Last Days In Kenya :(

Hello again!

So I am trying to finish up everything that happened in Kenya before we left for Tanzania in this blog!

The day after our exams was our last non-program day to spend in Kenya and we had all kinds of experiences lined up for us!  The first thing that we did was an amazing hike on a hill called Loisoito.  The drive to get there was insane!  We left the nice paved road after about 5 minutes from camp and went on to the crazy dirt roads near Kimana.  But then, the dirt roads that I thought were bad ended and we went into land that had no tracks and nothing around at all accept a few bomas here and there.  We were literally driving through grass up past the windows and over boulders that caused the entire car to shake and people to almost hit their heads on the ceiling.  I was laughing so hard watching the other cars around us bounce around and everyone’s heads in my cars fly around when they were trying to sleep.  

When we finally arrived at the hill/mountain, all we could see was tons of trees and huge boulders!  Quite a site compared to the rest of the landscape.  We got our backpacks on, filled up our water bottled, and started up the hill.  It didn’t take very long, but it was steep the entire way!  We climbed pretty much straight up the hill squeezing between boulders and trying to avoid every bush since they all have thorns trying to get you.  I felt pathetic when I got the top and was panting like a dog, but I realized everyone else was in the same boat!  The view from the top was amazing!!!  I literally felt like I could see all of Kenya from the top.  The top of the mountain was filled with more boulders and we were allowed to explore anywhere we could get to!  A couple people took off and climbed this insane boulder that involved leaping over a huge crevice to a rock that was at a 70 degree angle!  It was so scary to watch, but I guess it was pretty cool from the top.  I went a different way with a couple of my friends where I still had to leap over the gorge thing, but went to a rock a little less steep.  I felt like the view from there was the perfect tribute to Kenya!  I was surrounded by all of my best friends, overlooking what felt like the entire country with the sunshine on my shoulders.  I was so happy and just took a deep breath from the top, hoping to always remember that view when I think of Kenya.  It was truly an amazing experience!

After climbing down, which was actually even scarier than climbing up, we kept exploring, took awesome pictures up in the rocks, and sunbathed on the top of the hill!  It was so peaceful and when they told us we had to leave, I was so sad.  As much as I was looking forward to going to Tanzania, Kenya would always be my first African home and I knew how much I would miss not having this view with Kili in the background.  We made the climb down and I got my hair stuck in a thorn bush three different times.  You can only imagine how it looked when we finally reached the bottom!  I loved the drive back again over all the crazy rocks and seeing the Maasai hidden among the landscape.  We got back just in time for a well-deserved lunch with lots of chapati!

That afternoon at around 2 in the afternoon, we invited some of the Maasai mamas to come and visit our camp and teach us how to make all of the beautiful beaded jewelry that they are so well known for!  We had purchased tons of beads the day before of all different colors, along with wire, and the mamas brought dividers that keep the beads in place.  We got to decide what we wanted to make, like bracelets and rings, and they helped us make the right shape.  I never in a million years thought I would have the patience to make any of the beaded things, but I actually really loved it!  I made an awesome bracelet with all of my favorite colors and an awesome design!  The mama that I was working with was great and helped with everything that I was trying to make!  However, there was another mama that tried to steal my beads and make something to sell for her!  I had to get one of our staff members that spoke Maasai to tell her to give them back hahaha!  I loved making my bracelet, and when I was done and had tons of beads and wire left, I started making tons of rings of every different color.  I literally became obsessed with making rings.  It was so easy, they looked great, and it was instant satisfaction when I finished.  I made them for my friend for her birthday and for some of the staff members that said they wanted them.  In total I think I made over 25 rings, which I never thought I would have the patience for haha and I am still quite proud of them!  I stopped because we had another volleyball tournament with the staff and had like 40 people playing! It was so fun and got so intense, but I loved spending that time with everyone, even people that had never played before!  We also had a brief spear throwing lesson with the spears that we had bought, but I only did it a few times because I was so bad at it and would never be able to hit anything accept maybe an ant hahaha.

That night, we watched Lord of the Rings, not my favorite, but I just continued to make rings (fitting right hahaha) and write blogs and relax before having to pack the next day!  The next day was probably the most relaxing, sit back and relax kind of day that we had at KBC.  We had no assignments left and no exams, so we could do anything we wanted and not feel guilty about it!  We hung out all morning and played banana grams with some of the staff and watched TV shows and other youtube videos.  We were getting our exams grades back at 2 in the afternoon, so we just had to wait around in suspense.  When we finally saw our professors putting our grades in our cubbies, we all held our breath. 

Overall, I was so happy with my exam grades!  EP and WM went great and I did not have any complaints.  The problem came in WE which was some of the most unfair grading that any of us have ever received.  On past WE assignments, the professor had graded fairly and we all were doing well.  But this exam, none of us got about an 85 on!  He wrote “REALLY???” all over everyone’s papers like we were stupid in the answers we gave.  We all tried to talk to him, and he was not very welcoming of our problems and no one’s grades got changed.  It was so frustrating when that was the class that I felt the best about but ended up doing the worst in.  I just decided to take a deep breath the best I could and decided to not let it bother me since I was in Africa after all.  We had a volleyball game right after grades were released so it was great frustration release!  Our final grades were released at 6 and we all just took them as they were and moved on because nothing could be changed.  It was kind of a frustrating day, but I still enjoyed my time to relax and hang out with friends and the staff.

The next day was our final full day in Kenya and I was so sad as I woke up and realized that.  We had breakfast like always, and then had a group debrief with all of the professors and staff to talk about what we thought of the program.  We covered everything from academics to food to safety and security.  It was great to be able to express our opinions and know that future students would have a better time when all of the little details were fixed.  After we were done with all of the business parts of the talk, Kiringe asked us to go around and say two words that described the entire experience.  People went around and said things like “pleasantly surprised” “absolutely amazing” and “best friends” but when we got to Shem, all he said was “waterbuck,” which caused all of us to burst out laughing since that really was the best inside joke of the entire trip.  But then, Shem continued to go on saying the most amazing words about us.  He told us what an amazing group we were and how happy he was with how well behaved we were.  But what got my tears going was when he told us that he considered all of us his children and how much he would truly miss us.  Me and my friend Paige started tearing up and it was so hard to stop as all of the other staff continued to say such amazing things about us.  Jenna told us after we were finished that Shem has never said more than his two words about any other group, so it was a great feeling to know how much he loved us and enjoyed our company as much as we enjoyed his.

After this debrief, we just had a short session with Tara and Jenna to talk about what we were expecting in Tanzania and what we were scared of so they could reassure us.  It was comforting to have an idea what to expect when we got to the border the next day and who would be greeting us there.  Before we knew it, it was time for lunch, and we all sat together outside in the sunshine!

That day, we also decided that we were going to have a giant feast and make a bunch of our favorite recipes from home for the staff to try!  We had three different cooking groups, and they were starting at 1 in the afternoon so we could get everything done by the time dinner came around.  The kitchen was INSANE!  People were using every stove and oven and pan and there were up to ten people in the kitchen at once.  It was quite a show, but really amazing at the same time with everything we got done.  This day was so insane for me though!  I was the student of the day, which meant I had tons of responsibilities to get done for the next day.  I had to coordinate all of the kitchen times and things that were being made, fill up all of the water cans that we would take in cars with us, and coordinate making cards for all of the staff and have everyone sign them before dinner.  I was literally running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  And on top of all that, I had to pack everything up too!!!  By the time dinner had come around, I was exhausted, but also amazed at everything I had gotten done. I had somehow packed all of my things and finished everything else by the time the feast started so I could enjoy it with everyone!

We moved all of the tables into one giant table like a normal feast and made everything from brownies to three types of cookies, to pineapple crisp (which is what me and my friend Jen made), bean burgers, falafel, guacamole, and our own homemade chapatis!  It was so fun and I literally ate so much I thought I was going to explode!  The staff barely tried any of our foods due to their addiction with nyama choma (roasted meat) and ugali, but a lot of them liked the pineapple crisp which I was pretty happy with.  I got lucky and got to sit with Charles and Kioko during dinner, two people that I would miss tons.  We took lots of pictures, including with Shem who said waterbuck instead of cheese in pictures!  Since I was student of the day, I also had to make a presentation of all of the cards we had made to the staff and they were so thankful for all of them!  It made all the hard work so worth it seeing the smiles on their faces and the cards immediately getting hung on the walls in their offices!

