June 15th---Kwetu Training Centre

Our third location was Benson's hives at Kwetu Training Centre and we processed 6 colonies here.

                                          Just a part of the apiary here.
It was great working here because it was breezy and the bees were not bothering us while we were processing the samples so we didn't have to wear our veils.

                                          Jeremy and Muli examining brood for mites.

                                          Fiona, Ayuka, and I taking samples from the brood
                                          and examining mites.

                                          Fiona and I working hard. Doesn't this look fun!
The back drop here was beautiful too, just like the other places we have visited. In the afternoon while I entered data, the beekeeping group went back to site 2 to finish up the hygienic test and to site 1 to check the varroa mite boards. It was a very busy day but we are right on track for the week.
Later that night we saw the lunar eclipse of the full moon, what a sight!---Sara

June 14th---Our day in the Jungle with African Bees

Our second day of work brought us into the "jungle" as it was referred to, otherwise known as Mtepeni. This apiary belongs to a coastal beekeeper that volunteered his colonies to us for the project.  We processed 5 colonies here in the morning. These bees were more aggressive than the bees we worked with yesterday.

                                   Fiona and I taking samples in the "jungle" surrounded by banana,
                                                     paw-paw, and mango trees. Yum!

                                           James getting the smoker ready!

                                           We encountered some interesting things in this apiary.

                                          Interesting!?!

                                           Me, Benson, Nixon, and Fiona enjoying mangoes after
                                           a morning hard at work!
While I stayed back to enter data the beekeeping gang headed back to site 1 to follow-up on our experiments and to perform the aggression behavior test. ---Sara

                                            Jeremy recording the aggression test.

                                                     The bees attack!

June 13th---Our first day at work on the Coast

The first thing on plate was to head to Kwetu Training Centre for a meeting with Mercy, the projects coordinator. Here we met Benson, our beekeeping contact on the coast.  We discussed the partnership of Penn State University and ICIPE, and also any possible partnership that could be made with Kwetu and the York County Beekeeping group as represented by Jeremy. Some really interesting points were brought up and great ideas were put on the table. After the meeting we headed to our first site at Bomani. We processed 4 hives in the morning and 5 hives in the afternoon. It was a long day to say the least but was a great start for the rest of the week!  Here are some pictures from the field:

                                          Kilonzo and Jeremy cleaning out the vacuum.

                                           Fiona and I preparing for sampling.

                                           The "Bee" house

                                           The beekeepers hard at work in the bees!

                                           Fiona, Ayuka, and I looking at the brood from a colony
                                           "Our search for varroa"

June 12th Tsavo East National Park---My 1st African Safari

We left the lodge at 6am when the gate opened. On the quarter of a mile trip we had a group of elephants pass the road just behind us. 

We had a short delay at the gate to pay where we saw some monkeys, a baboon, a group of water buck, beautiful birds-which all could be named by Jeremy, and we saw a lone elephant give a warning charge to a safari van that had gotten to close. It was awesome and all at the gate! I should mention the sign-in area was fenced and had something like a cattle guard across the entrance and exit and thick electric wires hanging down that hit the vehicle when driving through (this is for deterring the elephants).  We saw tons of elephants, so many it was unbelieveable! We saw to two groups of lions, there were three that were lying very close to the road in the shade, and two males lying in the grass some distance from the road.  We saw giraffes, zebras, lots of herd animals. The roads in the park were all pretty nice dirt road some areas had a little road down but not many. 

                                                        Just a few pictures from the safari...

We got back to the lodge around 9:30am and had a delicious breakfast with everyone. 

It was then decided that we would take the road through Tsavo East NP across to Sala gate towards Malindi and come out south of there at Kilifi, and then south on the main road to Mtwapa. Upon entering the park again we saw a spotted hyena mother who had pups in the culvert under the road. 

We saw even more elephants, and giraffes, and other animals; it was thrilling. It is interesting to me how the landscape changes so drastically so quickly and how it is all driven by water. It took probably close to 2 hours maybe more to drive through the park. It was about 45 minutes after we got to the other side of Sala gate that we started to see people walking by the road again.

                                           More safari pictures of animals and the changing

                                           landscape.

We stopped in a village to stretch our legs, and we had some children come up to us saying “Chou” (Italian for hello and good-bye). Muli told us a lot of the tourists that pass here on the way to Tsavo are Italian or German. Maryann started saying hi to them in Kiswahili but they either didn’t understand or were too shy. Kiswahili is not the primary language for rural children, it is their own tribal language. Maryann suggested I greet them in German and my “Guten Tag” got a smile out of one of the boys. The two boys and one of the two girls came up to me and shook my hand and I greeted them with “Jambo.” They stood there smiling at me, then Maryann pulled 4 tootsie roll pops out of her backpack and gave one to each of the children. Their smiles got wider, and then they ran back to their place because Jeremy pulled out his camera to take a picture of them.  When we left I yelled “Chou” to them and we were off down the road again.

