Another great vantage point....

I'm writing to you from 32000 feet in the air (though I'll have to wait to send this to you for about 4 hours when we land in Paris). This and all of these posts are thanks to the cute little Mini Dell computer that Mr. Freed lent to me for this trip.

The cool view out my window is worthy of sharing. It's been a bright clear day for flying and it has a wonderful chance to admire the diverse African landscape. We're currently flying over the vast Sahara desert that looks like a barren brown moonscape with interesting windblown sand dune like contours and occasional rock outcroppings popping up out of nowhere.

When we left Nairobi this morning at about 8:30 am, the view was very different. The green landscape afforded us additional views of the savannah and rivers running through it. I think I even saw the Nile River from the air, but I'm not positive.

We've been incredibly fortunate to be in Kenya in the midst of the first rains that some areas have experienced in more than a year. What a difference a little water makes. During most years, the region gets 20 inches of rain, but this year less than 2 inches have fallen. Loss of life due to the drought was evident (both by sight and smell) as we passed the carcasses of large mammals along the road and out in the conservancy. We also saw immense amounts of erosion in the region that was especially pronounced where overgrazing and desertification were evident.

Meanwhile, we could literally see the region get greener by the day as the water from recent rains soaked into the ground. Flowers bloomed overnight, the vast plains became vibrantly green and perhaps the coolest thing we saw was that termite larva emerged as flying insects. I'm eager to learn more about their life cycle on return, but the larva wait until it rains to emerge as flying insects because the birds that would find them a tasty treat, are less active when it rains. After flying a bit, the larva shed their wings, mate and begin the work of adult termites in the massive termite mounds that we've seen.

So...as you can see even our travel days have been packed with great opportunities. Last night during our stint in the airport we met people involved in international relations and others working in US Food Aid. Who knows what Paris will bring. Due to the cancellation of our flight yesterday, we're due into Paris at about 3:30 pm their time today, and we'll spend the night in Paris before flying back to the States on Monday arriving in Rochester at about dinner time.

November 2, 2009
Soooooo jealoussssss. I'm looking up pictures of Corey Bustards and Hoppe Birds...Can't wait for pictures...Welcome back!

posted 11/2/2009 9:22 AM EST
Mr. B. abarrett@brcsd.org

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