After dinner was over and the staff was all heading to sleep soon, we realized that we hadn’t painted the newly completed gazebo yet, and that was something that we really had wanted to do before we left!  We had extra paint from the school, so we painted a mural on the ceiling from the sun to the moon with fading in the middle and stars that spelled out Spring 2012 Session 1.  It looked really great and it was a great way to leave our mark on camp.  I had to head to sleep though because we had to be ready to leave camp the next morning with all of our stuff by 7:30 am!

The next day was crazy filled with emotions, like the most up and down roller coaster that I have ever been on.  I woke up and was happy to see Kilimanjaro once more shining outside of my window, but so sad that I would no longer see that every morning when I woke up.  I took tons of pictures as if I didn’t have enough of the best mountain ever.  I got my comfy clothes on for the car ride, threw all the other random stuff in my room into a garbage bag, and hauled all of my stuff over to the cars to load up.  I double and triple checked my room to make sure nothing got left, scarfed down breakfast and made sure all of my things had made it into the white rhino!  The best part of the morning, however, was when I realized that my favorite cook in the entire world has returned from his days off early just to be able to say goodbye to us.  I heard his voice in the kitchen and literally took off running and jumped into his arms when I saw him.  He was literally one of the reasons that I loved our staff so much.  He always kept me on my toes, but was also so down to earth with me and we had the most amazing conversations in the world.  I could not have been happier to see his smiling face that morning.  We had to say goodbye to all of the kitchen staff, including Arther, and the askaris that would not be making the trip to the border with us.  I could not pull myself together saying goodbye, but it was the best feeling when all of them told me how much I would be missed and how I was always welcome to come back to my Kenyan home.  It was a mix of being so sad leaving, but so excited for Tanzania and I had no idea how to be feeling at that moment.  We pulled out of camp, waved to the most smiley askari in the entire world, and started on our way to the border.  

Daniel was my driver, with Jenna as the co-pilot, so they definitely kept us amused with their arguing like a bunch of little kids.  It was great to be in a car with friends all comforting one another and staff members that I would miss more than anything.  The drive took about two hours in Kenya to get to the border on all dirt roads past Amboseli National Park.  We saw lots of giraffes and gerenuks throughout the entire drive, and seeing Kilimanjaro as the background to all of the animals was a great way to say goodbye to Kenya.

Thanks again for reading and stay tuned for my first twelve days of my Tanzania Adventure!!!!

Love,

Mollie Ann

Prom, Grass, Church, Kimana, Exams, and Paint!!!

Jambo marifiki!!!

Life has been crazy here in Tanzania and I am trying to catch up and still finished Kenya blog entries!!!  Thanks for still reading about all my adventures.  It means the world to me!

So after finally getting back to KBC after the most amazing expedition I could have ever imagined, we had a full rest day the next day to do absolutely nothing.  We worked on a few assignments here and there since the end of the session was approaching, but for the most part, we sat around, watched movies, read, played volleyball, and also decided to have our Maasai Prom!!!  We have wanted to have a dance party since the day we got here, so we decided this was a great day since there weren’t a lot of other things going on!  After dinner and RAP had concluded we all went to our bandas and put on all of the Maasai wear that we had bought in Kenya.  I had three different materials wrapped around my body to make a skirt, shirt, and shall, along with my tire shoes and all of the bracelets and necklaces that I could fit on my body.  I literally had enough clothing and accessories on to decorate the entire camp.  And the best part was that most of my friends had just as many or more.  When we were all ready, we gathered in the Chumba, where we had some artwork and decorative materials hung on the wall for prom pictures.  The Maasai never smile in pictures, so we all took group pictures in front of the fabric without smiling.  Some of the pictures actually came out really scary because not only did we look angry, but we had our spears and machetes that we had purchased recently.  We took tons of hilarious pictures, including the tradition prom pics that we all know and love.  Some of the staff even came and took pictures with us, even though I knew they were secretly laughing at how ridiculous we looked.

After taking tons of pictures with everyone at prom, the dancing started.  A girl in our group was in charge of the playlist and it had a lot of weird rap songs, but also some classics that got everyone dancing, including our SAM and our intern.  We were doing conga lines and line dances and whatever other ridiculous moves we could come up with.  I taught everyone my favorite dance, The Wop, and was laughing so hard when the entire group of us was doing the wop coordinated together.  I was laughing so hard the entire night at everyone’s dance moves and by the end of the night, I definitely had gotten a work out.  It was eventually time to head to sleep after dancing for several hours and still being tired from expedition.

The next day wasn’t that exciting either, unfortunately.  We had a Wildlife ecology class in the morning to go over and analyze the data that we had collected during expedition.  This time, the data was organized in a much more efficient way and we were able to actually see relationships between animals and their habitats.  The rest of the day was devoted to writing up the results that we had analyzed and what they meant in the scheme of the park.  We also had an assignment to do for Environmental Policy about the transect walk we had done before expedition, and our final Swahili assignment!  It was quite a day filled with work and talking to professors and working in groups on the data collected and throwing ideas around before writing everything up.  It was such a sense of accomplishment finishing these assignments and getting them out of the way.  Even with all these assignments due, I feel like I got so much out of the EP assignment as well as Swahili and it was a good summary of everything we had learned so far.  It was nice to just do work at our own pace and take breaks when we wanted to play volleyball and take naps, especially since the next day was going to be quite a day filled with sun burns, frustrations, and silly exercises.

The next day was our last day to go to Amboseli and we had a lecture in the park and a field exercise to look forward to doing.  We left early in the morning like always to get to the park before it got too hot and went straight to the KWS headquarters to have a lecture from the warden in charge of the entire park.  The warden talked to us about what his job involved as well as all the challenges that faced Amboseli and how they were being solved both inside and out of the park.  The lecture was really interesting to compare to the guest lecturer we had in Lake Nakuru and see the differences in the park management.  We also had fun interrogating the warden with questions using our background knowledge and work with the locals compared to what he was telling us.  It was great because we had so much background knowledge and sometimes the warden didn’t know how to answer because he knew he was wrong.  After wrapping things up, we loaded back in the cars after using THE MOST DISGUSTING bathroom I have ever seen in my entire life, and went to an exclosure in the middle of the park.

The exclosure is an experimental area that an electric fence has been placed around that keeps elephants and giraffes out of to see the effects of these animals not being present.  Elephants have been noted as the most detrimental animal in habitat degradation, so this exclosure was to prove this theory.  The exercise that we were completing was for SFS as well as KWS and what we had to do was to be assigned a transect from one side of the exclosure to the other.  Each group had to randomly pick plots within their transect, use GPS to find those plots, throw down a metal square and cut out all of the vegetation in that area and place it in a bag.  We had to collect over 15-20 samples of grass, some of which was up to my hips and would barely fit in the small brown paper bags they gave us.  The problem with this exercise was the organization of it.  In theory, the exercise should have been simple, yet with a new KWS agent in charge and GPS units that really didn’t like us, we spent over an hour standing in the middle of the park with no shade whatsoever trying to find where our transects even started.  By the time we figured out where to go, we were already tired, burned and dehydrated from standing in weather around 96 degrees.  Not only this, but when we did start our transect, we were crossing over other groups which should not have happened at all.  We had all just given up at that point and were just tossing the square somewhere in the vicinity of the block and cutting the grass.  Unfortunately, I don’t think a lot of the data collected that day is very meaningful, but it was not our fault at all.  The point of the study is to see the long term effects of excluding elephants from a habitat and seeing the growth of the vegetation without this impact.  Luckily, the study is being completed over many years, so hopefully this one day of mistakes will not completely mess up the data collected.  

After we finished up with the grass collection and stealing a few random teeth from the skulls scattered around us, we headed to one of the really gorgeous lodges in the park to have a cold drink and relax and get out of the sun.  The only problem with this was that everyone was tired and hot, which put them in TERRIBLE moods.  I think I got yelled at 5 times over ordering a coke for absolutely no reason.  Needless to say, I found a lovely chair in the shade overlooking the entire park that was completely isolated from the rest of the group for a while.  We had around an hour at the lodge, and then a short game drive with the hatches open to the entrance of the park.  We saw lots of elephants, but none as close as I had hoped for.  I got really sad as we left the park realizing it was the last time we would spend time there during this trip.  At least we had lots of cool experiences in the park and it will always be my first National Park in Africa!  We all ate dinner as soon as getting back to camp and went to sleep the earliest ever.  I could barely sleep my back was burned so badly, but I guess its all part of the experience!

