[meteorite-list] Kenya meteorite

From: Richard Montgomery <rickmont_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:07:41 -0700
Message-ID: <1203FFEC115B4617B4CD2A561CD06D1B_at_bosoheadPC>

Mike, Greg and Robert and all the teams on the ground, and snakes and cows
and pigs and Kenyans.... you are living the good dream....and I'm pleased to
be a remote tangent sitting here in tomato-land in California.

Some people never 'do' while others never want to, and still others never
will....those of us that do DO make up the difference. THANKS!

Mike, when you write your book, it'll be a must for me.

Richard Montgomery


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Farmer" <mike at meteoriteguy.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 6:28 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Kenya meteorite


>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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Received on Tue 23 Aug 2011 10:07:41 PM PDT