[meteorite-list] Kenya meteorite

From: Becky and Kirk <bandk_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:14:31 -0500
Message-ID: <68D98411181C4CBC9E5A6841F809CF39_at_owner55652f88b>

Congrats Mike and Greg! What an adventure! Kudos!!

Best,
Kirk.....:-)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Farmer" <mike at meteoriteguy.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2011 8:28 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 11:14:31 PM PDT