what we'll be doing when we go to the Sudan on the 26th. It's quite interesting, very lively writing style and more like a story than an account of actual events. Anyway, I didn't actually read very much of it because before long Matt asked if I wanted to go to Westlands (i think it's called) so I did. It's a shopping centre mall thing with shops and restaurants and a cinema. So I got a SIM card. Phone number I will post later. And I had a cup of kenyan coffee, which was quite nice actually. Then after being shown PC World (oh yes) we went back to the offices, where I just about had time to sit down when we realised it was lunchtime. So Dave took me on a Matatu (a bus, but scarier, even than london buses) no.48 which took us into town for 30shillings. We went and had lunch in a coffee place and then I was shown around town, which is just very busy and bustly and I know if I went there on my own it would be very very easy to get lost. So then we came back on the matatu and I did some more reading sat in the library. Until it was all of a sudden after 4.30 and time for the long 4 second walk home.

As I needed food I headed over the the little parade of shops down the road to buy my essentials like biscuits, orange juice and overpriced cereal. Then back for a shower, which was quite pleasant, although I had been stood in the bath with the shower on for a full half a minute before I realised there was no shower curtain. One reason to wrap this up swiftly and go to bed... no more sleep deprivation for me please. Then I went online for a bit, came down, chatted to Dave & hannah, went back upstairs to Skype Ryz, came back downstairs again to make dinner, and then I've just been chatting and internetting since.

As I really need some sleep I shall say goodbye now. My updates aren't likely to be incredibly interesting most of the time, although I shall try to take notes when I go to the Sudan so I can easily update when I come back. Sounds interesting, but more on that tomorrow, when hopefully I will also have taken pictures of the institute. For now though, you will have to suffice with some flight photos.

or not as I can't get it to work. This is a problem. Phil!!! help!!!

Photos tomorrow.
night all