I'm still here

Hello out there!

Just to let you know I am still here. I'm been to the coast with Phil, to Nairobi National Park, back to Mombasa on my own, and to Kilombe for a very brief fieldwork visit (awesome ESA/MSA site! So exciting) and now I have today to buy everything I need to, get everything I own packed up into what I'm taking to Tanzania and what I'm leaving here to take HOME (!!!!!!), do all my washing and get it all dried in time to pack it. Find missing things like my drinks flask mug thing which disappeared from the cupboard a few weeks ago, and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo which no-one seems to have borrowed yet someone has to have taken it from my pile of books on the desk! Grr, missing things, grrrr. I also have 3 reports to write, a load of files to organise for Matt, and a Sarah to visit. Manic day in store methinks. The reports can wait until I'm in Tanzania technically, and I can email them over, but the files need to be organised and put on disk before I go.

So I am in the midst of my mega write-up, I think I'm at about the point of Mombasa with Phil, but it's just going to be one loooong write up with headings so you can skim past bits if you want to. But as ever I do it more for myself for my own future reference than anything else, so if it's too long for you then I apologise, but I don't really care that much. ;-P

So I only have one more thing to say before I carry on with my heaps of stuff to do:

England v Germany, we was fracking robbed I tell yer. Painful, disastrous, and how would it have gone if that goalkeeper hadn't been a *bleeeeeeep bleeping bleeeep*, there's no way he could have missed the fact that it was over the line. Bastard. I felt rather sorry for the German couple sat with us who very wisely didn't celebrate visibly at the end of the game. Grrrrr! Anyway. On with the busy day.

Oh, and internet access will be very sporadic from now on, so I'll probably only be online once a week or something once I'm in the field. Gosh, it'll be almost like I thought it was going to be when I came over in October. :)

Have a great summer folks!

xxx

Olorgasailie

First week of June...

The next week I didn’t have a very successful start. Not sure what I did on Monday, but I didn’t try and get to Olorgasailie until Tuesday, which was a bank holiday. I had been told the wrong place to find the matatu, so I spent hours wandering around the city centre before giving up and deciding to try again the next day. Which I did, and with some help from Mwangi from the museum I managed to find the right matatu, and get to the right place where I had to change matatus. I had to change at Kiserian, and the first matatu of the day going the way I wanted didn’t leave until 11am. I should have gone on a Thursday as that is market day and so then they go much more frequently both ways. Anyway, I got to the site, I had a tour around. I didn’t get to talk to the curator though, as he wasn’t there that day. It was quite cool there though. It was nice to visit, and then I rushed off to stand in the blistering heat by the roadside waiting for a matatu which was due past at about 2pm. I’d only been waiting around for about 10 minutes, but lots of mzungu cars had gone past. I did try sticking my hand out to get a lift, but no-one stopped. Until there were two cars following each other, and the second one, which just had one mzungu man in it, turned around a little further on and came back to pick me up, which was very nice of him as it was very hot in the sun and the only shade was back from the road, so every time I heard something coming I had to leave the shade and go up to the road to see if it was the matatu. And even if it was the matatu there was no guarantee that I would be able to get on it. So I was very lucky. I think his name was Michael (I can’t really remember now) and he owns an event organising company which had helped to run/advertise/organise/whatever this event called the Rhino Charge. No Rhino’s involved in the actual event, it was set up a few years ago to raise money to build a fence around Aberdare National Park to protect the park’s 50 odd black rhino population, and now raises money to maintain the fence and keep the Rhinos safe. You can read about the Rhino Charge on p58 of the Rough Guide! Or they have a website www.rhinoark.org which I haven’t looked at yet because I have no internet. ANYWAY. So I caught a lift with this guy, and we stopped when we caught up with the car he had been following for lunch, they offered me some rolls, but luckily I had come prepared and brought my own food. But I met the chief organiser guy, or whatever, and two ladies, presumably one of whom was his wife, and a friend who is a nurse at Hillcrest School in Nairobi, and who is training to become a special needs person or something. So that was nice, I think they thought I was very young, as I probably looked it as I was dressed very dustily and messily for the day out in the bush. Then the guy drove me all the way back into Nairobi and dropped me at Nakumat Junction, which was very nice of him as he then had to face traffic going back out to Karen. It was very interesting chatting to him though, and he pointed out all the sights and stuff along the way. He was born and raised in Kenya, apart from when he went to boarding school and uni in Ireland, and now lives in Mombasa with his wife and 13 cats. Which I can really understand happening to a cat lover in Mombasa. They’re everywhere and it’s just too tempting to take them in and give them a good life.

