Kwa heri Africa

I thought my last entry would be the last blog post I made in Africa, but I realized I had things that I wanted to remember.  I’ve done a really poor job at keeping a journal this semester so this blog has been a place for me to write down experiences and things I want to remember.  That may explain why I have so many blog posts about everything imaginably possible, my blog has become my makeshift journal.

Last night, after supper, we went around in a circle and each shared our favorite memory from the semester and how we have felt we have changed this semester.  It was such a great time reminiscing.  There were so many memories that had slipped to the back of my mind and so many memories that bring a smile to my face.  It was really great to hear how everyone has been impacted by Africa and what he or she want to bring home. 

My favorite memories (I shared three) were: (1.) Dung day and meeting the young Maasai boy who gave me the vulture feather.  This was one of my favorite memories because it was really the first time I interacted with someone on a personal level in Africa.  We didn’t speak the same language but we had a great afternoon and became friends in a way.  It just showed me that wherever people come from, they have things in common and can be friends.  (2.)  My second memory was playing the Hadzabe girl for pretty much the same reason as the first memory.  It really touched me to be able to play and have fun with a girl who I will never see again or didn’t even know her name.  It was powerful in a way I cant fully describe.  (3.) In Lake Nakuru National Park, one of our game drives it started pouring and we all had our hoods up.  After about 10 minutes of this, I gave up on hoods because I was getting wet anyways and it was the most fun I have ever had on a game drive.  Standing in the rain, getting soaked, not caring about seeing animals but just enjoying the time.  Plus we saw an amazing rainbow! 

As for the way I changed, I don’t think I fully know the full extent but I’ll try to explain.  So to everyone I have met in Tanzania and Kenya, America is this great beacon of hope and knowledge.  America can’t do much wrong in most peoples’ eyes and everyone wants to visit or live in America.  This has really showed me the responsibility America has to be a positive role model.  America needs to be a role model for sustainability and using the resources we abundantly have for good use.  There is no way we can promote sustainability or anything for that matter in other countries if we don’t back up our words with actions.  Therefore, I guess I’ve changed in that I have a new passion and hope for America, I have a passion that we can become a role model for the rest of the world.  Wherever I live, I want to live my life so that it positively impacts not only the people around me, but also my friends in Africa. 

Today we had a debrief with the staff and talked about what things worked, what things needed to be changed and what we were grateful about.  Afterwards, the center director, Okello, gave us a blessing.  He told us that the way he strives to live his life is guided by three principles: be happy, be good, and do good.  After giving us that blessing he told us that he no longer sees us as Americans, but first as brothers and sisters and second as children of the world.  I really like this concept of being children of the world.  It goes along with what I have learned throughout this semester about living positively and working to ensure that all my brothers and sisters around the world have access to whatever they need.  It makes me feel more connected to the global community, which I think is a great blessing. 

I guess that’s it.  There is no easy way to wrap this up.  I have so many stories and things that I have been pondering.  So many new thoughts and new ideas.  All I know is that I want to hold the things I have learned with me forever, I don’t want to forget these things.  I want to hold Tanzania and Kenya in my heart.  I don’t know how to sum up a semester of memories, experiences, emotions, sights, sounds, and people into one blog post.  It’s impossible.  I don’t think I will even be able to process everything for a long time.  I’m just so grateful for everything I have seen, experienced, for everyone I have met, for everything I have learned. 

I’ve been so blessed by Tanzania and Kenya.  God has been by my side every step of the way and his presence has been so evident.  God is good.  God is good in Tanzania.  God is good in Kenya.  God is the same here in Africa; God is still a God of love who cares about his people and creation.  I have seen him in the trees and walking alongside the road, I have seen him herding sheep, I have seen him gathering water, I have seen him playing with children.  The world is God’s and I thank him first and foremost for this opportunity.   

The Last Days

Today is December 14, 2012.  I arrived in Tanzania on September 10, 2012.  I leave Kenya on December 16, 2012.  Where did the time go? I’m still not quite sure. 

