5,000 Miles in Africa: ileret

Jim Ross woke us up with a cheerful and fatherly (if not humorous) "this is your 5:30 wake up call!" It was still dark and I had only gotten about 1 hour of sleep. No time to rest, I had to prepare myself for a busy and important day.

It began with an hour long drive along with Fred, Meave Leakey, and the two students toward the site of todays field research. The long drive provided me with time to pick the brains of the two students. Both girls were very sweet and nice and it was much easier to talk to them at first than the others. I really enjoyed the few days we spent with them.

When we arrived at the site we immediately saw how rich the site was with fossils. They are literally more common than stones! The difficulty of being a fossil hunter in Koobi Fora is not spotting fossils, but identifying which ones are worth taking. There are literally millions of fossils to choose from.

There were 4 of them and 2 of us. My thought was that I would hang back and watch as scientists did their science thing and for the most part that is what happened. But Meave was so sweat and would occasionally come and explain little things to me like why they chose this fossil and not that, and what this or that meant. With such a small group in the field, it was a very intimate setting. And as I find to be true more and more each day, people are just people. You just have to get down below the things that make seem so different.

Meave is so impressive in how she can see a tiny piece of fossil and without even picking it up identify both what part of the skeleton it is and what animal it comes from. "That's an M3 molar from a Deinotherium." I could watch her work all day, she has such an eye for fossils and is obviously smart as can be.

There were two occasions in particular that were neat. Both came when a partial fossil was exposed on the ground in fragments and Fred and Meave would begin assembling the pieces to form a very complete fossil. Then they would look at the surrounding areas and before long, a jumble of stone-like fragments became a very clear fossil. It was amazing. Meave could take a 1/4 inch piece of hip bone and know exactly where it should be placed amongst the other tiny fragments.

After about 5 hours or so we went back to camp. The field team is divided into the prospectors, made of local Kenyans that have a keen eye for fossils, and scientists like Meave that follow behind them determining what to take and what to discard. Back at camp, we had lunch and then they went back to work, this time at camp, cleaning fossils and preparing the next days field maps. It is a tedious project and you really have to love fossil hunting to do it. One half day is the extent of my fossil hunting career.

Instead of sitting and watching Habiba creating maps, I joined Louise as she took her two young daughters to the lake shore. She was very sweet in inviting me to the lake and I figured that this would be as great of an opportunity as I would ever get to pick her brain and learn about field work. It was just us two, her kids and her nanny. Not to spoil the details but we spent a couple of hours just wading in the lake and talking about fossil hunting, the area, and everything else that I wanted to know. Louise is actually very nice and very personable. It is so amazing that I could spend this time with her. It really made me feel so much better and less anxious being able to shed the formalities of field life and just talk by the lake. We watched some locals catch some fish with giant nets. Finally, on the way back, she took me to Ileret, the town, where I saw how these people live, hundreds of miles from anywhere. They ran around naked, some of them and lived in tiny bomas made of whatever materials available, cardboard, sticks, grass, etc.

That night we had dinner and I felt like we were truly welcome. Meave even commented that we were the easiest guests that they had ever had. I think that everyone enjoyed a few new faces, even though we were much different than the usual faces that come through camp.

That night I said my goodbyes to Louise. I was really glad to meet her. She asked me to keep in touch and to let her know about the progress of the story. She gave us a tire repair kit as one last little thing to help. Turns out it wouldn't be such a small token of help after all.

In the end things went pretty well. I wasn't as impressive as I would have hoped to have been but we had a great time and, well, it was like I was friends of the Leakeys. How cool is that?

After buying a small curio from a local we set off. I buy small curios from people that help me without expecting return or at least without pushing the "pay me" issue. This guy helped me try to find a freezer for our spoiling meet and so I bought a little container/drum from him. We never found a cooler and so our meet spoiled. About 40 dollars wasted!

We were on the road as the sun peaked over the horizon. It quickly became even more desert than before. I have great photos to share. You could look for 100 k's in each direction and not see another soul. We went this entire day without seeing another car on the road. Not one!

In the morning the desert has a cool breeze that feels perfect. By about 10 it is hot and sweaty. My left arm is really dark!

Besides the occasional shepherd that hangs out around the small rivers and water holes, we didn't see anyone or anything all morning. It was so much fun to be lost in the middle of nowhere in the desert of Northern Kenya. While looking at a map I realized how close I was to Darfur, Northern Uganda, and even a short flight from Iraq. It is strange to be so close to these places.

