More quotes

“Lets go to see the fish that eats those lamb chops!”
Doug, one of the scientists here who studies river ecosystems, collected lamb chop remains the previous evening to use as bait for the fish. In the morning we all piled up to see if he caught something. He did.

“Watch out for the monkeys on the road.”
Tons of vervet monkeys running around. A particularly interesting case of sexual dimorphism

“Why is the hippo bobbing up and down in the water?”
‘Cause he is making more hippos.

Islam: “I haven’t used that software, I only looked at the code”

“When you hit the tall grass on the soccer field – it’s nasty”
Our course went to visit another course: undergrads from Cornell, living at the riverside campside (it’s very cushy, with platformed tents and electricity and everything). We played a game of soccer (we won) on a grassy field full of patches of tall grass and ground squirrel holes.

“Why don’t the bushbabies come out? It’s time already!”
While visiting Cornell course at the riverside camp, we waited for the bushbabies to come out in the dusk. They did eventually. Their eyes light up like huge orange saucers in the light of a flashlight. And they move so fast around the tree!

“This line is to look at the midges under the microscope, the food line is the other one.”
Still at Cornell. One of the faculty (an entomologist) from Cornell set up a microscope with midges (the same ones that infest the acacia trees, the same ones that one of the projects was studying) next to the food line.


Dan: “You step on all dung you measure: if it’s green it’s two days old, if its soft it’s a week old, after that you don’t care. Spread your arms out, make a daisy chain (hold each other by hand) - that’s 4 meters. Then go through and count the dung.”
Explaining how to measure animal activity through dung (for the boma project)

Molly: “I think it would be hard to get the midge out of the cage without squishing it”

Tires are always flat because of the acacia tree thorns. And so are soccer balls

“Need to fly early in the morning, otherwise it’s too windy and hence bumpy.”
But we did fly! It was out of this world AMAZING. We hooked up Macho Ya Mungu rig to the struts of a microlite airplane (smaller than Cessna) and flew over Mpala. 3D acacias! 3D zebras, giraffes and impala! 3D life from above!

Moth in the hand soap.

Dust everywhere. Everywhere. EVERYWHERE. And so are the ants.

Wild dogs in the morning, giraffes in the evening.

Impala on the road. Every evening. Jumping gracefully.

Bruises on the butt from sitting on top of the car (on the roof) while it’s bouncing over the barely existing roads.

Too many zebras (plains, not Grevy’s)

The camera clicks are too loud and too numerous to enjoy the animals properly.

The rubber boots are too thin to protect against acacia thorns.

Group hug after mapping out the trees. Mapping the trees is hard.

Jason: “I could wash dishes to pay for my stay on Mpala”
Jason and I think that there are still many critical things that need to be done for the projects that require us to extend our stay here. We are writing a letter to our dean and department head.