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.