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!