Camp Life

So I’ve been getting a lot of questions about what camp life is like and here is the blog post to satiate them.

The car that we use here in the Mara is an amazing little treat. Her name is “Holly” and she can be a bit temperamental at times. However, she has been completely outfitted with some amazing decals.


Here’s our always-refreshing shower. I say always refreshing because no matter what time of day you decide to shower, you always end up with a little bit of cold water.


To make up for this, I usually try to exercise before jumping in. Because we aren’t really allowed to be outside of our camp on foot (for fears of being eaten/stampeded/tusked; see first post), I’ve had to make due with what we have. This means I usually rock out with my iPod and run in place on a trampoline. I know I must look like a 90’s housewife sweatin’ with the oldies, but you can’t beat this view.


Our kitchen is usually stocked well with fresh fruits and vegetables. The mangoes and plantains (bananas) here seem to never go out of season. We occasionally have meat and chicken, but when we do it’s always amazing. We eat quite the variety of meals as well; from pasta to lentils, goat to curry, with great soups and salads in between.


We’re taken really good care of here by our local staff. Philomen (left) and Jorgi (right) help us around camp with a multitude of tasks. Philomen is our amazing cook that we were somehow able to snag away from a local safari lodge, and Jorgi acts as our daytime and nighttime “Askari.” He helps to ward away animals that try to break into camp and steal our delicious leftovers.


All of our electricity for the entire camp comes from solar panels like this. This one panel here powers all of our electrical needs (charging phones/computers, lights around camp etc.). Pretty soon we’ll be getting another one. Who knows what we’ll be able to do with all this clean, renewable power!?


This is our mess tent where we eat all of our meals, with the lab tent in the background. We keep all of our samples and other lab-ish things in the lab tent. Because we have no refrigeration, we use a sweet liquid nitrogen tank to preserve genetic samples. Every time I open it and see the steam come out I can’t help but feel like a mad scientist.


Obviously, everyone wants to know where I sleep. Because nothing in camp is allowed to be permanent, we stay in canvas tents like these. They are surprisingly comfortable and spacious.




Luckily, we always have great cell-phone reception.


I hope this helps to put some at ease on our living situation. Although we’re living in the “bush” we do still have plenty of creature comforts. But you can never get too comfortable and it seems that just when you’re about to, the bush sends something your way. Like this following tale.

Sorry Mom, I know this story will freak you out a tad. Feel free to stop reading this blog post now.

Just yesterday I was sitting in my tent working on this very blog post when I hear something “pawing” at my tent. It was the middle of the day so I thought nothing of it. A lion or hyena wouldn’t be that close to people during the day. I look out my window and see a mongoose staring at me making its alarm call (which I now know what it sounds like). Sitting in my tent and not being able to see what it was alarming me of, I unzipped my tent to take a look outside.

Greeting me was a black mamba snake, clearly one of the most venomous and dangerous snakes in all of Africa (and possibly the world?). In pure shock, I jumped back in my tent and made sure the zippers were closed tightly. Obviously, everything is ok now. But thanks to the bush, I am a little more cautious and aware of my steps (probably a good thing in the long run, even if it only prevents me from stepping in a present left by some large mammal).

PS: I did shave my head.

My Mind has Made the Switch

This morning I awoke almost like any other morning here in Fisi-Camp (Fisi is Swahili for hyena). Amidst the whoops of hyenas, roars and growls of lions, and elephants being their usual destructive selves, I briefly remembered the dream I was having.

Under normal circumstances, it would have been unexciting and very blasé. In this dream I was driving a car, following another car to go do some laundry. I know, sounds boring. However, it wasn’t where I was driving, but how I was driving. In my dream I was sitting on the right side of the car, and driving on the left side of the road. In Kenya, as some of you may know or remember, this is the correct orientation. Different from the states and Mexico (the 2 other places I’ve driven), who both drive on the right side of the road and sit on the left side of the car.

My mind has made the switch; I am now living, thinking, and dreaming on Kenyan terms. My Swahili is improving at a rapid pace, and I’m actually thinking about shaving my hair. This is a huge deal for me considering I’ve never shaved my head, and until now, the thought would never have crossed my mind. But here in Kenya, everyone has shaved heads, and my flowing locks of mahogany actually put some people off.

I can already tell that I’m growing a deep appreciation and connection to this place. I feel very comfortable and at ease. I can’t imagine how hard it will be to say goodbye in April.

PS: Did I tell you I’m having goat tonight for dinner?

Starting Off With a Bang (or technically a roar).

As you know…I’m in Kenya. In Kenya, there are many lions. Shocking as this may be, my interactions and opinions of lions have drastically changed since arriving on this continent.

In the states our interactions are usually limited to seeing them behind a fenced enclosure of sorts at a zoo. And in my experience, they are often doing their predator thing of just relaxing mid-day, knowing that their free meal is shortly on its way. They don’t really have a territory to protect, other lions to worry about, or reasons to fear humans.

Here in Africa, things are a tad different. To exemplify this, I will share with you how I spent last Saturday night.

Jeff (the other guy that I’m working with) and I, along with Dr. Holekamp (the principle investigator of the hyena research), went south of the Mara to help the Striped Hyena camp. Located in Shompole, the landscape resembled an even drier Arizona than I’m used to. Somewhat barren, everything that I had brought along was quickly covered in a few millimeters of dust. But that’s not the exciting part of this story.

Striped hyenas are an endangered and elusive species of hyena that are rarely seen at night. The research that our lab is working on is working to determine a lot of maternal effects and behaviors of them, along with basic biology and ecology of such an elusive mammal. So we had set out at about 3PM to set some traps for these animals. Returning after dark, we had to check all of the traps that we had set.

Lo’ and behold…we caught one!


What a great and lucky experience to have. The handling and release goes great, without a hitch. As we approached our second set of traps to see if we had caught anything, we hear a lions’ roar (which by the way sounds nothing like you’d think it does, MGM has it all wrong). One of the people we’re with says something to the joking effect of, “Oh. That lion was only 10 meters from us.” We all smile. The lion roars again. And this time, it actually was only 10 meters from us.

All of us, feeling the pressure to make a split second decision on how to react to this rapidly approaching predator, turn to Dr. Holekamp. Knowing that she’s been living in the bush for over 20 years studying hyenas must certainly know how to react to a lion that is stalking you. We expect suggestions of, “Dave, you get on Jeff’s shoulders and I’ll make a lot of noise with this clipboard. It will certainly leave us alone.”

However, all we received was, “boys, this isn’t good. Let’s get out of here, leave everything.”

Following our fearless leader, we hurriedly walked through the dark African wilderness to a nearby ranger station. Unbeknownst to us where the lion actually was (hopefully behind us). After the sun came up and the lion was nowhere to be seen or heard, we checked the remainder of our traps, packed them up, and headed home.

And so was my first night of staying in the actual bush. Quite the adventure.