My last update until the 20th of December...

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

finals are over!

So, we just finished all of our exams, hense we finished our classes for the semester. We are packing for our NPS (National Park Site Camp) where we stay for a week. Then from there we are going to Lake Nakuru to stay for another week. We will be back by the 7th of November and I won't have internet until then.

I will be able to post once we get back!
Talk to you all in 2 weeks!

study days turn into prank days

Day 48 (10/22)
Today was a study day, and tomorrow is too. I had cook crew, I made chocolate honey pancakes again. I’m getting so good at multi tasking and having two pans of pancakes cooking at once. But this morning I had one regular pan with a long handle and one pan with 2 handles (like ½ circles), which was hard because they are all metal and get really hot, so you can’t touch it without a hot pad. But the pan has two handles and you can’t pick it up without holding both handles with hot pads. It worked out though.
I spent the morning semi-studying and then after lunch we started to prank people because we were bored. Haha. We locked people in the study banda from the outside, and then took water bottles and played hide and go seek. And then…we stole a bed from a banda and hid it. Hilarious.

My banda mates also decided to COMPLETELY rearrange our banda. With my permission of course. We have 4 beds, and two cabinets/closets (with two sides so they fit 4). I only live with two other people (Pallavi and Tiffany…love them). Anyway, they put the 3 of our beds together so it makes one large bed, but the mosquito nets separate them. And the other bed is on its side, and our suitcases are on the frame. The cabinet/closets are toward the back and perpendicular with the wall so both sides are accessible. It looks awesome.
Before, each bed was in the corners of the banda, and the long side of the bed touched the wall. The closets/cabinets were separating the beds and there was an isle down the middle of the banda. So its really different but its great.

I'm finally caught up...lots to read!

Day 45 (10/19)
This was the big day! The home stay! We stayed from 8 to 5 and did everything the Mamas did.

We had our day-long home stay with a local family. We were grouped in pairs and then assigned to a family. We brought with us water, cabbage, cornmeal, cookies, sugar, tea, butter, cameras, and a radio for each pair. There was a group of 4 assigned to our boma, and then we were paired for each Mama. Our boma was close enough to the camp to walk to, the four of us walked with an askari (our camp guard) over to the boma. On our way there was an elephant and he had tucked himself in large bush, he was big too…we could only see the top of his head and back. The askari thought he was sick because usually they are not near people when morning comes, he ended up just hanging out there all day. He wasn’t near our boma but he was near the path to get back and forth between camp and the boma.

I was with Lauren, and we were assigned to a Mama named Agnes, she is an askari’s wife. The other two girls were assigned to the askari’s mother. Neither spoke English, and not a lot of Swahili. And lucky for us, we didn’t speak Maa, which was their main language. So there was definitely a language barrier but the it turned out to be part of the fun. I learned that I knew a lot more Swahili than I thought and it was helpful because Agnes was much better at Swahili than English. She mostly just said “yes” and “sit down” in English, and she said that every time we asked her something she would say “yes.” So after we realized that asking her things in English didn’t really work, we either would act it out or say it in Swahili. We got better at it throughout the day and our Mama was really patient with us, if there were misunderstandings it usually just ended up being funny.

We spent the first 45 minutes sitting and smiling at each other, meeting the children and watching some livestock. We discovered 2 female dogs there (one with week old puppies and one who was very pregnant) they also had a really cute little boy gray cat, who was actually really sweet (nothing like our kitchen cats at the camp).

After that we made a fire pit, in Agnes house (they put 3 large rocks in a circle and light a fire underneath and put the pots on top of the rocks to balance it) and filled a pot with water. Next she made us chai, and showed us how to do it. We added loose tea, milk, sugar and water, I spilled sugar all over the place, and when I was mixing the chai, I spilled that too (lucky me, it was a dirt floor). They drink chai all day, some people literally have 8 cups a day. After mixing, we sat and drank it, then we put it in thermoses (and surprise surprise we spilled the chai then too.) Agnes was a good sport about our cooking abilities though.

Their actual house consisted of a tin roof, mud/cement walls (it looked like it was mixed together) with logs on the outside supporting it all. You walked in the front door (and they all had actual wooden doors that locked) and there was a bench to sit on (it fit 3) and then chairs set up, sort of like a living room. And then within the room, a little further down there was a fire pit and benches around the sides of the house to sit on. She also had good sized windows that had a wooden door that you could open or close. The other room was the bed room, we actually didn’t really go in there but it had a cloth door and a bed that was on the floor. Agnes’ house was actually quite nice compared to come of the other bomas, most have a grass roof, walls mixed with mud and poop, and small holes in the walls for windows.

After we finished our first cup of chai, Agnes’ friend Susan came over, and she is crazy! She tried to teach us words in Maa, but didn’t know what they meant in English, and she was very high energy, a lot of fun. She insisted on a lot of photos, doing things like stirring food and pretending to eat. We let her take pictures and they ended up being completely off center or cutting off our heads or just showing an arm. They are so funny. We then drank our second cup of chai because we had to offer a cup to our guest and drink a cup with her.

We started to make lunch around 10:45 and Agnes had me cut cabbage, and Lauren cut tomatoes. I used the sharpest knife I’ve ever touched and was a little scared of chopping my finger off. We then cooked the ugali (which is corn meal and water..it basically it a really really thick oatmeal-cake mixture, and it has no real taste) and cooked the cabbage and tomatoes. At times the smoke was intense and made our eyes burn so we had to go outside, but other than that it was really cool to see how they cook every day.

One time, when we were hanging out outside the boma, Ohlibor, another one of our askaris came walking into the boma. Apparently he lives there too. He is older than the other askaris and doesn’t speak any English. I yelled to him and just said hi and he was SO happy to see us in his boma. He came over to me and gave me a huge hug, said something in Maa that sounded really happy…we laughed and then he walked away. Haha he is too funny, I wish we could actually understand what he says.