Honestly, this semester has been a whirlwind of emotions and has taken me on a crazy ride.  Some days I have wanted to give up and go home, other days I am perfectly content.  I’m trying to think about how this semester has changed me and I don’t know the right words to use.  Words are hard.  I don’t think I’ll fully know how this semester has changed me for a while either. 

I came to Africa with too many expectations.  I expected Africa to show me a clear future; I expected to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life.  While I have gotten some clarity, I am nowhere near to having a concrete idea about what to do with my life.  It’s frustrating.  But maybe that’s what Africa is supposed to teach me, to be patient, to be trusting, to be faithful, to always hope, to look for the positive.

Africa is nothing like the romantized version people may conjure in their heads.  I had this idea in my head of what Africa would look like, in my head it was really magical and exotic but when I came here I found that the beauty in Kenya or Tanzania is nothing like that.  If you take Kenya or Tanzania at face value, most people probably wouldn’t be able to look past the poverty, pollution, and trash that covers the ground because it stares at you right in the face.  However, I think I’ve come to find the real beauty of Africa is the hardness of life, the poverty, the trash and how the people are still so beautiful, happy, and vibrant.  There are absolutely beautiful landscapes in Kenya and Tanzania and I have been blessed to see these landscapes, but the real beauty to me has been the people. 

The children who run after you shouting “mzungulei” ( “my white person”), the pushy Maasai Mamas who all swarm you and try to see you jewelry, the “mzee” (old men) giving you toothy grins as they lean on their canes. My friends I have made in both countries with the staff members and the families I have stayed with at homestays.  My friends like Wiper and Ernest and all the other local guides.  The Maasai boy from “dung day” who gave me a vulture feather and taught me Maasai words.  Lemomo from the Maasai boma.  The little Hadzabe girl I played with. These people are what have made the biggest impact on me during this semester.    I’m so grateful for this opportunity to meet people and make friends on the other side of the world. 

These people have inspired me and have shared with me so much.  Even if we can’t speak the same language, I have shared special moments with them.  I have left pieces of my heart with each person I have met.  It’s really hard to leave friends.  So even though I’m so excited to be home and see my friends and family, I’ll miss Africa.  There were times when I wanted to leave Africa, many times in fact, but I’ve still grown to love it and am so grateful for all its taught me and showed me. 

Africa.  I just don’t have the words right now to describe it. 

Last Days Activities

On our last non-program day we went to Amboseli National Park for the last game drive.  I’m glad we went again because the last “official” game drive was kinda lame and we were only there for like 1.5 hours.  This last game drive we saw three cheetahs!  We saw a mother and two cubs eating a gazelle!  Apparently we saw 1/3 of the total Amboseli cheetah population.  Seeing the cheetahs made the last game drive feel special since we haven’t seen any carnivores since the Serengeti.  We also saw a lot of elephants.  At one point, we were on the road when a herd of thirty elephants crossed right in front of our car.  It was great, but then some of the mothers had really little babies and mama elephants are crazy protective.  After all the elephants crossed, one mother turned around and trumpeted at us and almost started running after us.  If you have never experienced this, it is the most terrifying experience in the world!  Elephants are huge and can easily push over a land cruiser.  Needless to say, I have a healthy fear of elephants’ power and do not want to get in an experience like that again. 

We also went to a lodge in Amboseli and were able to go swimming, which was a lot of fun.  Three of my friends and I spent a lot of time racing each other across the pool and just goofing around.  It was a lot of fun. Afterwards we were singing Disney songs in the back of the land cruiser fairly loudly, I’m sure the zebras and gazelle we passed loved our songs. 

