The Only Joseph in Hell

Emerging from the canyon after about 4 hours we headed to our new friend's car. He had agreed to give us a ride back to Nairobi since otherwise we would have had to leave much earlier. It turned out his name was Nick, and we were all very pleased to meet each other. Just as we were leaving a face appeared in the window looking for a ride to town for food. Nick told him to hop in, and he introduced himself as Joseph from Hell (according to other park stuff he is also called useless masai and crazy masai)and he was so hapy to get a ride because he was very very hungry. We piled him with some nuts and chocolate (he called the chocolate "chick food" but happily ate it) and in turn he gave us some stories. Most of them featured him as the hero/protagonist, and most were probably exaggerated just a wee bit but his job at the park was to assist university botany researchers and he knew lots about the park. Joseph set the story straight on the lions: in fact 3 years ago a couple of lions had taken up residence and now there were about 6 or 7 living in the park. Eh? And they still let people walk through? Apparently the lions havent really bothered anyone, except for a woman with her baby at a campsite (you can also camp in the park) who had the good fortune to be close to their vehicle. The message basically was that until someone gets eaten, its no big deal. He also informed us that he wasnt all that scared of the lions and that like most other kenyans, it was the buffalo he feared. Fair enough. Joseph also told us about the very disturbing recent increase in crime in and surrounding the park. Many years ago robbery had been a fairly common problem, with muggers hiding in the park and stealing money from tourists passing through. Though a nusance, they weren't armed or terribly dangerous, and all they wanted was money. In recent months however robbers have been coming down from the hills on the Tanzanian border with guns. Joseph had been standing at the exit gate when someone approached and demanded to be let out. You need your ticket to exit and he did not have one, so Joseph told him no. Apparently, he then pulled a shotgun and said to let him out or he would shoot Joseph. So he was let out and Joseph took off to find some friends. He collected a coupl dof other park workers that have rifles (possibly for situations like this, but probably more so in case the animals get out of control) and since they guy hadnt gotten too far the surrounded him, took his gun and recovered some things that had been stolen from tourists in the parkthat had been held at gunpoint in a camp site. Joseph then claims that he and some others went out into the hills to find the cohorts of the one they had captured. Nick listened intently to this story and was very concerned. The areas around Naivasha arent the best and apparently they are getting worse, especially as guns begin to spread out of Nairobi. We let Joseph off at his desired food joint with a promise that if we ever come back we would ask for the only Joseph in hell.