I had no expectation for what I would see upon landing in Nairobi. I had travelled more than 23 hours over 8,000 miles (>12,000km) to get there. I was exhausted but excited. Nairobi was a huge sprawling city with huge billboards and tons of traffic. It was too dark to see much that night but over the next few days I would notice the colorful and musical transit vans, the vendors selling everything from bananas to wrist watches weaving between cars during red lights, the red dust that lightly coated everything (even in the city), the aggressive driving, the marks of colonialism amidst the local flare. It was complex, beautiful, boisterous, sad, humbling, intense, rich and poor.

​I arrived at the Airbnb I'd share with another postdoc after what seemed like another hour of driving. I hadn’t really known what to expect from the pictures which I was happy to find didn’t do it justice. I was greeted at the front door by a beautiful, sweet dog and shortly afterward by her charming and glamorous owner. Nikki was a stylish blond woman, about my height, who worked at the UN Headquarters in Nairobi, where as it happens, the conference was taking place. She had the loveliest British accent and I was immediately taken in by her personality. As exhausted as I was, I only had time to tell her “hello, nice to meet you, my luggage hasn’t arrived” before I crashed on a super comfy bed. 
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The next morning, Nikki had already been on the phone with the airport searching for my delayed bag. Turns out, it was lost somewhere between Chicago and London. For the next four days I would be rotating the outfit I arrived in with the conference t-shirt I got at registration and pair of black leggings borrowed from Nikki. I made due while I spent those days describing the contents of my bag to the airline and stifling the urge to scream “WTF?!” into the phone. Eventually, mostly because Nikki is awesome, my bag arrived bright and early on the 5th day at her front door.

​My fist adventure was organized by the conference. I got to visit a Karura forest, a fragment within the city limits of Nairobi located directly behind the UN grounds. Jessica and I went on a guided tour to find colobus monkeys with a local primate researcher, Mary. We found them but they eluded my camera. Colobus are incredibly shy monkeys that when detected engage in a freezing behavior where they remain motionless until the danger passes. It was great just seeing them though. We stayed for a while catching glimpses of movement here and there at the very tops of the canopy. We got hungry while we waited and snacked on granola bars which attracted a large male blue monkey that we had to ward off with a stick. At that point we decided to start making our way back to the conference and stopped for lunch at the café located within the park. That day and the next I saw a myriad of beautiful birds and mammals with local primatologists Mary and John as guides: blue monkeys, colobus, suni antelopes, bushbucks, sunbirds, weavers, turacos, bee-eaters, thrushes, mouse birds, flycatchers, wagtails, manakins and ibises. The fragment was beautiful and they were doing a lot of great work there, restoring native plants, relocating colobus monkeys, maintaining trails where local people walked, ran or biked to waterfalls and caves.

The coolest thing about Nairobi are these carefully maintained tracts of wilderness in the middle of city. While in the park, you can see the trains going by and the highway traffic at the peripheries. You don’t have to leave this sprawling urban center to find breathtaking wildlife. In addition to Karura forest, there is Nairobi National Park which boasts lions, water buffalo, all manner of birds (storks, ibises, spoonbills, ducks, kites, doves, etc), rhinos, giraffes, bats and zebras. And I got to see them all! In fact, in this park I saw many iconic African species for the first time in the wild. Getting to and around the park was an interesting process. We commissioned a taxi (yes, a regular taxi) to drive us around to look at animals. I was surprised at first, but Stephen (our driver) was an incredible guide and made it possible for us to see more than I’d imagined. The highlight was probably the pair of rhinos we saw with their baby! Also, I was pleasantly surprised that we hardly saw other vehicles while inside the park. Only for the rhinos were there a couple other jeeps; and only a large gathering occurred for the lions. That was my first time seeing any big cat in the wild (wait no...there was that puma in Brazil in 2015)! And it was huge deal, because like many kids who grow up wanting to be zoologist, I was a big cat fiend, with a particular predilection for tigers. But the lions were no less impressive, there were at least eight of them – some napped in the shade of a tree while a few others fed on the carcass of some poor artiodactyl. All in all, it was one of the most beautiful days I’ve ever spent inside a city.

​Now, I always thought that safaris were for rich foreigners, and I pretty much still do. While I am a foreigner in Kenya, I am certainly not rich! This trip took a lot of saving and strategic credit card use but it was certainly worth it. Our first stop on the tour of non-urban east African wildlife was Lake Naivasha. We were guided by Francis who taught us a Swahili phrase, sawa sawa, which we were to use when we ready to move on.  It was here, that I experienced for the first time the exhilarating fear of being in close (enough) proximity to one of the most dangerous animals in the world – hippos. While we did see the notoriously aggressive water buffalo in Nairobi National Park, I did not feel the same surge of adrenaline as I did while approaching this aquatic mal-tempered heavy weight in a motor boat. We also sighted kingfishers and cormorants, fishing eagles, water bucks and wildebeest. On that same day, I got to visit Hell’s Gate National Park where in addition to beautiful animals like warthogs, gazelles and zebras we saw gorgeous gorges and felt the hottest water I’ve ever encountered in nature thanks to the geothermal activity manifested in hot springs and geysers.

