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.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
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.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
I'll be back on the 20th of December
As I'm posting this, I can hear local women celebrating something nearby in a Boma. I think it must be a birth or another type of big ceremony. Its really nice to be so close to the locals to be able to hear them when exciting things happen.
11/17
5th day of DR…went on the road to Tsavo, about an hour drive away, had Simon as my guide. I enjoyed it a lot. We switched e-mails and he wants me to send him postcards and things to let him know how he is doing and stuff like that, cute.
We finished by 11:30, had lunch. Then went to the community center, and waited for Sapaya for 40 minutes. There was a nice young man who spoke English, and most people did say hi to us. There was a drunk person singing the oddest little jig-like song but he was just walkin through town, and we hung out on a porch until Sapaya came to get us.
In the car as we were waiting for the other group to finish, we discussed Sapaya starting a roast meat place in America (I told him we didn’t really eat goat, so he wanted to start his own business). So the plan is for him to go in my suitcase, and we will write “strictly, do not open, and put on top of the rest of the luggage” and we will cut air holes in it, and that way he can breathe and tell when they are about to throw it he can jump so its easier. And they way if he’s on top of the luggage he won’t get squished either. It was hilarious, he knew it was rediculous but he made it sound so possible.
On the drive back, it rained and the roads were completely washed out and there was a river on the side of the road. I couldn’t believe how fast it washed out and how terrible the road became.
11/18
6th day of DR…it rained all night. The camp wasn’t too flooded but as soon as we woke up there was talk of how flooded the roads were and it might be difficult to get out to the sampling area. But everyone got ready as usual and we heard that Shem and Judy got stuck on their way to Nairobi for their days off, and Ngala and Martin got stuck trying to get KWS guards and guides. But we went out with Sapaya at 7 am.
We saw Simon, and Edson on the way in another car with Ngala, and we picked them up. And got Pastor Peter in Kimana. I was also in the front seat so the ride wasn’t too bad (it gets really bumpy the farther back you are.) Sapaya was funny, thinking that I was scared we would get stuck and things like that. At times we were going sideways, and it was funny as long as we kept moving forward. Good thing the tar roads are coming soon, for the main road in town, but the side roads will still be very bad. The soil just washes away so fast that the roads don't stay nice for more than one good rainy night.
We finally got to the first spot and I got out with Pastor Peter, who is very nice…I like him a lot and the first man we interviewed had to leave to go get his cattle. The bomas were pretty far apart and it gets SO hot in the sun that you don't even want to be in the sun for any longer then you have to be.
Not many people wanted to talk to us either…the Mbirikani clinic was doing interviews a couple days before and they were writing down false answers and taking ID cards which people didn’t like, so some people didn’t want to be interviewed. It was only until later did we realise what had happened, and then we had to explain to people that we were from a different place, and there to help them.
We also happened upon a group of men chillin under a tree, which is basically what men do here. It was pretty funny because they all had watches, none of them said the same time as the others and none were the correct time. But at least they had them ha.
We drove back and it wasn’t too bad on the way back. The same people we saw in the morning (stuck in the mud on their way to chyulu) were still there with one goat, and a large truck, drinking chai out of plastic bags and milk cups.
11/19
Non Program day…we celebrated thanksgiving today. We slept in til 9. Which was fantastic. There was a turkey trot at 9:15, Chris and I went down by the southern part of camp (by the stream) where it’s a lot more slippery after it rains. We went down there to watch people slip because it had been raining. No one fell but it came pretty close.
Brunch was at 10, we had omlets and cinnamon buns.
My mama came to thanksgiving, and so did quite a few of them. Along with some morans and a couple guides. There really isn’t anything to communicate, so I sat with her for a bit and played with her baby. Her husband is Kinyokou (who is a staff member at camp)
Then we started a slide show and they loved it. Everyone complied pictures from their home stays and animal pictures, which really entertained them for about 1.5 hours because they aren't used to seeing themselves in pictures. After we ate dinner and they had to leave to get home before dark.
We found out today that we can stay til the 19th!!!! I’m so so so excited. We are planning to go over to the coast, Mombasa, Lamu, Watamu, possibly Malindi, and Diani Beach. Snorkeling in the Indian Ocean, laying on the beach, boat trips through mangroves, and the only coastal forest in Kenya, Gede ruins.
11/22
The last few days we've been doing a few interviews (people have been coming to the camp, like key informants and people from local NGOs and people like that.) So we have about an hour of interviews and then the rest of the day to ourselves.
Other than that, not too much has been happening. It has been raining nightly. Its been about a week since we've seen our last snake...one went into a Banda (the door was open by accident) but someone saw it go in, so the staff could go and get it (Daniel ended up killing it). It was a spitting cobra, about 2-3 feet long.
We also had a spitting cobra in our fire pit hiding in the leaves. Unfortunately all the snakes found have to be killed because they are all deadly. But after the cobra was found in the fire pit, we burned all the leaves in it. That cobra was pretty big too..around 1-2 feet
There was also a big black momba by the chumba about a week or 2 ago. We watched the askaris (locals who are the camp guards) kill the snake, and it even made them nervous...
11/17
5th day of DR…went on the road to Tsavo, about an hour drive away, had Simon as my guide. I enjoyed it a lot. We switched e-mails and he wants me to send him postcards and things to let him know how he is doing and stuff like that, cute.
We finished by 11:30, had lunch. Then went to the community center, and waited for Sapaya for 40 minutes. There was a nice young man who spoke English, and most people did say hi to us. There was a drunk person singing the oddest little jig-like song but he was just walkin through town, and we hung out on a porch until Sapaya came to get us.
In the car as we were waiting for the other group to finish, we discussed Sapaya starting a roast meat place in America (I told him we didn’t really eat goat, so he wanted to start his own business). So the plan is for him to go in my suitcase, and we will write “strictly, do not open, and put on top of the rest of the luggage” and we will cut air holes in it, and that way he can breathe and tell when they are about to throw it he can jump so its easier. And they way if he’s on top of the luggage he won’t get squished either. It was hilarious, he knew it was rediculous but he made it sound so possible.
On the drive back, it rained and the roads were completely washed out and there was a river on the side of the road. I couldn’t believe how fast it washed out and how terrible the road became.
11/18
6th day of DR…it rained all night. The camp wasn’t too flooded but as soon as we woke up there was talk of how flooded the roads were and it might be difficult to get out to the sampling area. But everyone got ready as usual and we heard that Shem and Judy got stuck on their way to Nairobi for their days off, and Ngala and Martin got stuck trying to get KWS guards and guides. But we went out with Sapaya at 7 am.
We saw Simon, and Edson on the way in another car with Ngala, and we picked them up. And got Pastor Peter in Kimana. I was also in the front seat so the ride wasn’t too bad (it gets really bumpy the farther back you are.) Sapaya was funny, thinking that I was scared we would get stuck and things like that. At times we were going sideways, and it was funny as long as we kept moving forward. Good thing the tar roads are coming soon, for the main road in town, but the side roads will still be very bad. The soil just washes away so fast that the roads don't stay nice for more than one good rainy night.
