Tuesday, April 21, 2009

ship



















So, I just got back from a vacation in Mombasa... hence why you have not seen an update at all for a while... oh yeah, did I forget to mention all that?  clumsy me.    Anyway, while in mombasa, ships were constantly on the move just out in the Indian ocean.   Every time a ship passed, heading north, I would raise a quite prayer for the crew, as they were most likely bound for pirate infested waters.  

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

snail


















This is  a medium sized  snail shell... escargo anyone?

Friday, April 3, 2009

yet another African sunset





here is another African Sunset picture...  taken from Kondele looking at the CDC (center for disease control) 

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

flowers


















This plant looks like Hyacinth, I did not  know hyacinth had flowers though... I guess  you learn something new every day.

Monday, March 30, 2009

what's up with this blog?

Hey everyone, just to let you know that this blog has gone to a new schedule... I will be posting new pictures every Tuesday and Thursday, so twice weekly.   I was getting too busy to go and get pictures for every day, and this way I can hopefully concentrate on getting better pictures, rather than rushing.  So, expect a new picture sometime tomorrow.

Thank you!
    - Andrew

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

A cloud


















Were you one of those kids that tried to make out familiar shapes amongst the clouds as they drifted by?  I was.   I saw this cloud, no particular thing came to mind, but I decided to take a picture of it anyway.

Monday, March 23, 2009

A crusade


















I was at a crusade, with a lot of people getting healed.  The scaffolding that you see in the foreground is for the photographers and filmers to document the event.  I did climb it a bit, but let's just say I preferred standing on top of our car rack.... more stable. 

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Papyrus sunset


Papyrus + sunset

Friday, March 13, 2009

Disciples of Mercy


















This is my brother's former school.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Giraffe


Took this picture of a giraffe a while ago.  This is in the Masai Mara, the north part of the Serengeti.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Lizard


















I have no clue how many types of lizards are found in Kenya, lets just say... lots.   This is probably my third favorite, after chameleons and monitor lizards.  

No picture today :(

Sorry, I couldn't get a picture up.  Something isn't working like it should.  Hopefully I will be able to post my pictures again shortly. 

Monday, March 9, 2009

Climbing rocks























   A couple of buddies and I decided to head up to "Kit Mikayi" for the day, a place full of huge boulder's far bigger than houses.  I was a fun day, also an adventerous one, although the dangers were simply stinging ants, African killer bees, and nettles  

Friday, March 6, 2009

Friendly Duke


Apparently my last picture showed Duke (yes, that is the name that won) to be a vicious dog.   well, I decided to post a more friendly picture of Duke.

Hammerkop



















This would be a Hammerkop, sitting on a dock, minding his own business.  

boats at dunga beach


















I haven't been able to post for the last several days, the power and the internet have been taking turns being off.  I was in the process of posting this picture of boats lined up at dunga beach when the power died, taking the internet with it.  I plan on putting up two more pictures before tonight. 

Monday, March 2, 2009

pool


















   This would be the swimming pool at Kiboko bay resort.  Not too far away.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

hippos






these hippos were just lying around a post one the banks of the Mara river, having an afternoon nap.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Road through the rainforest


















This is a road that goes through the middle of the beautiful Kakamega rainforest.  This road is actually rather highly trafficked, and I have seen several logging trucks carrying loads of trees out of the forest on this road. 

Thursday, February 26, 2009

bat cave


















This is the inside of what used to be a mine.  Two different types of bats live in here, I took this picture standing inside looking at the entrance to the mine

Monday, February 23, 2009

Orange sunset


      Equatorial sunsets are the best!   Unfortunately, it is impossible to truly catch them on film... er... digital receptor actually

Kisumu aerial shot

The city of Kisumu, supposedly, the 1999 census was 355,000 or so people, but more recent estimations put it at well over a million inhabitants.  Kisumu was intended to be a place of trade, located in the ideal place to be linked by boat, plane, and truck to the rest of East Africa.  Despite that being it's original intent, it has just recently started to see that come to pass. 
       

Saturday, February 21, 2009

for the birds

















    I was at the lake today, and this bird just kept flying around me.  So I decided I might as well take a shot of it.  I believe that it is just an ordinary egret.  

