Market Day

July 23: We departed right after breakfast, as has become our pattern. Today was spring day - we visited four different springs that provide water to local communities. Water here is funny. The landscape is dry - southern Utah dry, but every so often water bubbles out of the ground, having traveled many miles from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. You don't see the little oasis until you are right on it. We never could find these things without our local "ambassador" Sipaya. The work went well and we got four stations in while seeing a great deal of landscape the safari-going tourists will never dream of.

July 24: Just two days of sampling left. We hit two more springs this morning and then went into the town of Kimana as Tuesday is Market Day. The place was packed with locals selling to each other. This is not a tourist event but a real, honest-to-god local market. We were the only white faces we saw the entire day, and not a few folks turned to look at the three muzungus (foreigners) walking between the stalls. You name it and it was for sale. All sorts of vegetables, housewares, shoes/clothing and lots and lots of Maasai fabric and beads. It was a cacophony of sights, sounds and smells. I loved it. It's fun to see the mix of people dressed in western clothing walking among men and women dressed in the traditional red and purple robes of the Maasai.

We also took the time to go to the local livestock auction. Groups of Maasai men stood around with cattle offered for sale. In this part of the world the cow is king. Buying, selling and breeding cattle is a way of life. There was a whole fenced off section, devoted to goats and in one corner of the property cloth, beads and swords were for sale. Yes, I said "swords". Maasai men carry what is the equivelent of a 12th century short sword to kill snakes and defend themselves against predators as they move their cattle from place to place. Life is a bit different when you aren't at the top of the food chain...

Our work is almost done. We have pretty much run out of deionized water and some of the chemicals we brought from the U.S. Jim and I have both been surprised how much sampling we've managed to do over a very short amount of time. Our time in Mexico has served us well.