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Teacher Workshop in Baringo

I'm a little behind on my blog posts since we've been so busy in the last week - I'm going to try to catch up with this post and one more this week, and then post once a week or so for the rest of our trip.

Last Friday (July 27) we - me, Toby, Ella, and a Kenyan PhD student from George Washington University Joanne - drove to a town called Mogotio in Baringo County in central Kenya. I  collaborated with a Kenyan colleague of mine who got her PhD at George Washington University and did a postdoc at the Smithsonian, Habiba, to put together a workshop on teaching evolution for Kenyan high school biology teachers in Mogotio.

Me, Joanne, Ella, and Toby at our lunch stop in Naivasha

Me and Toby crossing the equator for the first time, on the way to Mogotio

We stayed in a lovely hotel and conference center owned by Habiba's sister (or aunt? both were there) called Lomanira Splendour. We got there in time to have dinner and settle into our rooms, and meet up with Habiba and her two American students Holly and Mckenzie. It was also the night of the lunar eclipse, so we (the non-kids) stayed up late and got to see the blood moon! We were still finishing laminating the materials for the teachers to take home with them, so the students all stayed up late working hard on that.

he playground at Lomanira SplendourT

Toby's first taste of ugali at dinner, a traditional Kenyan food

Toby in our room at the hotel/conference center in Mogotio, Lomanira Splendour

The laminating team hard at work

The blood moon with Mars nearby

The next day we had the teacher workshop, which went well. It was originally scheduled for 1.5 days, Friday and Saturday morning, but had to be shifted to all day Saturday so we (me, Toby, Ella, and Joanne) could only stay for the first half because we had to drive back to Nairobi that afternoon to get ready to go to the field the next day.

The teacher workshop in action

On the drive back home we went past a game reserve when Toby happened to need to stop for a pee, and he surprised this group of zebras when he hopped out of the car by the side of the road to do his business.

Zebras looking at Toby

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