The scenery is really amazing here. There are so many changes in vegetation and soil conditions. When we got close to the coast the forest scenery came alive and we pasted through a couple of towns where the entrance/exit had electric fencing hanging down over the road to keep out the elephants. The people along the road are interesting too. Since it is a back road it doesn’t have heavy traffic so when one vehicle passes by people get back on the road thinking that two vehicles going down the road around the same time is unlikely. Some of the rural people have motorbikes (“piki piki”), some have bicycles, but most walk. The women are dressed very nicely and colorfully and the men are dresses in nice slacks and button-down shirts for the most part.

                                                      Just some pictures of the agriculture

We came out on the paved road near Kilifi and headed south towards Mtwapa, just north of Mombasa. Our hotel is Traveller’s  Beach Hotel and Club, and it is right on the beach looking out on the Indian Ocean. It has coconut trees, swimming pools, and all-you-can-eat buffets. (Lol It’s an Ashcraft thing.)

Maryann and I grabbed our suits and went for a quick dip in the Indian Ocean. It was a great end an amazing weekend!---Sara

 

June 11th Our first day of travel

We left for the coast on Saturday June 11th, which just so happens was my 26^th birthday. My 26^th birthday was celebrated in Kenya, Voi to be exact in Lionhill Lodge, which is a lodge built on top of a hill along the fence line to Tsavo East National Park. The view of the park was amazing, we were not there 10 minutes before we were watching a group of elephants at a water hole. But I am getting ahead of myself. The day started out with a happy birthday hug from Maryann and a birthday story from Jeremy at breakfast. I thought to myself “I will be lucky if that is all that Maryann has plotted for me on my birthday.” We then packed up for our trip to the coast. We were planning to stop at Voi to overnight and break-up the long trip, and then enjoy a safari the next morning in Tsavo East NP. We got on way around 10:30 or 11am. The truck and SUV were packed full of equipment and baggage and all seats were occupied; James drove the truck with Maryann, Jeremy, and I, while Nixon drove the SUV with Jim, Kilonzo, Ayuka, and Fiona. We headed into Nairobi to pick up Muli at his house. We got to see Anita and Shem, his children when we got there which was great.  From there our destination was Machakos, where Muli’s mother’s house is. His sister Betty made everyone lunch and we met his brother, William, as well as Betty’s daughter, Paris. 

                                           The gang with Muli's family after a wonderful lunch.

The food was very good and it was really nice to meet more of Muli’s family. We also got to see Muli’s onion crop which was huge. My dad would be so jealous. 

                                             James and Kilonzo admiring Muli's onion crop. 

After our lunch break we thanked Muli’s family and got back on to the road headed to Voi.

So the road systems and driving here are awesome. I am so jealous. I will start by talking about the paved roads since that is what we traveled on to Voi. The speed limit is 80kph for all vehicles and the road we were on is a two-way road (vehicles driving on the left side of the road with the driver on the right side of the vehicle). The road is a little wider than two lanes with no lines (for the most part) designating the edges or the middle of the lanes. James says to be a good Kenyan driver you have to concentrate when you’re driving. The reason is that the drivers pass often, mostly because there are freight trucks on the road that drive much slower than 80kph, but also because there are speed bumps in the roads at heavily trafficked areas. In Nairobi roundabouts are also common. Drivers use there horns a lot too, because of the high pedestrian, and bicycle traffic on and near the roads. So for instance James honks when there are people ahead standing near the road and may not realize he is coming, or when a bicycle is ahead on our side, so it gets their attention and they move out of the way. Also when there is no oncoming traffic it is not unusual for people to drive in the middle of the road so if you want to pass someone who is doing this you honk to get their attention. Our trip was about 4 hours total.

In Voi we left the paved road behind us for the nicest dirt roads I have ever seen. We soon found the hotel Muli, Maryann, Jim, Jeremy, and I would be staying at, Lionhill Lodge.

Lionhill Lodge as seen from the park road.

                                                              Front of Lionhill Lodge

After we checked in we moved into our rooms and man were they something, and the view from the balcony was unbelievable. 

                                          View from the lawn at Lionhill Lodge. You can see 

                                          the electric fence row and the road to Voi Gate at Tsavo

                                          East NP.

We met down on the lawn for a drink before dinner and I had a whiskey-soda in true Hemingway Africa fashion. Then Maryann gave me a great birthday card Jeremy and her had made before we left using everyone’s pictures they had taken. And then I thought “oh how nice that I got a card on my birthday, that has to be all that was up Maryann’s sleeve. Why did I suspect any overdoing?” Around 19:30 we sat down for dinner and wonderful discussions. After dessert was served though to my surprise all of the lodge employees came out and circled our table singing “Happy Birthday”, including the chef carrying a really big cake and the security guard who just happened to be a Maasi warrior and was dressed in his Maasi clothing. We shared the cake with everyone at the lodge and I got a happy birthday from the four other tables of guests. I should have known that Maryann would have something else up her sleeve, but what I didn’t anticipate was Muli’s willingness to help. Lol. I had a great birthday on top of Tsavo East NP in Lionhill Lodge, Voi, Kenya, Africa. Asante sana for everyone who made it great! --- Sara