A typical day at the “Fisi Camp”

"Fisi" means Hyena in swahili.  Here's a typical day at the camp:

5am: wake up, brush teeth outside the tent, get dressed (it’s fairly cold in the mornings).  Go to the bathroom in the “Cho,” the wooden toilet that is really just a nice way to put everything into a massive pit.

5:30am: leave for hyena observations, also called “Obs”.  This consists of the research assistants driving around on their routes to track hyenas using their fancy equipment attached to the trusty Land Cruiser.  They also will go to the den if they know where it is for a specific hyena clan they are tracking that day.  All the cubs are at the den, so they are able to track primarily mother/cub interactions and behaviors.  Along the way, we also ate a snack, usually the leftovers from last night’s dinner.

Don't forget - watch every phase of the sunrise!

9:30am: come back to camp and do some sort of physical activity.  I got to run in the village across the river that was not on the Mara land.  This included running by traditional Masai tribe homes, herds of cows and shoats (sheep+goats=shoats – you can never tell the difference when they are together!), and saying hi to the people you pass with a friendly “Sopa”, which is hello in Ma, the traditional Masai language.  Hadley and I also went for walks in this area, especially to Dikhedges, a beautiful spot by the Talak River with gigantic trees and exposed roots!  If we didn't get out for a run or walk, there is always yoga, ab exercises, and stretching.  Of course don’t forget the push-ups as well!  Our workouts ended with taking a shower in the outdoor shower, pumped with treated water from the Talak River.  There is something therapeutic about being shaded from the sun by leaves of a tree while taking a shower.

11am: eat breakfast prepared by the wonderful cook, Joseph.  He really has a gift for cooking – everything I ate all week, where it was eggs, traditional Kenyan food, or enchiladas (yes, you read that right!), it was so flavorful and well made.  The vegetables are also amazingly fresh, which make quite the difference. The most striking fresh produce?  The bananas!  I have never tasted bananas with such explosive taste.

12ish-4ish: do work and relax.  Generally the RA’s sit under the research tent to be out of the sun for the hottest part of the day (it got to be about 35 C with very strong sun!), record transcriptions, work on identifying the different hyenas in their clans, print pictures, organize videos, do camp chores, or whatever else they need to get done.  The pace at the camp is slow, but certainly full of things to get done.  That’s how I like to characterize my week with them – slow but full.

4:30pm: dinner time!  The second round of Obs is right after, so Hadley and Phoebe would not eat until 8:30pm if they didn't eat before. 

5:30pm: evening Obs begin.  This is similar to morning Obs, except they have different routes and they go to the den last after it gets dark.  Did I mention the hyenas have names?  Each mother has a linage with a different category, such as Pokemon, African dictators, and ways to say “hello” in other languages.  While morning Obs is wonderful to see a clear sunrise, evening Obs is PERFECT for the sunsets.  

The colors that burst across the sky and touch every part of the Mara are like nothing I have ever seen before. The shading of each color – the pinks, the yellows, and the reds – change as the position of the sun changes.  Finally when the sun hits the horizon, it’s seems as if the sun is racing with something or someone to disappear.  When the last tip of the sun finally drops behind the horizon, the colors begin to fade and the light slowly dims.  Simultaneously, the stars come out.  Oh, the stars!  There is no light pollution, so the stars, the galaxies, and the moon reach all corners of the night sky.  The sky is truly a globe, just like you could see in a planetarium…except this is the real deal.  Looking up into the stars made me feel so small.  I saw so much up there and I’m so tiny here on this one little planet.  a little bit of an existential moment there…but let me tell you, that sight is breathtaking and will certainly make you think!

8:30pm: get back to camp, hang out with the guys at the kitchen tent.  It’s always so fun to shoot the breeze with Joseph (the cook/caretaker – basically he does everything at camp), Steven and Lsingo (the asantis, or night guards), and Wilson, and Benson (two of the RAs with Hadley and Pheobe).  We danced to Masai music and pop music from the US (they LOVED Ke$ha), heard Masai stories, helped wash dishes, and packed our breakfast for Obs the next morning.

9:30pm: head to bed!  I tried to be in bed by 10pm and usually I was pooped by then so it wasn’t an issue.  It was fun to read and write in my journal before bed.