We finally got to the first spot and I got out with Pastor Peter, who is very nice…I like him a lot and the first man we interviewed had to leave to go get his cattle. The bomas were pretty far apart and it gets SO hot in the sun that you don't even want to be in the sun for any longer then you have to be.
Not many people wanted to talk to us either…the Mbirikani clinic was doing interviews a couple days before and they were writing down false answers and taking ID cards which people didn’t like, so some people didn’t want to be interviewed. It was only until later did we realise what had happened, and then we had to explain to people that we were from a different place, and there to help them.
We also happened upon a group of men chillin under a tree, which is basically what men do here. It was pretty funny because they all had watches, none of them said the same time as the others and none were the correct time. But at least they had them ha.
We drove back and it wasn’t too bad on the way back. The same people we saw in the morning (stuck in the mud on their way to chyulu) were still there with one goat, and a large truck, drinking chai out of plastic bags and milk cups.
11/19
Non Program day…we celebrated thanksgiving today. We slept in til 9. Which was fantastic. There was a turkey trot at 9:15, Chris and I went down by the southern part of camp (by the stream) where it’s a lot more slippery after it rains. We went down there to watch people slip because it had been raining. No one fell but it came pretty close.
Brunch was at 10, we had omlets and cinnamon buns.
My mama came to thanksgiving, and so did quite a few of them. Along with some morans and a couple guides. There really isn’t anything to communicate, so I sat with her for a bit and played with her baby. Her husband is Kinyokou (who is a staff member at camp)
Then we started a slide show and they loved it. Everyone complied pictures from their home stays and animal pictures, which really entertained them for about 1.5 hours because they aren't used to seeing themselves in pictures. After we ate dinner and they had to leave to get home before dark.
We found out today that we can stay til the 19th!!!! I’m so so so excited. We are planning to go over to the coast, Mombasa, Lamu, Watamu, possibly Malindi, and Diani Beach. Snorkeling in the Indian Ocean, laying on the beach, boat trips through mangroves, and the only coastal forest in Kenya, Gede ruins.
11/22
The last few days we've been doing a few interviews (people have been coming to the camp, like key informants and people from local NGOs and people like that.) So we have about an hour of interviews and then the rest of the day to ourselves.
Other than that, not too much has been happening. It has been raining nightly. Its been about a week since we've seen our last snake...one went into a Banda (the door was open by accident) but someone saw it go in, so the staff could go and get it (Daniel ended up killing it). It was a spitting cobra, about 2-3 feet long.
We also had a spitting cobra in our fire pit hiding in the leaves. Unfortunately all the snakes found have to be killed because they are all deadly. But after the cobra was found in the fire pit, we burned all the leaves in it. That cobra was pretty big too..around 1-2 feet
There was also a big black momba by the chumba about a week or 2 ago. We watched the askaris (locals who are the camp guards) kill the snake, and it even made them nervous...
Finally the internet is working well enough to post a blog!
11/13
1st day of directed research (DR) was good. We met with the local guides that we will be working with. Went over all the questions with them to make sure they understood what we needed to ask, and finished with that around 11am. We did 3 interviews because it was the first day, and Kris and I were done at 12:30 and while we were waiting for the other group, we shopped and walked around Kimana, haha. (We all do 10 interviews daily, and go with one guide and us, and every day we go with a different guide, and then one person stays back to do data entry from the day before.)
The questionaire has questions about land use, and how the people feel about their group ranch being subdivided. Basically being community managed to privately managed (where people own their land). And then of course we ask how they think subdivision will effect their lives, wildlife, environment, and livestock. I can explain much more if anyone is interested when I get home.
11/14
2nd day of DR, I was with Edson, the local guide and we went around to the local Bomas by camp. We walked for a long time, we didn't finish til 4, and the other groups were done by 1. But it wasn't too bad, the Bomas were just far away, and some of them had no people so we had to go to the next one. The interviews generally went pretty well. There are always children crowding around you, and the guides have to shoo them away.
Also, women breast feed here for a long, long time, and they are not shy about it at all. Many times, in the middle of the interview, they just start breast feeding and its totally normal. The kids love to watch themselves in my sunglasses, and they love it if I write on them with my pen (not many people have pens here, and they think its awesome that it shows up on their skin.)
And sometimes, the older kids can read and write and occasionally they will read outloud as I'm writing answers. Usually they are really shy and won't speak to me, even in Swahili. Or they will laugh and run away because everyone thinks its funny to hear mzungo (tourists/while people) speak swahili or even english.
11/15
3rd day of DR…I stayed behind to do data entry. It took a few hours to do it all, we have a special program that we enter the data in, and it will analyze it for us. Then I ate lunch with the staff.
I was the only student that stayed behind that day, and when Abdi told me it was lunch time he said "Celena, its lunchhhhh time. But tell the cooks you are here because we eat African food hereee!" He is too funny. The cooks made them a huge pot of beans and corn (generally Africans eat only 1 dish, sometimes 2 at a meal, depending on what it is). And the food that the students get has a lot more options, but also has the staple food that the staff eat too.
11/16
4th day of DR…went with Innocent (a local guide, thats a nick name). We were done by 11:30. And we ended up meeting Daniel's (a staff member) wife, and we interviewed her, and she invited us to her house for lunch. The house was very nice, wooden (instead of cow dung/mud mixture) and had couches and a living room, with a china cabinet, which I've never seen in Kenya. But she made us rice and carrots, which was really cool because we never expected to meet his wife (her name is Diana).
Eariler in the day I watched a little kid pee in a rolley toy, put dirt in it, play in it and put his hands in his mouth…clean.
I forgot to mention that no children wear diapers. And usually the ones under 3 don't wear a shirt or pants either. Girls always wear skirts here, boys always wear pants too...its literally the only way to tell the difference between gender because everyone has shaved heads. Anyway, there are a lot of 1/2 naked children running around, very different from the US, and we've come across a lot of Bomas where the parents leave the children for hours to get water from a stream, or whatever they need to do...also very different from the US.
The drive back was long and dusty but we watched Wall-E when I got back. And hung out for the rest of the afternoon, just like we've done for most of the days since DR started. DR is pretty sweet.
1st day of directed research (DR) was good. We met with the local guides that we will be working with. Went over all the questions with them to make sure they understood what we needed to ask, and finished with that around 11am. We did 3 interviews because it was the first day, and Kris and I were done at 12:30 and while we were waiting for the other group, we shopped and walked around Kimana, haha. (We all do 10 interviews daily, and go with one guide and us, and every day we go with a different guide, and then one person stays back to do data entry from the day before.)
The questionaire has questions about land use, and how the people feel about their group ranch being subdivided. Basically being community managed to privately managed (where people own their land). And then of course we ask how they think subdivision will effect their lives, wildlife, environment, and livestock. I can explain much more if anyone is interested when I get home.
