Dave in camp!

Dave is back in camp! Picked up Emily a little less than a week ago and made it back to camp. After many dry days its finally rainy again but we still made it out for obs this morning. Its thanksgiving next week so we drove all the to talek to get Dave so that we could do a thanksgiving celebration with the talek folks. The road to talek has gotten horrible so it was slow going but we made it in time for talek evening obs which ended up being just a sundowner because it was already starting to rain by the time we left! Drank lots of wine (a record for me I think) and had lots of fun goofing around on top of this hill doing cartwheels etc. Had a big dinner celebration and Julie made a really really good pie that tasted just like pumpkin pie even though it was made with butternut squash. Next morning we went to the circumcision ceremony party for Lusingo’s (one of talek’s askaris) son. The actual circumcision was very early in the morning but the party went on all afternoon. We showed up and Wilson showed us around the manyatta and then we were invited inside one of the huts for lunch. Super delicious mashed potatoes, chapatti, fried cabbage, katchumbari, and fried goat. Wasn’t a fan of the fried goat but fried cabbage is sooo good. And soda of course! Dave brought me back the 2TB hard drive I ordered and a lens cap for my camera. So now I finally have space to take as many photos and HD video as I want! He also brought back some more camp supplies and US candy.. which is very bad. Trying to resist the urge to eat any of that candy. Anyway seeing the manyatta was really cool, the boma the cows and goats were in and all the different huts. A new hut was in the process of going up so it was really cool to see how that happens. Lots of dogs and puppies and little kids running around. I wore my maasai dress for the first time and it was super cool though apparently it was somewhat fancy for the occasion. Before we left we were given gifts of necklaces and bracelets… eeep embarrassing. But just like in India as white people we are special guests. Julie french-braided my hair so now I’ve decided to French braid it every day until I get really good at French braiding it. It’s just barely long enough for it so a few strands still fall out.. but still really cool. Braids! I haven’t had a braid since middle school.

Dave did his first north loop this morning while Emily and I went to south. We got somewhat stuck in the mud but I was able to coach Emily on what to do and she got us out! Some of the tracks were very slippery but nothing too bad, we even got south 1 prey transect completed!