So that was Olorgasailie. Kind of unsuccessful, as I didn’t really get all the info I wanted, but never mind, it was interesting to see the site and I got a little bit of information. I just really need to start writing up my report now.

Naivasha & Hells Gate National Park

Sunday 20^th June 2010

Wow, so that’s all I managed to get up to hey. Well thats probably good for you as the rest has faded so much it’ll be a fraction of the length it would have been if I’d blabbered at the time.

Yesterday I travelled from Nairobi to Mombasa. Our bus broke down (i’ll possibly get to that later) and so I didn’t arrive in Mombasa until about 6.30pm. I should have stayed at the Castle Royal in town (where I am currently sat having my cup of coffee, first of the day, at 11am) as it was raining this morning so I feel like I completely wasted last night and this morning, and 3500/-, on going all the way to Bamburi for nothing. So much for my beach break. Anyway, I am currently biding my time until Patience and Darren come back from church, so that I can leave my things at their house and then, erm, well, not sure what I’ll do really. Get to know old town a bit better I suppose.

So, on with the story I guess.

After Hyrax Hill I went back to the place I was staying to pack up my things, pay up and leave. Which took forever. But finally I left, after arguing about paying for the nights I wasn’t going to be staying, and made my way to Naivasha. Once in Naivasha I had to change for another matatu, which kindly stopped right outside my hotel for me. I was staying in another ‘dorm room’, which was a dorm with 12 beds in it, only I had it all to myself. I foolishly decided to sleep right at the far end, shoulda slept at the other end as the boys next door were flirting in Swahili through the wall with the girls the other side of them (all Kenyans) until I finally snapped and shouted them to shut up (*ahem* ‘will you please be quiet’ – I’m such a dork) Anyway, there was also an alarm going off for a few seconds every minute (I timed it, it was exact, like a smoke alarm whose battery had run out but more alarmy like a car’s) until 5am, when it went off for about 20 minutes before being silenced and allowing me to sleep. Anyway, I’m forgetting the lovely dinner I had in the very lovely restaurant, which was very good and made up for the crappy place the night before. I wish I could have stayed longer, in a nicer room, as it looked very nice elsewhere as well. Also the pool looked very inviting.

Anyway, the next morning I got up very early, convinced the restaurant staff to let me just have toast and coffee for a reduced price, and then went off a cycling to Hells Gate National Park. It was rather awesome, I can’t really tell it without the pictures though, but I went in, saw that I could have ridden a horse around and wished I’d done that instead, and then cycled off to commune with the animals. I saw lots and lots of pumba (warthogs) who scampered here there and everywhere as soon as I squeaked into view, I saw twiga (giraffe), zebras (punda milia I think) and lots of deers, thomsons gazelle I believe. Luckily I didn’t see any of the lions or buffalo which are supposed to also be in the park, as I’m not sure what I would have done being on a bike. Certainly would have been an experience though. I bet a lion or two saw me from a distance though, there was quite a bit of long grass, but from what I hear they’re not too fond of humans. We’re probably a bit too fatty for their tastes. Anyway, then I came to the gorge bit that you’re supposed to be able to walk around, but you’re not allowed without a guide, which you have to pay 500-1500 ksh for, and I only had 400 left. So I carried on cycling up the hill, despite the recommendation from the warden lady at the gorge who said I should just go back the way I came. Actually what I did was push the bike very slowly up the very steep steeeeep hill, and then rest at the gate at the top for a minute to remove the stone from my shoes. The guard at the gate then asked me if I would like to see the geothermal power plant section I was sat next to, so I of course said yes! He took me around into the fenced off area, and showed me where pipe goes into the well was that was drilled 4km into the volcano (oh yeah, we were on an old volcano) and through which the steam vapour comes rushing up to be split into water and steam which then goes through all these pipes to power turbines and stuff. Anyway, it was all very cool (although the pipes were very hot, haha). The pipe was too hot to actually touch, which I know because they guy kept encouraging me to touch them and so I almost burned my fingers. This water that comes off goes into this pool, the top part of which you can boil an egg in, and then it’s a bit cooler in the man-made pool. It smelled a very sulphuric though, but the guy was telling me that the water is very good for your skin if you bathe in it every day, as he washed his hands in it, so I bent down and did the same, but boy was that water hot!