Then we ate what we cooked and ugali is extremely filling, they gave us huge portions and we couldn’t even eat it all…the little kids ate more than us. After lunch we sat around for about 30 minutes and then went to go get water. As in taking jugs that held 20 liters of water and walking about a mile to the closest stream (which happened to be right behind our camp). On the way we saw a heard of gazelle! We filled them up, and then tied leather straps to them so that we could carry them with the strap across our forehead, so that the barrel is supported by your lower back.

Neither of us could carry it like that, so we put the strap across our shoulders and supported it in our arms. Everyone we saw on the way back laughed at us….everyone. But we made it back and sat around for a little while again. Then we made some bracelets. Agnes told us the colors she wanted us to make and we put them on wire (but she did set them up for us) I made an all yellow bracelet (with about 4 beads that were different colored) and Lauren made an all red bracelet. Haha, I think she was trying to make it simple for us because she knew we wouldn’t be very good at making complex designs (which is very true.)

Throughout the day people were talking on the radios and fooling around with them. And then they made up stories about what they did, like someone said over the radio they saw a leopard…which was a lie. It was fun to play with the radio and communicate with our whole group…even though the idea was to be able to use it if you had questions or needed help. Our mama had NO idea how to use it, but a couple times her husband said something to her (and trying to show her how to use it was…interesting.)

The next task was to get firewood, we walked a little ways away from the boma and then happened upon a fallen tree. She proceeded to chop parts of the tree up with a machete. I was shocked at how good she was and how sharp the machete was. Lauren and I mainly just watched her cut and gathered the wood into one pile. Then we put it into 2 piles, that had to weigh 40-50 pounds each. Again we wrapped rope around them and Lauren and I had to carry them in front of us because it was easier for us then putting the strap on our heads. Again, everyone laughed at us. Agnes carried part of a decent-sized tree trunk back to the boma, holding it on her back.

When we got back, the all little kids had came home from school and they all wanted to greet us after that they started playing and there was lots of screaming and wrestling, boys will be boys…even in Kenya. We rested and watched them play, drank MORE chai and hung out. Finally we cleaned dishes (that seemed to magically appear), I think she was trying to find things for us to do. And then it was time to go. The whole day was a great learning experience.

After getting back, we had learned what others did…and we had it pretty easy. The guys went with the men to herd livestock and farm the fields. Some of the other girls helped to build the mud huts, others built fences, and milked livestock.

Something that was solidified for me today was the presence of SFS within the Kimana community. So many people thought so highly of our staff and how they have helped individuals throughout the many years that SFS has been around. It is truly an honor to be a part of something that not only has a strong foothold in the community but also a program that makes a real difference in community members’ lives.

Day 46 (10/20) and Day 47 (10/21)
These last two days everyone has been finishing up papers that are due, and today (21st) was our last real day of class. We have 2 study days and then finals are the next two days after that. So its been a little hectic getting ready for finals.
Then, after exams we are going right to SFS’s National Park Site for one week, and then camping at Lake Nakuru for another week. We start our Directed Research project for the remainder of the trip and have a few assignments in the middle of it. (And of course our big research papers to present to the community at the end of the program.)

Day 43 (10/17)
This morning we had a lecture on invasive species, which is one of my favorite ecology topics because its so interesting and complex. After that we headed off to Loitokitok. It took almost 2 hours to get to where we were going …which is farther outside of the town than where we usually go. This time we didn’t go to the AIDs clinic, we went to a school to help with the nutrition project. Basically we weighed kids, and measured their upper arm to assess if the kids are overweight, underweight, or an appropriate weight. And then we give them Vitamin A, de-wormer, and necessary supplements if they need extra nutrition. Then there was a clinic set up for people with small issues, such as a hurt foot, or stomach ache.

For the most part, there were too many of us to all have jobs the entire time, I helped to weigh kids which was a done with scales that look like grocery store scales. We put the little ones in cloth baskets and the bigger ones hung off a hook. Haha, there were lots of screaming, crying babies hanging by the scale. There were people recording weights and giving out vitamins. We didn’t have anything to do, so a couple of us made charts for them to use.

We played soccer against their 8th grade team and they won, 1 to 0. It was a pretty good game though, their field is pretty huge so there was a lot of running. During the game, the girls on the side lines got their hair braided by the school kids (mostly girls.) They braided it so there were lots of medium sized braids that were going every direction and people looked absolutely ridiculous. But the girls loved to braid our muzungo (foreigner) hair, most girls have shaved heads.

We went to the market, and we were allowed to have about an hour in the market. Kyle and I walk through the gate, and literally 3 steps into the market 3 little children come up to us and start asking us how we are, and following us around. So then, they started to talk to us and helped us find things in the market. They were really cute, and literally did not leave our side, for the entire hour. We also saw Adam, the guard who saved me from the mama a couple weeks ago. He was so happy to see us again and we talked for a while.

We drove back and roads are always so much more terrible than the drive there. The road from KBC to Kimana has actually been redone, but the road from Kimana to Loitokitok makes up for the road that was repaired to Kimana (because you have to go through Kimana to get to Loitokitok).

Haha, the kids tend to yell to us while we are driving by “wazungo” which means foreigner, and we’ve started to yell watoto which means children. They don’t mean it in a bad way, its kind of like saying Hi, but the few that we have yelled to are stopped in their tracks and are shocked that we know any Swahili at all.

locals always laugh at us when we speak swahili.