We arrived at the gate to Sibiloi around 1. Sibiloi national park is a large area of land made secure by Richard Leakey in an attempt to preserve the many fossils in the area as well as the diminishing population of wildlife in the area including Lions and Leopards. Elephants and Rhinos used to call the land home but poachers have eliminated them from the park.

The park is so far from civilization that no one ever goes there. So the gate guy was shocked to see us drive up as tourists. For the next 3 days, we would be the only visitors in the 100k by 100k park. The guard had to call his boss to figure out how to fill out the proper paperwork for visitors. The boss, a soldier, arrived with his South African model assault rifle. Nathan and him talked guns and military for a while. It was nice, even though I hate guns and the military. But it seemed to strike a chord with these two. It is so neat to interact with people that live such different lives than you do, especially when you find the common ground.

After an hour they finally wrote us a receipt and let us in to the park. We started seeing some neat wildlife like hippos and some beautiful antelope. We drove to Koobi Fora, the site of Richard Leakey's expeditions and I recognized some things from books that I have read. We paid 30 dollars for a tour of the museum that promised fossils from the site but to our surprise it was nothing more than small room with silly displays. We were soooooo pissed. The guy at the desk had no idea about anything to do with Koobi Fora. I would later lean that Richard handed the museum over when he went into wildlife conservation and that it would be taken over by incompetent idiots that can't get their act together.

As we approached the camp at Ileret where I would meet Louise Leakey, I became very nervous. I always get nervous with these types of things but especially now since I was exhausted, filthy, and showing up 2 days before I had said I would. We found the camp and told the guards (armed guards) that we should be expected by Louise and the team. They walked us down to the camp and there stood Meave Leakey and the team. She didn't smile but instead gave me this look of, who are you and why are you here. I told her that I was a writer and she said, very matter of fact, yeah, we were expecting you but not until two days. I just said, yeah, sorry, we got here faster than we thought.

When Louise arrived she gave us a quick tour but seemed very distracted and a bit annoyed. i wasn't sure if it was me or just with something else but it made me feel very anxious. The camp was made up of the smartest, most established scientists in the world. There were two students that were there as part of a grant. One a Masters program student from NYU, the other a PHD student from Harvard. Combined with Meave, Louise, Jim Ross, and others, these people were very accomplished.

We were warned about scorpions and snakes and then escorted to our beautiful canvas tent. Then told that dinner was in an hour. Were they really cooking dinner for us? I caught my breath in our tent for a moment and then went down to sit and chat with Sarah and Habiba, the two students, while waiting for dinner. Eventually we would walk down to watch the stars for a while. In the desert, the stars are better than anywhere I've seen in the world. We were joined by a joy of a man named Jim Ross. He is an old man that was there testing out a new method for dating rocks and fossils. But he was the only one of the senior crew to be so warm to us from the start. He was genuinely interested in who we were and why we were there.

Dinner was served and it was an elaborate meal. The Leakey's employ local workers to serve them, creating jobs and getting the local community involved. It is really cool the way they pay so much care to the Kenyan people and the people of Ileret.

Meave sharply asked me, "So, what is... why are you here?" I was on the spot. I knew that meeting these people would be intimidating but it was something I wanted to put myself through. So, choking up, I began. I explained that I was a screenwriter, from Hollywood, and working on a story about human evolution. I explained the rough idea of the story but I am afraid it came out much less focused than what I really have laid out for the script. But they all seemed fairly interested. All of these people are scientists, and academics. Like most academics, they are a bit quirky and not the easiest to talk to. They often speak very matter of fact and employ a very scientific vernacular.

I would grade my effort that first evening as a C-. There were a few awkward moments and I did not do a good job of making myself seem worthy of being there. But that is the pressure I put on myself.

As I laid in bed that night I couldn't sleep. I woke up every 5 minutes, eventually falling into a panic attack. It was the first time that I have ever had this happen. I had this painful feeling of anxiety and this fear of making a fool of myself. It was undoubtedly spurred on by a number of things. For one, I was aware that I was by far the least intelligent person at the dinner table, something I have never felt. Second, I blew my opportunity to make a strong first impression. While I didn't do or say anything awful, I didn't inspire anyone or gain anyone's interest in my story. Lastly, and probably most importantly, the medicine that I've been taking for Malaria prevention has a side effect of anxiety and depression. The entire night would be filled with sweat and heavy breathing and this knot in my heart like I was a kid that had been crying so hard as to wear myself out.