Day 98 (12/8)
So tonight is our last night at KBC, this experience has been priceless and I will miss this place a lot. I wanted to thank everyone for reading and keeping up with my blog. I know they were lengthy at times, I appreciate all of your support throughout the 3 months.
I am looking forward to being home and seeing friends and family, while at the same time this is the last time we will all be together, and these people are truly the only people who know what went on this semester. And I cannot say enough about the staff who will be missed incredibly
For RAP tonight, we had awards and everyone (including staff) got an award, and it was a great way wrap up the semester and have a good laugh with the staff.
We are leaving for NPS, our Nairobi site, for the day/night and we are dropped off at the airport at 8am. And after that, our adventure to the coast begins.
I hope to see you all when I return on the 19th, and I will be back in Rhode Island on the 20th.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Day 97 (12/7)
We have officially been here for 3 months. And we are about to leave. :(
Today we had our community presentations and they went really really well. People started to arrive around 9am, and by 10:30 we started. Literally 80+ people came out from all over the Amboseli-Tsavo region to hear what we had to say which was really cool. The chumba was completely full and the cooks made an incredible amount of food
We gave our presentation, and everything went really smoothly, Daniel translated for us, I presented the recommendation section (which has the potential to seem rude because we have been here for only 3 months, while they live here but everyone was really receptive to us)
The presentations lasted for almost 5 hours, and around 3 we had lunch for around 120 people, and I helped Arthur with chapatti making for a little while before lunch. And then for a few hours after lunch a group of us were in the kitchen helping. I cooked chapattis, and had 4 pans going, which is always a good time. And I fried 120 chapattis for our dinner.
Tomorrow is going to be packing/cleaning/wrapping up the program
We head to our Nairobi site on Wednesday afternoon and then Thursday morning we are dropped off at the airport, and I start my 10 days of traveling (and tomorrow night will be the last time I will be online until I’m back in the states, and I will update it for the last time on my week of travels around the 22nd)
We have officially been here for 3 months. And we are about to leave. :(
Today we had our community presentations and they went really really well. People started to arrive around 9am, and by 10:30 we started. Literally 80+ people came out from all over the Amboseli-Tsavo region to hear what we had to say which was really cool. The chumba was completely full and the cooks made an incredible amount of food
We gave our presentation, and everything went really smoothly, Daniel translated for us, I presented the recommendation section (which has the potential to seem rude because we have been here for only 3 months, while they live here but everyone was really receptive to us)
The presentations lasted for almost 5 hours, and around 3 we had lunch for around 120 people, and I helped Arthur with chapatti making for a little while before lunch. And then for a few hours after lunch a group of us were in the kitchen helping. I cooked chapattis, and had 4 pans going, which is always a good time. And I fried 120 chapattis for our dinner.
Tomorrow is going to be packing/cleaning/wrapping up the program
We head to our Nairobi site on Wednesday afternoon and then Thursday morning we are dropped off at the airport, and I start my 10 days of traveling (and tomorrow night will be the last time I will be online until I’m back in the states, and I will update it for the last time on my week of travels around the 22nd)
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Its almost over!
Day 89 (12/1)
First of all, Happy Birthday Ethan (the big 1-5!)
Today was another write up day, I spent the morning finishing off the draft of my paper. It feels awesome to be done and have a solid draft to work on. But now I have to go back and revise the drafts after Tome (the professor who is my DR advisor) corrects it.
Day 91 (12/3)
The last two days have been write up days, but tomorrow is the last day for write up and the drafts are due at 6 pm. Then as a group we get to compile a presentation that we share with the community on the 7th
In a week, the program will be over and I will be headed to the coast for 10 days to swim and snorkel in the Indian Ocean, visit coastal forest reserves
Day 93 (12/5)
So the 40 page (single spaced) paper is done! The program is just wrapping up, and we are about to present to the community on Monday.
First of all, Happy Birthday Ethan (the big 1-5!)
Today was another write up day, I spent the morning finishing off the draft of my paper. It feels awesome to be done and have a solid draft to work on. But now I have to go back and revise the drafts after Tome (the professor who is my DR advisor) corrects it.
Day 91 (12/3)
The last two days have been write up days, but tomorrow is the last day for write up and the drafts are due at 6 pm. Then as a group we get to compile a presentation that we share with the community on the 7th
In a week, the program will be over and I will be headed to the coast for 10 days to swim and snorkel in the Indian Ocean, visit coastal forest reserves
Day 93 (12/5)
So the 40 page (single spaced) paper is done! The program is just wrapping up, and we are about to present to the community on Monday.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
keep your mouth closed while there are termites flying around
Day 86 (11/28)
Today was another write-up day, so the majority was spent working on the papers, I got my results section done, but there is still so much to do. It was more or less a calm day. Last night, our camp sheep were outside the banda next to us and then all of a sudden they started sneezing/coughing and they will sit outside their door so you can’t open it, which is pretty funny.
