[meteorite-list] Kenya meteorite

From: Michael Farmer <mike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:28:22 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <1314149302.70097.YahooMailClassic_at_web1109.biz.mail.sk1.yahoo.com>

A little more background on the fall,

First want to thank Greg Hupe who went with me for trip #2 less than a week after trip one. I wanted to get more money, get the first stones home safe and in the lab and back to Kenya. I had to cancel another trip planned for months with Greg, so only proper thing to do was invite him. He was most accomodating of the rapid change in continents we were going to visit when he saw the stones I got from the first trip.

Congrats to Robert Ward who also recovered a stone in the field, saving it from sure destruction under tropical rains.


We had a lot of fun, we also worked our asses off, dawn to dark, endless hours of every day stuck in traffic jams just to reach the strewnfield.
Cobras, yes, I am not kidding, Greg had close encounter with a Cobra that stood up and scared one of our workers nearly to death, he ran from the field, Greg went to see it but it went down a hole before he saw it. Place crawling with snakes, I was of course in shorts:) so after the worker came screaming to the car, I left the field myself for safer quarters.

The people were nice, the secret police found us, threatened us, got to the point and demanded their cut of the payday to allow us to work. The usual in Africa, another day, another shilling.

I paid great money to the locals, either for stones or for workers and supervisors to monitor the workers, money none of them could refuse, most of them got a year or years of salary for stone worthless to them, changed their lives. For example the woman who sold me the 3.5 kg stone bought cows and pigs, went back to give her photos I promised her, she told me she invested some of the money in livestock, she bought 4 piglets and told me in a year she would have 20 pigs. she could not afford a single pig before that meteorite fell and like a gift from heaven, she got more money than she had ever seen in her life. I will not sell it.

More than one month after the fall, hundreds of deperately poor people searching, 11.8 kg has been found plus the ~2.5 kg original mass.
I thought more would be found, but not so easy.

I flew 39,224 miles, spent more than $28,000 on expenses, went on safari, saw things I have never seen, and recovered a meteorite for science and collectors alike.

Hopefully this is a good thing, but sadly I am sure some will try to destroy my work.
Thanks for the support from those who like what I do to get you the things in your collections.

Trying to work on a webpage, but my computer will have none of it, so giving up for the day. Will try again tomorrow.
Michael Farmer
Received on Tue 23 Aug 2011 09:28:22 PM PDT