Friday 29 July 2016

Flight delayed

Hi all

We have just been told the team's flights has been delayed by two hours so will arrive at just after 2pm today.

Their flight number is EK0015 from Dubai in case you would like to track their arrival time. 

Best wishes
Team Inspire 

Day 30: Goodbye to Kenya

From the very beginning I have been dreading this day but there is nothing that could prepare me for this. Today is our final blog post written by the  team and I am grateful to be able to write it. 

Today's blog is not going to be an over view of the days events but how the past month has made us feel. I would first like to say a huge thank you to all who  supported us with the project, especially our families for their endless loving support and to everyone for reading these posts  (I know you've all secretly enjoyed the hashtags). 

The past month is truly indescribable, the facts can be said but nothing can be written down that would really express how the team feels and have felt this past month. We have  achieved more than we ever dreamt of and for that we should go back home proud of ourselves. Three beehive fences; four school paintings; a permaculture garden; countless jars of honey processed; data collected and organised and the lasting memory of the Exeter team in all the hearts of those we had the pleasure of working with. We go home sunburnt, tired but extremely proud. 

However despite all we've achieved that will leave lasting impressions we will gain so much more in memories. From ninja to bananagrams, to fighting for spoons; yoga in the meeting room; intense frisbee matches; singing with Paul in church; the dodge toilets; the messy bread baking; the joy in all the childrens faces as we taught them to play frisbee; to the feel of success when we reached the top of Sagalla Hill and to seeing our first elephant. To everyone  else these memories seem small but to us they are the memories we will cherish forever. 

I want to thank each of the team you have all been truly amazing and have gained a special place in my heart. I would love to write about about each person we have met on this journey but as this blog is already rather long, I will just make a few special mentions. 

To Morgan, Esther, Edwin, Nathan and Cara, thank you  for welcoming us into the camp, for putting up with our shocking cooking skills, our loudness and for becoming our friends. I highly doubt this will be the last we see of you all. 

To Lucy for having us for the month, you are a true inspiration to us all and we could not feel more lucky for getting to work with you. Despite only being in camp with you for 10 days, it was a truly sad goodbye. 

To Emmanuel, who became almost like a second father, your support, encouragement and your speech on the last night will never be forgotten. The camp is lucky to have you, as are we, for getting to meet such a passionate man. 

To Harriet (our sixth member who unfortunately couldn't make it out to Kenya with us) well done for all the fundraising and commitment  you have put into the project this past year. I wish you all the best of luck. 

Chris, you have made the last month simply hilarious. You started off as our leader but as the month has progressed you are now a friend. This month would not have been nearly as humouress without you. Despite being oblivious to all that happened when we were in Voi, you trying to get me to pay you twice and for not using my picture on the blog, you made up for that with all your top bants. We are going to miss you so much especially your facial expressions, your amazing singing, your gorgeous locks and your infectious laugh. 
P.S. for the sake of all the Kenyans please buy some new shorts. 

Lastly, there is one special  member  of the team I would like to take the time to thank. Not because she is my favourite but because tomorrow is potentially  the last time I will see her in a very long time. 
We have shared some cracking memories with you Vic this past month and I know I speak for all of us when I say that you will be greatly missed. Before the trip I knew it was going to be hard saying goodbye but I did not realise how much so. Despite using up all the medical kit, being too loud for comfort, wrestling me to the floor and being frankly annoying as hell, you have become like a sister to me. 
Sharing a tent with you and Lauren has given me some of my favourite memories, dmc's will never be the same without you and when we were watching the shooting stars together on our last night it made me realise how lucky I was to have met you. 

It's true what people say about how travelling changes you, although I never thought it would be in this way. I have not only changed colour but also my perception of culture and friends has changed. We have gained valuable field  experience and life experience in general. 

I now with a heavy heart want to end by saying what an amazing month I have had. I have gained friends for life and memories I will hold forever. I will greatly  miss Kenya and all those I have met along the way. 

