So I’m writing this from a much colder and greyer England! Just one more entry to sum up the end of my trip working alongside the lovely team at the office in Nairobi.
I left Samburu with mixed feelings. An extreme sense of happiness that I’d been fortunate enough to have worked with the wonderful elephants and to have enjoyed the company of the amazing team there, but also sadness that my time had gone so quickly and that the result of Monsoon’s treatment was still unknown. Fortunately only days after arriving in Nairobi I was given the brilliant news that not only was Monsoon still alive but that she appeared to be responding brilliantly to the treatment and the team are now confident that she’s going to make a full recovery.
I have to admit that before arriving in Nairobi I was a little nervous because of everybody delighting in telling me frightening things they’d heard about Nairobi when I was back in the UK! I saw nothing of this side of the city though and I ended up really liking the place. I visited some of the sights such as the Nairobi National Park, Maasai market and National Museum and found everyone I met really friendly.
My time in the office flew by just like my time in Samburu. My days there consisted of helping Iain to examine effective ways of converting MIKE figures into the real number of elephants lost through illegal killing. Though this figure of real mortality is so often asked for it’s actually very difficult to reach. Scientists are now attempting to come up with ways to do this but these methods are still in their very early stages. This work was very challenging but also very enjoyable. It was brilliant working with Iain on gaining such a piece of vital information and I really enjoyed the challenge it posed. Unfortunately my two weeks at the office weren’t enough to make much progress on this matter but It seems together Iain and I started on the path of producing meaningful numbers for the Samburu-Laikipia ecosystem.
I’m extremely grateful for having been able to enjoy the six weeks I had in Kenya and I’m really missing every member of team and the elephants in Samburu. I’m just hoping that I’ll be able to return sometime in the future.
Thanks for reading!