So after that visit I cycled on, and on, and on. It was mostly tarmacked from that point, but still very hilly, like, long slow hills. So it seemed to take forever to get back and there wasn’t much in the way of animals in that part of the park. Seems pointless calling it part of the park really, it’s so full of pipes and geothermal factories that I wouldn’t be anywhere near if I were an animal either. There were some great views of Lake Naivasha on the way back though, and I had some great comments from locals on bikes urging me on and stuff. Also from one guy while I was walking up the last bit of a long gentle hill (I’d cycled most of it!!) who said something along the lines of that I should be on the bike not pushing it, which was all very well for him to say, he was sat on the back of a bicycle boda boda, with someone else doing the pedalling!! Anyway, the guy on the gate on my way out was very impressed that I had cycled round the whole thing, and by the time I had gone the next 10km back to the place I was staying I was oh so very proud of myself. Must have been over 30kms I did that morning. I would have stayed longer if I had known it would take such a short time to get back to Nairobi, but you never can tell these things ahead of time. Sometimes it can take aaages to do just a short trip. So yeah, that afternoon I went back to Nairobi on the matatu thus ending my fun trip to Naivasha.

Hyrax Hill

Monday 7^th June 2010

Well hello,

I am currently sat in the room of a guest house in Malindi, looking out over the sea from my bed, and waiting for Philip to finish in the shower. It is most lovely here. We were staying at Kipepeo in Lamu for the last couple of nights but it was a bit small and I’m sure we could have found better elsewhere, if only I’d had the updated copy of the guide book! J

So, I thought that while I wait I would try and catch up on my blogging. But I might not get very far. I believe I had got as far as telling you about Kariandusi, so I have Hyrax Hill and Naivasha/ Hells Gate National Park to talk about.

So after visiting Kariandusi I took the matatu up the rest of the way to Nakuru and after grabbing a few essentials for breakfasts I called the place I was staying as they had said they would come and pick me up for free. I had thought that was awfully nice of them, but it turns out they were just going to send someone to get in a tuk-tuk with me. Hmph. Which I had to pay for. Still, my first tuk-tuk ride. Wooo! It wasn’t that great really, it was just rather slow, the one I took today was far nicer. Anyway, once there he had me choose a room, which I did, and kind of settled my stuff in. Then I wandered down the road to the Tuskys to buy some things for dinner, but i ended up just getting an instant noodle thing instead of the big plans I’d had. Probably better as there was only one gas cyclinder thing, and the bloke made dinner for him and the other Kenyan guy who was staying there so it wasn’t for a while until I could use the stove. But I’m jumping ahead of myself. On my way to Tuskys I had a moment of ‘shiiiit, what kind of place am I staying in!’ and rang Kerry whose aunt lives in Nakuru and who had offered to find out if I could stay there while in the area. In the end I didn’t go there, her aunt was away and instead of staying three nights like I had planned I instead decided to go straight to Nakuru after visiting Hyrax Hill the next day. I guess the place I was staying wasn’t so bad really, it was just very quiet and I was expecting to see a few more people there. But never mind, I had a bed, and I only got bitten a couple of times while I was downstairs. Then the next morning I got up not particularly bright and early and rang Yego, the curator of the site, who had said he would pick me up from town. Turned out I was staying directly opposite the road leading to the site so I just walked it instead.

