Because I have done this before, I have a pretty good idea what to expect: I know where to get supplies, I know the condition of the roads along our route, and I know which local beers I like and which I will use only in a pinch. Mosi: Great nights, great mornings, great beer. Hopefully, we will be able to find some of the mollusk species that have eluded us in the past, like Mutela hargeri and Etheria elliptica. I have lots of shells, but I want some soft tissues!
In addition to Kevin, we will be joined by a bunch of first-timers: Anthony, Curt, Jaci and Jeremy. While each of these people is at a different stage in their scholarly development — from undergraduate student to professor — they are all share the trait of having never sampled tropical African rivers and lakes for freshwater mussels. I am hoping that they are so eager to get wet and lay their hands upon the shelly beasts that I won’t have to. I can just sit on the shore and hold the money.
I am not looking forward to the long days of travel it will take to get from Tuscaloosa to Philadelphia to London to Lusaka, but that is the price to be paid for pushing back the frontiers of malacological knowledge.
