A Book's Cover

Have you ever heard the saying “Do not judge a book by its cover”? If you have, you will definitely understand me. It is very common to stereotype a “computer guy”. The very mention of the word “NERD” sends your mind on an epic trance trying to create a mental characterization. You are trying to be rational in finding an abstraction into the definition of the quintessential nerd. To many a nerd is a man fueled by gallons of fizzled-out Mountain Dew, three-day old pizzas and unhealthy love affair with his PC. Unfortunately Hollywood and Bill Gates pretty much defined the look, behavior and smell of the nerd culture. It does not mean that all computing professionals follow this type of fashion sense and life style. Fortunately for me I am a statistical outlier. I do not fall within the boundaries of this generic genre of nerd-hood. Yes, computing to me is a passion, a career and a life source, but it is not a life style. I did not start my career in finding the meaning of life through beautiful patterns of the zeros and ones, but in a testosterone driven world of the African wildlife. Yes it all began in the living and breathing great outdoors!

Most of my students find it quite amusing when I tell them that I use to work with African venomous snakes. It’s a pretty pleasant experience to see their whimsical and doubting facial expressions when I mention the word - SNAKES! Yep the creature deem by Biblical authors as a metaphor for the “Evil One”. To medical practitioners snakes are causative agents of mortality and morbidity. To the rest of you, they are cold calculated killers that crawled out of a Stephen King horror flick. Yes snakes!

Hang on… before you start judging me; let me start from the beginning. It was just a few minutes after sunset and the darkness began enveloped our little VW Combi van as it maneuvered through a small dusty jungle road to an undisclosed location (meaning I had no clue where I was). Finally as the van’s engine came to a complete halt, a sense of serenity completely overpowered the constant drone of the engine. The occasional rumble of my churning tummy interrupted the tranquil night. As I stepped out of the van it felt like I walked into a dark closet blind folded or in this case 20 kilometers from the capital of Uganda - Kampala. My parents accepted the call to be missionary lectures in a small Adventist college in the middle of nowhere. I was nine, naïve, scared stupid and most of all eager to get some dinner.

I see Uganda was the birthplace of affinity for the African wildlife. Growing-up African had its perks (aside from no electricity, running water or a TV channel) I kept a diversity of pets from 2 civet cats, 3 monkeys, 3 dogs, 15 domestic cats, 4 dik diks (a type of antelope), a bush baby, crowned cranes and other crawlies to keep me busy and out of trouble. When I reach my teenage years our family moved to the neighboring Kenya to teach in another mission school an hour from Eldoret Township. On one of our family outings to the eastern coast of Kenya, I met James Ashe, the founder and owner of Bio-Ken (a snake farm) who was monumental in changing course of my life. I was captivated when Mr. Ashe (who used to be a British Geologist in the 1950’s in search for Uranium) when he captured a black mamba (one of Africa’s deadliest snakes) with ease. As he talked about conservation and why there was a need to conserve these animals, I immediately knew what I wanted to do when I grew up! I wanted to be a herpetologist!

I took this dream to heart and pursued a four year degree in Zoology in Kenya (close to my snakes). While studying in Kenya, a handful of students and I started a small snake collection to promote local conservation of these animals. Our small live collection grew to a point where we had more reptilian diversity than the leading national museums! A few years ago we assisted small conservation organizations in Kakamega Forest and Lake Baringo to start similar conservation education programs concerning rearing, capture, identification and roles of snakes in the environment.

Towards the end of my program, I was involved in many international research studies dealing with reptile behavior, bio-geography and inventory that were conducted in Kenya. These studies gave me the opportunity to travel Kenya in search for these elusive animals.

My adventures and experiences during this time of my life will always be the definitive definition of me, not the quintessential nerd defined by the media. And as a testament to this, my students will always agree that my stories of my explorative years were more interesting than any computer topic.