Friday, February 20, 2009

one more picture of the hills around Kisumu


     Kisumu has these great big rocky hills standing like sentinels toward one side of it.  I know this is the second picture I have put up of them, but I thought it looked really cool.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

A house


















    This is one of the houses on the block, just so nobody starts thinking everyone in Africa lives in a mud hut.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Picture


















There are a lot of interesting things in this picture, the trees in the distance, the huge palm tree, and the architecture of the roof in the foreground.

Monday, February 16, 2009

ruffled


I think I got these guys on a "bad-feather" day

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Monkeys

I realized that I have been in the last two pictures.  So in order to not appear selfish I decided to give some of the other African monkeys a turn.  I know that they are rather distant in this shot, but I wanted to portray their habitat as well as the black and white monkeys in the center

African Wedding














So on Valentine's day, I got the job of running sound at a wedding.   In Kenya, a bride arrives 2-3 hours late for her wedding, as is tradition, and/or the car breaks down, either way.  So, while waiting for the bride to show up, I decided to take a nap in the sound room, the other guys thought it would be fun to grab my camera and take blackmail shots of me...

Friday, February 13, 2009

Freedom


















I am sorry for the poor quality of this photograph, but this bird was ready to fly.  we had to take the picture rather fast, and therefore there was a lot of blur and bad lighting.  Shortly after taking this picture this bird took to the skies!    It was great to see him fly off.  Only four days after he was in a near-vegitative state.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

soccer

     Soccer, locally called football, is the national sport of Kenya.   The people love it, and are often quite good at it.  Every evening a group of young people come here to practice.  

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

houses

















This is a picture over the rooftops of manyatta, which is a large estate within Kisumu.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

The great mystery

     The great brown bird lay absolutely still on the table, it's legs and wings completely unable to move.   He slowly manages to muster enough strength to raise his head and slightly open his eyes.  I look into his eyes, expecting to see the same, "help me" expression that is expressed in every dying animal that I help, but that look isn't there at all, instead, his entire disposition is a majestic one.   The Eagle is the only animal I have come across which could be so near death, yet so proud.       And this eagle is near death.... he is so dehydrated that he has lost the ability to move.  His fall out of the sky bashed up his bill and chin, this great bird fell right out of the sky into a gravel parking lot.  At this point, he is barely conscious.  No one seriously expects him to survive, especially me and the vet, but that doesn't stop me from trying.  

This is the bird shortly after I brought him home, I laid him here as I desperately tried to hydrate him... rather hard to do with a half-conscious bird.


     And this bird is not alone.  This is the third bird to crash into that parking lot.  You may remember the first one, I had his picture up here in a previous blog.  That bird seemed to be doing better, but died after a few days, after that, another eagle like this one appeared in that same area around that parking lot.  It didn't survive a single night.
     So, that is the great mystery...  why are the birds falling out of the sky?  all three birds are young, one of them a mere chick.   None of them show signs of being attacked by the notorious pied crows that defend their territory with Al Capone-style fervor.  Why are they falling out of the sky?   Well, we don't know, that is why it is a mystery.  All we know is that they are all too dehydrated to move.   This bird at least shows signs of typhoid, which I am treating it for, and all the birds have refused to eat or drink.  
       It remains a mystery what is killing the birds, even more mysteriously, what is knocking them out of the sky.  It is one thing for a bird to slowly die, but we seem to be dealing with seizures or heart attacks, just so sudden is the way that they fall.  Theorys range from typhoid, to heat stroke, and even the possiblity of an unknown avian disease (let's hope it stays avian, these things live with me!)
      But probably the most likely thing might be simple pollution.  In Kenya, Garbage mixed with oil products is stacked all over the markets and the lower-class housing estates.    The dry season has just been coming to a close, and it is possible that with the coming of heavy rains, oils, dirt, and chemicals are being washed by the heavy rains into the bird's water supply, and even chemicals may cover the fur of the rodents and other smaller animals that are the hawk's prey.  There is also a study going on about the possiblity of Chlorinated Hydrocarbons being found in birds near agricultural areas, although this is highly unlikely due to the fact that we are in the city.
 


Is pollution Killing large birds in Kenya?







