Our two weeks in the forest...

We got here as Volunteers on the conservation project called “Volunteer with Colobus monkeys”. Our expectations were to see a lot of animals, the forest and to get a bit of the African culture. Our expectations have truly been fulfilled. Those 2 weeks have been amazing. We have done surveys on monkeys, birds and butterflies; been investigated the human impact on the forest and been teaching children about the different monkeys that exist here in Shimoni. We have also done some nightwalks in the forest and saw the Bushbabies, a type of monkey that is active during the night. In the nightwalk we also saw bats coming out of the Slave Caves here in Shimoni.

Us and Liz, lowering a butterfly trap

In the afternoons there has been time to relax, take a swim in the ocean and get involved in different projects such as teaching about the environment or having computer lesson with the people in the village. The Community project has a choir in one of the schools that we went to. It was so much fun singing and interacting with the children. One day we did go to another village to see a soccer tournament arranged by Safe Shimoni. We have also been exploring the Shimoni village, which is nice. The people here in Shimoni are very friendly and you will always hear a “Jambo” (Hello) from them when walking through the village. The first day we had a Swahili lesson and we have tried to use it in the village, which was fun.

Another thing that we did was to see the Fikirini Caves, Africa’s second largest cave system. There were thousands of bats, it was a great experience to see and hear them all together.

During these 2 weeks we have learned a lot about animals, forest and about Kenya. We totally recommend this program to other people because we had a great time here.

Rickard and Emma from Uppsala, Sweden.

Our two weeks in the forest...