Final week in Kenya

I am in my final week, here, at Mpala Research Center in Kenya.  Time has seemed to go by quickly and at the same time, I have the familiar feeling of being here a long time.  Its been a great opportunity to observe and be a part of a research station, to see some of the beautiful landscape and exotic wildlife of Kenya, and to get a peek into the Kenyan life and culture. 

I've decided that being a researcher probably isn't for me (not that I was anywhere near that path anyway).  It is hard and tedious work for the most part. Unless one is passionate about his/her area of research, I, personally, would get bored with a lot of it in the long-term.  Of course, there are the really interesting projects dealing with larger animals (leopards, lions, elephants etc) and such that would be pretty exciting, but a lot of what goes on, research wise, is the smaller things;  plants, insects, soil, water, climate etc. that haven't been studied much yet.  So, my hat is off to these people that spend years in their work and research here and around the world!  Their work is important, as contributors, to the overall advancement and discoveries of science, each a piece of the larger puzzle.  We need these researchers, who are uncovering all these questions and mysteries of this crazy and intricately designed planet.  We need them!

My experience, working in the "field" collecting data was good.  It caused me to look a little closer, or caused to me to HAVE to look to look closer at some things I don't really ever think much about: pollination, pollinators, flowers, plants, rainfall, weather... It is easy to live never really thinking about some of these things; never taking a closer look. But having to sit and watch certain flower species all day for 30 minute increments and try to collect or identify all the insects that visit or don't visit, causes some thoughts about such subjects.  For one thing, I was forced to stop and notice some of the incredible beauties found in some of the smallest flowers and even in the insects. Some of the smallest were the most beautiful. Each is so rare in its design and beauty, most of which go unnoticed by anyone.  Each design and color serve some purpose in nature, to attract, to facilitate, to survive, to be most productive, and sometimes, I personally think, to just to display the creative beauty of the Creator.

Another thing that I was forced to think about was that all these things in the natural world are connected.  It isn't that bees do their thing, flowers do their thing, animals do their thing, humans do their thing, etc.  All of these "things" interact and affect one another in some way, even if on some small/indirect level.  It is kind of a trickle down affect.  You know the law of physics that says,"for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction?"  Well that is true.  Some actions end with a negative reaction and some with a positive reaction. For our pollination study, we were trying to see if large herbivores had a positive or negative impact overall on pollination, directly or indirectly.  We haven't analyzed all the data yet to draw any final conclusions but the experience was a positive one for me. Not that every day was relavatory or mind blowing by any means, but did cause some thoughts that may have otherwise not been thought about....so that is good, right?

As I said before, kudos to all these researchers that are here asking all these ecological questions of nature and spending long, sometimes hot (cold, wet, dry) days/months/years in the field doing their best to bring more knowledge to the world in all these various areas.  Most is being done in the end in an effort to conserve what we have and best facilitate how it is meant to function. Losing, for example, a species of animal or plant or overuse of resources has more repercussions than just that isolated thing "being," the effects trickle down to affect other things.  So, it is our job as citizens of this earth to manage what we have... sometimes even down to the smallest things and to make decisions based on the greater good rather than temporary monetary/material gains that in the bigger/longer scope of life will do far more damage and cause more loss than good in the end.  I haven't become one of those weirdos who is going to go tie myself to some tree to save it but I am realizing that we can't just ignore these kinds of environmental issues (or social or political or what have you).  It is our JOB, our mandate to care and to think of future generations and the future of our planet.  I have no idea what this fully looks like  and I realize the vast complexity of it all but it takes people like the researchers here (and social justice workers, aid workers, politicians, and "regular/untitled" people), to care and to try to bring insight and attention to their areas of work/study in effort to better our world. Because we first need to know about the problems or possible problems to be able to attempt to "fix" them....following?

Wow, I didn't really intend to get on a soapbox there!  I didn't even start out intending to write anything in particular but to give a sort of update or summary of my time here.  But the words happened and so I will leave them lie.

Here are some of the pictures of the beautiful and interesting flowers we came across working out in the field.  Amazing...but easily unnoticed!

Unknown name

unknown name

Emilia discifolia...with a visitor:) 

Delasperma nakurense

Crassula volkensi

Hibiscus calyphyllus

Comelina  benghalensis blue

Cyamnchum gerradii

Euphorbia magnicapsula

Chlorophyta sp. 2

Ceropegia sp2

Comelina reptans

Grewia tenax

Becium
(we had named it dragons tongue before 
finding out its real name)

Hibiscus mayerei

Ceropegia

unknown name

Justicia 

Hibiscus vitifolius