Yesterday we had a big ol African BBQ.  We had community presentations for our DR projects and invited 150 community members to hear our presentations then have lunch afterwards.  My DR group went first.  When we practiced, our presentation only took 15 minutes to present, however they needed to be translated into Maasai so the presentation actually took almost an hour.   On top of the translation, most of the scientific terms and concepts needed to be explained.  After the presentation, we had comments and questions from the guests.  In our presentation, we had to give recommendations, which I was in charge of presenting, one of the recommendations was the use of agroforestry in making agriculture more sustainable.  All of the questions we were asked had to do with agroforestry, which I had to answer.  I got to talk to a crowd about agroforestry!  Wooo!! It was great!!

The presentations took a long time, we didn’t get lunch until 2:30 but it was delicious.  It was really interesting to hear the comments from the local community members; after all the research we did directly impacts and hopefully benefits the community.  I hope that the research I was part of can be my way of saying “thank you” to the community. 

Well today and tomorrow are our last days in Kenya.  Today we’re celebrating “Christma-hannak-kwanzi-kuh” in Kenya complete with secret Santa gifts and a visit from Santa himself.  Our center director, Okello, is hilarious.  He can talk about nothing and it will be the most interesting story ever.  We asked him to give us a story and he told us he would do better and have comedy hour! 

This will probably be my last blog post in Africa.  Thank you for reading my blogs, for your prayers, for your support.  I’m excited to see everyone and to be able to talk to ya’ll about my experience.  Have a great day and thank you for everything!

Goat Soup and Guides

 The Wildlife Ecology DR group, minus four of our local guides.  

 White Rhino and Black Rhino.  

Wiper!

Fieldwork was over four days ago, which seems like a forever ago, and we have now started writing our individual DR papers. We have five days until the paper is due.  It's a very daunting task.  I just finished my introduction today and after this break I'll start on my results section.  We're writing the paper in sections and handing them in to be critiqued before revising them and handing them in for good!  

We each write an individual paper that falls under our main DR topic and then will present as a group to the community in a few days.  Since our research was all about water quality, the riverine environment, and human encroachment; I decided to write my paper about how the agricultural practices along the Noolturesh River impact the ecosystem, specifically erosion, vegetation cover, and water quality.  I'm excited about it, I find it interesting so I hope it goes well.  

The last three days were dedicated to data analysis.  We had a lot of data to sift through and perform statistical analysis on, in addition to stat tests we also had to make maps using the GPS coordinates we gathered.  We did this using a program called GIS which is a computer program that helps spatially analyze data and make maps.  There were only two in our group that know how to use GIS, myself and another boy so we were nominated to make the maps.  I was really nervous because I hadn't used GIS since the fall of my sophomore year at Bethel and the version we had to use was of worse quality than the version we have at Bethel.  After the first night of frustrations and almost meltdowns, we finally got the data into the program and actually made pretty good looking maps (I have to thank my GIS prof, Dr Petersen at Bethel without whom I would know nothing about GIS).  

Today, as a break from paper writing, our DR group went out into the bush and had a Maasai goat roast!  We slaughtered goats and ate them in Tanzania as well, but this felt more authentic as we were in the bush eating meat right off sticks.  It was pretty tasty! If you've never had goat, I would suggest buying a goat and roasting it over a fire in the backyard.  Maybe I can convince my parents to let me do that in our backyard... We also had goat soup.  Now I really liked the goat, but the goat soup was another story.  It tasted like goat fat had been liquified, it had the consistency of fat as well.  I'm pretty sure its congealing in my stomach right now.  I couldn't get much down, but the guides were drinking it like there was no tomorrow.  We asked Ernest, one of the staff here, if he liked apple pie or goat soup better and he said very eagerly that goat soup was the best food ever.  I'm pretty sure he drank five bowls by himself.  One of the guides was just drinking out of the pot.  