Day 42 (10/16)

Today we went to talk to farmers again, and this time it was mostly about wildlife conflict with humans. Our guide/translator was awesome. He was so funny and in our group I was the one who asked the questions so there were a bunch of times that funny things happened that only the guide and I picked up on. And I was picking up on the swahili words, so even before he translated what they said I had an idea and I sort of guessed what they would say and he was shocked that we knew the amount of swahili. AND everyone thinks its hilarious when we speak swahili...literally we will talk to them and they just laugh at us because they "dont expect white people to know their language" because they mostly see or talk to tourists.

After lunch we watched a movie about some of the national parks in Kenya and their management practices. For example, Kruger National Park will cull elephants to keep the park ecosystem balanced, Zimbabwae allows controlled trophy hunting to bring in money for the government/park management, and Kenya takes in money from tourism mostly.

I went for a run today, and the running trail is right next to the fence that goes around the camp. The askaris were fixing a section where an elephant went through the fence last night. Apparently it was the second night in a row that an elephant came through and ate the tiny plot corn thats in the camp. The first night I didn't believe them, but after I saw the hole in the fence its hard to believe anything but an elephant could have damaged that much of the fence. It came in at 11 pm (as in people were still awake, brushing their teeth and hanging out) I was in my banda, and laying in bed talking to my banda mates at 11. We didn't even hear anything! My banda is pretty far away from where it was though. The askaris knew quickly got it out so that no one knew, they are awesome.
After that I did yoga with some people and it was really relaxing and nice.

SNOW!

Day 41 (10/15)
We woke up this morning and found out that while it was raining here, it was snowing on Kili. It was amazing, most of the steep parts of the mountains (and all the deep gullies) were completely covered with snow. And you could see the peak behind the highest peak really clearly, and the smaller peak to the left (which looks mostly like rock) was also completely covered with snow.
It sort of gave the illusion of the mountain being closer than before, the sun was shining on it and it lit up the peak, which totally showed a completely different side of the mountain...it looked just like it does in the pictures.

During class, a baboon stole a watermelon and ate it by the fire pit. Its amazing how that will never get old. Even the professors are intrigued when baboons steal food.

Daniel (our Swahili teacher/resisdent gypsy/local guru) brought his kids to the compound for a couple days. One is 10 and one is 5, they are SO adorable, and amazing at soccer, already. They usually at are boarding school but for some reason have a break, so they will be here with us for a couple days.

After dinner we played a game where everyone has a piece of paper taped to their backs and people go around to write nice things to them, but in the end they don’t know who wrote it. And we got snickerdoodle cookies for being nice to each other. I was excited.

RRRRRRAAAAAAIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNN

Day 38 (10/12)

Today was an all rest day, which basically meant we were allowed to recover from camping, and do nothing. So some people slept, some watched movies, and some worked on papers.

Turns out that sometimes girls even decide to cut mohawks into their hair, and others just cut it drastically short....the girl with a mohawk actually pulls it off quite nicely.

I've been joking about shaving my head but the thought of actually cutting off all my hair is terrifying.



Day 39 (10/13)

Today we had a few lectures, nothing too exciting or different. We also learned an elephant had been in camp last night. Shem (one of our professors told us we should never sleep without one eye open...lol thanks Shem.) I dont believe him though because all of the fences are up, and unless they opened the gate to let it in, you would notice a fence knocked down by an elephant.



We found a walking stick and some tennis balls and played base ball. and then we found ping pong paddles and a single ping pong ball. and then converted our tables into ping pong tables and put up tuperware for the nets. its pretty ghetto but a lot of fun.

Day 40 (10/14)

Today was another class day, we had swahili, and watched some movies on Kruger National Park...and hung out for the rest of the day, wrote a paper or two and then....


IT STARTED TO RAIN! everyone was so excited, we all immediately ran outside and played in it. it was so exciting because they need it so badly here. we were out in it for about 3 minutes and i was completely drenched.

day five and six of camping. no rhinos(kifaru), more lions(simba), and fighting baboons (nyani)

Day 36 (10/10)
Cook crew wake up at 5:15. I made pancakes, and watched the sunrise, it was utterly fantastic. After breakfast we drove to the Rhino Sanctuary (just under 2 hours of driving to get there, but it was still within the Tsavo National Park.) This is a fenced sanctuary which has 65 rhinos, giraffe, zebra, kudu, impala, and warthog. They used to also have elephants and buffalo within the fence but had to relocate them because of the destruction they caused and the competition with the rhino. We saw zero rhinos. After driving around for a little while we met up with the group for another guest lecturer (this time the KWS rangers who manage the Black Rhino Conservation Project talked about what they do and their goals and the project.)

Right as the lecture started, we were within 100 meters of a watering hole and we saw giraffes and zebra drinking! Warthogs also came over to drink and then a buffalo came over (apparently they missed a few in their relocation) and he kicked out the giraffe and zebra who were drinking. The whole thing reminded me of the movie Madagascar 2 with the watering hole and environment. They also pump water to the watering hole if needed because of the drought and feed them when necessary.

After leaving we headed up the mountain to a lodge for another buffet. This one was not as good as the first one but we got to swim again. And it had been overcast and looking like it was going to rain the whole day. Finally, we were in the pool and it was the one day all week that it was not searing hot. I was actually really cold and had to get out. Then all of a sudden it started to drizzle and lightly rain. Which was really cool but it didn’t do too much, it was like a passing shower.

We headed back down and our car stopped because some people had to pee. Then we heard on the radio that there was a simba, which is lion in Swahili. The boys that were out of the car raced back and we went over to the car that was a little bit in front of us and we were watching a lion on the left side of the road, off in the distance.