Although I am sure we will all see each other again, over the next day the hugs goodbye will be some of the hardest I have ever  had to do.
-Laura

Lots  of love the BEE Project 2016


Thursday 28 July 2016

Day 29: Last full day

This is it- our last full day in Kenya. It was an early start but watching the sun rise whilst on safari is worth it. 

This morning we had another great round of wildlife spots- zebra, giraffe, elephants, wildebeest, buffalo and more. This afternoon has been more arduous... we've spent the past 4 and a half hours swimming in the pool, occassionally sun bathing but constantly admiring our view of the african bush. 

It's hard to believe that we will be travelling home tomorrow- fingers crossed that our evening safari provides a sighting of the elusive lion... if not, we blame Inspire Leader, Chris.








Wednesday 27 July 2016

Day 28: Safari Day 1

After some sad goodbyes at the elephants and bees camp this morning we set off for Tsavo West national park. 

We've been lucky on our safari so far and seen so many animals including elephants, zebras, hippos, crocodiles, vultures, an owl and lots of dik diks. We could even see Mount Kilmanjaro in the distance as we are right near the border with Tanzania. The lions are proving to be elusive but hopefully we'll have better luck tomorrow!






Tuesday 26 July 2016

Day 27: Last day with the Elephants and Bees Team

Today was our last day at the Elephants and Bees research camp so it was pretty emotional. 

We made some candles and body butter out of the beeswax this morning which has already been packed away by us. 

Our final shopping trip also consisted of buying all our food for safari on the next few days. 

Our last meal of lasagne was long awaited as we waited for everyone to get back from night work so we could eat our last meal as a group. 

Goodbye Elephants and Bees and thanks for everything you've given the Exeter team!


Monday 25 July 2016

Day 26: Wabongo's Farm

This morning we went to Wabongo's farm to finish extending his fence. Once we had put up the dummy hives and roofs we spoke to Wabongo for a while and told him that we had bought some of his honey.

Laura and Tanya were attempting to make wax with 2 of the locals. Unfortunately despite several hours of perseverance their efforts were in vain.

Emma updated the map of Wabongo's farm for the elephant monitoring sheets, which record the number of elephants entering a farm, their route and the amount of damage that they do.

Lauren helped with updating the beehive records and data processing.

Victoria made a path for the permaculture garden and went through camera trap footage.

Night work was very quick this evening and Lauren and Chris helped to move two hives to more suitable areas.

We're all quite sad that our time at camp is coming to an end, and we're determined to make our last day count!


Sunday 24 July 2016

Day 25: Guest Blog

Hi folks! My name is Morgan and this evening I have been graced with the honor of guest writing for this epic blog series. 

I am an intern at elephants and bees, from Chicago, and arrived at the research camp about a week  prior to the Exeter team. I had just gotten myself settled and my work organized when this crazzzzy bunch loudly rolled in. 

I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed! I didn't know what to think of this tight-knit group using foreign words such as banter and knackered, constantly discussing the brexit crisis, second only to the red squirrel catastrophy of course, and demanding answers regarding America's impending doom with Trump's gaining popularity. 

Over the last month, however, I have come to know these incredible women, and their dashingly handsome leader Chris, and their stories. 

First, I am amazed by all the hard work and effort they made into getting themselves here, I know you already are, but  you all should continue to be so proud of them!! The last weeks have been a whirlwind of trying, and succeeding!!, in finishing a million and two projects at once. These ranged from truly destroying the kitchen making every bread product we could think of with Laura, constructing the most phenomenal fence Kileva Elementary School Permaculture Garden has ever known with Victoria, drawing epic energy cows ( in order to teach fantastic students about tophic levels) with Lauren,conquering  a hill I would definitely deam a mountain with Emma, evolving gopher like hole digging abilities with Chris, all while constantly laughing to Tanya's quiet, but absolutely phenomenal, witty comentary. 