Our DR group had a lot of fun!  Our local guides were the best, we really got to know them and had a lot of fun trampling through rainforests, muddy rivers, and acacia-covered hills with them.  There was a lot of teasing between groups.  My erosion group was fairly slow-moving, we said we were being thorough, but really it was because we took a lot of cookie breaks.  Because we were so slow-moving, we were called the "pole pole" group ("slow").  Later our name was switched to "kuju" group ("caterpillar") and Wiper was nicknamed "Bwana Kuju" or "Sir Caterpillar".  Ernest even made up a caterpillar dance.  I tried getting back at the other groups by calling them "olokuma" and "ilmada" ("turtle" and "crazy").  But it didnt really work...

If you're wondering about the White Rhino/Black Rhino picture, Ernest (Black Rhino) gave me the nickname White Rhino and I told him if I had to be White Rhino, he had to be Black Rhino.  After that, all of the guides just called me White Rhino.  Wiper called me Nasieku (my Maasai name) or Minnesota Lady (I just tell people I'm from Minnesota because no one knows what South Dakota is).  We also made up nicknames for all the guides.  Wiper became Franky, Ernest became Ernie, Danson became Danny, Samuil became Sammy, Rana became Ronny, and Mwato started out Matty but after some miscommunication became Mary.  

We did do academic work, it just doesn't make as interesting stories as stories about liquid goat and guides  

We're almost done here, which is crazy.  Though with this paper in the way, it seems like forever before the end.  

Website Blog Link

SFS has a section on their website dedicated to short blogs written by students in the program.  The blogs can be about whatever the student wants.  A few weeks ago I volunteered to write a short blog and it got put on the website!  Here is a link if you wanted to read it.

DR fieldwork ended today.  Tomorrow we start data analysis and start writing our papers.  I'll try to update about the last few days of fieldwork and whats up next for DR.  Have a great day!

http://www.fieldstudies.org/blog/?p=1327

Welcome to DR!

Day three of DR fieldwork is over.  Just as a reminder, my DR group has 10 students including myself and is lead by our wildlife ecology professor, Kiringe.  Our DR focus of study is the Noolturesh River that runs through the Amboseli ecosystem in our part of Kenya.  We have split into several groups and are measuring several different aspects of the riverine environment.  The first group has been measuring turbidity and mapping the river.  They also take samples of the water to measure the sediment load.  The second group has been measuring the riverine vegetation.  The third group has been assessing the human encroachment and human activities along the river.  The fourth group has been measuring woody vegetation and erosion.  The fifth group has been measuring water quality. 

For the first two days, I was measuring erosion with three other girls, our two guides, and Kiringe. In order to measure erosion we split into groups of two students and one guide and did transects 200 meters apart from each other and perpendicular to the river.  We went 10 meters from the river and measured the herbaceous vegetation cover in a 2X2 meter quadrat then expanded the quadrat to be 30X30 meters and measured the sheet, rill, and gully erosion with the quadrat.  After that plot, we moved so we were 100 meters from the river and repeated the process, then moved to be 200 meters from the river and repeated the process once more.  This procedure sounds pretty dry, but I found it fun, plus I needed some practice for my methods section of my research paper so I thought this would be a good place to practice. 

The exciting part about this procedure is the hike through dense forest.  Our 10 meter quadrat is fine, but getting to the 100 and 200 meter plots requires hiking up mountains and battling thorny plants.  Basically every plant in Africa is covered in thorns or is poisonous.  It is a slow process getting to the quadrats, but it makes me feel pretty awesome.  Whenever we get whacked by a branch covered by thorns or trip on the thick underbrush, we tell each other, “Welcome to DR”.  Yesterday, there was no path next to the river, only a vertical rock face.  We started climbing around the rock cliff to get to our next transect, when we looked at the GPS and realized that it would have started exactly in the middle of the rock face.  It didn’t seem worth it to complete that transect so down we went and instead we crossed the river by walking across a tree trunk that is being used for a bridge.  Now when I say river, it’s definitely not raging or really wide, it’s average is probably 3 meters wide and I don’t think it ever goes past your knees. 

