Weekend in Kakamega

This is Steven and I in front of our little banda where we stayed in Kakamega forest. Isn't that cute! It gets you right in the middle of the forest with the wildlife. Literally. After lunch on Saturday we came back to find that little porch section full of monkeys. And they also like to jump from the treetops onto the grass roof, which makes a loud thud and then smaller thuds and they wrestle with each other. I call it monkey thunder :) The butterflies were amazing of course, and we also got to see how they extract essential oils from plants in the rainforest that they use to make herbal products. It's a very cool conservation project they have going on there.
This crazy little guy dropped out of a tree right in front of Steven's camera. I think I spent a whole afternoon just watching all the havoc they wrecked. It's a good thing they are so cute, because they're kind of a menace. I watched one particularly motivated monkey try for 30 minutes to find a way to break into our banda. He must have smelled my coconut biscuits :)
Steven talked me into a 4 hour sunrise hike, and I was actually really glad I did. The climb was incredibly steep at times, and we were surprised in the darkness by a herd of pack mules, but overall great.

We actually hiked above the level of the forest and could see the treetops poking out of the mist. It was pretty silent when we started our walk in the dark, but on the way back down the hill, the forest was roaring with birds singing and monkey troops declaring their territory. Not a sound you hear everyday :)




Back to work-I am scheduled to teach a first aid class to local teachers on Monday since many school are too far from a hospital to be practical. I am also putting together a decent first aid kit, as many schools don't even have band aids handy. I will be teaching a Mbaka Oromo school, which is also were a dispensary (clinic) is being built to serve the local community. The local chief got involved and said EVERYONE had to help get this thing built, which was very wise of him to see how this could benefit his village. And sure enough, when we arrived at 7 am before school started, there were tons of children and parents, like this one pictured, carrying dirt and gravel in buckets on their heads. The trucks can't get all the way to the construction site because the roads are horrendous, so they dump the supplies as close as they can get and it's up to the community to get it the rest of the way. Pretty impressive, huh?
Well, lunch and the threat of rain are calling me away from the computer.
Jessie