As soon as the sun went down today there were swarms of termites in the chumba. Literally thousands all circling all around the lights, from the ceiling to the floor. It was the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen. We stayed away from the lights, and then after a while they started to drop their wings crawl around. So not only are they all over the floor now, their stupid little wings are lying around all creepy and gross. I had no idea that’s what termites even looked like. We all ate outside, in the dark, eventually they just went away but it was unbelievable.
Today was another write-up day, so the majority was spent working on the papers, I got my results section done, but there is still so much to do. It was more or less a calm day. Last night, our camp sheep were outside the banda next to us and then all of a sudden they started sneezing/coughing and they will sit outside their door so you can’t open it, which is pretty funny.
As soon as the sun went down today there were swarms of termites in the chumba. Literally thousands all circling all around the lights, from the ceiling to the floor. It was the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen. We stayed away from the lights, and then after a while they started to drop their wings crawl around. So not only are they all over the floor now, their stupid little wings are lying around all creepy and gross. I had no idea that’s what termites even looked like. We all ate outside, in the dark, eventually they just went away but it was unbelievable.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
Things I’m thankful for:
Family/friends supporting me
SFS Friends
Getting to travel after the program ends
This unique experience of studying abroad with SFS
The rain that is bringing new life to Kenya
Having awesome banda mates, and the uni-bed (all three beds pushed together for easy late night conversations, the mosquito nets separating us)
Having this opportunity to (semi) learn a new language, and experience a whole new culture
Having an unbelievably wonderful staff at camp who do whatever they can to make us feel at home, and always willing to talk to us and I love talking to them every day and learning more about them…I will miss them a lot
Being healthy
The internet, while in Kenya so that I can communicate with everyone
Clean water to drink, and awesome food to eat
Today, we played Frisbee for so long. I taught Abdi (one of the staff members) how to throw the Frisbee a certain way. He was pretty terrible at it but it was hilarious, I laughed the entire time he was playing with us. But I have to say, he can catch the Frisbee like no other, and he just jumps so high. And since the grass has begun to grow, the field has gotten less and less dusty so you don’t turn 5 shades darker when you play on the field.
And for dinner we had Taco Night again, it was so good. Quite a bit different from a real Thanksgiving dinner but can’t complain because it was so delicious.
Family/friends supporting me
SFS Friends
Getting to travel after the program ends
This unique experience of studying abroad with SFS
The rain that is bringing new life to Kenya
Having awesome banda mates, and the uni-bed (all three beds pushed together for easy late night conversations, the mosquito nets separating us)
Having this opportunity to (semi) learn a new language, and experience a whole new culture
Having an unbelievably wonderful staff at camp who do whatever they can to make us feel at home, and always willing to talk to us and I love talking to them every day and learning more about them…I will miss them a lot
Being healthy
The internet, while in Kenya so that I can communicate with everyone
Clean water to drink, and awesome food to eat
Today, we played Frisbee for so long. I taught Abdi (one of the staff members) how to throw the Frisbee a certain way. He was pretty terrible at it but it was hilarious, I laughed the entire time he was playing with us. But I have to say, he can catch the Frisbee like no other, and he just jumps so high. And since the grass has begun to grow, the field has gotten less and less dusty so you don’t turn 5 shades darker when you play on the field.
And for dinner we had Taco Night again, it was so good. Quite a bit different from a real Thanksgiving dinner but can’t complain because it was so delicious.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
7am...prime time for big hairy spiders
Day 82 (11/25)
This morning, around 7AM all 3 of us (Tiffany, Pal, and I) woke up to Lia yelling to Cecily “Get out of the banda, go through the back door.” They are 2 bandas down from us, and you can hear everything in the banda area, we didn’t know exactly what was going on but we knew something was in their banda.
Within about 3 seconds, we had ripped our mosquito nets from beneath the mattress, jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. All three of us peered around the corner and asked what was going on. Someone told us it was a huge spider…we all thought a monkey went into their banda, or a black mamba, or something.
Turns out Lia reached for her towel, and the spider must have been on the towel and it bit her. She said she could feel it’s fangs going through her skin…gross. She was fine, she got Benedryl and her hand was a little swollen but nothing too bad.
So, within a minute one of the staff members (Kioko, the center manager) came back carrying a walking stick. Meanwhile…Cecily was in her bed, in her mosquito net watching where the spider was going.
Kioko killed it, and the thing was huge, its abdomen had to be a couple inches long, and hairy with long legs. At breakfast, I was joking with him about it being a good start to the morning, and he said “a good start to the morning?! I’m a murder! What if Jesus was there?” It was really cute, and unexpected because they have to kill things that come into camp all the time.
The last two days we’ve been doing analysis of the data that we collected. Since our group had mostly interviews we’ve been putting it into a software (SPSS) which basically will compare everything, make charts, and more or less do whatever you need to compare results. And we’ve been working with a GIS software which works with the GPS points to make a map of where certain things are.
For the majority of the day we had meetings with Tome (the Professor in charge of our directed research aka DR) to discuss how we would use our data and deadlines on papers and whatnot.