The next day was luckily an off day!  And it was finally a Sunday, meaning that we got to go to a local church!  We had a later breakfast and then got all dressed up in skirts to leave for church. The church that we attended was called the Kenyan Assembly of God—Kimana.  It was seriously the most cultural and unique experiences that I could have imagined.  When we first arrived, the church was practically empty other than tons of kids.  We sat on the right side near the back so that we wouldn’t take anyone’s seat that was in the normal congregation.  The church had tons of loud music being played on a keyboard with an accompanying beat.  The beat was so loud that it almost sounded like a club if you wouldn’t have known better.  A lot of other members of the church started arriving after us, and there were two preachers at this church.  One of them spoke Maasai and the other spoke Swahili with a little bit of English.  The entire first part of church was dancing and singing and the entire congregation joined in.  The young girls under 15 all danced in the aisles with dances they had practiced, the little kids pranced around and would grab your hands to dance, and the adults would sing loudly and raise their hands in the air.  It was an experience that literally overtook you.  The music being so loud with everyone dancing and singing and praying and thanking God was so incredible and like nothing I had ever seen before in the United States.  Then, the part of the service began with reading from the bible and explaining what it means to our daily lives.  It was so insane to listen to because the man speaking Swahili would start and say one sentence and before he was even finished, the Maasai speaker would start and they would go back and forth in this way yelling after one another for the entire congregation to hear.  It was so powerful, even though I could not even understand the way they were saying.  Just watching all of the other people in the church with their eyes closed and listening so intently was an incredible experience.  After the speaking part was over, more music started and a group of girls from around 12-16 all sang together and did dances at the front of the church.  Other groups of adults joined in after that and it was so fun to watch their interactions.  Then, out of nowhere, they decided that all of use students should go to the front and sing a song too…One of the girls had brought here ukulele after our SAM told us in the morning we would have to sing, so we sang the song somewhere over the rainbow.  It was almost depressing after the upbeat songs that they had all performed for us.  After singing and introducing ourselves, we had to leave because it was lunch time back at camp!  We were at the church for over two hours, but it flew by and I had no idea how long it had been.

After having lunch at camp like always, we had the option to head to Kimana or just hang out at camp.  I decided to go in to Kimana to see what it was like on a non-market day.  It was so quiet when we got there though; it almost felt like a ghost town.  There were only a few people walking down the street and only a couple of the normal shops were open.  After wandering around the deserted streets for half an hour, we went to royal bistro to have some chapati and chai. The chai at royal bistro is THE BEST in Kenya, I swear.  They make it so well and so fresh, which is different than the tea bags we always rely on at camp.  We watched their Kenyan TV and when we were finished eating, we heard that some of our group was at Club K again!  We decided to walk there, not wanting to sit in the middle of the deserted town, and we all had a Tusker and hung out and reflected back on Kenya.  It was so relaxing, which is what we all needed after all of our assignments and exams coming up.  After Club K, we just went back to camp and had dinner.  I watched a movie that night all curled up in my bed and mosquito net, and fell asleep very quickly.

The next day, a Monday, was devoted completely to studying for exams, talking to professors and finishing up assignments that were due that day.  It was a very frustrating day because the internet was not working and our assignment required a lot of outside resources that we couldn’t get with the internet being out.  We finally got it all typed up and turned in, but it was a bummer that an entire day in Africa had to be devoted to assignments and work, even though I know that’s why we are here.  We did coordinate a volleyball tournament for the staff and students though, so that was a nice way to end a day full of work!  I was on my buddy Charles’ team and we had so much fun playing the other staff like Daniel, Kioko, Ernest, Moses, Tara, and Jenna.  I stayed up late that night trying to get some more studying in since I knew the exams were going to be tough and filled with a lot of information, but I slept like a rock when I finally did get some sleep!

The next day was our final study day to prepare, and I woke up super early to get a head start on studying so I would feel better going into exams.  All of the students worked really hard on studying and I felt like I had barely seen a lot of my classmates because I had locked myself in my Banda with all of my notes and my computer.  At lunch, all of us were exhausted from studying and were looking for anything we could do for a study break.  We decided to talk to our professors and see if it was ok for us to go to Kimana one final time since it was the last market day that we would be in Kenya.  Reluctantly, they agreed and at around 3 o’clock after more studying we went back to Kimana for the final time.

This day in the market was probably my favorite market day for so many reasons.  The first reason was that for the first time, I felt so confident walking to the market.  It was no longer scary, I knew where everything was, I could speak enough Swahili to get by, and I didn’t feel like such an outcast.  It was fun to just explore the market and really talk to people as opposed to running around like chickens with our heads cut off the way we had in the past.  The other thing that was great about this trip was that it was the first time I focused on myself and the things that I really wanted to buy for me.  All the other times in the market I was so worried about presents for other people, so it was really fun to run around and get the things that I really wanted.  I got a new scarf, lots of jewelry, and a few more pieces of fabric to make things out of at the tailor.   It was so fun and as I walked back to the car with all of my new goodies, I was so happy with everything that I had bought.  The cars were really late to pick us up that day, which I didn’t mind because it gave me time to go grab a coke and chapati at The Royal Bistro again while we were waiting.  It was a great afternoon and it really got my mind off studying for a while, which I really needed.  As soon as we got back, I dove into studying and spent the rest of the night, minus a small break for volleyball, to get ready for our exams the next day.

The first exam that we had the next day was Wildlife Ecology, and I felt so prepared for it!  The exams are each about two hours long and are all essay questions.  In total for this exam, I spent almost the full two hours and wrote almost eight full pages of writing.  The tests really take a lot out of you because you are writing so much and citing things we have read, learned in lecture, and seen in the field.  The questions each have about 5 parts, so it takes quite a bit of focus to make sure you answer everything completely and are addressing the question the professor is asking.  This is one of the instances where the language barrier and English being their second language can be a problem because some of the questions don’t make sense and you could answer something completely wrong because of a misunderstanding.  Luckily, we had a proctor (Jenna), who could get the professor if we had any major problems.  As soon as I finished my WE exam, I went straight back to studying for the next exam that started at 2.  It was wildlife management and unlike the other professors that told us specific things to study, for WM, we were expected to know everything that we had gone over, including lots of readings from class.  It was tons of information and I can say that I definitely didn’t feel as prepared or knew what to expect.  Luckily, it went well, better than I expected even, and I was happy to get over the hump of those two exams.  As soon as I was finished, I should have went back to studying, but instead watched Hercules (my biggest stress release movie) with my friends and played some volleyball.  It felt great to do things that involved no thought at all, and it gave me the motivation to dive into Environmental Policy studying after we were done eating.  

I worked really hard studying EP all night, barely taking any breaks accept for some chai here and there, but when I went to sleep, I still felt like I knew absolutely nothing!  EP is a harder class to relate to because it doesn’t always come with common sense, but involves memorizing and knowing lots of policies and ways that policies are made in East Africa.  I felt like I needed to get up early to refresh some notes for the exam, so the amount of sleep that I got was not ideal before an exam.  I woke up around 5 am and studied straight until the exam began at 8.  I couldn’t have been happier when I got the exam and knew every answer!!!  I blew through it without having to think barely at all.  I felt so confident like I knew so much of it and it was a great feeling to know that all of my hard work and late hours had really paid off in the end.  When the exam was over, we were all exhausted from the three exams combined, and I think 90% of our camp decided it was a great time for nap time.