​The next leg of the trip was probably my favorite. The Masai Mara is rightly famous for seeing incredible wildlife: Baboons, meerkats, jackals, elephants, cheetahs, hyenas, hornbills, ostriches, vultures, crocodiles. The river there has been featured in countless nature documentaries, one of the most memorable scenes being the wildebeest crossing during migration trying to avoid the crocodiles looking to score a meal. I was fortunate to see most of the big five, except for the elusive leopard! The entire time there was exciting. from seeing beautiful cultural displays by the native Masai people to the heart stopping grunts of hippos and giggling of hyenas seemingly right outside our tents at night.
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​​Between the last destination and Masai Mara, we spent the night at a quaint hotel, Thayu Farm. It was a beautiful set of cottages with inviting fireplaces and a menu that was 100% supplied by the farm on location. Eric kindly guided us to the nearby tea farm in the morning, one of the largest (if not the largest) in Kenya. It was an interesting experience and I was able to buy my dad a bag of tea as a souvenir directly from the source. Then we were off to our next natural encounter.

Kipipiri forest is in an area with extensive degradation and suffers from complex conservation issues. The local people need to make a living, and typically do so by carving out a piece of land from the forest to cultivate crops. It is often difficult to reconcile the needs of people and protection of the environment. That is what Peter Njagi, a Kenyan primatologist, focuses his work on. With a team of local field techs, he works with the local people to help ensure the recovery and preservation of the forest and particularly colobus monkeys. He has overseen relocation projects for these primates in areas like Kipipiri and Karura forest, the fragment behind the UN that I mentioned earlier. With his help and that of the field techs, we saw several groups of this beautiful species, just far enough to make capturing photos difficult. Immediately following out time in Kipipiri, we visited Soysambu Conservancy. This was one more chance to revel in the beauty of Kenya and learn about conservation efforts in the rift valley area. Thanks to a large lake located in the conservancy, there were tons of birds including pelicans, flamingos, ducks and plovers. We got more good views of colobus monkey and black-backed jackals. We even saw a new ungulate species, the eland.

A lot has happened in 2020. In all the chaos and confusion, I haven't had a chance to share about my new position. This past January I relocated to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to start as a postdoctoral researcher and lab manager for the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science (LSUMNS). Understandably, I was (and still am!) really excited about this job and the opportunities it offers for me to delve deeply into museum-based natural history research, which is the direction a lot of my work has headed since the end of grad school. However, my research and training has slowed down since COVID as it has for many. Right now, I would have been preparing for my first museum collecting trip in Peru! Additionally, outrage surrounding the unjust deaths of Black people has hampered my normal productivity. It is the hardest thing in my life to continue to feel like I am unsafe no matter where in the world I go, especially my own home, just because I happen to be Black. Things are hard, but as always I fight to keep going. I'm hoping you are all well, staying sane and coping with the effects of the pandemic, racial tensions and the various difficulties we are inevitably confronted with. For as long as I am capable, I'll be getting back to nature through research and adventure.

The workshop in Yaoundé, organized by CABAlliance (Central African Biodiversity Alliance), lasted 7 days. We learned about various statistical methods in ecological research, opportunities to work in Central Africa and networked with local researchers and students.

​The food provided during the workshop was amazing and included local cuisine like cassava, ndolé (bitterleaf) and plantains as well as some obviously French-inspired bread and beignets. There was one restaurant “JC”, which I would call a chicken shack if it were in the US, that was hands down a workshop favorite thanks to its popular rotisserie fried chicken. I did notice though the chickens there were a lot smaller than ours here (damn US hormones!). The spices and flavors of food were so different and amazing. It was a pleasure and a blast to meet so many people and the closing party at the end of the workshop was a testament to that. I had a great time sharing a last meal and learning regional dances to local music from other participants.

After the workshop, we were able to explore a bit more of Cameroon. Our first stop was in the coastal city of Limbe. We arrived by car in the evening so we had dinner on the beach, which consisted of fish freshly caught only meters away, grilled at the shore and served with what I can only describe as a kind of chutney. So…freaking…good. There is nothing quite like seeing the process of how your food is acquired and made from beginning to end. The next day, we visited the Limbe Wildlife Centre which rescues and rehabilitates wild animals, including apes like chimpanzees and gorillas. In addition to rescue, the center is active in conservation and community programming. They also have some cool opportunities for volunteer work that you can check out here.

We made our way back to Yaoundé for our last day. We got to visit one last wildlife center, Mefou National Park. At this park is a sanctuary run by Ape Action Africa where they care for over 300 primates, including chimps, gorillas and mandrills. Like Limbe, they also offer volunteer opportunities that you can learn about here. They have an adoption program that allows people to sponsor the apes they care for. After our visit, we spent the last of our time letting loved ones know we were still alive, packing, saying our goodbyes and shopping for souvenirs. Haggling at the marketplace is one of the most anxiety provoking things I’ve ever done. I am a shy, sometimes awkward, person. I wanted to give the artisans the money their crafts were worth but without being taken advantage of as a tourist. I much prefer pre-determined prices! But in the end, I got some beautiful pieces, at what I hope was a fair price for both the artisans and myself.