Then out of nowhere, we looked to the right and this HUGE, MASSIVE, ENORMOUS male lion casually crossed the road. He must have been just about 3 ½ feet tall, which is as big as they get. His head was so wide and his body seemed to go on forever. In Tsavo, male lions don’t have manes and no one knows exactly why but they make up with their lack of mane with their intense size. Just after he crossed the road we heard him calling to the other lion and they were bellowing back and forth. We stayed there for a while, all fascinated with the interaction. We never actually saw them meet because they were far away from each other and then the big male that crossed the road disappeared into the brush.

We all played the game Mafia after dinner which is a great group game that is so much fun around a camp fire because there’s killing and accusing and yelling. We heard lions calling again around 11, and then we went to bed.

Day 37 (10/11)
This morning was another early morning, we all got up at 6, packed our stuff, ate breakfast, took down the tents and loaded stuff into the white rhino. All before 7 AM.

For about 10-15 minutes we watched Baboons go through the trash pit that was right in back of the camp-site. It looked like there were 2 groups, and they were all trying to get to the trash. There was one huge, muscular, scary male that was kicking all the little Baboons out of the pit. The smaller ones chased each other around and tried to steal each other’s trash. And then, all of a sudden a few of the sub-adults ganged up on the big male and he had to run out of the pit but he turned around and started to chase the smaller ones. It was so entertaining, but we had to leave.

We drove back to camp, unpacked and just hung out for the rest of the day. And tomorrow is an all-rest day so there is nothing planned, just catch up on work and laundry and things.

day three and four of camping. lions, tigers, and ants going off to war

Day 34 (10/8)
This morning we went on an early morning game drive, left at 6AM. We drove up to the KWS base, and there is a small watering hole that is behind the building that they made because of the drought. All of a sudden we saw a lion cross the road!! It looked like it was watching the Impala but the KWS guards were trying to get it away from their campsite so it ran up a rocky hill and we got to watch it go up the hill and disappear into the brush. It was really cool, it was a big lion, and it only had a 1/3 of a tail.

Side-note: during our game drive we saw a tourist vehicle, and our land-cruiser stopped to talk to them. They were all Indian and one of the ladies in the car leaned out the window and asked “have you seen any big predators? Like tigers or lions?” We all immediately said no (because we hadn’t seen the lion yet ) and they drove off. After about 30 seconds we realized that she asked for tigers. There are no tigers in Kenya. Haha

At the watering hole there were a bunch of elephants (including sub-adults and babies) so we watched them, and cape buffalo interact around the water.

During the day we had a guest lecturer come (the director of research in Tsavo) and he talked about what projects they are doing, the lack of staff and resources, and how tourism affects the animals.

At Tsavo, it gets intensely hot. So from about 12-4 the sun is so strong that its hard to be anywhere without a breeze. Its not hot from humidity (there is zero humidity) but it is SO hot just purely from the sun that it heats up really fast and then cools down fast too.

After dinner we all hung out and played music around the fire-pit for hours, and of course we made s’mores. Its amazing the things that can entertain you when there is no internet, or computers but just a solar-speaker and an iPod.

Day 35 (10/9)
We had a transect count today. We split up into groups and drove around for hours in different sections of the park, counting animals. We saw a bunch of cool predator tracks on the road (cheetah, wild dog, lion), we had a stand off with a cape buffalo, and saw ants go off to war with termites…all before 8AM. The buffalo was basically just was in the middle of the road and we stopped about 200 meters away, we waited to see if it would move, or maybe charge the vehicle (because buffalo by themselves are often most dangerous). We ended up waiting for a few minutes and then just driving up to it and it moved off the road. The ants that were going off to war were crossing the road and there were at least a thousand. It looked like a big dark line on the road, so we stopped just in time not to run them over and waited until all the ants crossed. They were all carrying pieces of termites and or pieces of leaves.

After we were done with our area we drove up through the rocky parts of the Chyulu hills and it was, again gorgeous. This area gets more rain because its higher up so everything was very green and there were a lot more animals around. We drove up to a lava-flow hill. It was completely black and was made of little loose stones. And in SFS fashion we climbed it. It was hard because you took one step up and slid down a ½ step. The view from the top was great and when we came down we all just took huge steps and let the momentum take us 3 extra feet, and this was a lot easier than attempting to traverse up.

On the way back we stopped for ice cream again and then hung out at the truck stop eating cookies and drinking cold things. We went back to camp and after everyone went to bed, Lia and I stayed up talking to a couple of askaris, Sapaya, and Arthur, for hours. We were talking about snow, winter, America, and we could hear the lions calling (not roaring, more like bellowing) which was cool because you knew they were in the area but far enough away not to be a danger. Plus we were with people who had guns and spears around a camp fire so I felt safe.

day two of camping. ICE CREAM, paved roads, and elephants playing with our tents

Day 33 (10/7)
This day was our big day trip to the Chyulu hills to have a lecture. On the way to the lecture spot we saw paved roads! Its been a month since we had seen any paved roads so we were all shocked. It ended up being the Nairobi-Mombasa highway and there area we were in was a huge truck stop so there are big rigs all around us, people selling things, bars and truck-stops. All of it looks very American. We stayed on that road for about a minute and immediately turned off and the road progressively got worse and worse.

We drove for 2 hours, saw a lot of schools (which means lots of screaming kids in uniforms, some were hanging out the windows and others ran up to the fence.) We had to leave the park to get into the area we were trying to get to, which is why there were schools and farms. So we went up this literal bolder-road for a while and then finally we started to drive in the Chyulu Hills. It was all so stunning and beautiful. It kind of reminded me of Jurassic Park, with all the trees and hills and you could see animals grazing really high up on the hills, which just looks so wild.

Long story short, we hiked up this smallish hill but that went straight up and had a lecture. Our professors love bringing us up hills to teach. Which is cool because then in lecture we can look around and see for miles. After lunch and the lecture we climbed down, some people hiked up an even bigger hill for fun and some hung out around the KWS base. The view was spectacular but the climb was intense at points. Very steep and you feel like you could fall right off the hill if you sway at all.