Although we have been nothing but ridiculously busy, we have managed to have conversations ranging the scale of silly to very serious, and in the process I have come to cherish each one of them. I will be at the research station until the end of August, and I cannot tell you how much they will be missed. 

Besides having to light the truly terrifying monster stove all by myself!!!, I will miss their energy, laughs, and love. As our paths will sadly part on Wednesday, I am consoled in the fact that life-long friendships have been made. 

As these girls continue their studies in England and Canada (closer to my home turf!!), I know our paths either saving elephants, riding horseback through California, or opening a bakery (which I still insisit we'd name buttery buns:)) 

Thank you all reading this for the support you have given, and continue to give, this team. They truly are an incredible group. 

For now Exeter team, I'll just have to sing those Lions king songs six times as loud, in which case I should probably look up the actual Swahili words in order not to offend all in the 10 mile radius ;)

Saturday 23 July 2016

Day 24: Sagalla

Today we woke up before sunrise in order to climb Sagalla Hill. We made it up before ten o'clock. At the top Paul played his guitar and sang for us. 

We then went to Emmanuel's family's house, where they cooked us the first ugali a lot of the team had ever had. 

Both Emmanuel and Paul's families were very welcoming and we had a lovely afternoon sharing stories and relaxing together. 

On our walk back down, Winkie, one of the camp dogs, went to catch a monkey, when the monkey didn't run away, Edwin jumped  to grab Winkie to stop her attacking the monkey which was trapped in a snare. He let the monkey go and is now deemed hero of the group. 

The team are now exhausted but have accomplished a lot today and we are all very proud.






Friday 22 July 2016

Day 23: Finishing the garden

We continued work in the morning on the permaculture; digging holes, weaving and meshing the area for the compost heap. 

It's finished now, which brings an end to our group work on the school.

Another intense ultimate frisbee game left us all tired, so after a few games of bananagrams we're all going to bed early ready to climb Sagalla Hill at 6am!



Thursday 21 July 2016

Day 22: A normal day in Africa

So the day is finished, as most of the weekdays are, by going to a farm with a beehive fence. 

The harvesting period is over though and these trips are to add 'supers' on top of the hives, giving the bees more bars and space. 

This morning monitoring continued, as did the work on the permaculture garden. 

One thing to say about this trip that has been learnt- only made more poinient by the fact that todays blog is being written from the back of a very well packed landrover- is that there really is no limit on the amount of passengers this vehicle can take along these dirt tracks ... theres always space for one more!




Wednesday 20 July 2016

Day 21: Monitoring the fences

This morning two groups went out to monitor beehive fences and take down notes on the conditions of the hives and fences as a whole. 

Three of one team and one of the other got stung... Enma is the first of the Exeter five to be stung with our Inspire leader Chris being hit an impressive total of four times. 

This afternoon, the kids at the school got an important life lesson- they learnt how to play frisbee. 

An epic game later and the kids didn't want to let the team leave. The day was topped off with a huge meal of spaghetti bolognaise and some home made garlic bread. Not too bad a day.






Tuesday 19 July 2016

Day 20: A sad day

We've got a sad story today. This morning we got a report that there was a dead elephant on the side of the highway not far from our  camp. 

The staff at Elephant and Bees went down there so they could take some measurements and when we got there we found that the Kenyan Wildlife Service were already there. 

The elephant had been hit by a truck during the night. The KWS had already removed the elephant's tusks. It was a bit of a shock for the team but a good experience to witness some of the really not fun sides of animal conservation. 

Tuesday is shopping day. We get most of our supplies from the supermarket in Voi and our fruit and veg from the market. 

The market is a really good experience, there are loads of stalls selling anything and everything and hundreds of people who are really friendly and want to talk to you. 

From what we have experienced of Voi it seems to be a really friendly place. Work on the permaculture garden is still continuing and nighttime honey harvesting has turned into general beehive maintenance.