11/14
2nd day of DR, I was with Edson, the local guide and we went around to the local Bomas by camp. We walked for a long time, we didn't finish til 4, and the other groups were done by 1. But it wasn't too bad, the Bomas were just far away, and some of them had no people so we had to go to the next one. The interviews generally went pretty well. There are always children crowding around you, and the guides have to shoo them away.
Also, women breast feed here for a long, long time, and they are not shy about it at all. Many times, in the middle of the interview, they just start breast feeding and its totally normal. The kids love to watch themselves in my sunglasses, and they love it if I write on them with my pen (not many people have pens here, and they think its awesome that it shows up on their skin.)
And sometimes, the older kids can read and write and occasionally they will read outloud as I'm writing answers. Usually they are really shy and won't speak to me, even in Swahili. Or they will laugh and run away because everyone thinks its funny to hear mzungo (tourists/while people) speak swahili or even english.
11/15
3rd day of DR…I stayed behind to do data entry. It took a few hours to do it all, we have a special program that we enter the data in, and it will analyze it for us. Then I ate lunch with the staff.
I was the only student that stayed behind that day, and when Abdi told me it was lunch time he said "Celena, its lunchhhhh time. But tell the cooks you are here because we eat African food hereee!" He is too funny. The cooks made them a huge pot of beans and corn (generally Africans eat only 1 dish, sometimes 2 at a meal, depending on what it is). And the food that the students get has a lot more options, but also has the staple food that the staff eat too.
11/16
4th day of DR…went with Innocent (a local guide, thats a nick name). We were done by 11:30. And we ended up meeting Daniel's (a staff member) wife, and we interviewed her, and she invited us to her house for lunch. The house was very nice, wooden (instead of cow dung/mud mixture) and had couches and a living room, with a china cabinet, which I've never seen in Kenya. But she made us rice and carrots, which was really cool because we never expected to meet his wife (her name is Diana).
Eariler in the day I watched a little kid pee in a rolley toy, put dirt in it, play in it and put his hands in his mouth…clean.
I forgot to mention that no children wear diapers. And usually the ones under 3 don't wear a shirt or pants either. Girls always wear skirts here, boys always wear pants too...its literally the only way to tell the difference between gender because everyone has shaved heads. Anyway, there are a lot of 1/2 naked children running around, very different from the US, and we've come across a lot of Bomas where the parents leave the children for hours to get water from a stream, or whatever they need to do...also very different from the US.
The drive back was long and dusty but we watched Wall-E when I got back. And hung out for the rest of the afternoon, just like we've done for most of the days since DR started. DR is pretty sweet.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Wow. Yes that really happened
Day 65 (11/8)
So we are all getting ready for the Directed Research part of the course. There will be lots of reading, writing 40 page papers, and field work. I’m excited.
Day 63 (11/6)
Today was a non-program day, first stop…recycled glass factory. The most amazing place ever. Sculptures everywhere, absolutely fantastic and beautiful. There is no way to describe it except like a dream of a magical world. I wish I could post pictures but the internet it too slow. They made so many things, all hand made and it was crazy. The best part is it is totally environmentally friendly and they only use recycled glass
The place is called kitengela glass factory, this is the website: www.kitengela-glass.com/ . They even ship to the US…check it out.
Next stop…ostrich resort. And it is just what it sounds like. An ostrich farm in resort farm. They have 700 ostriches and some are trained to be ridden. Others are slaughtered to turn into ostrich burgers. It was so awesome. I rode an ostrich, they have these blanket/saddle things on the ostrich and 2 men are holding either side of you, and they sort of hold the ostrich too. There is this round pen, and you get on, go around once and you basically have to go where ever the ostrich goes. They are SO strong, and fast. He started to run in the same spot each time around, and you have to lean really far back so you don’t slide down their necks. But it was a lot of fun!
And…we got ostrich burgers, ostrich tastes like beef. It’s a red meat, the burger almost tasted like meatballs. It was really good.
Day 60 (11/3)
Today I was MOD, so I was responsible for helping the professors if needed, and run RAP, which basically just lets everyone know what goes on for the next day/announcements.
We woke up at 5:45 for cook crew…and then left camp by 7 to get to Hells Gate. There we went to Lake Naivaisha, first stop was at a Kenya Wildlife Service base and we had to walk down the muddiest, slippery trail to get to the lake. A lot of people got there, and had to walk right back because it took them so long.
We got to Hells Gate, and took a tour of the geothermal plant they have there…which was really interesting because its in the middle of the National Park and the ways that they keep it environmentally friendly.
The geography of the park is also really interesting with cliffs everywhere. We really only saw buffalo.
It rained the whole day and it was really interesting trying to game drive and then it would start to pour and we would have to close the hatches, which isn’t the easiest thing in the world, especially while we are moving…you have to basically shift the roof around, that are slabs of metal, and they connect to the roof in different ways.
Day 59 (11/2)
We had a few guest lecturers this morning, and then in the afternoon Arthur (one of our cooks…he is hilarious) gave us a cooking lesson as a group. Then we went on a game drive.
First stop was Baboon cliff…one of the girls put down her Nalgene on a bench and out of nowhere a Baboon ran in-between all us and grabbed her Nalgene and ran down the cliffs. He brushed up against some people and I could have reached down to touch him. About a second after he grabbed it, some of the staff started to sprint with rocks in their hands ready to get him…the whole scene was hilarious and it happened in about 2 seconds.
We drove around, and saw lots of baby zebras, rhinos, buffalo, and everything is so brilliantly green and beautiful. There was also a ton of flamingoes, and marabou storks which are HUGE and sorta creepy with red faces and like 9 foot wingspan. We could walk up to the lake and take pictures which was pretty cool.
On the last part of the game drive we saw a LEOPARD. Officially I have seen the Big 5. Elephant, buffalo, rhino, leopard, lion…traditionally the 5 hardest animals to kill. It was so cute, just sleeping on a tree branch, got up, looked at us and then went back to sleep. It blended in so well that it was hard to see even when we knew where it was. But they are so magnificent and beautiful that he was breath taking.
We also saw zebras fighting, black-backed jackals tearing apart a carcass.
We brought some staff with us...Ki-Pez is my favorite. He knows very little English but he knows my name, and he says “verrrry good America” for everything, and sometimes wears a cowboy hat to compliment his Maasai outfits. And Fred came with us too…he knows a lot more English and comes up with the funniest stories about lions and elephants.
Day 58 (11/1)
We left for Lake Nakuru, and stopped twice on the way. It was cold and raining so our first stop was an overlook, that we couldn’t see very far out into, and the second stop it was raining so hard we didn’t get out of the car and had a little mini lecture over the car radios haha.
We went through Nairobi, sort of on the outskirts, but we could see a lot of the city, and it’s a lot of large buildings, parks, and it looked like a nice city…except for the level of violence. They have a lot of round-a-bouts, and surprisingly this time there was no traffic.