We stopped at the truck stop (in that paved section) on the way back, and got ICE CREAM. So amazing, ice cream is really hard to find in Kenya because no one really like sweet things and most places don’t have electricity. When we got back to our camp there was an elephant hanging out behind the bathrooms. He had to be 10+ feet tall, and I guess earlier in the day the askaris had to chase him out of our campsite because he was checking out the tents. Haha only in Kenya, right?

I forgot to explain the campsite. The bathrooms consist of 2 stalls, about a 20 foot ditch and a concrete bottom with a hole. There is a 2 roomed brick building that we used for food and water. We brought an iron-stove, tables, and all the food and water we needed. It was amazing that our cooks were able to make the same food they could at our base camp (KBC). Arthur even made a cake over a camp fire..and it was DELICOUS. And it was basically just a cleared area. Our tents were set up closer to the middle of the site and staff tents were on the outside. The campfire was about 30 feet from the kitchen but outside of the cleared area was a decently dense brush-shrub land. We brought 2 of our own askaris, 2 of our cooks, the professors, our SAMs (they are sort of like managers), and then about 5 of other staff, including the mechanics and others to drive the cars. At night there were 2 of the KWS guards (with AK-47s) that would come to stay up and night and watch over the camp site.

day one of camping. hippos, crocodiles, and boys who aren't good at camping

Day 32 (10/6)
We left right at 7AM. And then we drove an hour-ish (Kiringe was our driver, and he was too funny with his iPod…he listens to his “mother tongue music” and when he dances he sort of sticks his belly out and waddles, it is absolutely hilarious)

Took a detour to have a lecture on a hill, one of the small Chyulu Hills.

It took a long long time to get up to the Tsavo gate, and the whole time the road was so bumpy that the land cruiser sounded like someone was shaking a can of pennies. But we finally got there and opened up the hatches, went to the lava flows which is as far as you can see black lava, polka dotted with bright green trees that are growing up through the cracks. Around the lava flows it’s much more of a bush-forest with dense low vegetation and the majority is basically dead/eaten because of the drought. It’s a gorgeous park with a lot of hills (the Chyulu Hills) and some areas are much greener and healthier that are teeming with wildlife, its really cool to see the wildlife grazing up a large hill. It just seems to natural and wild. (We saw these areas later in the trip, mostly around the lava flows there isn’t too much life.)

After the lava flows we went to the Mzima springs (Mzima means life in Swahili) and we ate lunch. The vervets were EVERYWHERE. Some literally tried to run up to us and take the food out of our hands when we weren’t paying attention. But we managed to eat our lunch…we’ve learned enough times that the vervets will stay a good distance away if you throw rocks at them or act like you’re going to hit them with a stick. Haha.

Theres a path around the spring that you can walk around, and its really cool because you see hippos and sometimes crocodiles, and bright blue fish. There’s also an underwater viewing area and an overlook of some of the spring. We saw like 10 hippos, that were decently close and I’m always surprised at their shear wideness and mass. At the time we didn’t think we saw any crocodiles, but after looking at the pictures we realized that there were a couple-rock like things that were actually crocodiles.

The elephants in Tsavo are HUGE. For a comparison, I would say that Alice, Kate and Ginny (the elephants at RWP Zoo) are a little more than half the size of these elephants. And for the first 2 days we only saw very big, mature elephants in groups of 5 or 6.

The sunsets were intensely beautiful, it sets right behind the Chyulu Hills, and we went on an afternoon/sunset game drive. We saw Kudu, which we haven’t seen very many of, Zebra, lots and lots of Dik-dik, Elephants and Giraffe. The animals in Tsavo are a lot more wary of vehicles because Tsavo has far fewer tourists, and Tsavo used to have a poaching problem years ago and elephants remember so most don’t get too close to the road or to vehicles.

At the campfire/ dinner, Kiringe told us all about the close calls with lions they have had at the campsite, and Daniel told us about how he got attacked by a Buffalo when he was a kid. We eventually settled into our tents (that we set up earlier that day), I had a 6 person tent with 4 people. The boys all had 4 people to a 4 person tent…some complained and some didn’t. But the ones who complained made it hilarious about how cramped they were and I loved how all the girls were allowed to spread out in bigger tents. They were eventually given extra tents to spread out more. Haha

The moon is also insanely gorgeous. It started out orange-yellow, huge and close to the ground and slowly works its way around the sky throughout the night.

camping with the man eating lions

Day 31 (10/5)
A month ago today I left Rhode Island. It is crazy that its already been a month but at the same time it feels like we’ve been here for way longer than a month. This morning we had class about our expedition which we leave for tomorrow! We basically just learned about Tsavo’s history and the types of animals they have there, and how the lions there are nick-named “man eaters” because of when they were building the railroad in 1898 and there were 2 male lions, (9 feet long (nose to tail) and almost 4 feet tall at the top of their head) who killed like 150 people, natives and railroad workers in 9 months (plus livestock)…Kahlia taught us all about it last night at RAP too. The lions in Tsavo are actually very interesting because the males do not have manes and nobody exactly knows why but there are a lot of theories.

After that we had a risk management and safety awareness class. They basically just explained to us how the camp will be set up and how we are picking up armed guards because of the car-jacking that can happen on the road that goes to Tsavo, and the fact that we are going to a non-fenced camp ground. Its basically an area where the grass is shorter and there are three stalls with a hole in cement that you use; we are bringing a big gas stove (there is a building for a kitchen, and to put the food in) and we will bring about 1000 gallons of drinking/ cooking water with us along with a ton of food and cooking things. I think I will be able to explain it better once we’ve been but that’s the basic idea. And we sleep in tents with the askaris and armed guards keeping watch and you need as escort to go anywhere after dark. Haha it will be some real African camping, I’m excited but there are so many things that you need to remember could hurt you out there.

