Nairobi

Four days of Camping Safari in the beautifull Masai Mara!
Im a bit behind on this here blog thing.. I am trying hard to experience as much as possible while Im here and I find it a bit hard to keep up!

Departure: We left Nairobi in two 4wd packed to the brim with luxury items, Mario had planned every meal in details and we were very well fed :-D

As soon as you get close to the Masai Mara animals are everywhere. The park is unfenced so animals come and go as they wish.

As a rule the animals have the way of right, especially the elefants who can get quite angry and has been known to attack cars and topple them.

wilderbeests are all over, migrating to find food they seem to be always moving in some direction.

wilderbesst and zeebras often travell together. When they cross the rivers it is often the zebras who jump first as the Gnus seem to be more flockanimal like.

A lonely hyena by the road, Hyenas are actually closer related to lions than they are to dogs. At night u hear their uuuiiip as they call to each other.

We partly went to the Mara to visit my landlady Claire, she works for ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute) and had spend close to 4 weeks in the Mara already. This is her research car. Her team goes on 12 hour drives counting and logging every animal they come across. The purposse of her research is to determine the effect human settlementa (bomas) has on the wildlife, so far it seems that the smaller animals actually prefer to be close to the human settlements while the bigger keep their distance. I spend a full 12 hours on top of the car with binoculars and the humble task of checking temperature and humidity and helping to spot movement. Great fun for the first 6 hours, the main problem was that every animal had to be logged which ment that every tiny antilope (thompsons gazelle) and every flock of wilderbeests had to be counted.. some of the flocks vere over 200.. And lions simply are more fun to wach!

My first Lion! and with a fresh Kill! yum yum raw meat..

When Lions are done eating they yawn alot, some say its a signal to the flock to relax and take it easy.

The mighty Mara river, didnt get any good pics of the crocs.. but they are there always lurking right under the surface.. often all you can see is their evil looking eyes always looking for something to tear at..

Hippos in the mara river, we watched this group for a while and was treated to a serious rumble from one of the big males and a serious looking fight when one of the other males approched this female and her calves.

Maria in Marions Landcruiser. I had the strange experience of meeting Maria at a garden party in Valby Denmark 2 weeks befor I left for Nairobi.. When I got here I stayed at her house for e few weeks.

The Masai giraffe with its different but equally beautifull patteren, I think Giraffes are one of my favorite animals.. They are amazingly gracefull when they run.

As I said Mario took very good care of our food. Here he is minding the breakfeast eggs and beacon which we had on one of the small hills.

Amaxing sunsets is part of the deal!

This is apparently the biggest of the antilopes, i can't remember its name right now, but they era very shy and always try to get out of the way as soon as they see a car. Not like wilderbeests who seems to be too dum to really be frightend or Lions whos just dont give damn.. actually lions have been known to move to the shadow of the cars that stop to watch them..

These friendly vultures were guarding an old carcass. When driving in the park you are constantly on the look out for signs of something interesting, cirkeling vultures is a sure sign of a kill, wheter fresh or old there is bound to be at least hyenas and possibly also lions, leopard or cheetas around. another sure sign of something interesting is a line up of Safari cars..

Pretty little picture of Zebras by a waterhole..

Words are useless here.. very very beautifull..

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Time for a Quizz! Så er det gættegætte quiz tid!

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post ur answer below!

As I am still in a bit of a limbo at the embassy as the new environmental project manager doesnt start until the 16 of october I once again invited my self along on a field trip.
I was alloved to follow two independent auditors and the district manager from CDTF (Comunity Development Trust Fund)as they were visiting three different projects in the countryside north of Nairobi.
CDTF is a joint fund between the EU and the Kenyan government and the environmental program of DANIDA and the swedish equivalent SIDA is to be managed through the CDTF, this trip gave me a unique opportunity to observe well functioning projects and meet the lokal stakeholders.

The first project we visited was a newly buil maternetyward at the small town of Kirinyaga. The ward was finished and all that was now needed was 4 extra nurses wich the government had promised but failed to deliver so far..
We were shown around by the local board commitee and a very proud nurse. All in all the project looked sound and Julia and Bill (the two external auditers) were quite pleased. the visit ended with a meeting where god and the EU was thanked! (the pics from this visit was not as interesting as the ones comming up)

Second visit was to a waterintake, waterpipeline and waterkiosk project outside the small town of Machacos.
As with all the other CDTF projects the comunity has had to raise 10% of the overall cost as well as suppliying unskilledlabour. This is demanded as a way of ensuring the comunitys feeling of ownership.

We started the visit at the conferencearea under a big nice tree. I was presented as a representant of EU and Denmark and was thanked in full for our villingness to give!

The project community along with some of the daily users of the waterkiosks being questioned by the two auditors.

The actual dam and waterintake. We had to wait untill the early the nxt day to actually hike up to see the intake. It was a really nice walk through terrased and heavily cultivated fields of all kinds of crops up to the tiny stream and the dam.

This fine gentleman showed us around the dam area and followed us down afterwards showing us his plot of land (here seen behind him)

We were the shown the waterkiosks further down in the valley. In Kenya feching water is a womans job. Sometimes the women has to walk for several hours each way to fecth the water, so a project like this can save them countless of hours of work every day, hours they can then use for other more profitable deeds.
The line for this waterkiosk was by no mean the longest..

The setup is as follows: the waterclerk controls the flow of water and charges 20 Ksh (1,5 Dkr.) per 20liter, money that goes to his or her pay and to the maintaining of the whole setup. The project is thus supposed to be selfsustained.

