Forest Fairies
Living in an African village is like being a celebrity. Everywhere I walk children clamber to hold my hand or wave at me enthusiastically shouting "Jambo!" (hi!). One woman even offered me her baby.
I love it here. Shimoni is a bustling place where magic goats eat all the trash and children run and play, a flash of dirty feet and hands as they chase one another. Each morning I wake to the call to prayer at the local mosque. Its soul stirring as I dress, splash my face with water and pack for a day in the forest. Hat, tick, water bottle, tick, camera, tick.
By 8 the sun feels warm on my back as we walk out to the forest. GVI runs surveys on a number of transects, looking at human influence, canopy cover and always, forever, searching for monkeys. The monkeys around here are particular scientific interest. The Anglo Black and White Colobus is a coastal monkey, found in forests that hug the shoreline of eastern Africa. Only recently though was it thought that maybe, just maybe, the monkeys in this area might be a slightly different species, specifically endemic to these forests.
As we walk through the village to get to the forest we high five kids, greet locals and move through the village. The earth here is a rich red with coral rag jetting out, always challenging your balance. Once in the forest the ground changes, roots challenge your balance here as you dodge safari ants and nettle plants. Once we reach a transect we're all business, the scribe is allocated, the surveyor.
We move through the thick undergrowth looking at canopy cover every 10m. 50% shouts Amos, a nice Kenyan student from Niarobi with a smile to melt your heart, as he turns his binoculars the wrong way around and accesses the canopy cover. 75%. 90%. My favourite transect was along T4 to Shimoni's west. It was thick as branches grabbed my hair and tugged my overalls. Our team was efficient and fun, I called us the Forest Fairies. Benja, a young, tall, always happy Masai warrior lead us, followed by Tegan, a super sweet Aussie (my new bestie!), Kopa, a local guy, fasting for Ramadan but forever smiling, and Amos. Between us someone was always giggling, singing of dancing as we trooped through the forest. We emerged smiling into the maize field having completed the transect.
And so my week is spent, looking through binoculars at monkeys as we access the group size and make up. Two male adults (you can tell by the line of white fur that runs over their naughty bits), one juvenile, two adult females. And they are interesting as their round faces eagerly look at us, from high above. But my new passion is birds. I just adore them. I never thought I'd find them so interesting, but I get such a rush from seeing one in the distance, raising my binoculars, declaring for all what it is and then attempting to snap a photo of it in action. My favourite are the birds of prey that roam over the forest and seas.
So between dodging tree roots in the forest, and walking to transects along the tidal beach I am learning so much about nature, about our place in it, and how happy it truly makes me. But just as I was getting comfortable being on land I went diving.
Tegan and I rose early this Saturday to jump aboard Monsoon, a beautifully carved fishing boat come diving vessel. We were the only clients, feeling like princesses for the day. As we glided over the seas to Kisite Island (where we went last week to see the turns with Martin) I couldn't help but smile. I saw turtles coming up for air, herons and black kites in the sky.
Splash! We were in the water. As we descended I got that familiar feeling of leaving all my worries and troubles at the surface. It was just me, the instructor, Tegan and the coral I so love. And it was healthy, the reef looked great, and the coral familiar. There was foliose Echinopora, Faviidae and mushroom Fungia, Fungiidae. Its hard to smile while breathing through a regulator but I did, for the whole 62 minutes we were down.
After a surface interval (time spend above water to let the nitrogen leave your blood) which I spent splashing in the warm sea we were under again for another hour. Schools of fish parted as I paddled through. Rays played tag as I swam past. Garden eels ventured out of their sandy holes to say hello. It was pure magic, and again I was reminded of how happy the sea makes me.
After, still smiling, the boat took us to the island. At low tide the coral island is surrounded by beautiful soft sand. Birds flew overhead as the sun warmed us. On our way back to the mainland Tegan and I sat at the mast, bobbing with the boat. A perfect day.
To rival it, today we set off with three other volunteers to the three sister caves 15 km walk away. We walked along the dusty red road that heads to Mombasa. Dancing, singing and greeting every kid we saw. After 3 hours in the morning Kenyan sun we were there. The caves themselves were impressive, home to a million bats, large enough to rival mansions.
My favourite part was the way the sunshine penetrated through the holes in the coral cavity, a reminder of the outside world with sunshine and trees. The smell of bats (and the feeling of their poo and wee land on you) was enough to make anyone squirm, but the creepy crawlies really got me. Bugs that looked like they belonged in outer space and spiders the size of my face.
But it was an experience. And as we walked back, 15km of red dirt under our feet, children shouting "Muzungu! Jambo!" (foreigner! hi!) we craved the shade and spotted birds.