Let us hope that we solve this mystery.  We find what is killing these fine animals.  Almost every time a bird falls from the sky in Kenya, it is tortured to death by kids, cats, dogs, or whatever else may come its way.  These are the lucky few, even if I never save a single bird, I am at least content in knowing they died a comfortable death, and not a living biology disection experiment.  Although if they do die, they probably will be dissected, not just for highschooler's sake, but to find out why these majestic birds are mysteriously
 crashing to the ground.
According to wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawny_eagle ) these birds are of "least concern", that doesn't matter to me, they are eagles, and as such they majestically grace any geological location that they may be found.  Therefore I do what I can to save these grand masters of the sky.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Greenery


I took this picture outside of Mamboleo, I just thought it was a cool view of the hills.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Kisumu

It is really hard to say for certain where the "center of town" is in Kisumu. This is my best guess. This picture was taken standing in front of the Orange HQ (Orange telkom, NOT Orange Democratic Movement). I was facing across the street to Mega Plaza.

When I took this picture I thought that this may be the "center of town", but looking back I realize it is highly unlikely to be the center of town, this isn't even main street.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Road

I have to drive on this road every day....

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

crocodile

Yes, in case you are wondering, I was standing on the banks of Mara river when I took this picture, and no, he was not alone...

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Power outage

The power went off during a storm last night.   Which is why I am later than usual in posting this.  After the storm died down, and the skies cleared a little, I went out to try and get a shot of the moon and stars.    here is my picture of the moon.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Vultures!

I decided I haven't put up one of my old Masai Mara animal shots for a while, so here is a picture of some vultures I took a while ago.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

The Island in the Lake

This is an Island in Lake Victoria.  In the foreground you can see invading hyacinth plants being blown into the bay.  

Saturday, January 31, 2009

my newest dog

Today I bought a new dog.  He is mostly German Shepherd.   He was born on mother's day.  He is a quite small for his breed and age, but by feeding him specially made food twice a day he will hopefully catch up.   I bought him for $80, what a deal.... of course I once bought a pure black and tan short-haired dachshund puppy for that same price.  

Friday, January 30, 2009


This is a successful business here in Kenya, it may look super simple, a woman roasting and selling corn and fruit by the side of the road, but she buys a whole gunnysack of corn and sells it all in a day.  


Thursday, January 29, 2009

Coca-Cola

This is what is known as a "Duka", basically a small shop that sells food, cell phone credit, and other necessities of life.   This particular Duka specializes in one specific thing.... can you guess?

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Kenyan runner

Everybodyknows that Kenyans are the fastest runners, I decide to try and take a picture of Kenyans running, and on my third attempt I actually succeeded to get a photo of a runner... kind of.  

With this picture, I am finally caught up for all of the days I missed with the internet down.  I apologize again for not getting up the daily photo, but now have finally caught up.  

Just a news report, the bird died.  He died a few days ago, it was sad, but expected, the life-expentancy of the bird wasn't all that high to begin with.



This is the shoreline of lake Victoria.  The green you see floating in is a water plant known as hyacinth,  it is an incredibly hard plant to get rid of.  If you put one of these little things in your bathtub, you won't find your tub in less than two weeks.  It grows at astounding rates, at times the whole harbor in front of Kisumu is covered by a lush carpet of green.  

Uncle Tom's Cabin

This is my friend Tom in front of his house.  He shares this one room hut with his brother, he is very proud of his old-fashioned mud hut with thatch roof, he maintains it fairly well too. Tom and I walked, talked and took pictures for over an hour today.  

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

public transport

This is a very common form of transportation here in Kisumu.   You jump on the back seat of a bike, and he takes you where you want to go for about 20 shillings (25 cents)

Elephant

I took this picture of an elephant years ago, but I like it, so I decided to post it.  This picture was taken on the Masai Mara some years ago. 

Mollases plant

This is a picture of a mollasses plant outside of Kisumu.  I am actually not sure what they are making there right now.  The plant has been through several owners, and has made mollases, but has also made fuel out of sugarcane left-overs.   The Highway out of Kisumu runs in front of it, lake victoria is behind it, and the airport, which is being remodeled right now, is to the left of it.