One of the best parts about working with erosion is working with our guide, Francis, or Wiper as everyone calls him.  He is called Wiper because he ran for government office in the district a few years back and was part of the “Wiper Democrat” party.  He is running again for district counselor in March so we have been talking politics quite a bit.  We have heard all about his stance and what he would do to change the district, if I could vote in Kenya, I would vote for him.  He also tells us all about the national Kenyan government and all about the corruption and nepotism and asks us many questions about the US government.  He is the only Kenyan I have heard to say that he would have voted for Romney, but he still likes Obama because he is Kenyan.  One of Wiper’s passions is helping out the orphans in the district.  He doesn’t have a family of his own so he pays for school fees and for food for 29 orphans!  He is so cool!  On top of it, he is Maasai, my favorite.  He even gave me a Maasai name:  Nasieku!  It means “sharp and fast”.  My life has been fulfilled, I get to measure soil erosion and I am now an honorary Maasai. 

Today, I switched groups and worked the turbidity group.  For the past few days, during the hot parts of the day, all I have wanted to do is lie down in the water.  However, that probably wouldn’t be very smart because the river is very contaminated and looks like a chocolate river.  But anyways, today I finally got to go in the river, but our guide, Danson, wouldn’t let me swim…

We had to follow the river and mark GPS coordinates wherever it had a bend.  Every 400 meters we would get into the river, wearing rain boots, and measure the turbidity, the width, depth, the flow rate, and every other stop we took a water sample.  We got a lot of weird looks from the locals who would stop and watch us, laughing and asking Danson what we were doing.  At one stop, we saw a mother and two children gathering water by the side and though it looked muddy, we decided we could probably handle it.  Nope.  BG, the other girl I was with today, got both of her boots entirely stuck in the mud and I had to pull her out than dig her boot out of the mud, much to the amusement of the mother and girls.  Once we were done with our measurements for the day, we had to hike for an hour through the bush to get to the closest road to be picked up while wearing rain boots that were several sizes too big and with socks that were soaked and muddy!  It was an adventure! Once again, welcome to DR. 

Danson is another great guide.  SFS has a scholarship program where local students can get scholarships and go to the summer programs on wildlife management or public health that are in Tanzania and Kenya respectively.  This summer, he was one of the scholarship recipients and spent a month in Tanzania.  He knew all of the Tanzanian staff and went to all the parks we went to, so we bonded over our experiences.  Danson is also an incredible athlete!  Farmers put acacia branches, covered with thorns, around their farms, and Danson would take two steps and hop over these fences that can be 1.5 meters tall!  He also raced against another Kenyan who has made it to the Olympics, the other guy beat him, but it’s still cool.  Danson, another Maasai, told us that Maasai are born to be good athletes. 

As you can tell, DR fieldwork is going well!  We have five more days of fieldwork left, then we will start data analysis and writing our papers.  Crazy!  I only have 23 days left in Kenya!  Weird.  But also I’m excited to come home.  I hope everyone had good Thanksgivings!  We didn’t really “celebrate” Thanksgiving since it was our first day of fieldwork, but we did go around the room at supper and say what we were thankful for, which is really what Thanksgiving is about anyways.  

Adventure is Out There!

We’re getting close to the end of the semester, classes and exams are over, DR selections have been made and in two days time, we will start DR fieldwork.  Crazy!  In good news, I got my first choice for DR!  I’ll be working with one of our professors, Kiringe, and nine other students assessing the water quality of the main river that goes through Kimana Group Ranch.  In assessing the water quality, we will be running water quality tests, measuring the erosion, and measuring the distance between human settlements and farms and the water.  I’m excited! I’ve been reading countless articles on water quality but it won’t really be real until Thursday when we start fieldwork.  That means we don’t get to really celebrate Thanksgiving in normal fashion, but all you really need to celebrate Thanksgiving is counting your blessings.  We’ll celebrate Thanksgiving the next week on a non-program day.  We even chipped in to buy a turkey, which are pretty scarce around here.