Then we were given our tent assignments and jobs based on our cook crews to help the staff pack. We helped get the 70 liter-jugs, clean them out and fill them with drinking water. And then we loaded them into the White Rhino (the BIG van-like truck that carries our bags and things when needed.)

After that we watched a movie about hippos and baby hippopotamuses are so cute. And it was basically about how important they are to the ecosystem and how without them most streams and river beds would be life-less.

Everyone is just getting ready and packing. After this post we won’t be back until Sunday. A week after that, we have a day home stay in a local boma to get an idea of what they do on a day to day basis. And in a little more than a week and a half we have our final exams. Right after finals we go on another camping trip, for 2 weeks this time. And then when we come back we do the directed research portion for around a month and then it’s time to leave. AHHHHHH.

Day 30 (10/4)
This morning was another early morning. Cook crew reported at 6:00AM and we cooked with Susan. It was so dark and cloudy outside (rain coming?). I was responsible for cutting potatoes. I did it wrong about 3 times before Susan actually showed me how she wanted it. Haha she gets so flustered sometimes, and honestly all you can do is laugh because she speaks half Swahili and half English (even though she is fluent in both) and calls everyone baby girl. After cutting the potatoes I fried them in about 3 cups of oil, added some peppers and tomatoes. Good ole’ Kenyan cooking.

Breakfast was at 7 AM and we left for Amboseli right at 7:30. Harrison was our driver and he is seriously the best. Honestly, there are no roads here, just tire tracks and at times it’s at least 5 inches of dirt/dust and the Land Cruisers are so beastly that they just power right through. And the pot holes/HUGE ditches are unreal. There are times when the truck is at a 45 degree angle because the roads are so degraded and they just keep on truckin’.
We got to Amboseli and we put the tops down as usual (got our normal greeting of local Mamas and guys selling bracelets and necklaces, carvings and things at the gate) and then had about 5 stops to have 10-20 minute lectures. After the lectures we went back to the lodge that had the buffet last time. We didn’t have enough time to go swimming but we all hung out by the pool and ate lunch.

AND again, the Vervets are always watching you. This time we didn’t have an askari and quickly realized they are not at all scared by wazungos (white people/ foreigners in Swahili). They tried to go through our stuff if it was left un-guarded and then if we tried to chase them away by just clapping or yelling they acted like they were gunna jump on us…which didn’t happen. But if you acted (really aggressively) like you were going to show a shoe or rock at them they sort of ran away but quickly came back. They are pretty afraid of sling-shots though. And flying objects. Haha they are more or less harmless and really entertaining. As we were leaving they were all trying to jump into the truck as we took the tops off again lol they are EVERYWHERE.

We hung out for a while at the lodge, interrogated Daniel about his wife and kids (haha) and hung out and talked. It started to rain while we were there which is really exciting because hopefully that means the actual rains are coming soon! (in the mountains but you could smell it in the air and the dust was so thick because of the downpouring). On the way home we did a game drive (which just doesn’t get old) and saw lots of hyaneas, and elephants really close up…Harrison was awesome at getting us right up to them at the right time (as they were crossing the road or just passing the other Land Cruisers if we couldn’t see…lol)

Harrison..again is an amazing driver. We took a back way home and somehow managed to spend 10 minutes less in the car and come up completely on the other side of Kimana, which is not a small town. I’m starting to think that to be a driver for the school it is required to be a gypsy. But to their credit they are extremely skilled drivers, they know exactly how to maneuver around these “roads”… most American drivers would flip these huge land cruisers in about 5 minutes trying to drive here.

catching up!

Day 29 (10/3)
Today was another mainly class day, its so nice to know that we only have a few more weeks of class and then the research part starts. AND tomorrow is another Amboseli Day. Monday we are getting ready to go on a camping trip and then Tuesday we leave for 4 days.
Other than that, there isn't too much going on, but people are all feeling much better so thats good.

Day 28 (10/2)
This morning, breakfast was at 7:30 and at 9 the local Mamas are came to do beadwork with us. As in show us how to make bracelets. I failed miserably. It took me 2 hours to make one bracelet; in the meanwhile, the Mamas made about 3, and helped us all start them. But some people took even longer so I didn’t feel like a complete failure.

After lunch we went to a local primary school to play soccer and volleyball. As in grade 4 to 7, in soccer they beat us 5 to 1. They were all just so fast, and ran so much that no one could keep up. But to be fair they’ve played every day for years together and we’ve only been playing together for a few weeks. It was still pretty absurd. After the game the kids wanted us to show them tricks. Basically that’s them telling us to “dance, monkey, dance!” and never mind that everything we did, they could do 10 times better. Example, someone did a hand stand; one of the 7th graders did a handstand then walked around on his hands…for a while.

Today I was MOD, which is basically just an assistant to the professors (but it was a non-program day so we didn’t have class) and then after dinner I was responsible for RAP. For the “P”(presentation) part, I played a game called “Bob the weasel” where everyone stands in a circle, and one person in the middle. You pass a small object behind your backs from person to person and chant “bob the weasel, keep it going, keep it going” and you try to pass the object/ trick the person in the middle. And the goal of the person in the middle is to correctly guess who has the object, then if they guess correctly the person who had the object goes in the middle. It was actually a lot of fun, and it’s a game for like 1st graders. Then after that I played Madagascar 2. Love that movie.