Monday 18 July 2016

Day 19: Chilling and Fencing

Last night half the team stayed at Voi Lodge in the evening where they used the sauna. We watched the sun go down and the bats come out and whilst we were in the sauna we spotted a giraffe, this was the closest wild giraffe we have seen so far.  

Today we got back to work, we went to Wabongo's farm to repair beehive fences and in the afternoon carried on building the fence for the permaculture garden.

Sunday 17 July 2016

Day 17 and 18; The weekend

This weekend begun with us finishing the world map murel at the local primary school. All the countries have now been labelled so the picture can be used as a learning tool in classes. Pictures of human teeth, parts of a flower and an elephant were also painted on the school walls. 

Saturday afernoon consisted of odd jobs such as honey processing, cutting down sticks and started building the fence for the school garden. 

Sunday was a relaxed day at Voi wildlife lodge, watching a variety of wildlife use the watering hole, swimming in the pool and eating buffet food for lunch.






Friday 15 July 2016

Day 16: Market visit

Today we went to Nzai's farm to finish repairing his fence. I've never seen someone so grateful for help and he was talking the whole time about what he's planning to do once the fence is occupied.

Laura had a little dance with Simba (Nzai's dog) which was quite cute as well.

We then visited the market in Voi where a few of us bought cloths. We made another visit to the ice cream place which we all enjoyed, apart from Esther who thought mango juice was disgusting.

We finished the day by doing some honey processing and painting the base coat for our next mural project tomorrow!




Blog comments

Dear all

We have just been made aware there has been a technical fault with the blogsite and it hasn't been allowing all of you to post your comments. We do apologise for this. 

We have now sorted this out and everyone should now be able to post comments on each update.

We can then pass these comments on to the team. 

Once again, apologies for this technical hitch and we look forward to hearing from you over the rest of the trip!

Best wishes

All at Team Inspire 

Thursday 14 July 2016

Day 15: And relax..

Today we finished our second beehive fence. Josiah was delighted that it was finished, he wished us well and hoped that we would  come back and visit in the future. We hope he can now have successful crops and can live in peace 
with the elephants.  

Tonight we had an early dinner and are having a relaxing night watching a film together.


Wednesday 13 July 2016

Day 14: Second fence- done!

Today 14 farmers from Northern Kenya came to visit the research centre to learn how to build beehives fences. Teaching the ladies how to make the roofs was lots of fun, they were all really friendly and chatty. 

The farmer, Josiah, and his wife Margaret are really happy to have a beehive fence.  2/4 of their children are school age and they can only afford to send one of them to school so they are hoping that with the money they'll make from their honey they'll be able to afford to send the other one. 

Morgan and Laura made us an amazing dinner - veggie burgers, wedges and naan bread - yum, yum, yum!








Tuesday 12 July 2016

Day 13: Elephants!

Last night while we were coming back from honey harvesting we saw an elephant on the road! We only saw it for about 5 seconds before it disappeared. Luckily we found the next morning that the herd hadn't done much damage to the farms.

Today we finished digging the holes and thatching the rooves at Josia's farm. Victoria was orange from all of the dirt; we're continually impressed with how dirty she manages to get!

This evening we had a group of farmers from Mount Kenya come down to camp to learn about the project. A group of us took them honey collecting which they all enjoyed :) Tomorrow they'll be joining us on the farm for the final push to finish our second fence!!






Monday 11 July 2016

Day 12: Back to work

Day 12 and the hard work continues. We are onto building our second beehive fence from scratch. The plans for the permaulture garden are going well and theres so much honey processing we can hardly keep up. Its been a long day and a couple of our team are going out for honey harvest this evening too! No rest for the wicked!






Sunday 10 July 2016

Day 11: Voi Lodge

We had a day off today so we spent the day at Voi Lodge. 

We saw more elephants than we could count, family groups were coming and going all day to drink and wallow at the watering hole. 

