Tonight, I’m in an air conditioned room in Garissa at the Nomad Palace Hotel. Ah. I’d forgotten what it’s like to be cool and dry. Actually, I seem to have acclimated to the Wajir temps as I’ve set the thermostat for about 28-30 degrees C, which feels really nice and comfortable to me. Can’t quite believe that I’ve finished my second field assignment and am heading back to enjoy a respite and the creature comforts of the Fairview in Nairobi.
Last night, I enjoyed an amazing experience with some of my new friends and a memorable way to end my time here. I decided that I wanted to revisit Lake Yahoud except a little later in the evening so we could try to catch the animals, namely, the giraffes that are known to come to the water in the evening to drink. Danielle, a young Dutch nurse who is spending 3 months in Wajir for a small NGO working on improving community health and who has been
staying at the same guesthouse as me; Mohamed, one of security guards now off duty; my driver; and I drove down to the lake around 6:15pm and settled ourselves to wait for the giraffes. We weren’t disappointed. The giraffes, however, seeming to sense some extra guests at their watering hole, decided to turn around and approach the area the long way around, so unfortunately, 
I couldn’t take pictures of the amazing gathering that followed later, although I did capture some of their silhouettes against the sunset across the lake as they made the trek around. Talk about amazing. As dusk began to settle, giraffes started appearing from all directions it seemed. The original four came around the lake, then came five more from another direction, and then four from another direction, then another three…..Soon, there were around 20 giraffe gathered, a veritable giraffe enclave communing with each other, and taking water from the lake. We could see three of them entwining their necks and others huddling together. We even saw a lone small jackal scoot past and amongst them. Although these giraffe all seemed to be groups of different families, it was as if they all knew each other and were socializing with each other as they drank occasionally from the water. By the way, although by now it was getting dark (just after 7pm), we could still see the giraffes, especially their reflection in the water as they drank. Have you ever seen a giraffe drink? It’s kind of funny, really. They have to spread their front legs to the sides so they can then bend their long necks down to the water and drink. Interesting sight, really. Since it was getting dark, we decided that we’d had enough of the wonderful experience to keep in our memories and got in the Land Cruiser to return to our guesthouse.
To top it all off, my colleague Abdikadir had arranged for my guesthouse to provide me with camel meat for my last dinner. He had really wanted me to try camel milk, but the infectious disease expert in me just can’t quite bring myself to try that. There are a lot of TB and other diseases running through the communities here (I wonder if camels can carry Brucella?…), and the milk often has some blood in it, too, I’m told - don't know why that is. Anyway, unless it was boiled very well, I really didn’t want to try it, but I had told him that I was curious to try the meat, so they fried some up for me to have as part of my dinner. It was pretty good, better than the usual dinner fare of goat meat. It had the same gamey taste although not quite as gamey and was pretty tender. The meat is also a little lighter in color (although not quite as light as pork) compared to goat meat, which is dark like beef. Wouldn’t mind trying it again.
What a difference from the way I’m spending tonight. Here in my air conditioned room, I have a TV with cable. In Wajir, in the guesthouse common room, there had been a TV hooked up to a satellite, but it still had only one channel, so not many options, but then, I wasn’t really motivated to watch TV there. Here in Garissa, out of curiosity about what is happening in the world these days, I turned on the TV…..and promptly shook my head and had to laugh. Why? The channel that came up was getting a feed of the so-called “reality” show Survivor. On principle, I normally refuse to watch that and any other “reality” show, but especially that one. Especially now, as I return to civilization from the bush and have witnessed how people must really survive in often extremely harsh conditions of severe heat, rough terrain, and little water, and have myself almost been forced to spend a night out but also to live in basic conditions well below usual Western standards, this show is laughable. Still, I admit that this time I watched out of some weird fascination. I think I’ve been so long away from home and hearing American English (by the way, the people here sometimes have some difficulty understanding my "accented"English - funny that my English is accented and not theirs, so I've subconsciously slowed down my speech and have taken to speaking more exact English) and seeing people of different races speaking American English and interacting, that I was thirsty for that, if that makes sense. A couple of the guys are hot, too, especially one of the Asian guys – hm…guess I’ve been out in the bush a bit long... Well, just a bit over a month and I’ll be heading back home. At times, it seems such a long time from now, and at other times, it seems much too soon. The experience I have gained and am gaining here is just so amazing in so many ways.
