The Team

These are the people I'm sharing my days with. In order of the photos below:

Sebastian (Seb)
The director of KVOC. A 35 year old who has worked in conservation for over 10 years. He has a seemingly inexhaustible line in football shirts practical in terms of the speed of drying but surely pretty sweaty and risky by camp fires?!
He's also currently being bugged daily by me to speed up the pace of our activities and to plan them in advance each week.

Cecilia (Cessie )
The next most important person as she feeds me! She makes delicious food, bakes bread and provides endless sweet tea over an open fire either at Base or in the field; hot work. She's undoubtedly the hardest worker, working 7 days a week for £1.11 a day! She's also my Swahili teacher.

Kimboga (Baboo)
The camp guard and tracker (on the left of the photo). A lovely, smiley, well respected man. He has an ancient rifle that he brings along when we're in the field which Seb says hasn't been fired since 2010 but Kimboga says he fired in November to scare off baboons in his home village who were eating crops. I just think the gaffer tape on the barrel would melt if it were fired!

Ndomba (on the right of the photo) 
A village scout who comes with us when we're out in the field. He's enthusiastic, energetic, very talkative and laughs a lot. He picks scorpions up by their tails for a closer look; chases down illegal charcoal producers and detains illegal grazers and their cattle. If Kimboga has the rifle then Ndomba has the panga (machete). 

Benson
The driver. A recent addition as KVOC were gifted a vehicle by the district council and thus needed someone to drive it. I was told about the 'new' vehicle when I first arrived but found it hard to reconcile the enthusiasm with the vehicle I saw when I reached KVOC! It's marbled windscreen, randomly pop up bonnet, wired closed glove box and the fuel gauge the only dial working.
Back to Benson, a retired bus driver which is borne out by his driving technique! He starts the engine 20 minutes before we have to go anywhere and leaves it running for 10 minutes when we get to our destination. He drives fast, as if against the clock, and seems to speed up as we approach another vehicle. Unfortunately for him the horn doesn't often work but he spends a lot of time trying it! Saying that, he too is lovely and is the only person who has offered me help putting up or taking down my tent.

Emmanuel (Ema)
A Tanzanian placement student, studying conservation and tourism, probably working for nothing! He is a really happy influence on the group, a little bit mad, loves his music and hates drinking, "I've seen what it does". He's really brilliant with his birds (the feathered sort). He's the one on top of the vehicle, packing the roof. 

Michael
British student, 4 months into his 7 month placement. He has much more hair and much less fat than when he arrived. This is a fairly typical picture as he's always keen to find a perch wherever we are. He's also singlehandedly enriching the locals in soda and egg & chips sales. Mind you I might be the same if I had had rice and beans for 4 months.