We also saw zebras, baboons, warthogs and a big herd of buffalo. A blissful day...


Saturday 9 July 2016

Day 9 and 10: Two blogs in one!

Day 9:
Today the team split up, Vic went to the permaculture garden to develop ideas on how to grow  the most in a small and confined area. 

The garden will be used to show farmers with beehive fences how to utilise their limited space. 

Whilst the rest of the team went to beehive fence farms to repair old fences and have dank tea. 

In the evening some of the team went to honey harvest, so far luckily still none of the team have been stung. #BeeHiveBants

Day 10:
Started our Saturday helping to paint a murel of the world at the local school and de-weeding their garden. 

We then had downtime all afternoon where we went into Voi and had burgers and icecream for a late lunch. 

Back at camp we all enjoyed a collection of games such as Ultimate frisbee, Ninja and a variety of card games as the sun set behind Sagalla hill. We're all looking forward to a great day of rest tomorrow though.

P.S. Happy 21st Birthday to Doug!!






Thursday 7 July 2016

Day 8: First fence.....done!!

Our first beehive fence is complete! We're all feeling very proud of the work we have done and we're looking forward to starting our next fence next week. 

The farmer, Wanjahi, and his wife, Doris, looked very smart and happy in their new 'Elephants and Bees' and 'Inspire' tshirts. 

Also this afternoon, another batch of honey has been processed, ready to be put into jars and labelled tomorrow.


Wednesday 6 July 2016

Day 7: Elephant friendly honey

Every thing is going great out here. We've nearly finished the first beehive fence! We also got to process some of the amazing 'elephant friendly honey' and label it up into jars ready to be sold. 

Tonight we watched a documentary about elephants over some cake. 

Another great day! 




Tuesday 5 July 2016

Day 6: Beehive fence!

We started building our beehive fence today! 

The farmer's name is Javid and his wife is called Doris. 

We have dug nearly all the holes, made half of the frames for the roofs and put up the first hive!








Day 5: First taste of honey

Jambo! Sorry for late post- a busy day yesterday! We had our first Swahili lesson and walked around the farms where there are already beehive fences. In the evening  half the team went to harvest honey...fortunely none of the team were stung this time!


Sunday 3 July 2016

Day 4: Lion Hill Lodge

Today we had our orientation with Dr Lucy King. We were introduced to all the projects and given mini projects of our own, one of which includes processing honey. 

In the afternoon we went to Lion Hill Lodge where we got to see our first wild elephants, a herd of wildebeest, a buffalo, waterbuck, a load of cool birds and spent the afternoon with one of the most amazing views #KenyaGoals

Also a massive Happy Birthday to Laura's mum, hope you had an amazing  day!


Saturday 2 July 2016

Day 3: Journey to camp

A six hour car journey doesnt often make for a good day but it was made significantly better by the odd herd of giraffes, wildebeest and zebra passing by. 

A lunch stop appearance of a Vervet monkey, razorbills (better known as Zazu) flying by don't get old... and now we're here. 

Our home for the next few weeks. The tents are bigger and better, the dogs are more plentiful and the hard work is soon to begin. We cannot wait. Bring on the honey!


Friday 1 July 2016

Day 2: Elephants and Giraffes

Today we visited the David Shelderick Trust to see the orphaned elephants that they look after. The youngest was 5 months old and the oldest was 2 1/2 years old. 

It was really sweet seeing some older elephants acting like a mini matriach when they heard the younger ones in distress, and amusing when one of the elephants did something naughty and ran off as a keeper told them off!

We also went to a giraffe sanctuary, where we fed giraffes and also had kisses with them (food between your lips)! 

We filmed everyone and the videos will be uploaded when we get back :)

We had lunch on a nature trail then went back to Wildebeest Eco Camp where we've been staying.

Tomorrow we'll be leaving early to head down to Tsavo  and the camp we'll be working at. We're really looking forward to meeting everyone and getting started!