Final Days in Kenya!

So a lot has happened since my last post. We went on expedition to Lake Nakuru National Park, I got attacked by a baboon, scratched, vaccinated, sent to South Africa for an extended weekend, then took 3 exams, wrote a paper and packed for my journey to Tanzania. I guess you could say I’ve been busy. Back to the baboon though, who knew a banana could stir up such a raucous. Most of you have probably seen on Facebook or heard from my frantic mother of the fate of my banana on that Tuesday afternoon. It ended up that in order to take every precaution against rabies the closest place that offered the human derived anti rabies immunoglobulin was South Africa. Kenya offers the Equine derived version but that’s more risky for people who haven’t previously been introduced to horse proteins (basically they asked if I’ve eaten horse meat).

As for that Tuesday it’s a pretty great story looking back. Definitely stressful and nerve wracking while in it but with a little distance now I can see myself telling my grandkids about that time I got ambushed by a hungry baboon. SO here’s the real story…

We were up on Baboon cliff (I guess pun intended now) wrapping up an exercise for our environmental policy class and as we were discussing our findings, the class suddenly became distracted by a baboon who had decided to walk up to the fence dividing us from a cliff of point rocks and then a 100 ft drop to the lake shore below. The baboon seated himself a foot from the fence and was watching us. A KWS ranger ran over towards him and the baboon scurried away quickly. Some of the class was disappointed since that meant they couldn’t be distracted by the baboon and had to continue paying attention to with but the ranger said what the baboons do is sit close to the fence and scout out the item they want to retrieve. They can understand some English and read our body language to know when the right time to jump is.

We continued on with class and then proceeded back to our safari cars, organizing to head back to camp. I was standing next to the car I had come in with my back to the fence. I opened up the back window and reached into my backpack to grab the banana I had gotten from the kitchen for an afternoon snack. A bit distracted and chatting, I took a bite and started to turn around toward the fence. This is when life started to move in slow motion. As I started to turn towards the fence I saw a giant baboon flying towards my face. My eyes dashed to his, then to the banana then back to him. By that time he had landed on my arm, eyes fixated on the banana. His hand reached for the yellow thing in my hand and scratched my upper wrist up to the knuckle of my pointer finger with three separate scratches. I released the banana semi-willingly and proceeded to punch him off me and then I ran, fast. I managed to keep from screaming but the girls that were in the safari car behind me let out some impressive screeches. From there I went to Moses, our stand-in SAM (student affairs manager) while Mike was out with a student visiting the doctor, his favorite past time. He cleaned up my bleeding hand and put some anti-bacterial cream on there with a Band-Aid. I asked if this meant I needed rabies shots and he said no. Little did he know this little incident would soon lend me to a night in a Nakuru hospital with a saline drip IV, a long wait for a clearance on a medicine that ended up to be the wrong thing and then an all expensed paid trip to South Africa to be injected with anti rabies immunoglobulin in the same hospital where Nelson Mandela was treated. You really can’t make this stuff up.

I’m now back safely at KBC (Kilimanjaro Bush Camp) and have passed all my exams with flying colors. I just finished packing and am sitting here pretty sad that tomorrow I’ll be leaving Kenya until the next time I can come back. I’m excited for Tanzania, but all the staff here has really started to feel like family. It sounds cliché and corny but they really have been amazing. I’m hoping to get pictures of all of them to remember. It’s weird to think I will never be back at this camp, never sleep in my banda or take a class in the Chumba. It’s definitely hard to say goodbyes and I’m not looking forward to tomorrow afternoon when we make the switch with the Tanzania group at the Kilimanjaro Airport. I’m excited for the second part of my adventure though, a little hesitant around the baboons but definitely excited.

Here’s the baboon that attacked me! Also I threw in some pictures from Lake Nakuru and Our non program day hike in Chuylu Hills!

Here’s a picture of the baboon that ambushed me while on Expedition in Lake Nakuru, pre-ambush.