In the afternoon, even though we were still exhausted, it was one of our community service days that we were required to participate it.  It was kind of a bummer that we were all so tired and really couldn’t put our all into a service project, but we decided to head back to the primary school that we had gone to before to help paint a mural on the side of their school to add a little color to the otherwise gray inside and out building.  When we got there, the kids were all waiting anxiously at the door of their classrooms for us to play with them!  The older kids, class 5, got to design what they wanted on the mural, and of course we decided on Kilimanjaro and all of the animals that you might see in Amboseli National Park.  The kids wanted lions, jackrabbits, cheetahs, zebras, and elephants, but when I suggested Twiga (aka giraffe), you would have thought I suggested the ugliest animal in the world!  They all booed at me and said no way should a twiga be on the wall.  I was slightly offended, since giraffes are one of my favorite animals, but I guess I could forgive them! Hahaha

Since there were way too many people and kids around the mural, I decided that I would just play games with some of the kids to keep them away from all the paint that does not come off skin very well!  I grabbed a big group of kids and headed over toward the soccer field to play some twiga twiga simba and red light green light.  It was so fun because the teacher taught me how to say stop and go with the kids and tell them to go back to the starting line, so I had a blast playing with them and practicing my Swahili all at once.  After we got bored of those games, which happened sooner than I would have liked, we walked back to see how the mural was going! It was turning out great, but my classmates and a lot of the kids were covered in the oil paints!  We found a few other games to play to keep them away from the mural, like ring around the rosie, London bridge, and songs they would sing for us, but when it got really hot, we decided we all needed a nice break in the shade.  They were all playing with my hair, and my best little friend, named Esther, sat on my lap.  She was tiny and in grade 1 and she held my hand through the whole day!  I loved her and was so happy when she grabbed my hand everywhere we walked.  I was happy with them playing with my hair, until I realized one of them had the green paint on her hands!!!!  I had a lovely green streak all throughout my hair before I realized that she had been painting!  Luckily, I had some awesome soap back at camp that I knew would take it out.  One part of the games that I loved was when we were first starting and everyone needed to get in a circle, the kids would yell “1, 2, Make a Circle, 3, 4, A Big Circle!”  It was so cute because you thought it was going to rhyme when they were all chanting it, but it was even better than a rhyme!  I loved spending the day there, even though I was exhausted.

When we finished up, we had the option to drive back to camp or walk.  I was happy to walk because it was one of the last times we got to leave camp and walk outside!  We started walking, about ten of us including Jenna, when all of a sudden we heard little footsteps running up to us!  The kids had been released from school right after we had left, so they grabbed our hands, asked us if we had any clean water, and walked as far as they could with us before having to break off to walk home!  We were very lucky to have them, including one of our cook’s daughters, because we had gotten lost and she knew right where to go!  It was so fun and made the walk fly by having little hands holding yours the entire way!  As soon as we got back, we all just sat around after being so sleep deprived from exams and called it a night pretty early!

That’s all for now!  I am off to watch O Brother, Where Art Thou with a couple of great friends!  Thanks for reading all this and stay tuned for lots of blog updates in a really short time!

Love,

Mollie Ann

Expedition to Lake Nakuru: Days 5 and 6!

Hello again,

I am doing my best to catch up with this blog but more and more seems to be unfolding before my eyes that I cannot wait to share with everyone!

DAY 5:  Day five was finally my turn to be on cook crew and wake up at the break of dawn to start cooking for everyone.  We had to finish all of the food before the other student group woke up and needed to be in the kitchen at the same time.  We made all of the normal food, like pancakes and eggs and potatoes in record time so the next group could move in to feed their students.  We had to have a rushed breakfast once again because of another field exercise for Wildlife Management in the park.  We ate quick, got into groups that we had worked with before and headed out in the normal safari vehicles.  My driver this time was our Wildlife Management professor, Shem, who has worked in the park for more than a decade and knows everything there is to know.  It was great to be able to listen to his facts about the park as we drove to where our part of the transect was starting.  He would tell us about the plant life we were seeing, what the park used to look like, and of course all about his favorite animal in the entire world: The Waterbuck.  Shem is literally obsessed with the waterbuck and has told us stories about how he came to be interested in them.  When he first started working at the park, he was amazed at the beauty and majestic ways of the waterbuck, but right after he first started working there, all of the waterbuck started dropping dead!  It was getting to the point that he had to assist the park rangers in moving the dead bodies off the road so the tourists would not see.  It was great to finally hear this story because we all knew that he was obsessed but had no idea why.  It turns out he even did research to help prevent a mass killing like this one from happening again!  Anyway, he was our driver, and Jenna was our co driver, so it was automatically an amazing car.

The assignment that we were completing this day was an animal behavior assignment looking at Common zebra and White rhino.  When either of these animals were spotted in the transect, we had to stop and record their behavior for twenty minutes total.  This included feeding, resting, playing, dust bathing, grooming, and other activities that were observed.  With the rhinos, it was really easy because there were never more than 3 rhinos in one place to have to watch their behavior. The zebras, however, were extremely difficult to monitor because of their large herds.  We would assign every person in the car to a specific zebra or two to watch, and they alone would record the amount of time of each behavior.  When the twenty minutes was done, we had to combine all of the data, adding the total minutes of every behavior for all of the animals.  I was of course the one putting all of the data together, so it was quite a task to keep track of what animal did what and for how long in an organized data sheet.  It was a strenuous exercise, but by the end of the morning, we had collected data on several herds of zebra and a few white rhino that will help Shem in his research efforts for the park and the way the habitats are managed for these animals. It was rewarding because we knew we were specifically helping Shem and not just an organization that didn’t have a representative helping out.

We actually did not have lunch at camp for the first time during the trip, and instead had the rest of the afternoon off to enjoy ourselves and do whatever made “our cups of joy overflow.”  We all decided to head to one of the amazing lodges found in the park for the buffet, swimming pool, and most of all, showers since none of us had dared to use the shower at our campsite.  When we first arrived at the lodge, I thought I was in a different country.  It was so green and lush and beautiful and as we walked in, they handed us a warm towel that smelled like a spa.  It was a great introduction to the rest of the day at the resort.  The first thing we did was head straight toward the buffet, which we heard from all of the staff that it was the best one that we would have during our trip to Africa.

Boy, were they right about the food.  The first thing and one of the most exciting things was the salad!  We have not had fresh lettuce at all since we have been here so that was the first thing I went for.  You could pick everything you wanted in it and they would mix it all together with their own house made dressing.  It was amazing and I just wanted to eat tons of salad for the rest of the day.  The problem was all of the other amazing things that I wanted to eat and trying to save room for all of them! The next course was the meat and chicken kind of stuff!  This was the best meat course that we have had at all since most of our meat at camp had been really chewy goat.  Don’t get me wrong, it was great a few of the nights, but every night was a little bit much.  They had steak with amazing sauce, chicken sautéed in lemon, pork, and tilapia haha.  It was great and I pitied the vegetarians in the group for the first time haha.  Next I had lots of amazing rolls with butter, cheese which was also a first on this trip, fruit including apples, pumpkin that was made in caramel and sugar in a pan, and so much more.  I literally ate more than I had the entire expedition so far, but it was so worth it.  Then we moved on to desserts with chocolate cake, almond and raspberry tarts, chocolate bits and whipped cream, and more.  It was the best because the only dessert we every have at camp is making cinnamon sugar toast, which is amazing in its own way.  I could not have been happier after eating all this amazing food, especially after a week of roughing it in the campsite!

The next stop was the pool of course.  We got our swimsuits on in the most gorgeous bathrooms we had seen in this country, and headed to the pool.  It was a little cloudy outside, but anyone that knows me knows that didn’t slow me down.  I leaped straight in the pool, the first one of the entire group and definitely started the trend because everyone got in after that.  We all splashed around like little kids and hung out.  We even got super girly pool drinks like the blue Hawaiian and pina coladas to really make it seem like we were on vacation.  It was so relaxing to not have to think about academics and enjoy time spent with my classmates and the staff that came with us that day.  After swimming for a bit, I finally went to take a shower, which was the first one that any of us had taken the entire expedition!  We really needed it by that point and it was so refreshing to have all of the dirt and grime and sweat off, even though sometimes it adds to the experience. 

After we got cleaned up, took pictures with the amazing hotel staff and security guards, and got our hair braided by Jenna, we left for our final game drive in the National Park.  I tried so hard to get in the car with Tara because both of us had only seen the leopard the first day and really wanted to get a better view like other groups had during our field exercises throughout the week.  We still had to be back to camp by 6 like always, so we didn’t get to drive for very long.  We drove back by the shore of the lake and got some great close ups of the zebra in the wide open grassland, including a cute little baby that was super skittish and pranced around our car.  We searched and searched for a leopard, but we didn’t have any luck, even after driving 5 mph through the woodlands that the leopard had been seen in before.  Me and Tara seemed defeated, but then I remembered all the amazing things I had seen throughout this trip and couldn’t help but to be happy.  When we arrived back at camp still stuffed from brunch, Arther made us an amazing meal with tacos and guacamole and all of my favorites, and I ate so much again.  He worked so hard during this trip and I couldn’t thank him enough for all the food he made for us.  He checked every meal if we had enough to eat and what else he could get for us and if there was enough chai for us.  It was amazing to have someone care that much about you being well fed and I loved seeing how much he cared and loved his job.