It is EU policy that the locals should know who their benefactors are, normally there is a formal opening of the projects (of course the people start using the water as soon as it flows)and I am invited to the opening of a borehole project sometimes nxt month!

One of the waterkiosks was rigth outside a small primaryschool. The kids were very exited about our visit and as one of the villageelders pointed out "you two might very well be the first muzungus" (Whities) they ever see, so you better make a good impression!"
The guy in the picture is Bill the English Auditor, the other auditor was a Kenyan Lady called Julia.

So I talk to the kids and they all wanna shake hands and practice their english.. I realise that lots of the kids are holding some toy thingies in their hands and after trying really hard I finally get one of them to show me what she is holding... a tiny homemade clay mobilephone! Yup status symbols are the same all over even here in Kenya...

Third project we visited was a drift (et vadested) crossing a local river near the tiny town of Makueni.
As with the other projects the locals had collected some 10% and was supplying unskilled labour, unskilled labour in this case shoved out to be divided between them and the women with the men supervising ant the women carrying stone and clearing rocks with pick axes.. One of the local men realised I had a camera and quickly picked up the pick to pose for a foto withc I grinningly took while I explained to him that I had seen the women doing most of the work for the last ½ hour..

In the dry season crossing the river is no problem, but when the rain comes the river cuts people off completely, forcing them to stay on the side they just happens to be on and closing down peoples possibility to go to the market or the hospital or school. Thus this project should facilitate peoples life greately and make furter trade and prosperity possible.

We held our board meeting in the middle of the dry riverbed overlooking the constructionsite and numbers of women fetching water.

The dry time is perfect for building a project like this, but the disappering of the water forces the local women to dig for water to the household.
I had only ever seen animals in the natureshow having to dig for water like this so the impact on me was quite strong. Once again It was the women who did the hard labour, digging the hole and later carrying the water home.

These two young girls was digging for at least an hour to fill up their jerrycans. The thorny branches are to keep animals away from destroying the holes at night.

These two women dug for some two hours repeatedly to open up a new hole.

the water fetched from these holes are not exactely clean. But its is the only water there is so it is used for drinking, cooking, cleaning etc.

Once the water has been filled into jerrycans the jurney home starts, some water is sold at the market by those fortunate enough to have means of transport.

These visits have thought me alot. not only about how the aid money from DANIDA and the EU is used but also alot about the locals. I had plenty of time to chat with people and learned a bit or two about their lives, what struck me the most is the way the Kenyan women is being treated, there are quite big differences inbeteew the tribes, but generally the women are seen as something close to a workhorse. As I mentioned before one of the auditorswas a kenyan lady called Julia she is a trained sociologist and works with gender issues on all levels. She would try to raise the gender question as often as possible but without much luck. The three project commitees we met with consisted allmost only of men, even the maternetyward project and the waterkiosk project where the people mostly affected are the women had almost no female input. The general opinion of the men is that the women prefer to have no influence and that they would rather just work in the fields, fetch water and mind the kids while their husbands does all the thinking and desissionmaking...
More on gender issues is surely to follow!
gtg for now its friday close to 13 o clock and the office is emptying quickly. Im going to a local market to try and find my self a 2. suit (pics might follow..) and tomorrow I am of to Masai Mara for a short camping trip :-D
Take care and I hope this massive influx of pics and txt doesnt scare any of u away!
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Take care!
Asger

Was invited on a two day safari by Erik, Annamaria and Petra whom I met through other friends. We drove in erics huge 4wd north to Sweetwaters a small national park in the shade of Mt. Kenya.
Over the two days I did my first Night safaridrive, my first real safari drive and had a very close incounter with a black Rhino named Morani!
I saw the first 3 of the big five (and hugged one of them..). saw hundreds of antilopes of different kinds, gor stuck in a buffalo herd, met some of Jane Goodalls chimps in the parks chimp-rescuecenter and even had time to relax by the pool!

Our classic and very comfy safari tent at Sweetwater national park tented lodge

Two young and quite curious giraffes on my first safaridrive ever!

Close encounter with a young female elefant, at first it feels a little like watching a natureshow on TV, but then the smell of large animal hits u and the elphants warning trumpetsignal shatters the air and everything is suddenly very real and a lot more exiting!

The black rhino Morani was orphaned by poachers when very young and was taken in by the parkrangers, he is now too tame to join the other Rhinos and enjoys the company of humans more. We visited him in the morning where he was preparing for his dayly chores..sleeping.. he is active at night only and in the day he only gets up to move to a more shady sleeping area. Yet the feeling of being so close to such a huge annimal was quite unique!

When we first arrived at the park Mt. Kenya was hidden in the clouds, but early nxt morning we were offered magnificent wievs of Kenyas hihgest and Africas second highests peak.

My tour to the coast was equally divided between work and pleassure.. had two days in a small beachhut at a totally lonely beach south of Mombassa and after that two days of visiting government officials with representatives from NEMA (miljødirektoratet). Billederne her er dog mest fra mine fridage ;-)

Early morning arriving to Mombassa by the nighttrain. Tre railroad is actually the main reason for Nairobi being where it is as it started out as a railroad depot when the brits where building the line that were to connect Lake Victoria to the coast. The Nighttrain starts out of Nairobi at 19.00 in the evening and is timed to arrive in Mombassa early in the morning, a really great way to travel! took the bus home, not as bad as one could expect, cheaper, but I will go for the train nxt time!

Kenyan taxmoney actually pays for this ferry and its sister ferry to work in pendulum between the main Mombassa island and its southern neighboring coast. fast, easy and reliable!

Words can hardly describe this little pach of paradise! we saw absolutely noone for two full days!