My time here in Kenya is coming to a close. The last couple of weeks have been really busy with training a new student and wrapping up a lot of data collection. This is always a sad yet exciting time for me. I always feel like I am leaving home to go home, as now I feel my home is in two places on opposite sides of the world (literally). I get excited about going home to all the conveniences that the U.S. has to offer and seeing my family. But I also know I will miss the extraordinary life that I am so privileged to get to live in Kenya.
I will miss the people that I work with here, as well as the people that host me and watch over me. I will especially miss the elephants. When I get to see them so often, I get to know their personalities. There is one bull named Uhuru (which means "freedom" in Swahili) who I see most often here at camp. He has a huge rectangular area on his ear that is missing, so you can easily tell who he is from far away--even from the air. He has gotten used to me and the car I drive, so now when he sees it is me, he just goes back to whatever he was doing and doesn't worry.
I hope you have enjoyed joining me for my journey and learned something along the way. I hope to get a chance to reach out once I am home and connect again with you all. Getting to share my journey and the work I do to protect elephants has been very precious to me.