That night, after cleaning up dishes with cook crew, we went back out by the campfire where everyone was playing the funniest camp game I have ever seen.  It was called the schmoo and the aardvark.  You had an object named the schmoo and an object named the aardvark and you had to pass it around the circle and explain it to the person next to you what it was.  It was so funny because you had to ask the last person what it was and they had to back track too and ask the other person.  It got so confusing but we were all in tears by the time we had made it around once.  It was a hilarious game and I can’t wait to play it at home.  We also had the chance to hear some of Shem’s amazing stories from when he lived in the park and worked here all throughout his education.  The first story was hilarious.  He was in the field with one guard and they saw a rhino far enough from them that they could be quiet and move before being discovered.  But then, when they least expected it, the baby rhino was right by them and the mom was so scared the baby was threatened!  The rhino started charging them, and the guard just ran away and high into a tree, while Shem tried to run and get to the car.  The problem is that Shem was so scared that he doesn’t remember what happened next until he came back to consciousness and the rhino was gone and he was safe!  It was crazy.  He also had a story about hitting a buffalo at 80 kph and having the horn get stuck in his grill when he was trying to hide it from the park rangers.  He also ran over a giant python on the way back to camp when he was once again going way to fast.  His stories are so funny and very different in the ways that he tells them.  I will miss his quiet but hilarious personality when we leave for Tanzania.  We all had to call it an early night though because we were leaving early again the next day and had to have all of our things packed up and ready to go.

DAY 6:  We woke up around 5:30 am on the day that we were leaving camp, sad to leave and dreading packing up.  We had to wake up early, get dressed, pack up all of our things, and the biggest task was to pack all of the tents up.  They are such huge canvas tents and take so much effort to take down and fit in the bag they came in.  It’s especially a struggle that early in the morning when you don’t want to leave in the first place.  We finally pulled it all together and got everything in to the huge white van that we call the “white rhino”, ate some breakfast, and loaded up the cars.  I ended up in an amazing car with my closest friends and Jenna and Daniel, who love to listen to music all the way back to KBC.  I even got one of the front seats that has lots of leg room and space for all of my stuff.  I slept some during the first part of the trip, trying to catch up on all the sleep that I had missed sleeping in the tents, but once again we stopped at the amazing coffee shop and I had to get an iced coffee, which kept me awake, and thank goodness it did for what unfolded next.

As we were on our way home, flying through all the cities at 80 kph….we were driving through the traffic circles right in the middle of the downtown area of Nairobi.  The traffic circle are crazy with 6 cars across and people coming in from everywhere and cops standing in the middle thinking they are helping.  We were next to pull into the traffic circle, and when we started to pull in, another car that had stopped to let us go also started to ease forward.  Both cars slammed on their brakes and we barely missed the car, thank goodness.  Because that car had the right of way, Daniel waved for the driver to go ahead, but instead of doing that, he decided to run right into the side of our car!!! The other driver hit us on purpose just to cause a problem and get money from the white people! We couldn’t believe that we had just seen thins driver actually run straight into the side of us and break his own headlight.  Our driver pulled over at the nearest place to stop and those cops that I was talking about in the traffic circle came over to see what was going on.

I literally couldn’t believe my eyes and ears when the cops started blaming our driver and our car for the accident!!!  They told us we ran into them, even though the dent was on the side of our safari vehicle!  It was so ridiculous and when they looked at Daniel’s license, the took his entire wallet and gave it to the other driver and told him to hold on to it until things were figured out!  I couldn’t believe that the cops actually just stole our driver’s license and gave it to the man that had hit us.  The cops came over to us and started talking to Jenna.  Jenna was trying to tell him that she saw the entire thing and so did all of the students, but the police man wouldn’t listen to us at all and it was SO frustrating.  And then to add to it, he started hitting on Jenna!!! He asked her where she was from and if she would be available if he came to visit!  It was so frustrating that so much was going on and yet he was hitting on our intern.  He finally left and as we watched our driver get super upset, he suddenly came back to us.  The other driver was demanding that we pay 4000 Kenyan shillings, aka $45 USD to fix his car that we damaged!!!  We all pooled our money, hoping that the entire thing would just end and we could get out of this insane city and all of its corruption.

The other driver finally left, happy with the money we paid for no reason.  The cops escorted our driver back to the car and approached our windows to talk to the students.  We were happy that he finally wanted to hear our side, but instead he started yelling at us!  Jenna had heard the cops talk to one another earlier and say that they could get more money from us because we are visitors and have lots of money.  The cop came to us and told us that our driver did not have the correct license to be driving tourists in Kenya.  We tried to stay calm and told him that we were students, but he wouldn’t listen and instead would argue with us and tell us we were lying and were tourists, not students.  We were all yelling ‘HAPANA’ which means ‘no’ in Swahili as he told us he was going to arrest our driver!!!  We all yelled back, argued, and I even had to lie when he asked where we were from so that SFS would not see any repercussions from this situation.  It was so intense and finally he said he was doing us a favor by letting our driver go and continued to try to get Jenna’s number and full name.  Our driver jumped back in the car, with his wallet thank goodness, and we immediately drove off before the silly cop changed his mind.  It was literally the most corrupt situation that I have ever seen in my entire life.  To have someone in authority that you should be able to trust treat us that way was unbelievable, and our entire car was so mad as we left the city.

We got to Tusky’s again for food, and while we were there, we found out another driver had gotten arrested for no reason again and had to be bailed out!  The cops were out for the SFS drivers that day, but we all were safe and sound and that is all that matters.  It was crazy to see the corruption in person.  It’s something you hear so much about, but never really see being so sheltered by the program.  I was glad to have had that experience and realize that the corruption is real and how far the country has to go.  I was thankful for the experience, but never want to have to deal with something like that again.  The rest of the drive was very peaceful though, and getting back to KBC was so weird.  It felt like we had been gone for years and were coming home for the first time since then.  It was comforting to be in a familiar place and I liked being curled up back in my bed that night, not that I didn’t miss sleeping in a tent!  Lake Nakuru was an amazing expedition experience and I was so happy with every second we had the chance to spend there.  I felt so close to my classmates and the staff after the trip and would not have changed one second of it.  I will miss the park, the buffalos, leopards, and giraffes but can’t wait for our expedition in Serengeti in Tanzania soon!!!

Thanks so much for reading all of this.  I know it’s a lot, but I can’t wait to look back at my writing and remember all of these amazing details!

Love,

Mollie Ann

P.S. I am now in Tanzania and am not able to upload pictures to my blog at this time!  I wish I could!!!

Expedition to Lake Nakuru: Days 3 and 4!

Hello again!

Time to continue on with everything that we did during our expedition in Lake Nakuru National 

Park!!!

DAY 3:  The next morning was quite an early morning for all of us!  We were going to complete a field exercise, so to be able to see all of the animals in their natural habitats, it’s important to do these counts in the morning when it is cool out and the animals haven’t retreated to the shade for the afternoon.  We woke up around 5:30 am to eat breakfast and for the first time, it was absolutely FREEZING!!!  I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, a huge hoodie, a scarf, big boots, wool socks, and long pants and was still cold.  To add insult to injury, we had to be outside of the hatches in the car, so the cold air plus the wind blowing as we flew down the first roads was brutal, especially after being in 90 degree weather until this point.  We somehow survived when we made it to the sunny spots and got to thaw out a little bit haha.  The count that we were conducting was to look at the wildlife in the park and what habitat they are found in.  It’s important to know what animals are generalists and what animals are specialists so that the park and its habitats can be managed effectively because of the fence that surrounds the entire park.  We had to write down all animals that we saw and the habitat type they were in so that in the future, we would be able to calculate what animals were found where.  The exercise was supposed to take the entire morning to lunch, but my group only had a few number of animals in the area of the park that we were looking at, so we were done by 9:30, which meant we got to have a game drive until lunch!

The first thing that we went to see was Makalia Falls, the waterfall that is near the southern most part of the park.  To be honest, I thought the waterfall was going to be a lot larger from all of the pictures that they have everywhere to advertise the park.  Of course, it hadn’t rained lately in the park, so there was not a lot of water to make the falls in the first place.  It was just a small stream coming down the side of a rock and a little away from the rock face.  I was happy to go and see it no matter what.  As a group, we took a lot of pictures with the staff that was in the car with us, and then went to explore by the falls.  We were able to climb back behind it on the rocks, and even though I almost fell in about six different times from the slippery rocks and trying to help other people get down near the water.  It was relaxing to be back there and only be able to hear the sound of the water, and I enjoyed it until we had to load back up in the cars and move on to the next destination.

 We heard from another group that we encountered by the falls that they had spotted five lion cubs in some of the bushland in the park, and we were so jealous of this spotting.  Little did we know that our driver knew right where to go for us to see them.  We twisted and turned around in the park, making me get so lost of where we were.  Finally, on a back dirt road in the middle of what seemed like nowhere, our co-driver suddenly pointed at something right off of the side of the road in the tall grass and bushes.  All of a sudden, I saw ten little eyes peeking out at me from between the branches, and I got so excited.  The lion cubs were some of the cutest things I have ever seen in my life.  They were all lying near one another, leaning back and forth and rolling each other over when they moved around.  One was chewing on a stick, another one was chewing on the first ones ear, and one of them was tiny little baby no more than 4 months old.  It had bright blue eyes that you could make out even from the distance that we were.  Everyone in my car was obsessed with these lion cubs.  We sat near them in our car, taking thousands of pictures for around half an hour before our driver decided that is was time for us to head back to camp.  We were on a very narrow road, so turning the huge safari vehicle around was quite a task.  As we were helping our driver, Ernest, all of a sudden we noticed something not far from the back tires of our car.  As we were trying to figure out what the lump was, it suddenly sat up and we realized that is was the dad lion of the cubs, with a huge mane and super sleepy eyes.  He was so close to us and just staring at us, like why did you guys wake me up!  We all froze, trying to take pictures before he got up and disappeared into the trees nearby.  We eventually had to give up on seeing him again and pulled back onto the road where we were.  Then, to our pleasant surprise, we saw the mom lion in the grass too!  She was close to her cubs, right across the road, and we couldn’t believe that we hadn’t seen her before as were sitting there for so long.  I felt so fortunate to see an entire lion family!  Never did I think I would see that, and I could not be happier for that experience and the people that I got to share it with.

On the way back to camp for lunch, I was so content, listening to my music and enjoying the breeze in my hair thinking about those little cubs.  We saw some giraffes in the distance, but I didn’t think we were going the direction that would take us toward them.  Luckily, our driver knows we very well and quickly took a detour to allow us to see the giraffes.  As we approached them, we could count 15 of them on both sides of the road, including little baby giraffes too!  I literally felt like I was in my dream, standing in a safari vehicle COMPLETELY surrounded by some of the biggest giraffes in the world.  They were within feet of us, and I watched their graceful yet awkward at the same time movements from tree to tree.  The combination of the crystal blue sky, puffy white clouds, umbrella acacia trees, and a ton of giraffe made me feel like I was in the middle of a desktop background.  It was the perfect end to the most perfect game drive so far in the park and in Africa.

 After heading back and eating lunch, we all curled up with our sleeping pads and took a nap in the sunshine and the shade of a nearby acacia tree.  Before I knew it, it was time to be up for our next lecture.  We were supposed to have an Environmental Policy lecture about the surrounding area and the management of it, but the power was out in the campsite and he could not access his PowerPoint.  Instead, we just did a review for our exam that we would have when returned back to KBC in a few days.  It was very helpful and shortened our day by a lot, which was welcomed after having to be up working so early.

After playing another game of cards with some friends, we got to head out for ANOTHER game drive to wrap up the day.  The first place we ventured to was called Lion Hill, which is a rough road up the top of one of the hills that makes the border of the National Park.  The road was bumpy and no one felt great, but the view from the top made it completely worth it.  You could see the entire park, including the whole lake.  We took tons of pictures, including one of my favorite pictures where we spelled out the word KENYA with our bodies.  It was so funny to try and coordinate everyone on the side of a hill, but the picture makes it worth it.  After saying farewell to the other groups, we headed on our way down the hill and on to the rest of the park to look for leopards.  The problem that occurred though, was that it began to get cloudier and darker before our eyes, and when we least expected it, the sky opened up and it started pouring.  We had to scurry and close the hatches so the entire inside of the car didn’t get soaked, and all of us were so mad that we had to sit inside.

 The animals also hate the rain, so most went running to hidden places where we wouldn’t see them in the rain.  Just as we had all give up on the day and seeing anything cool, we noticed a huge rainbow forming over the lake!  It was very defined and ran from the center of the lake to the middle of the forest near the front gate.  It was so bright against the dark sky and was an incredible view of the park in a whole new light.  We even saw where the rainbow hit the ground in the middle of a dense forest.  I had never seen the bottom of the rainbow hit the ground, but unfortunately a picture couldn’t capture the colors spanned across the trees.  We drove back to camp, and on the way, we saw that a baby waterbuck had been killed and dragged into a tree by a leopard.  We couldn’t spot the leopard at all, but we waited as long as possible just in case.  That night, the power was still out from the storm, so we ate dinner in the light of our headlamps and flashlights before heading out to the campfire.  We all didn’t stay long because it was so cold and damp.  We definitely slept great that night after such a long day.

DAY 4:   The next day called for another early morning to head out for a field lecture before the sun was beating down on us.  We had our normal breakfast and I was somehow lucky to not be cook crew again.  It was chilly again, so we had to bring hoodies to the stops we were going to make.  We first stared driving, but as we approached the area where the leopards, kill was the day before, we saw a male lion climbing up the tree going to steal the leopards food!!!  We found out later that that leopard was watching from above as this happened, and I wish I would have thought to look up!  We got to watch the lion, who was so happy, licking the waterbuck and enjoying himself.  He decided to stand up and try to move the kill, but to his surprise, the kill started to slide off the branch that it had been balanced on!  The lion panicked and tried anything he could to save the kill from falling, but as the kill slid off and tore towards the ground, the lion went with it!!!! The lion had refused to let go and instead fell with the kill and landed on his head on the ground several meters down.  I was amazed that we saw all of this happen, but I couldn’t help but burst out laughing when I saw the mighty king of Africa fall off a tree over a piece of meat that he could have collected below.  It was quite an event to see and I was so happy to have a chance to witness such a strange thing happening in nature!

When we first started the exercise, all of us thought that we would be driving around the park and going to different sites to see the effects of humans on the park, but to our surprise, we immediately went to the front gate and left the park after conferring with the rangers to make sure we could get back in later on in the day.  We drove and drove, about 40 minutes from the gate of the park, which was much farther than any of us expected.  The place where we stopped seemed so random when we first got out of the car, but after we sat down with our notebooks, we learned about the river that we were sitting by and the effects of humans on it.  The lecture was for Environmental Policy, yet our wildlife ecology and wildlife management professors also contributed to the lecture.  The river that we were sitting next to was one of the main four rivers that feed into the lake in the middle of the national park, making it imperative to the wildlife and plant life that lives in the park.  However, the water was completely disgusting and brown, with donkeys drinking out of it and local dumping their waste and garbage into it.  Also, there was a Kenyan experimental recycling plant that was dumping all of their wastes directly in the river.  It was so sad to see how the people in the area have no desire to take care of the animals in the park and don’t think about anyone accept themselves.  It was shocking to know how much dependence is on this water, yet it is not treated well and is the nastiest water I have ever seen.  The next stop was near the first one, with a view of the National Park and we learned about the past wildlife corridors that had been in that area.  One of the last hartebeest in that area was seen at this stop.  It was insane to think about what it used to look like in that area before it had become such a large city and how the wildlife could have moved around in all directions and are now trapped by a fence.  This stop was quick before loading back up and heading to the last stop.  I somehow fell asleep on the drive to the last stop, despite the super bumpy roads we took to get there.  This stop was on top of a huge hill that over looked the entire park and city, and there were giant mansions right by where we were sitting.  Apparently, the mansions belong to Japanese business men that work in the park on new technology.  They were unbelievable and definitely the largest, nicest structures I have seen in Kenya.  At this stop, we learned about the treatment plants that have been put into place to clean the water before it goes into the lake.  However, both of these plants are not effective and barely take anything out of the water.  The technology in them is completely outdated and no updates have been made, making them worthless.  It’s so sad when a situation seems so hopeless, like in this case.  I wish so badly that I could help this problem, but when there is no support from the local people and no money to fund these projects, its seems impossible to be able to help.  I look forward to one day coming back and contributing in the best way possible, no matter what this means.  I yearn to have the chance to come back and do research or projects that will benefit the wildlife and the well-being of people in the area.  That is what wildlife management, ecology, and environmental policy is all about.

 

After we returned from the field lecture, it was already time for lunch and we had tons of time after eating to do whatever we wanted.  We did not bring our computers, so it was amazing to take naps, play cards, sit in a tree and talk to people, and read for fun.  I really took advantage of that free time since I knew when we got back to KBC, we would immediately begin preparing for exams.  After around 3 or 4 hours of doing absolutely nothing, we loaded up again, this time with different groups for another game drive.  We did have to complete a very basic assignment during this drive, but nothing that took away from what we were seeing.  Once again, the weather seemed questionable and smell of rain was in the air.  We had driven for about twenty minutes when the rain started to sprinkle.  We stayed out the hatches during this, but we quickly realized what a mistake this was when the sky opened up and the rain started pouring!!! Our hatches were stuck, and one was in the trunk of the car, so we were all soaked by the time we actually were able to close them.  As miserable and cold as we were, I could not stop laughing at how funny we all looked trying to close the hatches.  The car was soaked on the inside, as well as all of our clothes, but I couldn’t help but grin when looking around at all of my classmates that looked like wet dogs.  This game drive was not as successful as others from the week due to the rain. The animals had all hidden from us and there was no rainbow to make up for the bad weather.  I still enjoyed the company of the group I was with and had great learning opportunities from our driver and his experiences.

Immediately back at camp, we changed into dry clothes, or the driest we could find in our tents and curled up by the fire place to warm up.  Dinner was really great that night with a lot of my favorite foods from the cooks here, and then rap was so fun outside.  Suddenly, a huge bus pulled into our compound at around 9:30 at night!  We had no idea who this group was, but it turned out to be a secondary school from Nairobi that had come as a part of their curriculum to spend two nights in the park and look at the geology in the park.  It was interesting to share three bathrooms with all 26 of our students, our staff, and then the entire secondary school and their staff, but we made it work the best we could.  The hardest part was sharing the kitchen.  You can only imagine the amount of food and equipment needed to cook for all of these people, so no room was left there.  It was interesting to make dinner and breakfast the next morning.  The best part about this school was what happened after our RAP was over and they had gotten settled in.  The came and joined us by the fire and I met a girl named rose that was studying biology at her school.  Like all of the other girls I have encountered, she wanted me to sing for her.  I somehow managed to turn it around, however and had her sing songs for me!  To my surprise, she knew tons of songs that I did, and after ten minutes, both of us were singing Justin Bieber at the top of our lungs, gaining the attention of everyone else around the fire.  We continued singing songs for another hour, everything from Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and Lil Wayne and by the time I went to sleep, I was losing my voice from singing all the random songs with my new friend.  It was so great to meet these kids and immediately have music being something we could bond over.  I loved this night and will never forget Rose and her beautiful voice that blew me out of the water.  Unfortunately I had to call it quits because I finally had cook crew the next morning and had to be up early to get cooking.

Well it is once again time for bed here!  Stay tuned for the rest of expedition, exams, community service, and the change to Tanzania soon!!!

Have an amazing day and I miss all of you so much!

Love,

Mollie Ann

Expedition to Lake Nakuru: Days 1 and 2!

Hi there!!!

I can’t believe how quickly time has passed and how I have not been able to write a blog in almost two weeks!  This blog is going to be extremely long and I might even break it into parts so that you don’t get too bored :)

DAY 1:  So it all begins with our expedition to Lake Nakuru National Park!  The total length of the expedition was 6 days, including two days that were almost completely traveled. Lake Nakuru is located on the other side of Nairobi and in the vehicles that we have here, the drive takes around 10 hours from start to finish.  To be able to get to the park early enough to check in and settle down before dark, we had to leave our camp by 5:30 am!!!  That meant that breakfast crew had to begin cooking at 4:30! Thank goodness it wasn’t me that morning.  After getting everything packed up, we filled the water cans for the cars and started on our way.  I had a great car filled with all girls accept our driver, who was our Swahili teacher, Daniel.  The girls in my car were all people that I enjoy the company of, which was important since I would be with them for the next ten hours straight.  The first part of the trip is a blur to be because the entire car fell asleep the second we started rolling.  I stayed up 5 minutes longer than everyone else, and happened to see the most amazing sunrise over the Chuylu Hills in the distance.  It looked like the sunrise out of a movie, just like everything else here.  After driving for around an hour and a half, we stopped at a local curio shop to use the bathroom and stretch our legs a little bit.  It was a quick stop, and when we got back in the car, we fell right back asleep since it was only 7 am still!  It was so nice to be able to just sleep and listen to music, something that I have not really had the chance to do since I have been here due to our busy schedule, especially all the assignments due right before we left for expedition.  Our next stop that I woke up for was Tusky’s super market near Nairobi, which was the supermarket that we went to on our first day in Kenya.  We all got a lot of snacks and other necessities for the expedition to get us through, as well as the rest of the drive.  The next part of the drive was the most insane part due to the crazy traffic that follows no rules near the city!  The road is a two lane road, yet at times there are 5 cars across with motorcycles thrown in the middle and cars driving down the median.  At times, I would catch myself holding my breath because we made so many close calls with cars flying by us in the other direction.  Not only this, but our cars have speed governors on them that prevent us from going over 80 kph, so passing can get really stressful when we can’t go a little faster to cut the gap  It was such a stressful part of the drive, but I have so much confidence in the drivers that I wasn’t very worried.  

The route that we took to get to Lake Nakuru goes right through the middle of Nairobi, so it was an insane contrast from the area that we have been living in that is in the middle of nowhere.  The city is pretty good size, with a huge central park area with a small amusement park, tall buildings, and lots of modern buildings and people all dressed up.  It could have been a US city if I wouldn’t have known better.  I was so excited to drive through here because we didn’t get to see the city at all when we flew in and I was curious as to how it looked and how different it was compared to other parts of the country.  One of the weirdest parts, however, was that all of their billboards had mzungu (aka white people) on them to advertise products.  It was also strange to see the contrast of all the modern buildings with the more traditional and almost rundown buildings that were built in the past.  It was hard to tell what kind of area we were in when going by the types of buildings found there.

After getting out of the city a bit we climbed and climbed in our cars to the top of a cliff and mountain to an overview of the Rift Valley.  There is a random assortment of Curio Shops there, but the view is really the only reason to stop.  It is absolutely breathtaking!  You can see so far into the distance, including the random mountains in the area, lakes, and other land uses as far as the eye can see.  There is no way that a picture could ever capture that view and I wish I could explain it to you.  After living in such a flat dry dusty area, having the hills and cliffs and different climate and land was just amazing.  We took pictures and walked through a few of the shops, but had to keep moving to get to the park on time.  The drive from there to our next stop was very hilly and scenic and so relaxing and a nice change of pace from our normal environment.  We had one final stop before getting to the park that was like a roadside stop for visitors traveling to the parks.  It had a fruit stand, purses and bags, a hotdog and hamburger stand, and finally, a coffee shop!!!  This was the first good and ICE COLD coffee that I have drank since I was in America and I literally enjoyed every sip that I took of it.  I got an iced cappuccino and I never wanted it to end hahaha!  We hung out at this stand for around an hour and sat in the grass, ate fruit, and drank our coffee.  When we finally got back in the cars, the excitement of almost being to the park took over, and I could not do anything but look ahead to see what was awaiting us.

Nakuru town is the fourth largest city in Kenya, so it was quite a hustle and bustle as we drove through the city to the park.  There were people everywhere in the street and out, lots of bright painted buildings, and tons of shops with meat hanging in the window.  We got through town as quickly as possible and finally reached the main gate of the park, where we had to wait to be allowed in.  Where we sat was right on the fence of the park and the monkeys immediately started hassling us.  The monkeys in the area are not frightened of humans at all, so as soon as we arrived, we saw a monkey get into another tourists car and steal food before retreating out the window.  We had to lock the doors because they can open the handles, and hide all food because they can see and smell it and will do anything to get to it.

Lake Nakuru National Park has several important features that make it so valuable and different, but one of the main features is that it is one of the only parks in the country that is completely fenced and keeps any animals from moving in and out of the park.  This leads to high levels of animals in the park, so even from outside of the fence, we could see waterbuck and impala right next to the fence!  When we finally got the approval we needed to enter the park, we loaded back in the cars.  The first sign that I saw in the park said “Parks are for people and forever.”  I thought this was the best saying ever and was a great introduction to the next couple days that awaited us.  We pulled into a fenced camp site with several permanent buildings also in the enclosure.  The buildings contained the kitchen, permanent residences of researchers and other people that work in the park, and the bathroom, which consisted of a whole in the ground.  There was also a television room that had power and was where our lectures would be held.  The facilities were more than I expected, only because I thought we would be camping in the middle of nowhere.  It was a perfect balance of having the resources you need with living in the middle of the National Park!  We had to unpack all of our stuff, which filled up a huge van, so with the help of an assembly line, we unpacked our things, the food and kitchen supplies, and tents for us to set up.  Setting up the tents was quite an accomplishment.  We had to set up our huge canvas tent that holds about 6 or 7 people.  We had random stakes and pieces of material and netting and rope to hold it together.  We managed to tie tents together to hold them up and tying random ropes to stakes and hoping the tent wouldn’t fall in the middle of the night.  We had our sleeping pads and sleeping bags, and I had four other girls in my tent with me.  We had the perfect amount of space and I was sleeping right by the door, which I had hoped for.  When all of the tents were set up, we had some free time before dinner, so we wandered around the fenced area.  There were significantly less bugs in this area, which made it better to sit on the ground and on trees. There were perfect trees in camp, the first I have seen without thorns that were a great height for climbing.  My friend Patrick and I climbed up, and then our intern came to join us.  From the tree, you could see the lake, as well as large herds of African Buffalo, warthogs and various gazelles.  We had an amazing talk about what we want to do in the future and the possibility of coming back to Africa.  Our intern, Jenna, is really great to talk to because she has done so much and is very down to earth.  I think the best part about our intern and SAM is that they are almost in the same boat as us.  They don’t know where they are headed next, so it’s really helpful to talk to them about future plans.  They always make me feel so limitless as far as my future goes, which is a great feeling.  Ever since I have been here, I am beginning to see everything the world has to offer and I can’t wait to grab that by the horns even more than I already have.

We finally had dinner after a long day, and then did our RAP presentation around a campfire out by the tents.  However, we were all so exhausted that we went to sleep as soon as it was over to prepare for the next day! 

DAY 2:   The next day was filled with lots of really cool classes, field lectures, and an amazing wildlife drive.  We had breakfast just like a normal morning at KBC, and then loaded up the cars with our notebooks.  Our Wildlife Ecology professor Kiringe was in charge of this lecture and he took us through parts of the park to introduce us to the different types of habitats.  We saw tons of African buffalo in huge herds, lots of crazy baboons, and impala.  And when we least expected it, we saw a rhino right by the lake!  This was the first rhino that we had seen during this entire trip and we were all so excited to get lots of pictures.  Luckily for us, Rhinos in this park are highly protected and very common, so we would have several chances down the road to get up close and personal with the black and white rhinos found in this park.  After Kiringe was done with his lecture, we drove up to a place called Baboon Cliff.  Our professors have crazy accents, so for the longest time we thought it was called baboon creek.  It’s still an inside joke of all of the students here that we are headed to the creek at the top of the huge hill.  The view of the park from Baboon cliff was gorgeous.  It looked over the entire lake and a majority of the park and was the first time that we had a chance to really see the park and the habitats and animals that were found there.  The animals down below looked like tiny specks, even in large herds.  We took lots of pictures and saw a bunch of other tourists before having to head back to our camp for lunch and out next lecture.  When we were nearing camp, all of a sudden the car in front of us slammed on its breaks and was pointing and looking intensively to the trees near the lake.  Suddenly, as we were scoping the area, we spotted a leopard running up one of the trees!! It was so gorgeous with a beautiful coat that blended into the environment and made it hard to see.  Its eyes pierced right through me and I was literally as still as I could be.  It was one of the most gorgeous animals that I have ever seen, and being able to see it in its natural environment among the green leaves with the lake in the background was stunning.  It almost brought tears to my eyes because I was so shocked and amazed all at the same time.

After eating an amazing lunch by our incredible cook Arthur (who is probably one of my favorite members of the staff), we had the opportunity to have a guest lecturer from the Kenya Wildlife service talking about the challenges facing the park and what is being done to correct them.  The speaker was very soft spoken, and when the power went out and she didn’t have the PowerPoint to depend on, it was hard to get a lot out of what she was saying.  It was really cool, though to compare the management of this park compared to Amboseli due to the island biogeography that occurs in that area. Whole new management techniques must be enacted because of the fence and the pressure that it puts on the environment.  We also had a lecture by our Wildlife Management professor, Shem, in the afternoon.  This lecture was as informative as we learned more about the park, the habitats found there, the management being done, and the research that has taken place there.  We learned about populations of animals and how they have changed overtime and why this has happened.  Shem has done all of his research in Lake Nakuru, both for undergrad and graduate school, so he has such an insight to the park and also funny stories dealing with the wildlife and his interactions with the Kenya Wildlife Service.  It was so neat to listen to him talk and be able to see the passion that he had put into the park and how much he cares about it.  He even told us that he had secret data that the Kenya Wildlife Service has been looking for for years and years, yet he will not give it to them because they have no real need for it like he does.  We all were laughing when we heard this shy quiet professors telling us he was hiding secret data from the government.

The rest of the day was dedicated to a game drive that we got to go all around the park and see all of the animals up close.  I had a great group again for this first game drive and we got the best car with a lot more room, which we call the mothership.  However, the game drive started off terribly!  We literally saw the same few species over and over for the entire first hour.  We saw gazelle, impala, zebra, and waterbuck, which were all things we have seen extensively.  It’s still so cool to see, but when the park is hyped for large predators, Rothschild Giraffes, rhinos, and flamingos, these species are not as exciting anymore.  Just as we were about to give up on seeing anything cool that day, our luck changed.  The first thing we saw was a herd of giraffes!  They were far in the distance, but this species of giraffe is larger than all of the others, so it still looked massive among the habitat.  I hoped that we could see them more up close later in the week.  After that, we came in contact with one of the Kenya Wildlife Service agents.  In all National Parks, off-road driving is prohibited to maintain the habitats and ecosystems for the animals.  We somehow managed to get access to a closed road to get a better view of the lake and the species found there.  The first thing we saw was four white rhinos, right next to the road!!! They were no more than 10-15 feet away from the side of the car and we got to watch their interactions and behaviors from a front row seat.  I have never seen a rhino that close before, so I was just in awe looking at their crazy features, from their long faces to their horns to the size of their body and the weight that it holds.  They are literally one of the weirdest animals that I have ever seen, and I am so happy that we had the opportunity to be this close to them so that I could see all of these details. 

The other species that was resting right behind those four rhinos on the lake shore was a HUGE flock of Flamingos, the feature that the National Park is so well known for.  These flamingos travel in and out of the park on a daily basis, so it’s really exciting that they were there right when we were able to get really close to them.  They form a giant pink blob on the edge of the water and are so loud with a noise that you would never expect to come out of them.  It sounds like some sort of larger animal grunting as opposed to a bird call.  It was hard to make out individual flamingos and see their behaviors, but seeing them take over the lake and have a color that is not seen often was really great.  No other group had the opportunity to see these flamingos as up close as we did, so I felt so blessed.

As we were moving away from the water’s edge, we were all so excited to have seen these two animals so closely.  We couldn’t wait to get back to camp and tell everyone what we had seen.  As we started to drive back, however, we saw another tourist car stopped by the side of the road, and to our surprise, they were looking at two adult female lions lying in the grass under a tree right off the road!!!  Could this wildlife drive get any better???  We got to sit and watch the lions for a while, watching them roll over, yawn, get up and stretch, and lie on their backs with all limbs straight up in the air.  We kept praying that they would get up and start hunting, but we didn’t have such luck.  Still, this was the closest we have seen any lions and I was so happy this was the last part of our day and our game drive.  One of the funniest things that happened during this observation was my car tricking other cars into looking at the wrong side of the side.  For the most part, we did this to other SFS vehicles and students, but we also did it to some tourists.  We would point and look in the complete opposite direction and trick them into doing the same.  We all were so in to it and fooled almost every car that went by.  It was so funny and we were all dying of laughter.

We had to head back before dark to our fencing due to park rules, and had our regular dinner and RAP around the big fire pit.  It was a whole different kind of RAP in the park because we had no computers or other technology, so the student of the day had to be really creative.  After RAP, a small group of us decided to play some card games inside the dining area, like rummy, before heading to sleep.  It was an amazing day and we definitely needed sleep before more days with more excitement.

I am going to stop with my blog at that point right now to go and get some sleep after the long day that we had here.  I hope you enjoy reading about expedition and I will update you soon on the rest of the days of expedition and what we have been doing since we got back!

Thanks again so much for reading and I hope things are treating all of you well!

Love,

Mollie Ann