We clearly don t belong here. It s one of the hottest places on earth, an area where tribesmen still raid for cattle and highway bandits kill for money. With the exception of thorny trees and prickly bushes, the landscape looks much like the Martian images sent back by the Pathfinder. Except it s quite a bit cooler on Mars. Cold-blooded creatures thrive here.
Life is harder for mammals.
My guidebook tells me that Grevy s zebra, gazelles, and baboons survive here but in the face of drought and food competition from goats, their numbers are decreasing. If it sounds like things are hard for the animals, you know they are even worse for humans. The Turkana people, a tall, lean, leathery-skinned community of nomads, are finding it increasingly difficult to scrape a living out of this pitiless land. They roam these wastelands in search of grass and water for their livestock. Polio, malaria, and cholera kill Turkana kids all the time.