I arrived at Hyrax Hill and Yego had already called ahead and arranged for a guide to meet me and show me around until he arrived himself. I think his name was Jackson. Anyway, he was very very good, and showed me around the museum giving me the complete history of the site, what was found there, etc etc. For the uninitiated, Hyrax Hill is an archaeological site consisting of an iron age fort and a more recent settlement site, but I can’t remember the details at the moment. :P He took me up to look at the hollows that were used at a base for a corral type thing, with little huts next to the entrance way to guard against intruders and look after their cattle. Then a bit further up was a green grassy patch, which had been the site of a hill fort, apparently. How I love hill forts. Anyway, we went further up and up, and reached the very top of the hill where I had a good view of Lake Nakuru and took some nice photos. I could even see the pink of the flamingos.

Kariandusi

Right, well. I just got back from Adams Arcade, where I bought Gilmore Girls season 1 and a couple of cheap strappy tops, all after I got stung by a bee, or something. I didn't see what it was, I just went to brush something off my neck, felt much pain, and then the next thing I brushed away felt like a stinger. I ouch. Actually it's made me feel quite funny, but I've managed to get home ok so I guess I'm not allergic. *whimpers* So to take my mind off it, and before I head out to Habesha's to meet Sarah for dinner, I shall update as promised. Maybe with tea...

Mmm, tea and avocado. deelish.

So, on Wednesday I went to Nakuru, visiting Kariandusi on the way. Getting the right matatu was easy enough, and I managed to get them to drop me off in the right place. There's a big sign saying Kariandusi Archaeological site so it's hard to miss. The curator there was a guy called Robinson. He'd only been there for a month, and found it necessary to give me his life story. Anyway, he had a guide take me around the site. It was quite interesting. Kariandusi is an Acheulian site, which basically means there's a lot of handaxes.

This is an obsidian handaxe. As if you couldn't read for yourself. They have a lot of them. They also have a lot of handaxes made out of trachyte.

This is the Upper Site. It's basically a lot of handaxes and choppers scattered on the area where they were dug up. Apparently in situ, although I doubt it.

This is some stratigraphy. It shows how the area has been covered in lake and erupted on and so forth.

This is a test pit, dug by John Gowlett, who is also the director of Kilombe where I'm digging briefly at the end of the month.

And thiiis iiis, the Lower Site. Much the same as the Upper site, but a bit lower down. It tells you all about it in the sign.

Enough pictures for now. It's a pain in the arse getting them positioned right and I'm leaving in 20 minutes. The area the site was in was also very pretty. Good for picnicking apparently. And there's a bit where you can see the stone tools still in section along the path.

There's also a diatomite mine in the area. You can see it from the Lower site, but for the photos you'll have to check out Jalbum when I put them up. You can see diatomite in the stratigraphy photo. It's the white stuff. Deposited by diatoms that lived when the lake was covering the site. Well, technically it is the diatoms that were in the lake. When they died they left this powdery, chalky residue which is now mined, for, umm, stuff. filtration is all I remember from the visit, but here Wikipedia helps me out: "Diatomaceous earth consists of fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. It is used as a filtration aid, as a mild abrasive, as a mechanical insecticide, as an absorbentfor liquids, as cat litter, as an activator in blood clotting studies, and as a component of dynamite. As it is also heat-resistant, it can be used as a thermal insulator."

Lovely.

You can also see the old quarry where they used to mine the stuff. I have pictures of it, and of the tunnels they used. They look pretty cool.

Then I had a look around the old 'museum' which is just an explanation of what the rift valley is, how the area was formed, as well as some casts of early humans and descriptions of the tools and who used them and stuff like that. Brief but informative. They are currently in the process of making a new 'museum' which is more modern and will give more information as well as being more interactive. But I say "currently" and "in the process". This new museum started to be built and made about 2 years ago. Now the few displays and stands they had put there are looking tatty and tired already. But I think with a new curator in place it might start to get moving again. They all seem hopeful there anyway, and the director (of National Museums Kenya) visited a week before to see the site and what was going on with the new space. It's a nice area and has loads of potential, if they can just do something with it!

They also have a tool making area, which apparently Mwangi is in charge of (he's the guy from the archaeology dept in the museum who tried to explain to me and the Ugandan ladies how the accession system works in the stores, seemingly without really knowing what he was doing himself). It seems he's very big on the getting people to the archaeology side of things, and I think he'd be far more suited in a role where he gets to take people to sites and market them. Which he seems to do anyway. So he takes school groups to this site where they can look at all the stone tools, learn how to make them with obsidian from the neighbouring mountains (presumably where it would have come from in acheulean times) and then butcher a goat with them. I believe they also cook and eat it. Sounds like fun. Sounds like primtech!

