Don't mess with our forest!

Hey friends and family! Hope everyone is well and happy and enjoying the festive holiday season back home - or wherever you are in the world...We had a creative Thanksgiving here in Kenya - but a wonderful meal shared with friends Swahili style where there was a whole lot to be thankful for. I'm kind of finding that every day I am thankful for so much. And while sometimes I wish I could spend one day without humidity, dirt, bugs and a dozen other people constantly around me - I wouldn't trade this for anything. I'm very proud of the work we're doing and the amazing community that this expedition creates.
One of the many surveys that we do in the forest involves recording all the human disturbance that occurs. Shimoni forest is an amazing coastal forest that is home to so much biodiversity. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of illegal logging and charcoal burning that takes place here - often by people outside of the community - and the forest is rapidly being destroyed. In one year 10% of the forest was lost to logging and burning. As we hike through we take detailed accounts of the fires, timber, clearings etc that we see. GVI works with Friends of Shimoni Forest - a local community based organization that is trying to protect the forest while earning sustainable alternative livelihoods from it. I helped create a presentation that illustrated the damage that is happening in the forest for the members to see in a more visual and dramatic light. I was lucky enough to tag along to a meeting yesterday (3 hours in swahili!!) but it was super gratifying to see how impactful that presentation was. The next step: forest patrols!! Tomorrow several members, two police officers and some GVI staff are heading out to start kickin butt and taking names! Any loggers or charcoal burners found will be arrested and taken in! It's really exciting to see the community take action and it's very cool to be able to participate in some small way.
Wish I could show pictures and share more - but as always, internet resources and time are limited...gotta drive back to town to catch the boat crossing across the channel before the sunsets! Continue sending emails and whatnot - miss you all and sending you big, happy and humid hugs from Kenya!!

Serengeti!!

I wish I wish I wish that I could share my pictures with you...but alas...the internet gods do not wish it to be so.

I can say that Sat Camp was amazing - so much work but so good. I think we were able to help the local communities strengthen their wildlife education and expand their alternative sustainable livelihoods now that they switched from poaching animals to protecting wildlife. We were dusty and dirty and tired but we made many new friends, learned a great deal from the community members and got to see Killi everyday!

Another week of work in Wasini and Shimoni - which included a dugong spotting! There are only 30 dugongs recorded in all of Kenya - so our sighting was very exciting and the info was immediately shared with KWS. The dugong is like a manatee - known as the "cow of the sea" and a really special animal. I also got to swim with a sea turtle last week and that was hands down one of the coolest things I've ever done.

This week I was lucky enough to travel to Tanzania with my good friend Karen and we went on safari in the Serengeti where I finally learned to drive stick shift - in a land rover on the roughest road I've ever driven! We saw all the big five - buffalo, elephant, lion, rhino and leopard. we also had elephants hanging out at our campsite 10 feet away from us and buffalos again this morning before we left! Such an amazing experience. so many pictures and stories to share, but once again the internet access is sparse. Sending you all love and happy wishes - yay obama!!! (ps kenya called last thursday a national holiday in honor of the presidential win!) Ndiyo tunaweza!! (Yes We Can!!)
Love,
Sara