I Kiss the Rains Down In Africa...
Ah, yes. Thank you, Toto, for your immortal words.
It is in fact raining here. It rained for the first time 3 days ago - poured on and off all evening and most of the night, the first hint of rain we'd had since arrival. It's not the rainy season right now, but intermittent rain is allowed. There are two rainy seasons (a very important factor in allowing Africa to support such a ridiculous amount of wildlife), the longer one in march/april and the shorter one in october/november. We're in a drought right now, the worst for 6 years - the last rains didn't come. Hopefully they will fall in march/april this year and revive the land. It's evident everywhere that things are being pushed to their limit, dry and brown. After that relatively brief rain the other night, the ground sucked it up immediately and now there is a faint green sheen on the landscape. Delicate little sprouts on the grass stems. New grasses poking through the red soil. We've learned that the red soil flushes first, then the black cotton soil (so-called because it is fluffy and absorbent like cotton), so in a couple of days - perhaps as early as tomorrow - that hopeful verdant flush will spread to the black cotton landscape.
Since that first rain, the air has remained damp - nothing approaching true humid weather, but compared to the complete dessication of the past 3 weeks, it feels like the air is dripping. There is FOG at night. A light mist over the campsite. There have been foreboding clouds crowding the skies and keeping our days cooler, and today they gathered together, huge and shadow-purple, and rained on us. "There it is," said Philip Winter, managing director (or something-or-other) of Mpala, "can you smell it?" He breathed in deeply. "The smell of damp dust. The smell of Africa after the first rain - such a romantic smell. I'm glad you've experienced it."
The second course began on monday - Prof. Dan Rubinstein is here, current chair of the EEB department at Princeton. On the afternoon of the first day we had gone out to do some fieldwork and he stopped abruptly and turned to the eight of us. "My name is Dan," he said. "Not Professor Rubinstein. We're in Africa now." He's a remarkable man, and an incredible teacher. A fascination and an invaluable resource. We're lucky to be able to monopolize him for this brief time. He has his fingers in a lot of pies, and aside from a seemingly infinite store of biological knowledge, he's behind the scenes of most of the major issues at Princeton right now, behind the scenes of Mpala, pursuing many other projects in various areas, and somehow manages to stay on top of everything... Additionally, apparently immune to ticks - he always wears shorts and sandals. I could talk about Prof. Rubinstein for much longer, but due to feeling rather uncomfortable about broadcasting my impressions of people over the internet, will stop here.
I'm doing a really interesting project on Grant's Gazelles right now. Will tell you about it once the project is over.
I'M LEARNING SO MUCH. AND I WANT TO WRITE EVERY COOL THING I'VE LEARNED IN HERE, BUT I KNOW IT IS MUCH MORE INTERESTING TO ME!!!!
Oh, best news ever: When we're at Mombasa, we're staying right near the beach and we'll be able to go swimming EVERY DAY. In the beautiful, beautiful ocean. I'm outrageously excited. I swam most days this summer in the ocean by my house, and I've missed it.
The people on this trip, by the way, are wonderful.
Basic trajectory of the rest of the trip: stay at Mpala till Sunday. Monday, go to Sweetwaters (a wildlife reserve, where we'll do more animal behaviour studies with animals that are much more habituated and won't run away from us like the animals at Mpala). Monday after that, go to Amboseli National Park and study baboons and other mammals with Prof. Jeanne Altmann. Then, back to Mpala for 3 weeks of "Global Technology," i.e. making useful things with solar technology. Then to Mombasa for 3 weeks. Then a short forest elephant safari (maybe). Then back to Princeton. I hate spelling it out like that - suddenly we seem far too close to returning to Princeton. I can't imagine it.
Good night,
Jenn
It is in fact raining here. It rained for the first time 3 days ago - poured on and off all evening and most of the night, the first hint of rain we'd had since arrival. It's not the rainy season right now, but intermittent rain is allowed. There are two rainy seasons (a very important factor in allowing Africa to support such a ridiculous amount of wildlife), the longer one in march/april and the shorter one in october/november. We're in a drought right now, the worst for 6 years - the last rains didn't come. Hopefully they will fall in march/april this year and revive the land. It's evident everywhere that things are being pushed to their limit, dry and brown. After that relatively brief rain the other night, the ground sucked it up immediately and now there is a faint green sheen on the landscape. Delicate little sprouts on the grass stems. New grasses poking through the red soil. We've learned that the red soil flushes first, then the black cotton soil (so-called because it is fluffy and absorbent like cotton), so in a couple of days - perhaps as early as tomorrow - that hopeful verdant flush will spread to the black cotton landscape.
Since that first rain, the air has remained damp - nothing approaching true humid weather, but compared to the complete dessication of the past 3 weeks, it feels like the air is dripping. There is FOG at night. A light mist over the campsite. There have been foreboding clouds crowding the skies and keeping our days cooler, and today they gathered together, huge and shadow-purple, and rained on us. "There it is," said Philip Winter, managing director (or something-or-other) of Mpala, "can you smell it?" He breathed in deeply. "The smell of damp dust. The smell of Africa after the first rain - such a romantic smell. I'm glad you've experienced it."
The second course began on monday - Prof. Dan Rubinstein is here, current chair of the EEB department at Princeton. On the afternoon of the first day we had gone out to do some fieldwork and he stopped abruptly and turned to the eight of us. "My name is Dan," he said. "Not Professor Rubinstein. We're in Africa now." He's a remarkable man, and an incredible teacher. A fascination and an invaluable resource. We're lucky to be able to monopolize him for this brief time. He has his fingers in a lot of pies, and aside from a seemingly infinite store of biological knowledge, he's behind the scenes of most of the major issues at Princeton right now, behind the scenes of Mpala, pursuing many other projects in various areas, and somehow manages to stay on top of everything... Additionally, apparently immune to ticks - he always wears shorts and sandals. I could talk about Prof. Rubinstein for much longer, but due to feeling rather uncomfortable about broadcasting my impressions of people over the internet, will stop here.
I'm doing a really interesting project on Grant's Gazelles right now. Will tell you about it once the project is over.
I'M LEARNING SO MUCH. AND I WANT TO WRITE EVERY COOL THING I'VE LEARNED IN HERE, BUT I KNOW IT IS MUCH MORE INTERESTING TO ME!!!!
Oh, best news ever: When we're at Mombasa, we're staying right near the beach and we'll be able to go swimming EVERY DAY. In the beautiful, beautiful ocean. I'm outrageously excited. I swam most days this summer in the ocean by my house, and I've missed it.
The people on this trip, by the way, are wonderful.
Basic trajectory of the rest of the trip: stay at Mpala till Sunday. Monday, go to Sweetwaters (a wildlife reserve, where we'll do more animal behaviour studies with animals that are much more habituated and won't run away from us like the animals at Mpala). Monday after that, go to Amboseli National Park and study baboons and other mammals with Prof. Jeanne Altmann. Then, back to Mpala for 3 weeks of "Global Technology," i.e. making useful things with solar technology. Then to Mombasa for 3 weeks. Then a short forest elephant safari (maybe). Then back to Princeton. I hate spelling it out like that - suddenly we seem far too close to returning to Princeton. I can't imagine it.
Good night,
Jenn
posted by Jenn at
7:26 AM
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