And so another week in my current Kenyan home. And this week promises more birds, more forest and more monkeys. So I'll keep my eyes peeled for that curious face in the tree tops or the flutter of the wings of a sunbird and smile, celebrity or not, I love living in a African village.
I love it here. Shimoni is a bustling place where magic goats eat all the trash and children run and play, a flash of dirty feet and hands as they chase one another. Each morning I wake to the call to prayer at the local mosque. Its soul stirring as I dress, splash my face with water and pack for a day in the forest. Hat, tick, water bottle, tick, camera, tick.
By 8 the sun feels warm on my back as we walk out to the forest. GVI runs surveys on a number of transects, looking at human influence, canopy cover and always, forever, searching for monkeys. The monkeys around here are particular scientific interest. The Anglo Black and White Colobus is a coastal monkey, found in forests that hug the shoreline of eastern Africa. Only recently though was it thought that maybe, just maybe, the monkeys in this area might be a slightly different species, specifically endemic to these forests.
As we walk through the village to get to the forest we high five kids, greet locals and move through the village. The earth here is a rich red with coral rag jetting out, always challenging your balance. Once in the forest the ground changes, roots challenge your balance here as you dodge safari ants and nettle plants. Once we reach a transect we're all business, the scribe is allocated, the surveyor.
We move through the thick undergrowth looking at canopy cover every 10m. 50% shouts Amos, a nice Kenyan student from Niarobi with a smile to melt your heart, as he turns his binoculars the wrong way around and accesses the canopy cover. 75%. 90%. My favourite transect was along T4 to Shimoni's west. It was thick as branches grabbed my hair and tugged my overalls. Our team was efficient and fun, I called us the Forest Fairies. Benja, a young, tall, always happy Masai warrior lead us, followed by Tegan, a super sweet Aussie (my new bestie!), Kopa, a local guy, fasting for Ramadan but forever smiling, and Amos. Between us someone was always giggling, singing of dancing as we trooped through the forest. We emerged smiling into the maize field having completed the transect.
And so my week is spent, looking through binoculars at monkeys as we access the group size and make up. Two male adults (you can tell by the line of white fur that runs over their naughty bits), one juvenile, two adult females. And they are interesting as their round faces eagerly look at us, from high above. But my new passion is birds. I just adore them. I never thought I'd find them so interesting, but I get such a rush from seeing one in the distance, raising my binoculars, declaring for all what it is and then attempting to snap a photo of it in action. My favourite are the birds of prey that roam over the forest and seas.
So between dodging tree roots in the forest, and walking to transects along the tidal beach I am learning so much about nature, about our place in it, and how happy it truly makes me. But just as I was getting comfortable being on land I went diving.
Tegan and I rose early this Saturday to jump aboard Monsoon, a beautifully carved fishing boat come diving vessel. We were the only clients, feeling like princesses for the day. As we glided over the seas to Kisite Island (where we went last week to see the turns with Martin) I couldn't help but smile. I saw turtles coming up for air, herons and black kites in the sky.
Splash! We were in the water. As we descended I got that familiar feeling of leaving all my worries and troubles at the surface. It was just me, the instructor, Tegan and the coral I so love. And it was healthy, the reef looked great, and the coral familiar. There was foliose Echinopora, Faviidae and mushroom Fungia, Fungiidae. Its hard to smile while breathing through a regulator but I did, for the whole 62 minutes we were down.
After a surface interval (time spend above water to let the nitrogen leave your blood) which I spent splashing in the warm sea we were under again for another hour. Schools of fish parted as I paddled through. Rays played tag as I swam past. Garden eels ventured out of their sandy holes to say hello. It was pure magic, and again I was reminded of how happy the sea makes me.
After, still smiling, the boat took us to the island. At low tide the coral island is surrounded by beautiful soft sand. Birds flew overhead as the sun warmed us. On our way back to the mainland Tegan and I sat at the mast, bobbing with the boat. A perfect day.
To rival it, today we set off with three other volunteers to the three sister caves 15 km walk away. We walked along the dusty red road that heads to Mombasa. Dancing, singing and greeting every kid we saw. After 3 hours in the morning Kenyan sun we were there. The caves themselves were impressive, home to a million bats, large enough to rival mansions.
My favourite part was the way the sunshine penetrated through the holes in the coral cavity, a reminder of the outside world with sunshine and trees. The smell of bats (and the feeling of their poo and wee land on you) was enough to make anyone squirm, but the creepy crawlies really got me. Bugs that looked like they belonged in outer space and spiders the size of my face.
And so another week in my current Kenyan home. And this week promises more birds, more forest and more monkeys. So I'll keep my eyes peeled for that curious face in the tree tops or the flutter of the wings of a sunbird and smile, celebrity or not, I love living in a African village.
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