Start of Operation Shrew: Peter and Galen arrive to research Elephant Shrews or Sengi

It was wonderful to see Peter, safely arrived with bags of mammal equipment and ready for his second visit to Mareja and meet Galen from Calafornia Academy of Science.  Galen commented that he was entrusting himself to a 21 year old from UK and trekking across the world to an unknown location with his unknown companion.and he thought perhaps I am mad!  In fact he was right to trust his instinct, they make a fantastic research duo.  And wry, warm, wise companions for us.  We stocked up on additional kit such as cotton wool, chicken wire etc much food and set off.

There were a number of particularly intense and frenzied vegetable  buying stops on the road, enhanced by the night and general air of Nipper (the local schnapps).  A sea of hands, faces and baskets full of various goods filled every lookout point and were accompanied by much shouting.  Many things bought, tomatoes, cabbage, manuka, mysterious beans, matapa (a green leaf), aubergines.  Every last crack in the already packed boot of the Nissan filled with packets of damp, awkwardly shaped but fresh food. 

Whenever I turned round to feed these purchases backwards I was greeted by a view of our 3 companions all different ages and heights but all conveying a sense that they wanted to be there amidst the growing cargo.  Maria (Mareja cleaner and helper) was perched highest in the middle seat particularly enjoying the ride despite sitting on a roll of chicken wire.  Peter managed to find guava at one of these stops and it turned out to be a wonderful, exotic addition to the only two fruit we found, a rounded yellow banana variety and unripe oranges (on day two of eating it more light was shed than usual in the dining room and to my surprise I discovered it was an intense sugary pink colour, dotted amongst the yellow and orange it looked beautiful by candlelight.)

In the Mareja village a very warm welcome from everyone despite the dark.  I am getting more used to unpacking by the flicker of torch light, you mostly do it by feel, texture and shape.

My first stop was the new ecohouse to see what damage the big rains had done.  But it is hardly scathed, a few termite trails over the lime finishes and a bat or two in the bamboo eves, but in fact it looks homely and effectively hand crafted.  Peter and Galen draw straws to sleep there or in the ensuite with its own extended (huge) colony of bats in the ceiling, hidden but apparent. 

Peter gets the ecoroom, the Swallow or Red Room.  The other ecoroom the Hornbill or Green Room is still not quite finished it is suffering from the low-grade imported plumbing fittings.  I have come armed with ½”flexi pipe bought from the Plumb Centre on the

Botley Road, Oxford

, and hope it will solve ALL problems.  (However things are rarely compatible here despite ever effort to measure and shop wisely – the thread, washers or some fine detail usually let you down.)  A DIY aside.