Briana's Travels

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...

On Sunday, we left for an overnight trip to Olorgesailie . This is a prehistoric site in southern Kenya where I helped run the excavations and camp for 6 years, from 2004-2010. I was really excited to see many of the Kenyan excavators again, some of whom I haven't seen for many years, as well as for Toby to have his first experience at a real archaeological site - and sleeping in a tent! We (me, Toby, and Ella) first took a taxi to a place called The Hub in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi. The Hub's tag line "more than a mall" is a very appropriate description. There's a place inside the mall similar to a Chuck E. Cheese that was pretty amazing to see. Toby thoroughly enjoyed it! In between the playing, we had a delicious brunch. This is basically Kenya's version of Chuck E. Cheese This was kind of like an electronic whack-a-mole game Toby was really good at this car racing game - he kept winning free games! There were kid-sized motorized ca...

Week 2 was much like Week 1, focused on working in the museum during the week. This post will basically be photos with captions. Next week will be much more varied as it will include an overnight trip to an archaeological field site, a trip to a part of Kenya I've never been to (Baringo) where I'll be helping to facilitate a workshop for Kenyan high school biology teachers on evolution, and then finally - next Sunday - to the field site in central Kenya (Laikipia) where we'll be for the rest of our time in Kenya! Toby marveling at all of the trays of fossils I've studied so far -  everything on the left side of this photo is basically the project I'm working on Contemplating a toy car with an elephant mandible and skull nearby... as one does Toby with a human family tree display Toby likes using my calipers to measure things Toby using my hand lens to look for marks on a fossil Jen showing Toby something on her phone during our lunch ...