Day 27 (10/1)
Wow, I cannot believe it’s the first day of October. When I think of October I think of leaves changing and falling, pumpkins, brisk-cold morning air and Halloween decorations coming out. There is no hint of any of that happening here. It is getting hotter by the day and everyone is just hoping for rain.
We spent the majority of the day in class and just hung out for the rest of the time. We have a few papers within the next few days. So most people were working on them.

sometimes, shirtless men are walking to nowhere

Day 26 (9/30)
This morning we had class, not to exciting. After lunch we shuttled into the land cruisers once again, went off into the bush and did a field exercise. This involved driving about 45 minutes into the middle of absolutely nowhere. We split up into small 4-person groups and each had a local guide (our group had Daniel as a guide…wahooo.) We all went either north, south, east, or west and then went 100m away from the road, and staked out a plot of 2m x 2m and then evaluated how vegetated the area, what kinds of plants were there (this is where the guides came in, because they know things better than use.) Finally each one of us walked 4 different directions for 20 meters so that we made a circle, then we looked at the vegetation inside the bigger circle and took down observations. Then we walked 200 m (our direction was north) to the next plot. We did this 8 times. We had a compass, tape measure (for the 2 m measurement) and a GPS that really only told us the longer distances (not direction).
Surprisingly, we had a really good time. So much better than sitting in class.

Saw some cool things and Daniel taught us a Swahili song. Out of nowhere (we were in the middle of nowhere to begin with) we saw this man without a shirt walking...just walking. Chris had the compass and I had the GPS so we were infront of the other people and I go "oh look at the size of that giraffe print!" and he goes "uh..look at shirtless man over there."
Daniel stopped to talk to him and then asked if we were scared..haha we just kinda wanted to know where he was trying to walk too. Becuase there was literally nothing for miles.

We saw 2 very dead Zebra carcasses I had to walk right by it when we walked out 20 m., a huge termite mound, ginormous elephant tracks (I could fit 2 of my shoes in one print), and then saw some baby elephant prints, ostrich prints (you know because of their killing toe), and ostrich poop.

Not to mention Daniel is a gypsy. He led us back to the car perfectly without a compass or GPS, and we weren’t following our foot prints because we took detours to go look at cool things(note we went over 1700 meters, which is about a mile off the road.) And when we were driving on the way back, we had to drop off 2 other guides from other groups and Daniel went so far off the road (roads here are more like tire tracks on the ground) and then somehow out of nowhere we ended up back in Kimana, which is the town that our bush camp is in. He continues to surprise me.

We just had RAP (every day after dinner, someone comes up to have a reflection, then people do announcements, and then there is a presentation.) Tonight was Cecily and her quote/reflection was about how people without an education are undervalued by people with an education (which is a lot of what we are learning about, these big-to-do people will come in and try to help the locals somehow but if they don’t talk to them and see what they need or gain their knowledge about the land, the project either fails or makes everything worse.)

Anyway she compared this to how people sometimes look at children, and an amazing quote from an 11 year old boy from Canada is “fear is like a goldfish, if it gets too big you can’t flush it down the toilet” it’s such a deep quote that is a good thing to think about.

My day for RAP is Friday, and I need to think about something good to do.

lesson of the day:Vervet monkeys are always watching you.

Day 25 (9/29)
Around 8 AM we headed off to Amboseli for the 3rd time in 3 weeks. Amazing as usual. We went on a mini-game drive, sung some awesome sing-a-long songs and then went to the Maasai Boma meant for tourism. This one was way different than the neighboring Boma we visited a couple weeks ago or so. We were greeted by their welcome song which was very similar to the one we were sung before only this time there were men and women. The guys jumped with the Maasai men and the girls all jumped with the women (warrior men jump as high as possible and women more like hop around.) One of the Mamas took my hand and gave me a necklace to wear. They all took a bunch of our hands and led us to jump with them. It was a lot of fun but the emotion wasn’t the same compared to our neighboring Boma that sung for us.

We then were led around and they told us about how their Boma works, the socio/economic/cultural aspects of their culture. They were telling us about how their customs are changing (they don’t just live off milk, blood and meat and have moved onto more agricultural means of eating.) This Boma mainly makes their living off of the tourists that come into their homes and completely invade their space (granted, they are invited but most people don’t understand that this is all highly organized and planned out, even the language that they use is critical. They are expected to create this perception of what their life is like based on notions that they believe tourists have and/or want to see.)

There were “250 people, but only 4 families because they are polygamists” and whether or not they all live there or spend the day there it is a very well organized event, almost like a living exhibit in a museum or something like that. They showed us how they make fire and the plants they use for their medicines.

The last thing we did was see what the Mamas were selling. Only this time you were escorted (almost expected to buy something) and then if you expressed interest in an item, the man who was escorting you would lead you out of the circle to barter for price, instead of bartering with the Mama. And if you were both satisfied you gave the money to him. Not the Mama who made it. No one was impressed with this system because it was a very touristy way to deal with us, and they were trying to completely rip us off compared to the prices we knew we could get in the Markets (because we’ve been so many times, and dealt with pushy Mamas).

Anyway, after we left we went to the (5 star beautiful) lodge, had a short discussion on what we saw. And not to mention we had African teachers with us (as opposed to the tourists whose tour drivers will drop them off and not talk to them about their experience.) so they knew what was an act and what was real. Not to mention Daniel (our Swahili teacher) is a Maasai and could give us a better idea on what his views on their representation of their culture was.

What was a little disheartening was when we were being shown how they make fire/use plants another group of tourists came up and most of the people who were relaxing within the Boma got up and ran to greet them and did the exact same dance that was done with us. It was just apparent that this was a rehearsed lifestyle. They weren’t doing it because they were happy to see the new people, they were doing it because it was their job. Their culture somehow has turned into a livelihood.

But either way, it was a lot of fun and this group of Maasai makes serious money off tourists who come to visit them. They all speak English and have gone to school, and seem to live a generally good lifestyle compared to some who have been severely suffering from the drought, it still just makes me think about tourism and ways that people have chosen to exploit such a sacred culture.

