By Ben Borgmann-Winter (Middlebury College)
This is our ninth day at our current campsite in NG41. By now it feels like home—hammocks and slack lines have been strung, the campfire circle has seen a few barbeques, and the call of hyenas at night is almost familiar.
Sixteen cooks fresh goat over the fire, while Harrison and guide Foe look on. Photo by John Potenberg.
This last week brought with it a couple of birthdays: on the 9th of March, Stacie Wright celebrated her 22nd birthday, and on the 10th, I turned 21. Over the course of these two nights, the group enjoyed celebratory donuts, pizzas, surprise birthday cakes, campfire games, and a starlit movie night to boot.
We celebrated Stacie Wright’s 22nd birthday on March 9th. Photo by John Potenberg.
During the mornings, we’ve continued to drive lots of transects, surveying both birds and large mammals. Since our last blog post, we’ve seen plenty of the usual impala, hippo, elephant, zebra, and giraffe. Just the other day, one lucky group got to see a family of ostrich with ten babies! On top of that, March 7th brought our first big cat: a large male leopard. We have yet to see any lions, although we hear them occasionally and see their tracks all the time. According to staff at the local safari lodge, the local pride even has some cubs right now.
The week’s undeniable highlight came yesterday, March 10th, when our group was lucky enough to attend a 7th grade graduation celebration at the village school. This year in particular, the students’ exceptional academic performance warranted extra fanfare. When we arrived, the celebration was already underway; a group of students put on a stellar dance performance (better than any of us can dance!), a school administrator gave a speech, and then we were welcomed inside to feast with the school’s teachers and local officials.
After the meal, we all had the opportunity to meet and play with the local students, who taught us a number of games—most fun was ‘Lee le le bodileng’ (translation: Who’s a rotten egg?), a game very similar to Duck Duck Goose. Everyone at the celebration was amazingly welcoming, and we were sad to head back to camp. We hope to go back into the village soon, possibly for a volleyball or soccer game.
Students from Mababe teach Round River students to play “Lee le le bodileng.” Photo by John Potenberg.
Originally we planned to move to a new camp outside of Mababe by this date, but continued torrential rains have slowed us down, leaving us a little shorthanded in the vehicle department and making relocation to some locations virtually impossible. Given that, it looks like we’ll be here for another week or so—maybe we’ll finally get a chance to see those lions!
Large male elephant in an afternoon rainstorm. Photo by John Potenberg.
Top photo: Male leopard seen on transect. Photo by Henry Dodge.