Cecily played a little boma game that included everyone. The men competed for status, and then they randomly picked wives, the number depended on how they well they did in the competition. And then the wives randomly picked the number of children they would have. And, the family was given cows based on the husband’s status. The whole thing was hilarious. And it got even better when the girls were given “children” made out of tape and sticks…we had to have them with us all day and if Cecily checked and we didn’t have them we would lose them. Also, other wives were allowed to steal them if we left them out. Some “babies” got stolen, and the wives also had a little contest…we leg wrestled haha, I can’t even describe it.
Lake Nakuru’s base had Baboons and Vervets crawling all over it and the Baboons all had babies. So adorable but some were HUGE and a little scary but they were more or less harmless.
We stayed at a “hostel” which was actually a campsite. With a kitchen, running water, electricity (except when there was a country wide black out…twice within 3 days). And of course the trash pit had a troop of huge Baboons.
Long story short my family ended up losing the Boma game.
So we are all getting ready for the Directed Research part of the course. There will be lots of reading, writing 40 page papers, and field work. I’m excited.
Day 63 (11/6)
Today was a non-program day, first stop…recycled glass factory. The most amazing place ever. Sculptures everywhere, absolutely fantastic and beautiful. There is no way to describe it except like a dream of a magical world. I wish I could post pictures but the internet it too slow. They made so many things, all hand made and it was crazy. The best part is it is totally environmentally friendly and they only use recycled glass
The place is called kitengela glass factory, this is the website: www.kitengela-glass.com/ . They even ship to the US…check it out.
Next stop…ostrich resort. And it is just what it sounds like. An ostrich farm in resort farm. They have 700 ostriches and some are trained to be ridden. Others are slaughtered to turn into ostrich burgers. It was so awesome. I rode an ostrich, they have these blanket/saddle things on the ostrich and 2 men are holding either side of you, and they sort of hold the ostrich too. There is this round pen, and you get on, go around once and you basically have to go where ever the ostrich goes. They are SO strong, and fast. He started to run in the same spot each time around, and you have to lean really far back so you don’t slide down their necks. But it was a lot of fun!
And…we got ostrich burgers, ostrich tastes like beef. It’s a red meat, the burger almost tasted like meatballs. It was really good.
Day 60 (11/3)
Today I was MOD, so I was responsible for helping the professors if needed, and run RAP, which basically just lets everyone know what goes on for the next day/announcements.
We woke up at 5:45 for cook crew…and then left camp by 7 to get to Hells Gate. There we went to Lake Naivaisha, first stop was at a Kenya Wildlife Service base and we had to walk down the muddiest, slippery trail to get to the lake. A lot of people got there, and had to walk right back because it took them so long.
We got to Hells Gate, and took a tour of the geothermal plant they have there…which was really interesting because its in the middle of the National Park and the ways that they keep it environmentally friendly.
The geography of the park is also really interesting with cliffs everywhere. We really only saw buffalo.
It rained the whole day and it was really interesting trying to game drive and then it would start to pour and we would have to close the hatches, which isn’t the easiest thing in the world, especially while we are moving…you have to basically shift the roof around, that are slabs of metal, and they connect to the roof in different ways.
Day 59 (11/2)
We had a few guest lecturers this morning, and then in the afternoon Arthur (one of our cooks…he is hilarious) gave us a cooking lesson as a group. Then we went on a game drive.
First stop was Baboon cliff…one of the girls put down her Nalgene on a bench and out of nowhere a Baboon ran in-between all us and grabbed her Nalgene and ran down the cliffs. He brushed up against some people and I could have reached down to touch him. About a second after he grabbed it, some of the staff started to sprint with rocks in their hands ready to get him…the whole scene was hilarious and it happened in about 2 seconds.
We drove around, and saw lots of baby zebras, rhinos, buffalo, and everything is so brilliantly green and beautiful. There was also a ton of flamingoes, and marabou storks which are HUGE and sorta creepy with red faces and like 9 foot wingspan. We could walk up to the lake and take pictures which was pretty cool.
On the last part of the game drive we saw a LEOPARD. Officially I have seen the Big 5. Elephant, buffalo, rhino, leopard, lion…traditionally the 5 hardest animals to kill. It was so cute, just sleeping on a tree branch, got up, looked at us and then went back to sleep. It blended in so well that it was hard to see even when we knew where it was. But they are so magnificent and beautiful that he was breath taking.
We also saw zebras fighting, black-backed jackals tearing apart a carcass.
We brought some staff with us...Ki-Pez is my favorite. He knows very little English but he knows my name, and he says “verrrry good America” for everything, and sometimes wears a cowboy hat to compliment his Maasai outfits. And Fred came with us too…he knows a lot more English and comes up with the funniest stories about lions and elephants.
Day 58 (11/1)
We left for Lake Nakuru, and stopped twice on the way. It was cold and raining so our first stop was an overlook, that we couldn’t see very far out into, and the second stop it was raining so hard we didn’t get out of the car and had a little mini lecture over the car radios haha.
We went through Nairobi, sort of on the outskirts, but we could see a lot of the city, and it’s a lot of large buildings, parks, and it looked like a nice city…except for the level of violence. They have a lot of round-a-bouts, and surprisingly this time there was no traffic.
Cecily played a little boma game that included everyone. The men competed for status, and then they randomly picked wives, the number depended on how they well they did in the competition. And then the wives randomly picked the number of children they would have. And, the family was given cows based on the husband’s status. The whole thing was hilarious. And it got even better when the girls were given “children” made out of tape and sticks…we had to have them with us all day and if Cecily checked and we didn’t have them we would lose them. Also, other wives were allowed to steal them if we left them out. Some “babies” got stolen, and the wives also had a little contest…we leg wrestled haha, I can’t even describe it.
Lake Nakuru’s base had Baboons and Vervets crawling all over it and the Baboons all had babies. So adorable but some were HUGE and a little scary but they were more or less harmless.
We stayed at a “hostel” which was actually a campsite. With a kitchen, running water, electricity (except when there was a country wide black out…twice within 3 days). And of course the trash pit had a troop of huge Baboons.
Long story short my family ended up losing the Boma game.
sorry its so long! but its worth it!
Day 55 (10/29)
Today was wonderful. We went to Nairobi National Park around 9 and we went through a highway type road with no lines and lots of minivans. Then we went through a side road in a town and out of nowhere the gate to the park came up. It’s the only park that has a city literally within its limits and you can see the skyline for most of the park. Once we got into the park it was beautifully green and lush.
We saw Somali Ostriches, zebra, wildebeest, hartebeest, warthogs, lions, rhinos, giraffes, eland, impala, buffaloes, and CHEETAHS. The first group of lions that we saw were 3-4 females and a big male all next to a zebra carcass. Which was really cool because they had obviously just finished eating. We saw buffaloes fighting and lots of baby giraffes, zebra, and buffaloes.
