Short update from Lamu, Kenya (8/18/08 email)

Quick update as of Monday, Aug 18 08. I am using official computer here in the Civil Affairs shack and can't spend much time. First VETCAP mission was yesterday. We are in Lamu, Kenya and having a very rewarding mission.

After returning from the VETCAP yesterday we sat at the Kenyan navy NCO club for a while drinking a Tusker beer or two and watching a 4 foot tall stork stalk around next to the building eating cow bones the size of a baseball. I saw him (her?) swallow four of hem. They go into the crop and then seem to disappear into the GI tract. The Kenyans said that they can digest the bone with no problem and if you leave a pot of uncleaned fish outside they will scarf the whole thing up in no time. They have a wing span that easily is five feet if not more.

We are at an isolated post on the Indian Ocean coast about 50 miles south of border with Somalia, working animals on a series of islands. One of the planners of the 1998 Nairobi embassy bombings comes from around here and I understand his family is still here. They never caught this Fazul guy and are still looking. As for me, To get around from this base where we are located we ride speedboats piloted by Kenyan contractors from the town, Lamu that is over 1000 years old. Very Muslim area here although Kenya is mostly Christian as a country.

The cats in Lamu are said to have genetics from Egyptian domestic cats living 4000 years ago and no longer in existence anywhere else; they look like the ones on the tomb paintings in Egypt. The stork last night was eyeing some cats as he gobbled the bones, but they didn't move too far away when he approached although they did keep him in view, so to speak. One of the Kenyans told us that the storks will actually eat kittens but not the adults. What a place!

Must run,

jf, jr.