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.