Last night, I enjoyed an amazing experience with some of my new friends and a memorable way to end my time here. I decided that I wanted to revisit Lake Yahoud except a little later in the evening so we could try to catch the animals, namely, the giraffes that are known to come to the water in the evening to drink. Danielle, a young Dutch nurse who is spending 3 months in Wajir for a small NGO working on improving community health and who has been
staying at the same guesthouse as me; Mohamed, one of security guards now off duty; my driver; and I drove down to the lake around 6:15pm and settled ourselves to wait for the giraffes. We weren’t disappointed. The giraffes, however, seeming to sense some extra guests at their watering hole, decided to turn around and approach the area the long way around, so unfortunately, 
I couldn’t take pictures of the amazing gathering that followed later, although I did capture some of their silhouettes against the sunset across the lake as they made the trek around. Talk about amazing. As dusk began to settle, giraffes started appearing from all directions it seemed. The original four came around the lake, then came five more from another direction, and then four from another direction, then another three…..Soon, there were around 20 giraffe gathered, a veritable giraffe enclave communing with each other, and taking water from the lake. We could see three of them entwining their necks and others huddling together. We even saw a lone small jackal scoot past and amongst them. Although these giraffe all seemed to be groups of different families, it was as if they all knew each other and were socializing with each other as they drank occasionally from the water. By the way, although by now it was getting dark (just after 7pm), we could still see the giraffes, especially their reflection in the water as they drank. Have you ever seen a giraffe drink? It’s kind of funny, really. They have to spread their front legs to the sides so they can then bend their long necks down to the water and drink. Interesting sight, really. Since it was getting dark, we decided that we’d had enough of the wonderful experience to keep in our memories and got in the Land Cruiser to return to our guesthouse.To top it all off, my colleague Abdikadir had arranged for my guesthouse to provide me with camel meat for my last dinner. He had really wanted me to try camel milk, but the infectious disease expert in me just can’t quite bring myself to try that. There are a lot of TB and other diseases running through the communities here (I wonder if camels can carry Brucella?…), and the milk often has some blood in it, too, I’m told - don't know why that is. Anyway, unless it was boiled very well, I really didn’t want to try it, but I had told him that I was curious to try the meat, so they fried some up for me to have as part of my dinner. It was pretty good, better than the usual dinner fare of goat meat. It had the same gamey taste although not quite as gamey and was pretty tender. The meat is also a little lighter in color (although not quite as light as pork) compared to goat meat, which is dark like beef. Wouldn’t mind trying it again.
What a difference from the way I’m spending tonight. Here in my air conditioned room, I have a TV with cable. In Wajir, in the guesthouse common room, there had been a TV hooked up to a satellite, but it still had only one channel, so not many options, but then, I wasn’t really motivated to watch TV there. Here in Garissa, out of curiosity about what is happening in the world these days, I turned on the TV…..and promptly shook my head and had to laugh. Why? The channel that came up was getting a feed of the so-called “reality” show Survivor. On principle, I normally refuse to watch that and any other “reality” show, but especially that one. Especially now, as I return to civilization from the bush and have witnessed how people must really survive in often extremely harsh conditions of severe heat, rough terrain, and little water, and have myself almost been forced to spend a night out but also to live in basic conditions well below usual Western standards, this show is laughable. Still, I admit that this time I watched out of some weird fascination. I think I’ve been so long away from home and hearing American English (by the way, the people here sometimes have some difficulty understanding my "accented"English - funny that my English is accented and not theirs, so I've subconsciously slowed down my speech and have taken to speaking more exact English) and seeing people of different races speaking American English and interacting, that I was thirsty for that, if that makes sense. A couple of the guys are hot, too, especially one of the Asian guys – hm…guess I’ve been out in the bush a bit long... Well, just a bit over a month and I’ll be heading back home. At times, it seems such a long time from now, and at other times, it seems much too soon. The experience I have gained and am gaining here is just so amazing in so many ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment