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
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