BUFFET was amazing, end of story. After that we spent a few hours by the pool, swimming and laying around and more swimming. The view is amazing and ironically enough the chlorine made me feel really clean and sanitized.
Haha, we got some fruit drinks and Lauren (the same girl who got her lunch and orange stolen a week ago) got hers stolen by a Vervet monkey. It came up to the little table and grabbed the fruit pieces on the top of the cup, spilled the drink and ran off. Hilarious. Then an askari was assigned to our area again and Cecily and I talked to him, he thought my Ipod was really cool so were trying to explain to him how it works and I let him listen to some songs.
On the way back we did a game drive and saw a Zebra ATTACK another Zebra. So cool.

P.S. About 10 people have gotten sick with a stomach bug thing, supposedly this happens every semester, everyone gets sick and then in a couple days it’s over. People are dropping like flies, everyday more and more people are getting sick and I’ve heard its not enjoyable in any way, shape or form.

Day 24 (9/28)
Yesterday blogger wasn’t working, we spent a lot of time in class, and had a painfully long 4 hour lab with excel its all just a blur.

This morning, bright and early, we went out on a traveling field lecture. We all climbed into the Land Cruisers and popped out of the hatches and had about 5 stops, 2 of which we got out and the others we listened to the professors talk for 15-30 minutes per stop. We were shown the swamps versus the rangeland and the differences between them. The last stop I was sitting in the land cruiser because it was cooler than standing. So out of nowhere this Maasai man came up to the open window to say hi to me…in the middle of the lecture. I was trying to take notes and talk to the man, at one point he wanted to trade a bracelet he had for my watch. Everyone here loves watches. For a while he stayed by my window and it was a little awkward taking notes while he was hanging out at my window but Kenyans don’t have the same boundaries that Americans do.

We had another lab in the afternoon with excel but it wasn’t bad, really quick. We hung out for the rest of the day and tomorrow we are going to jump with the Maasai at Amboseli (basically a lecture on tourism and how it affects the modernization of culture) I will expand later. AND then we are going to an amazing 5-star lodge’s hotel. With CHEESE and CRACKERS! And desserts galore and chicken and tons of amazing food and I am SO excited!

Chessy found a baby black mamba on the path tonight. An askari chopped it in half though so everything is good again. Its about 1/50th of how small I thought it would be. It is maybe 1/2 cm wide and 5 inches long, silvery/gray and just extremely tiny. I was keeping an eye out for a massive cobra sized snake but its good to know they can be so small...and the smallest ones are the deadliest because young snakes can't control the venom they release. wonderful.

kenya just can't getting old. today there was an earthquake.

Day 22 (9/26)
This morning at 6:30 there was an earthquake! My first earthquake…that I remember anyway in KENYA! http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009maa2.php
Don’t worry, what we felt was not 5.3, I was laying in bed and pretty much awake listening to the birds and monkeys and bugs. Well then all of a sudden the ground started to tremble for about a second, and then it shook a little harder for another second or 2 and then it was over. At first I (seriously) thought it was a train, but then I had to think about how trains are miles and miles away. So I ruled that out. Then I immediately was like, oh damn, earthquake…then I thought about what could land on me and while I’m in my mosquito net I’m more or less completely safe. It was pretty exciting though!

Today was a non-program day. I touched Tanzania.
Anyway, we left camp around 8:30 this morning and drove to Loitoktok, which is more or less the next town over, even closer to the base of Kili. On the way over we could see Kili so clearly and it really never gets old. To make it even better, Harrison was our driver and he has little short cuts to get away from the dusty/pot-hole ridden road. Which by the way I swear gets exponentially worse as the weeks go on.

The first activity of the day was hiking through some farmland (which apparently is normal, and farmers don’t really care if you are on their land) and then down into a gorge, and that was when we touched Tanzania. Then we walked along a dry riverbed with huge boulders and gravel and the beautifully lush trees making the whole riverbed look like a tunnel. We hiked a little way down the riverbed and had lunch. After that we hiked back up out of the gorge, which I then realized how incredibly steep the entire climb was. But it was a lot of fun.

Oh ya..we had armed guards from KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service), as in they had AK47’s and one had to be in the front of the group, and one had to be behind us, basically because there can be buffalo and snakes and things that wouldn’t be too much fun to run into by ourselves.

After the hike, we went to the local AIDS/HIV testing and counseling facility. We met with some people who were AIDS positive and they told us their stories. And then they showed us around, it basically was like a 3-4 roomed clinic where they do in-house blood tests to test people and give them information on it. They also have a support group that does bead work and makes clothing and things like that, and they have a shop they sell it at. I got some great things. But it’s all a surprise so I can’t go into detail.

The Loitoktok market was next, it’s a lot like the Kimana market but at least twice the size and people are about half as pushy. I think it’s basically because there are a lot fewer Mama’s that surround you, and usually everyone is very nice. And I think I’ve been getting a lot more comfortable with using the Swahili that I know and understanding basic things has also gotten a lot easier. We met this one man who wanted us to teach him English (even though he was completely fluent) and he would teach us Swahili.

Haha and at one point when someone in my small group was buying tea, an older Mama grabbed me and pulled me over to her shop to look at her tea, and she was speaking in Swahili and we were all laughing just because she was so old and adorable . Then, out of nowhere a man grabbed the Mama and (in Swahili) told her not to bother me. It was only after he asked if I remembered him that I found out that he was one of our KWS guards that hiked with us (he was wearing different clothing so I didn’t even recognize him). It was hilarious. His name was Adam and he saved me from the crazy Mama.

I feel like the drive back is always 10x dustier and 20x longer.