We game drove for a while and then had a picnic where we could see rhinos in the distance. After lunch we went to a KWS headquarters and had a short lecture on their actions and how they handle business.
After, on the way out we game drove out and there was an orphanage right next to the KWS headquarters…we saw 2 sub-adult cheetahs across the fence and it was a quick glimpse but they are absolutely gorgeous.
On the game drive out we saw some more rhinos, and lions that were freaking out a heard of impala, giraffe, and some warthogs. They were pretty far away but seemed to be just relaxing in the afternoon because most lions hunt at night and early morning…not in the middle of the afternoon. Then, out of nowhere we saw a rhino with a small baby. It could almost fit under her belly it was so small. Possibly the cutest thing I’ve seen ever, the head was almost as big as the body and it laid down until it’s mom got too far way and then would scamper over to her again and lay down again. We watched it for a while and got pretty close to zebras and giraffes in the process.
We also saw a hippo that was about 5 feet from the road, and hidden behind a few bushes. The gap in the bushes was just largest to see him look up at us, yawn and then turn around to sun himself better. It was so cool! Their heads are massive but their faces are strangely adorable.
Day 56 (10/30)
Today we had a traveling lecture for the morning. We had 5 stops, in all different places, we had one in a quarry, which was pretty cool to see how they use the land. After the lecture we went back to camp for lunch, and then headed off to a local orphanage. We got there and split into 5 groups. I went to the fixing chairs/tables group and we also had a group of kids join us.
We went into a little courtyard where they had about 40 chairs and desks that were broken, they had a metal frame and wooden seats and backs. So we had screws and about 5 screwdrivers for 30 of us. Eventually we got a system going, and followed the kids’ leads. I ended up working with a 16 yr old named John and a little girl (who basically liked to follow me around named Ashley). This place is a boarding school for orphans and run-away kids, up until the 8th grade. They all have stories, some have siblings in the school with them and others are completely on their own.
They are so well behaved, polite and mature. It’s amazing how well they have adjusted to the life style and they just take everything in stride. I was so impressed that all of these kids were under 16 years old (some had started school later so the oldest was 16) and yet they were so nice and grown-up. We fixed all the chairs and then played games with the kids. Some people played soccer, others taught a group how to play red-rover. They were so excited to have us there, it didn’t really matter what we did with them, it was just nice to be there.
We also brought them a bunch of books, and toys, a ball and some games. After, when we were getting ready to go they sung us songs. They had a young choir and an older one. The younger kids sang the cutest song I have ever seen. And the older kids sang two songs, and they both gave me chills they were so good. Then..we sang Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and the theme song from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Haha…classics.
Day 57 (10/31 HAPPY HALLOWEEN)
This morning we got up for breakfast, and then we had the rest of the morning to ourselves. So I went back to sleep and read my book…I’ve been reading Cry of the Kalahari by Mark and Delia Owens and so far it’s extremely good.
We decorated the chumba for Halloween, with balloons and streamers, and cut out cats and spiders, mainly things that we could find in Africa, in a place that does not celebrate Halloween. We also managed to get some pumpkins, they were green but we carved them into all different things. Ali was the MOD, so she took charge of all of the happenings later on in the afternoon and helped to organize all the decorations.
We had a short class at 2 about Lake Nakuru and then everyone worked on their Halloween costumes, and hung out, and we had special candy apples as a Halloween snack that some of the students helped to make. I was a Fanta girl with Christy. We had a special dinner of grilled cheese, baked potato, chapate, tomato soup, samosas, and oatmeal raison cookies. It was amazingly delicious.
After dinner we played SFS style Clue, we pretended that someone was killed and had to go around in groups of 4 to different places in the camp and try to see if we could figure out who did it, with what weapon, and where. Each station had someone giving us hints and we had to see who could find out the correct answer before the other groups. There was some serious sprinting and yelling…and zero time to use flash lights, which was totally safe.
Then, we had apple bobbing races, and eating donuts off a string races. It was a lot of fun. And the costumes were completely amazing. Chris was Bobbi, who was a girl who was supposed to be at our program but got sick the last second and couldn’t come. She was also supposed to be our fourth banda mate. The cross dressing was hilarious.
Today was wonderful. We went to Nairobi National Park around 9 and we went through a highway type road with no lines and lots of minivans. Then we went through a side road in a town and out of nowhere the gate to the park came up. It’s the only park that has a city literally within its limits and you can see the skyline for most of the park. Once we got into the park it was beautifully green and lush.
We saw Somali Ostriches, zebra, wildebeest, hartebeest, warthogs, lions, rhinos, giraffes, eland, impala, buffaloes, and CHEETAHS. The first group of lions that we saw were 3-4 females and a big male all next to a zebra carcass. Which was really cool because they had obviously just finished eating. We saw buffaloes fighting and lots of baby giraffes, zebra, and buffaloes.
We game drove for a while and then had a picnic where we could see rhinos in the distance. After lunch we went to a KWS headquarters and had a short lecture on their actions and how they handle business.
After, on the way out we game drove out and there was an orphanage right next to the KWS headquarters…we saw 2 sub-adult cheetahs across the fence and it was a quick glimpse but they are absolutely gorgeous.
On the game drive out we saw some more rhinos, and lions that were freaking out a heard of impala, giraffe, and some warthogs. They were pretty far away but seemed to be just relaxing in the afternoon because most lions hunt at night and early morning…not in the middle of the afternoon. Then, out of nowhere we saw a rhino with a small baby. It could almost fit under her belly it was so small. Possibly the cutest thing I’ve seen ever, the head was almost as big as the body and it laid down until it’s mom got too far way and then would scamper over to her again and lay down again. We watched it for a while and got pretty close to zebras and giraffes in the process.
We also saw a hippo that was about 5 feet from the road, and hidden behind a few bushes. The gap in the bushes was just largest to see him look up at us, yawn and then turn around to sun himself better. It was so cool! Their heads are massive but their faces are strangely adorable.
Day 56 (10/30)
Today we had a traveling lecture for the morning. We had 5 stops, in all different places, we had one in a quarry, which was pretty cool to see how they use the land. After the lecture we went back to camp for lunch, and then headed off to a local orphanage. We got there and split into 5 groups. I went to the fixing chairs/tables group and we also had a group of kids join us.
We went into a little courtyard where they had about 40 chairs and desks that were broken, they had a metal frame and wooden seats and backs. So we had screws and about 5 screwdrivers for 30 of us. Eventually we got a system going, and followed the kids’ leads. I ended up working with a 16 yr old named John and a little girl (who basically liked to follow me around named Ashley). This place is a boarding school for orphans and run-away kids, up until the 8th grade. They all have stories, some have siblings in the school with them and others are completely on their own.
