[meteorite-list] Kenya police

From: Michael Gilmer <meteoritemike_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:29:00 -0400
Message-ID: <CAKBPJW_BP5gQ6+iS4RHQ_ffKb0q7sXzd4S00e2AXyq=Hb30p_Q_at_mail.gmail.com>

I bet that was nerve-wracking, especially after Oman. Talk about
being a Muzungu in a strange land.... ;)

Obviously your guide didn't renew his white-boy stamp on his license. LOL

Did the Kenyan's classify it already or are you taking care of that?



On 8/23/11, Michael Farmer <mike at meteoriteguy.com> wrote:
> Ok, this is how the police thing went down.
> Scared the crap out of me, you know after a stint in locked up abroad, I am
> not too interested in hanging out with police in foreign countries.
>
>
> Greg and I were with my driver and workers, checking in the field on the 25
> people we had hunting, taking them water and Fantas (they like Fanta there
> and most cant afford it, so I bought cases for the workers and kids:)
>
> When we drove to a main dirt road, a man stepped out and flashed a badge,
> and yelled something at my driver. He stopped and the man held us for an
> hour, getting more and more demanding for a paper allowing us "Muzungus"
> spelling? Which means "White people" to be in the area. He then told us he
> knew we were buying stones, he showed photos of him on his phone with the
> colonel with the first stone, and said he was the top cop in the district.
> He demanded to know why we were there, and why we did not ask him permission
> to be there. After going back to confer with another big guy (cop)? My
> driver told us not to worry, it was'nt a problem. I told him for me it was a
> problem after Oman. He laughed and said he was Kenya all his life and knew
> how to handle police. Finally the guy told us good luck, where to hunt, to
> buy any stone we wanted and to have a good time and be safe, we drove about
> 100 ft, then my driver told me to give a few thousand shillings to one of
> my other workers, they walked back to the cops and paid them.
> I was told that the policeman demanded the money in Swahili, told the driver
> to get the money from the white people and give it to them. He would not ask
> us in english or take the money direct from us.
> Typical African shakedown. Part of the business. Poor place, people could
> care less as long as they get their cut.
> The locals have a right to sell their lotto ticket to the highest bidder.
>
> It scared me badly, but have been through it in many countries.
> Michael Farmer
>
> te:
>
>> From: Michael Gilmer <meteoritemike at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Kenya meteorite
>> To: "Michael Farmer" <mike at meteoriteguy.com>
>> Cc: Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>> Date: Tuesday, August 23, 2011, 8:07 PM
>> Hi Mike and List,
>>
>> I bet when the "secret police" arrived, everyone's
>> balloon-knot
>> tightened up a bit. When men with hard eyes and
>> AK-47's want
>> something, the only reasonable thing is to give it.
>> Thankfully they
>> only wanted money.
>>
>> 20 Questions -
>>
>> So, about how many individual whole stones were
>> recovered? Any stones
>> with distinct orientation/flowlines? Or, any stones
>> with anomalous
>> features? Has any of this material been
>> cut yet (if so, what did the
>> matrix look like)?
>>
>> I'll trade you six chickens, a canoe, and 10 cowrie shells
>> for the
>> main mass. ;)
>>
>> Best regards and congratulations,
>>
>> MikeG
>>
>> --
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Galactic Stone & Ironworks - Meteorites & Amber
>> (Michael Gilmer)
>>
>> Website - http://www.galactic-stone.com
>> Facebook - http://tinyurl.com/42h79my
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>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On 8/23/11, Michael Farmer <mike at meteoriteguy.com>
>> wrote:
>> > 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
>> > ______________________________________________
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>> >
>>
>

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Received on Tue 23 Aug 2011 10:29:00 PM PDT