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from the beginning...

I'll start the Peter visit story with his arrival. His flight was scheduled to arrive at 6:30 am, which is about the worst possible time because allowing for the hour or so post-arrival time to get through passport control and baggage claim, driving back from the airport to Nairobi would be right during rush hour. And rush hour traffic in Nairobi is awful. But thankfully, he was arriving on a Sunday, when there is relatively little traffic. However, even in my sleepy state at 6am when I woke up that morning I thought to call the airport to see if his flight was on time - and it wasn't, it was delayed by about 3 hours. I tried to go back to sleep, but I was too excited about his arrival to do more than doze a little.

(As an aside - Peter's flight home from Nairobi was delayed, too, due to a herd of zebra on the runway. Yes, at the international airport, I kid you not. Gotta love it!)

Anyway, I ended up getting to the airport about 15 minutes after Peter had gotten out with his bag - I'd given him some tips for getting out of the airport quickly, and they seemed to work too well! He was waiting for me on the side of the arrivals terminal, having fended off several friendly taxi drivers who offered to take him into Nairobi, or even to call me to make sure I was coming. I was so happy to see him! We did hit some traffic getting back to the apartment in Nairobi, due to a bad accident on the road from the airport. The rest of the day was kind of a blur, and consisted of him taking about a 1.5 hour nap; then us getting some lunch (Java House!) and doing a little shopping (errands I had to do); then him taking another nap for about 2 hours; then I dragged him out to dinner with several friends/fellow researchers who were in Nairobi. We went to my favorite restaurant in Nairobi, Tamambo, where I got my usual ostrich... yum! He was tired, but a really good sport.

The next day was pretty intense. I had to go to the bank and do some more research project-related errands, and then we headed to the museum.



I had fun introducing him to everyone, and he had fun seeing the Palentology (fossils) and Osteology (modern bones) Departments. For bonehead dorks like the two of us, it's like a playground. Giant fossil tortoises and elephant skulls decorate the floor of the Paleontology lab, and rows and rows of antelope skulls with spiraling horns run down one part of Osteology.



Then, after lunch at the museum with some more colleagues, we headed to the field site. Tune in soon for the next installment... in the field!

(pictures courtesy of Peter)

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