They are so well behaved, polite and mature. It’s amazing how well they have adjusted to the life style and they just take everything in stride. I was so impressed that all of these kids were under 16 years old (some had started school later so the oldest was 16) and yet they were so nice and grown-up. We fixed all the chairs and then played games with the kids. Some people played soccer, others taught a group how to play red-rover. They were so excited to have us there, it didn’t really matter what we did with them, it was just nice to be there.
We also brought them a bunch of books, and toys, a ball and some games. After, when we were getting ready to go they sung us songs. They had a young choir and an older one. The younger kids sang the cutest song I have ever seen. And the older kids sang two songs, and they both gave me chills they were so good. Then..we sang Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and the theme song from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Haha…classics.
Day 57 (10/31 HAPPY HALLOWEEN)
This morning we got up for breakfast, and then we had the rest of the morning to ourselves. So I went back to sleep and read my book…I’ve been reading Cry of the Kalahari by Mark and Delia Owens and so far it’s extremely good.
We decorated the chumba for Halloween, with balloons and streamers, and cut out cats and spiders, mainly things that we could find in Africa, in a place that does not celebrate Halloween. We also managed to get some pumpkins, they were green but we carved them into all different things. Ali was the MOD, so she took charge of all of the happenings later on in the afternoon and helped to organize all the decorations.
We had a short class at 2 about Lake Nakuru and then everyone worked on their Halloween costumes, and hung out, and we had special candy apples as a Halloween snack that some of the students helped to make. I was a Fanta girl with Christy. We had a special dinner of grilled cheese, baked potato, chapate, tomato soup, samosas, and oatmeal raison cookies. It was amazingly delicious.
After dinner we played SFS style Clue, we pretended that someone was killed and had to go around in groups of 4 to different places in the camp and try to see if we could figure out who did it, with what weapon, and where. Each station had someone giving us hints and we had to see who could find out the correct answer before the other groups. There was some serious sprinting and yelling…and zero time to use flash lights, which was totally safe.
Then, we had apple bobbing races, and eating donuts off a string races. It was a lot of fun. And the costumes were completely amazing. Chris was Bobbi, who was a girl who was supposed to be at our program but got sick the last second and couldn’t come. She was also supposed to be our fourth banda mate. The cross dressing was hilarious.
baby elephants and giraffe kisses?! YES
Day 54 (10/28)
This morning we had cook crew…I made eggs and fried aero-root. After breakfast we played more banana grams, and left camp around 8AM. We drove for about an hour through rolling hillsides and farms scattered with dead cows in the beginning. As we got farther away from camp the tin sheds because rock castles and the single family farms became big pure green fields with healthy cows and sheep with wool! We finally got to a paved road, and a town called Karen, which is one of the suburbs outside of Nairobi, most people there are extremely wealthy.
We then got to the Elephant Orphanage and the gates opened, first thing we saw was a warthog. She was big, at least 2 ½ feet tall, super wide head and long tusks, with 4 tiny babies surrounding her running around and playing in the mud and head butting each other.
We drove up to the area with the elephants, walked in and there were stalls for each elephant and beds in them too for the keepers to sleep with them at night. They weren’t in there because they were all on their morning walk but directly in front of the elephant stalls were two RHINOS! We couldn’t stop and had to walk by to get to the elephant area.
There was a rope to separate where the people were supposed to be. They allow people to come every day from 11 to 12 because that’s one of the times they get their bottles in the play area. There was a small wading mud-hole and soccer balls and then branches set up.
Someone talked to us about their program and how human-wildlife conflict, poaching and drought are the main reasons they have the elephants that they do. There are 3 age groups that the elephants work through while in close contact with the keepers and then are eventually they are released into Tsavo National Park to live on their own. They have 31 elephants at the moment, and 3 rhinos. One just got released into the orphanage’s dispersal area but comes back to visit occasionally (he is about to be translocated to another park). And one rhino is blind and will be released into a fenced 100 acre plot for his lifetime because he has no chance of being released into the wild. The other one is a smaller baby then the other two and we didn’t see him.
The first group of elephants came into the area, all with blankets on to keep them warm so they didn’t get phenomena. One had a zebra blanket on which was so adorable. Someone talked to us about all of them, how they got there, names and ages. They were so adorable, playing and fighting, having the care-takers comfort them if something went wrong and they all seemed so happy. This first group was about 1-4 months old, so they were all very new to the program and had recently either lost their herd or watched their mother’s die. The care these care-takers give each individual elephant is remarkable and each one is given 24 hour care and one on one attention, just like their mother would in the wild. The cutest thing was watching them figure out how to use their trunks to drink. They had tubs of water and the smallest elephants obviously had not figured out how to suck up the water in their trunk and then blow it into their mouth. The care-takers helped some who were frustrated. One of the babies went onto the other side of the rope into the people and was determined to get to the branches on the other side. Someone went to get him to bring him back in and he was just not interested in being on the elephant side of the fence. Eventually they got him over, after a small temper tantrum (just like human babies), only they are about 250 pounds.
Two more groups were brought out, each getting bigger and more determined to get to their bottles, and then quickly turn to get another’s bottle. Some played in the water and others tried to dump the water trough over. They again told us all of their stories, there were some noisy complains and small tussles over who got what branch...more like kindergardeners. Elephants have such a complex social structure, understand death, birth and go through countless emotions, it is just unreal that anyone would want to slaughter such a magnificent animal just to make an ornamental object. Same with Rhinos...but demand will equal supply.
There were a few times when the elephants would walk up to the people and you could pet them, or they would walk right by the rope and you could pet them. It was amazing. There were quite a few times we got to touch them, and baby elephants are hairy with sparse hairs everywhere, but surprisingly soft.
The talk/feeding time was finished and we went to go see the rhinos. I got some amazing pictures, they were both close up to the fence so we could pet them and their horns are huge. Long and slender, they look just like bone, and it’s so disturbing that there are people in this world that would needlessly butcher such a magnificent animal for supposed medicinal purposes, or to use as dagger handles. Everything about them is spectacular, their shear massiveness and width alone is breath taking. Their horns are much bigger and longer then I imagined them being.
After the elephants we left to go to the Giraffe sanctuary. We drove up and there is this building with a wrap-around porch and giraffes in a field in the background. We walked up the steps and immediately the keepers got the giraffes to come over. We fed them pellets and their tongues are so long, rough, and prehensile. Fun facts: giraffes tongues are purple so they don’t get sun-burnt and prehensile so they can easily just pick the leaves off the acacia trees which have huge needle-like thorns to protect their leaves.
Some people got giraffe kisses too. Haha. They have about 10 giraffes there and then release them when they are big enough. They had Rothschild giraffes there which are rare in the wild. It was a really cool area that has been operating for many decades and depends on the support of people coming to feed them, they also gave us a talk on the giraffes. We were allowed to pet them when they were being fed, they are actually really soft and their lips are fuzzy. Being at eye level with them was cool because it gave you a good perspective on how tall they actually are and what they see.
