Brooke's Update
15-Oct 09

Serien ( Samburu for hello)
I find it amazing that I just never get tired of coming to Kenya. This is my third trip to our sister community in Melako Conservancy in Northern Kenya and I feel like I am coming back as a friend. The main cultural groups that live in Melako are the Samburu and Rendille people, who are amongst the most enterprising, welcoming and stunning people I've ever met. And the environment is just spectacular. The backdrop for Melako is the dramatic Mathews Ranges that drop into the most arid regions in Kenya. I am surrounded by that beautiful acacia tree that symbolizes the African plains, but what is also very evident is the lack of grass. Northern Kenya has been in the grip of serious drought for 3 years and for people that rely on grazing and livestock, the effects of no rain on the community is devastating. Yet the Rendille and Samburu have this resilience and they face these hardships as part of life, it makes me feel very humbled.

Regarding the wildlife, when I was last here I camped out in the bush with the gamescouts, whose job it is to protect and monitor the wildlife. That's one thing about being in the African bush, you realize how far you are down the food chain! As a rule, hyenas scare the living daylights out of me, this is the result of being chased by one a few years back. As we were camping in a very remote part of Melako Conservancy, we had hyena, leopard and various other predators coming around camp at night, and the scouts, trying to be considerate, had given me a camping area on my own. I don't think I actually slept for 4 nights and I was seriously considering how effective a can of aerogard would be in defending myself against a hyena trying to get into my mosquito net, or maybe I should have brought that extra big camera lens and I could beat them with it or at least throw it at them, I was sure Travel insurance would cover that! I also realized how prudent it was not to have set my tent up close to our bush kitchen, as we had several visitors scrounging around looking for left over goat from dinner. After my 4 nights of barely sleeping I was a wreck and I finally said to one of the scouts, This may seem really ridiculous, but could one of you guys please, please, please sleep beside my tent ( at this stage I was thinking about safety in numbers and I was prepared to beg and plead and act very pathetic). The scouts were very obliging and 3 of them set up their sleeping mats beside me. That night I slept like a log, but the next morning the scouts were looking very bleary eyed. When I asked them about their night they said "Brooke, you had absolutely nothing to worry about, when it comes to hyena, you were snoring so loudly it kept all the wildlife away!" So they called me Brooke the Ngeri after that, which is Brooke the warthog! Well I suppose there are worse nicknames to have.