So after having a good look around I went to have a chat with Robinson, which is probably to uninteresting to write here! :) There were a group of Canadian Archaeologists there when I arrived though (well according to Robinson they were Canadian Archaeologists) who it seems are touring Kenya in a big safari bus. Looks like fun.

Right, I'm heading off out to dinner, and I'll hopefully write the rest up later. Ciao!

More monkeys, breakfast, and 'please stop singing!'

Ah, the monkeys are here again. I wondered what the horrible rotten food smell was (the bin out the back door that they've tipped over to get at our food remains, they do love our avocado remains).They're so unafraid. And there are more babies. I got really close to one of them clinging half-heartedly to it's mum (or possibly just carer) and it looked so new! I had to walk the long way around to go and peg out my washing as I didn't feel like walking down the steps with the bushes either side where they were all hanging out. Also there was a small one who I think was either playing with me or playing at defending, he was very cute, but I didn't really want to get any scratches so I went the other way. The really have no fear. I was coming back up and as I walked along the side of the office one of them (I think a male, although I wasn't looking that closely - and they're not the ones with the blue balls which I saw the other day, so it didn't stand out quite so much) came walking up towards me. I thought it might run away, especially when I banged on the empty washing basket in my hand, but instead it just walked past looking at me as though I were a bit crazy. Ah well. Monkey madness.

This morning I am doing all my washing, and some of Emma's, and I might try and wash my blankets. Because the other night I saw a flea, and there are definite flea bites on my arm. Tut. Not sure if it were here before or if I might have brought it with me from the last place I stayed in Naivasha. Either way, I need to find ways of getting rid of fleas without flea spray. *sigh*

So as I put my first load of washing on I made coffee and contemplated breakfast. 'Hmm, now I could have some yummy muesli with some tasty natural yoghurt, but oh look. I have bacon that could do with eating, and half a tin of baked beans, and I bought eggs yesterday, oh and look I still have tomatoes, and someone has bread that I could steal a couple of slices of, oh oh ooooh'.

So I had the breakfast of kings and it was good. And then I went back into the kitchen where John had put in the oven a big chunk of meat. And boy is it smelly. I know I just had a cooked breakfast but ugh, no, too early! And I can't even leave the door open while I'm not down there because the monkeys will come in. *sigh*

Speaking of John (Tanzanian attachee), he was singing this morning. Loudly. I could here him from downstairs whilst he was upstairs in his room. Singing. Badly. He was singing Madonna - The Power of Goodbye. I don't know this because I could tell from his singing, but because I asked him while he was singing it in the kitchen. Way to make a bad song worse. Is it possible to politely tell someone they can't sing and to please shut up because it's a Sunday morning and it's just not right? No? I didn't think so.

It's crazy the stuff they like here. I've got quite into the stuff they play in the matatus. Well ok, the hip hop / r&b stuff (if thats what it's called, you know I'm rubbish at music genres), not the celine dion - power ballad stuff that they also seem to love in this part of the world. Lovin it. (again, NOT the power ballad crap, although sometimes it can be kinda fun) I'm going to have to try and find somewhere to buy some local music from, because I really like it, although it seems to always be interspersed with this one J-Lo song featuring 'Fat Joe' (hehe) called Hold Me Down, which I've grown quite fond of. ANYWAY, I think I'll try and buy some local stuff before I leave for Tanzania, because I probably won't have time for much once I get back. Oooh, I so can't wait to get home! 6.20am on 11th August! Woop! And I'll be heading straight for a caramel coffee frappuccino with whipped cream from Starbucks, and maybe a big mac. I have no idea why but I'm really craving that crappy burgery goodness.

Right, I'm going to post this, shower, buy more washing powder so I can finish my washing, and then update about my few days away, which were very cool and I thought of so many things I wanted to share while I was doing it, but now it's all fading a bit. :(

sad stories, plans and kangas

ooh, what a lack of being busy week. Well I suppose I was busy really. Just not with terribly exciting things. I spent my days poring over newspapers from during the pre and post-election violence, and my evenings either writing my research proposal, huffing because someone said something that offended me, and writing my budget and itinerary for these next couple of weeks.

