Cristina and I flew down for the service in Oloitokitok last Saturday. Here are a couple of images to share.
The service was fine, as such things go. We arrived too late to hear the eulogy of Raymond's grad school friend, Scott Allen, but got the tail end of Mr. Githinji's thoughtful tribute.

When the drought breaks in Africa, it doesn't mess around: we've had 69mm (just under 3 inches) since the New Year.

As Echo's family continues to mill around rather aimlessly in several small groups, I thought I'd share a couple of images of her and the story of how she got the bump on her bottom.

Many of you must by now be appraised of the scam that was recently perpetrated on Project Manager, Soila Sayialel. The details are being circulated via email and on the Kenya security alert networks, but we thought it would help to post the third-person version here as well...

Statement on suspected incident of criminal use of scopolamine

Cynthia heard an NPR interview with Kevin Bacon concerning his new charity initiative based on the much-circulated factoid about the nature of exponential series that each of us is six degrees (or handshakes or phonecalls...) from Kevin Bacon (or Bill Clinton or Nelson Mandela...). Have a look at http://www.sixdegrees.org/. Seems a great concept. Cynthia has created her own badge. Will try to add my herewith and hope it doesn't cause the CMS to crash!

Mr. Michael Joseph
CEO, Safaricom Ltd.
Nairobi

Dear Michael,

I just came back from Amboseli a week or so ago; hadn't been for a couple of months.

Sad to report that the perennial vista of the sweep of Kilimanjaro rising from the plain has an appalling blemish: the new Safaricom mast on Ontawua hill.

Pangani Giant Land Snail

The Easter weekend rain chased away the elephants from central Amboseli National Park, but it brought out many other interesting creatures, like the Pangani Giant Land Snail (Achatina megapodus) pictured here. It was about 5:00 PM on Good Friday, and the rain was pelting down. I went out with an umbrella to check on the solar battery bank and surprised this fine specimen who appeared to have been radulating for calcium on some of the elephant lower jaw collection. The Panganis usually only occur south of Kili, but climate change and the heavy rains must be causing a range shift. This is the first one I've seen in Amboseli in nearly 40 years, although Cynthia and Iain Douglas-Hamiliton used to have a pet female in Lake Manyara. They become quite tame, but can play havoc with a small kitchen garden.

There is dancing in the streets, literally, in Kisumu and Mombasa. On Thursday, 28 February 2008, President Mwai Kibaki and Hon. (now Prime Minister) Raila Odinga were bearded for more than five hours in Harambee House by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and current Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete. As a result, they agreed to a power-sharing agreement that was signed that afternoon under the scrutiny of millions of jubilant Kenyans and the world.

One of the great joys of living in this beautiful country is the relative freedom of the skies for aviators (and birds, of course). Join me in a flip over Amboseli.

Click here for some recent news! Have a look at Ushahidi, a Kenyan people-driven website with news and blogs on the situation. On first read, it seems quite balanced and factual. ('Ushahidi', by the way, is Swahili for 'testimony' or 'evidence'.) The site points to other blogs and commentaries from Kenyans and others inside and outside the country. For example, it announces a fund raiser called One Kenya, One Voice that's being held in Boston on 2 February. (And 'vuma' means 'rumble', 'roar', or the sound a distant drum makes.) Where there are voices like these, there is surely hope.