The bead making factory was next, called Kzuri Factory. They employ single mothers, provide health care and transportation for them to work. The beads they make are fantastic, its all clay that are molded differently and painted, most of them are big bulky beads. They make mostly necklaces and bracelets. They also had some pottery which was amazing and all hand painted.
Finally we went to a gas station...one with real pizza and soft serve ice cream. Everyone was in heaven, it was a perfect end to a perfect day.
Day 53 (10/27)
This morning we had breakfast. We had already discovered there were sugar ants everywhere and in everything that is left open even the slightest bit. There were hundreds in the syrup this morning. Gross. But they are itty bitty and completely harmless so it could be worse. The vervet monkeys are also quite a bit more bold at this camp site. If you leave fruit on the ledge of the chumba, its gone…especially at meal time. They aren’t aggressive but they know what time meals are at and are sure to make an appearance. They also like shower time and occasionally will sit on the rock wall surrounding the outdoor shower watch you. Haha.
We had class today, just some wrap up classes, and a guest lecture on Black Rhino conservation. We played banana grams for hours today. That game is so addicting and rewarding when you win.
There is no internet at this site, so we’ve been watching hours of The Office too, and movie nights and things.
Fun Fact: Our curfew to be back inside the fence from the soccer field/outside running route is 6 pm. The predators come out to hunt around 6:30 when it gets dark.
This morning we had cook crew…I made eggs and fried aero-root. After breakfast we played more banana grams, and left camp around 8AM. We drove for about an hour through rolling hillsides and farms scattered with dead cows in the beginning. As we got farther away from camp the tin sheds because rock castles and the single family farms became big pure green fields with healthy cows and sheep with wool! We finally got to a paved road, and a town called Karen, which is one of the suburbs outside of Nairobi, most people there are extremely wealthy.
We then got to the Elephant Orphanage and the gates opened, first thing we saw was a warthog. She was big, at least 2 ½ feet tall, super wide head and long tusks, with 4 tiny babies surrounding her running around and playing in the mud and head butting each other.
We drove up to the area with the elephants, walked in and there were stalls for each elephant and beds in them too for the keepers to sleep with them at night. They weren’t in there because they were all on their morning walk but directly in front of the elephant stalls were two RHINOS! We couldn’t stop and had to walk by to get to the elephant area.
There was a rope to separate where the people were supposed to be. They allow people to come every day from 11 to 12 because that’s one of the times they get their bottles in the play area. There was a small wading mud-hole and soccer balls and then branches set up.
Someone talked to us about their program and how human-wildlife conflict, poaching and drought are the main reasons they have the elephants that they do. There are 3 age groups that the elephants work through while in close contact with the keepers and then are eventually they are released into Tsavo National Park to live on their own. They have 31 elephants at the moment, and 3 rhinos. One just got released into the orphanage’s dispersal area but comes back to visit occasionally (he is about to be translocated to another park). And one rhino is blind and will be released into a fenced 100 acre plot for his lifetime because he has no chance of being released into the wild. The other one is a smaller baby then the other two and we didn’t see him.
The first group of elephants came into the area, all with blankets on to keep them warm so they didn’t get phenomena. One had a zebra blanket on which was so adorable. Someone talked to us about all of them, how they got there, names and ages. They were so adorable, playing and fighting, having the care-takers comfort them if something went wrong and they all seemed so happy. This first group was about 1-4 months old, so they were all very new to the program and had recently either lost their herd or watched their mother’s die. The care these care-takers give each individual elephant is remarkable and each one is given 24 hour care and one on one attention, just like their mother would in the wild. The cutest thing was watching them figure out how to use their trunks to drink. They had tubs of water and the smallest elephants obviously had not figured out how to suck up the water in their trunk and then blow it into their mouth. The care-takers helped some who were frustrated. One of the babies went onto the other side of the rope into the people and was determined to get to the branches on the other side. Someone went to get him to bring him back in and he was just not interested in being on the elephant side of the fence. Eventually they got him over, after a small temper tantrum (just like human babies), only they are about 250 pounds.
Two more groups were brought out, each getting bigger and more determined to get to their bottles, and then quickly turn to get another’s bottle. Some played in the water and others tried to dump the water trough over. They again told us all of their stories, there were some noisy complains and small tussles over who got what branch...more like kindergardeners. Elephants have such a complex social structure, understand death, birth and go through countless emotions, it is just unreal that anyone would want to slaughter such a magnificent animal just to make an ornamental object. Same with Rhinos...but demand will equal supply.
There were a few times when the elephants would walk up to the people and you could pet them, or they would walk right by the rope and you could pet them. It was amazing. There were quite a few times we got to touch them, and baby elephants are hairy with sparse hairs everywhere, but surprisingly soft.
The talk/feeding time was finished and we went to go see the rhinos. I got some amazing pictures, they were both close up to the fence so we could pet them and their horns are huge. Long and slender, they look just like bone, and it’s so disturbing that there are people in this world that would needlessly butcher such a magnificent animal for supposed medicinal purposes, or to use as dagger handles. Everything about them is spectacular, their shear massiveness and width alone is breath taking. Their horns are much bigger and longer then I imagined them being.
After the elephants we left to go to the Giraffe sanctuary. We drove up and there is this building with a wrap-around porch and giraffes in a field in the background. We walked up the steps and immediately the keepers got the giraffes to come over. We fed them pellets and their tongues are so long, rough, and prehensile. Fun facts: giraffes tongues are purple so they don’t get sun-burnt and prehensile so they can easily just pick the leaves off the acacia trees which have huge needle-like thorns to protect their leaves.
Some people got giraffe kisses too. Haha. They have about 10 giraffes there and then release them when they are big enough. They had Rothschild giraffes there which are rare in the wild. It was a really cool area that has been operating for many decades and depends on the support of people coming to feed them, they also gave us a talk on the giraffes. We were allowed to pet them when they were being fed, they are actually really soft and their lips are fuzzy. Being at eye level with them was cool because it gave you a good perspective on how tall they actually are and what they see.
The bead making factory was next, called Kzuri Factory. They employ single mothers, provide health care and transportation for them to work. The beads they make are fantastic, its all clay that are molded differently and painted, most of them are big bulky beads. They make mostly necklaces and bracelets. They also had some pottery which was amazing and all hand painted.
Finally we went to a gas station...one with real pizza and soft serve ice cream. Everyone was in heaven, it was a perfect end to a perfect day.
Day 53 (10/27)
This morning we had breakfast. We had already discovered there were sugar ants everywhere and in everything that is left open even the slightest bit. There were hundreds in the syrup this morning. Gross. But they are itty bitty and completely harmless so it could be worse. The vervet monkeys are also quite a bit more bold at this camp site. If you leave fruit on the ledge of the chumba, its gone…especially at meal time. They aren’t aggressive but they know what time meals are at and are sure to make an appearance. They also like shower time and occasionally will sit on the rock wall surrounding the outdoor shower watch you. Haha.