Today we had our second non-program day.  We went on a hike in a town called Loilotoktok.  We were hiking to a waterfall, but being that it’s the dry season there was no water in the waterfall.  It was a fun hike though, we jumped over boulders in the dried river bed and tried to avoid all sorts of spiney and pokey plants.  We found a cave that was about twenty feet up on a rock face and I climbed up to the cave along with three of my fellow other students, much to the dismay of our student affairs manager who was certain we would get hurt and he would get in trouble.  We didn’t get hurt though, don’t worry!  At the waterfall, we found these huge vines and all took turns swinging on the vines! We dubbed the hike “Adventure Hike”.  Climbing to caves, jumping boulders, swinging on vines; it was great!

After the hike we went into Loilotoktok town and went to the market. The market was good, I didn’t get anything or barter at all, but it’s always fun to walk around and see what people are selling.  After the market, some of us went back to KBC and watched a movie while the rest went into Kimana town.  After watching a movie, I spent the rest of the night in the kitchen helping one of the chefs, Motero.  It was one of the most relaxing nights I have had here.  No one was around so it was quiet while Motero and I just cooked away, or at least Motero cooked, I just cut fruit and veggies.  It was very peaceful.   

Well that’s it for now.  We haven’t gone out a lot lately.  All of our time is spent on getting ready for DR so that’s why there are a lack of posts about Kenya.  I’ll try to update about what DR entails and how it’s going.  Have a great Thanksgiving! Make sure to count your blessings and tell the people you love that you’re thankful for them.  I am thankful for all of your support and prayers back in the states!  Thank you everyone!  

A Faceless Crime

The poaching problem became real today. 

For our last wildlife management class, we went to Kimana Game Sanctuary to complete a field activity in which we were assigned a species and have to write a management plan for the species.  My species was hartebeest, which is a large antelope species that is quite rare.  Needless to say, I didn’t see any hartebeest, but at least I know my management plan will be to increase the population of hartebeest in the area. 

Game sanctuaries are maintained and patrolled by game scouts, which are employed by NGOs.  The KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) may come in for extra help, but the game sanctuaries are primarily local communities responsibility.  This being said, it is very easy to come and go on game sanctuaries and there is little patrol.  There are no distinct boundaries, the game sanctuary just blends into farmland whenever it ends. 

Anyways, my car was driving around looking for our certain species when our driver, Sopiya, saw something strange in the distance.  It looked like a big, gray lump.  Through binoculars we could see it was an elephant on its side.  The good thing (or not so good depending on circumstances) about being in a game sanctuary versus a national park is you are allowed to off road and drive wherever.  We were able to drive right up next to the lump.  The closer we got, the worse the situation became.  It was a dead elephant with no face. 

Sopiya said it had probably been dead for about two days.  The smell was putrid.  The sight was worse.  An incredible, majestic elephant with it’s face cut off.  It’s trunk left behind.  There is only one reason an elephant would be missing it’s face.  Poaching. 

We have learned about poaching all semester, but seeing it up close, seeing the direct effect of poaching was too much.  It made me sick to my stomach.  Cutting off the face makes this crime seem so heartless, like the people who killed the elephant didn’t even care that this was a living creature.  It was only a good that can be sold for money.  I realize there are factors behind poaching such as poverty, but poaching is still sick and wrong.  Though, we learned from several sources that poachers are usually not the people entrenched in poverty, instead people who are well off and can afford fancy equipment. I don’t know who poached this elephant, but whoever it was took a life for the sake of money.

I’m adding a picture of the elephant.  Not to sensationalize the story or to add to the entertaining aspect of my blog, but to show you, to make people aware that this happens.  Poaching is not just a problem to learn about in a classroom or read about in a paper, it’s real and it affects all of us.  Poaching affects the social structure of animals, it affects the populations, it affects the vegetation, the habitat.  In short, it affects everyone in our global community.  And we need to stand against poaching, we need to stand against poverty, we need to realize that we all share this world and we need to start acting to ensure everyone is taken care of and that the environment is conserved.