There were a few things that I am sure I was going to post on here that I found in the papers, but I don't remember them now. One thing I saw that I was very sad about was a follow up kind of story about a disabled lady who I had read about from an issue in November or October or something. She had no use of her legs, but had rigged up all this stuff in her fields so she could still till her crops and stuff, and it was a really heart-warming story about how she wowed all the neighbours with how she could still manage on her own despite being in a wheelchair. So lovely. And then in one of the January issues of the paper they reported that they had discovered that this lady had been in what was possibly the most devastating act of post-election violence. A church in Kiambaa in Eldoret was torched while it was full of people. (Daily Nation article on the burning) Many people died inside, one of which was Wambui, the disabled lady the Nation had reported on months before. I think that story made me more sad than a lot of the others, although I read a lot from January 2008 which made tears come to my eyes.

Onto more cheery subjects. Having done the research proposal I now have to do the research, which is the plan for this week and next, although apart from getting a couple of contacts that I needed today I haven't done anything towards it as I have been busy finishing up my notes for Sarah. That and getting excited about funding. So tomorrow I have to call a couple of people and put together some questions to ask the curators at the sites I am visiting. Then on Wednesday I am travelling up to Nakuru on a matatu (I hate travelling intercity on matatus) stopping just before to visit Kariandusi on the way. Then I'm staying in a dorm (ooh, first dorm experience) at this Nakuru backpackers place who say they will pick me up free of charge from town, and apparently the hostel has magnificent views over the National Park. Then the next day I'm being picked up in Nakuru to be taken to Hyrax Hill by the curator. Sarah also arrives in Nakuru on Thursday, so hopefully I'll be able to meet up with her for dinner. Then I might stay Friday night as well, depends if I still have anything to do there on the Friday. Then I'm going to head down to Naivasha to do a little tourism stuff there before heading back to Nairobi on Sunday. Or possibly Monday, see how I feel. Then depending on when I get back I will head out the next day to Olorgasailie for a night and then travel back the next day. Apparently it's very beautiful there, as well as being full of uninteresting rock stuff (according to James) so hopefully it should be nice to stay there for a little while. I shall take a book with me for these travels. Although annoyingly the one book I really wanted to read seems to have gone missing. I'm really annoyed. I have been offering my books to people to read, but I don't know who could have it! :(

So ya, then I should have at least a day to write up before Phil gets here!!! Woo, then we're flying to Lamu on the Saturday for our coastal adventures. Exciting.

Apart from planning that I haven't done much this last week. Saturday night I went to a Kanga/Kikoi party with Sarah, Hannah, James, Reynolds and his flatmate Carol. It was really good fun, although little did I know my hormones were kicking in and I shouldn't have been drinking (cos if I do it makes me sick) and I was on the rum, and then there were the jelly shots which may have been the beginning of the downwards spiral, as then when someone encouraged my to down a large shot of tequila I was more than willing. And the rest is history, or rather, I don't remember much of it (which is unusual for me in itself). So yesterday was spent in bed either sleeping or watching Joanna Lumley's the Nile which was very good. She even went to Juba in Southern Sudan, and I'm not entirely sure, but the place where they were showing the beauty contestants may have been the place we stayed while we were there. Very interesting program, and only slightly insulting in places.

But that is pretty much the only thing of interest which has happened to me in this last week. The party was great though, I was having a really good time until the hormones/drink ruined it all. I may give up on alcohol entirely seeing as I can't predict when it's going to turn on me.

Oh, of course. And I had an email from Bristol this morning telling me that they are giving me AHRC funding. Which is awesome although even though ahrc pays the fees, it only pays a certain amount, which is only a third of the actual fees I have to pay, so I still have to find £6000. Still, that's a hell of a lot better than having to find all the fees and living expenses. So yay! I'm going to Bristol this October!! Quite looking forward to it.

Right, bed time now I think. Although having spent the whole day feeling utterly exhausted still, now I feel quite awake! Grr. Must get some decent sleep so I can focus tomorrow though. Night folks!