We had class today, just some wrap up classes, and a guest lecture on Black Rhino conservation. We played banana grams for hours today. That game is so addicting and rewarding when you win.
There is no internet at this site, so we’ve been watching hours of The Office too, and movie nights and things.
Fun Fact: Our curfew to be back inside the fence from the soccer field/outside running route is 6 pm. The predators come out to hunt around 6:30 when it gets dark.
soon we realized the land cruisers are not completely water proof
Day 52 (10/26)
We woke up, ate breakfast, packed up the cars and the white rhino, and then left KBC at 8:30. We drove for a while, and then all of a sudden there was a paved road…where the bumpy dirt path used to be. Everyone was SO excited. But it felt so weird to be on a smooth road, it felt like the Land Cruiser was standing still. There were a few times we had to get off the paved road for a few minutes and the familiar feeling was back…there was one pot hole that sent all three of us in the last row flying out of our seats (we all had our seat belts on but I still flew up and almost hit my head on the roof). And on the way it started to rain too. The air smelled so sweet and cold and fresh. Everything is intensely more green and lush then in Kimana (even though things have begun to sprout overnight). The closer we got to Nairobi the more green and more it rained. We learned the Land Cruisers are not exactly water proof and some of us got a little bit leaked on haha.
We drove for about 2.5 hours and then stopped at the churio shop that we stopped at the first day to use the bathroom. Its amazing that you can be outside for about 15 seconds but if its moderately raining here you are completely soaked. Then we drove for a few more hours and stopped at a grocery store/clothes store/furniture store called Tusky’s it’s a little bit like a Walmart but not quite as big. On the way to the store it was all we could talk about…we talk about food on a daily basis and what we are craving or what we want to buy. Then out of nowhere we realized we were getting extremely worked up over going to the grocery store haha.
There was so many choices of ice cream, and t-shirts, furniture and some good things. Not a lot of candy (no Kenyans celebrate Halloween) we are all getting excited for it though. We spent an hour there and all ohh’d and ahh’d about the things we could get. Then we got back into the car and headed to NPS, about 20 minutes later, after going through some huge fields and hillsides galore we arrived at a large metal gate that was connecting an 8 foot electric fence. This area is so different from the farmland and barren land that was surrounding the Kimana area the first time we came.
The camp is like a little island oasis, with trees and endless grass. The air smells exceptionally fresh, clean and dust-free. We are situated in a little crater, uphill on both sides but very woody and the staff bandas are trickled along the hillside. The chumba (our common area) is located in the middle of the camp and basically set up the same as in KBC, with the kitchen, library and study room attached, with a common room. The student bandas are on either side, with an outdoor shower towards the front and the indoor showers and bathrooms behind them. Neither showers have heated water. There is a large fire pit about 100 feet in front of the chumba, but closer to the woods and the fence. There is also a grassy volleyball court near the fire pit, but we didn’t bring our volley ball because a huge thorn popped it a few weeks ago. Opps.
The bandas are also set up a little bit differently then at KBC. There are still 4 people to each building but they have 2 sides, with a wall separating them (it doesn’t go all the way up to the ceiling so you are still a little bit connected to the people on the other side). It’s sort of like a duplex, with 2 doors right next to each other and a front porch. There are 2 beds and 2 sets of shelves.
This camp has a very different feel from KBC. One of the most unique things about it is that we are allowed outside the fence (with a buddy). There is a soccer/basketball field on the top of the biggest hill next to the camp. It is one of the most stunning views that I’ve seen here. You can literally see for miles, and the Nairobi skyline kisses the top of the rolling hills. The weather is considerably cooler and it feels like fall (a New England fall, its so perfect.) Because it rains much more the clouds will be dark and threatening on one side and then beautifully white and pure on the other.
We woke up, ate breakfast, packed up the cars and the white rhino, and then left KBC at 8:30. We drove for a while, and then all of a sudden there was a paved road…where the bumpy dirt path used to be. Everyone was SO excited. But it felt so weird to be on a smooth road, it felt like the Land Cruiser was standing still. There were a few times we had to get off the paved road for a few minutes and the familiar feeling was back…there was one pot hole that sent all three of us in the last row flying out of our seats (we all had our seat belts on but I still flew up and almost hit my head on the roof). And on the way it started to rain too. The air smelled so sweet and cold and fresh. Everything is intensely more green and lush then in Kimana (even though things have begun to sprout overnight). The closer we got to Nairobi the more green and more it rained. We learned the Land Cruisers are not exactly water proof and some of us got a little bit leaked on haha.
We drove for about 2.5 hours and then stopped at the churio shop that we stopped at the first day to use the bathroom. Its amazing that you can be outside for about 15 seconds but if its moderately raining here you are completely soaked. Then we drove for a few more hours and stopped at a grocery store/clothes store/furniture store called Tusky’s it’s a little bit like a Walmart but not quite as big. On the way to the store it was all we could talk about…we talk about food on a daily basis and what we are craving or what we want to buy. Then out of nowhere we realized we were getting extremely worked up over going to the grocery store haha.
There was so many choices of ice cream, and t-shirts, furniture and some good things. Not a lot of candy (no Kenyans celebrate Halloween) we are all getting excited for it though. We spent an hour there and all ohh’d and ahh’d about the things we could get. Then we got back into the car and headed to NPS, about 20 minutes later, after going through some huge fields and hillsides galore we arrived at a large metal gate that was connecting an 8 foot electric fence. This area is so different from the farmland and barren land that was surrounding the Kimana area the first time we came.
The camp is like a little island oasis, with trees and endless grass. The air smells exceptionally fresh, clean and dust-free. We are situated in a little crater, uphill on both sides but very woody and the staff bandas are trickled along the hillside. The chumba (our common area) is located in the middle of the camp and basically set up the same as in KBC, with the kitchen, library and study room attached, with a common room. The student bandas are on either side, with an outdoor shower towards the front and the indoor showers and bathrooms behind them. Neither showers have heated water. There is a large fire pit about 100 feet in front of the chumba, but closer to the woods and the fence. There is also a grassy volleyball court near the fire pit, but we didn’t bring our volley ball because a huge thorn popped it a few weeks ago. Opps.
The bandas are also set up a little bit differently then at KBC. There are still 4 people to each building but they have 2 sides, with a wall separating them (it doesn’t go all the way up to the ceiling so you are still a little bit connected to the people on the other side). It’s sort of like a duplex, with 2 doors right next to each other and a front porch. There are 2 beds and 2 sets of shelves.
This camp has a very different feel from KBC. One of the most unique things about it is that we are allowed outside the fence (with a buddy). There is a soccer/basketball field on the top of the biggest hill next to the camp. It is one of the most stunning views that I’ve seen here. You can literally see for miles, and the Nairobi skyline kisses the top of the rolling hills. The weather is considerably cooler and it feels like fall (a New England fall, its so perfect.) Because it rains much more the clouds will be dark and threatening on one side and then beautifully white and pure on the other.
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