Its continued to rain, off and on, literally the sky will be blue, and less than 50 feet away its pouring and the clouds are dark and gloomy. But this morning, it occurred to me that things have been getting exponentially growing and becoming more green overnight. It’s exciting to see areas that looked like they could never support any growth to areas that are healthy and blooming.
This morning, around 7AM all 3 of us (Tiffany, Pal, and I) woke up to Lia yelling to Cecily “Get out of the banda, go through the back door.” They are 2 bandas down from us, and you can hear everything in the banda area, we didn’t know exactly what was going on but we knew something was in their banda.
Within about 3 seconds, we had ripped our mosquito nets from beneath the mattress, jumped out of bed and rushed to the door. All three of us peered around the corner and asked what was going on. Someone told us it was a huge spider…we all thought a monkey went into their banda, or a black mamba, or something.
Turns out Lia reached for her towel, and the spider must have been on the towel and it bit her. She said she could feel it’s fangs going through her skin…gross. She was fine, she got Benedryl and her hand was a little swollen but nothing too bad.
So, within a minute one of the staff members (Kioko, the center manager) came back carrying a walking stick. Meanwhile…Cecily was in her bed, in her mosquito net watching where the spider was going.
Kioko killed it, and the thing was huge, its abdomen had to be a couple inches long, and hairy with long legs. At breakfast, I was joking with him about it being a good start to the morning, and he said “a good start to the morning?! I’m a murder! What if Jesus was there?” It was really cute, and unexpected because they have to kill things that come into camp all the time.
The last two days we’ve been doing analysis of the data that we collected. Since our group had mostly interviews we’ve been putting it into a software (SPSS) which basically will compare everything, make charts, and more or less do whatever you need to compare results. And we’ve been working with a GIS software which works with the GPS points to make a map of where certain things are.
For the majority of the day we had meetings with Tome (the Professor in charge of our directed research aka DR) to discuss how we would use our data and deadlines on papers and whatnot.
Its continued to rain, off and on, literally the sky will be blue, and less than 50 feet away its pouring and the clouds are dark and gloomy. But this morning, it occurred to me that things have been getting exponentially growing and becoming more green overnight. It’s exciting to see areas that looked like they could never support any growth to areas that are healthy and blooming.
Monday, November 23, 2009
i've never been happier to see an old man from massachusetts
11/23
Non-program day, we went to Loitokitok, but it was a non-market day so there wasn’t quite as much going on as usual. We went to the VCT (AIDs testing center that has a shop where people in the AIDs support group make things to help support themselves) again to check out their shop, and then walked around Loitokitok.
We happened across this hilarious mzungo (white person) named Nick from Norfolk, MA. Who has been living in Kenya for years, and we were just walking through this street, and all of a sudden we hear “wazungo (toursists), you are supposed to come over here and say hi to me!” So we stopped, laughed and went over to this man, drinking chai infront of a hardware store. He was very funny, and had something to say about everyone’s home state. It was shocking to see him, and he only had one leg too because he lost the other one to gangrene a few years ago! And then he told us about his "ugly kenyan wife", but he was just joking, he actually said she was the most beautiful person hes ever seen...he married her (twice haha).
We also saw the new peace corps volunteers that were staying in Loitokitok. They’ve only been here a few weeks, and I think they were a little shocked to see huge a big group of Americans in Kenya, most were pretty nice and stopped to talk to us.
The difference between attitudes in amazing. Everyone in Kenya waves, all the time. And seeing Americans not wave to us was strange, and I couldn’t help but think they were just rude. But in America no one stops to talk unless you know the other person, and it would be weird to wave to everyone. I can already tell that being home is going to get a lot of getting used to again.
Non-program day, we went to Loitokitok, but it was a non-market day so there wasn’t quite as much going on as usual. We went to the VCT (AIDs testing center that has a shop where people in the AIDs support group make things to help support themselves) again to check out their shop, and then walked around Loitokitok.
We happened across this hilarious mzungo (white person) named Nick from Norfolk, MA. Who has been living in Kenya for years, and we were just walking through this street, and all of a sudden we hear “wazungo (toursists), you are supposed to come over here and say hi to me!” So we stopped, laughed and went over to this man, drinking chai infront of a hardware store. He was very funny, and had something to say about everyone’s home state. It was shocking to see him, and he only had one leg too because he lost the other one to gangrene a few years ago! And then he told us about his "ugly kenyan wife", but he was just joking, he actually said she was the most beautiful person hes ever seen...he married her (twice haha).
We also saw the new peace corps volunteers that were staying in Loitokitok. They’ve only been here a few weeks, and I think they were a little shocked to see huge a big group of Americans in Kenya, most were pretty nice and stopped to talk to us.
The difference between attitudes in amazing. Everyone in Kenya waves, all the time. And seeing Americans not wave to us was strange, and I couldn’t help but think they were just rude. But in America no one stops to talk unless you know the other person, and it would be weird to wave to everyone. I can already tell that being home is going to get a lot of getting used to again.
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