The Great Goat Roast

So this was an awesome weekend.  Last night there was a goat roast down at the river camp.  The river camp is about 10 minutes away from the center, and pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a camp with tents right by the river.  But the tents are more secure than what you think about with camping at home.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about going to the goat roast because I wasn’t sure how I felt about actually watching a goat roast.  But after talking to some people beforehand, I realized that it was very much like going to a barbecue at home, but instead of there being burgers and hot dogs on the grill, there were pieces of goat. 

Right when we got there, there was a giraffe off in the distance.  So the view was just a river with some yellow fever trees on its banks, and then hills off in the distance.  With a giraffe.  It was incredible. Kathy and I wandered around for a bit, and then much of the rest of the evening was just hanging out around this giant campfire.  Tyler and I had brought food over from the center to have in addition to the goat, which was really good.  “Paddy and the Dik-Diks” (a few of the researchers/grad students here, with 2 guitars and a harmonica) played throughout the evening.  It was very easy for me to avoid the actual goat roasting, which was great.  I had an excellent time.  It was pretty cloudy right when we got there, but when it cleared up the sky was amazing with stars.  There were even a few shooting stars near the end of the night.

The view right when we got there.  The giraffe is toward the back on the right. 

The sunset on the river.

The fire.  Matt used "magic" to make it turn pretty colors. 

Around the campfire. 

We went into Nanyuki this morning, and Alex and I tackled the curio shops together.  I am not a huge fan of bargain shopping, but we stayed together and it was fine.  We also got lunch in town at Dormans, which is a coffee shop that also has food and really delicious milkshakes.  All in all, a great weekend.  It’s dinner time now, and then another busy field week coming up.  

A few of the curio/bead shops that we went to

Dormans