Day one and two in the field

We have just started our Directed Research (DR) projects. I am in the Wildlife Management DR where we are looking at the ecological and economic viability of wildlife sanctuaries. These are areas that either groups of people or individuals own and have been set aside to protect wildlife and attract tourists. They are not National Parks because the people own and manage the sanctuaries to generate income, and they are allowed to graze and/or water their livestock inside the sanctuary during the dry season. It would make a lot of sense if people ecologically assessed areas to see which habitats have high concentrations of wildlife or which areas need to be set aside so that they are not over grazed, and then made them into wildlife sanctuaries. But there are not the resources to do this for the sanctuaries, so they just get set up wherever people think might be a good place and can set aside the land. So our job/project/thing we are interested in is what is the ecological viability of the sanctuaries. Within that broad question we are looking at the densities of wildlife within the sanctuaries, the densities of livestock, and the way these are spatially overlapping and if they are competing for space.   To do this we go into the field and do walking transects (1 km long) where we gather GPS points of all of the species and numbers of wildlife and livestock we see. Yesterday (our first day) we began by mapping one of the sanctuaries because we are the first people to be allowed to do any research there. All of the other sanctuaries that we are working in have already been mapped by previous students, so we will only take animal GPS points in those ones. Today (day two) my group walked four transects and gathered GPS points for every animal we came across. This included lots of Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles, impalas, zebras, wildebeest, and warthogs, as well as, one giraffe, a group of elephants, and three buffalo (the elephant and buffalo were super scary, but really exciting as well). The coolest part of this whole project is that at the end we get to share our results and suggestions for the future with all of the community members in the area. These people really want to know what we have to say and they come back every year listen to our presentations.

Aside from all of this we also drive around through areas that have no roads for the most part and when they do have roads they are in such poor condition that you are better off not driving on them… as we found out. We finished our very first day of field work and were heading home when we went crashing into a puddle that was a bit more than a puddle and our professor said “I think I made a blunder” as our wheels spun and mud flew everywhere. We were at a 45 degree angle with the back wheel in a giant hole. We ended up hooking up our land rover to another land rover with a cable that they have (just for this purpose I guess) attached to the front of the car. We pulled the car out after about twenty minutes of working on it and ripped off the hook on the back of the other car, but at least we got it out! It was an incredibly amusing event all in all, and definitely warranted an afternoon nap.  

Off to a third day of fieldwork! More adventures to come,

Sara

Amboseli National Park

Mountain Struck

This morning I woke up and my jaw hit the ground out side my banda. This is why... 

Every day I think that Mt. Kilimanjaro can't get any more impressive, but then it snows.

This is the second natural event to be noted in the last twenty four hours. Yesterday around 5:30 golden sunlight was bathing our whole camp and then it started to pour. You could see rain coming down in streaks like someone was pouring buckets of water out of the sky. We saw the rainbow up above us and were marveling at it when it came down from the sky and ended right in the middle of the soccer field in our camp. I could see where is touched the ground. We all just stood laughing and asking each other if it was really there until it finally dissipated and the rain moved on. I could make some corny comment about how we must be in the pot of gold, but I think its pretty obvious that this was quite an event.
Got to go to class and start our Directed Research Projects. We just finnished our other classes and took exams, so we are getting closer and closer to the end of this adventure.
In awe,
Sara

I wrote this a week ago but we didn't have internet and then we went on expedition (quintessential east africa!), so here it is.

Kenya
This camp continues to amaze me and make me appreciate daily life every day. I was telling my dad that its hard to be stressed in a place where the light plays off of the yellow bark acacias every evening and our class room is a giant open-air wooden structure. We do have cause to be stressed right now as we have had the busiest week and a bit of our semester yet. I must say I am wiped out, but it’s been great. I have totally enjoyed the learning we have been doing about this area. Its fun to see what’s different here in Kenya in terms of the area we are located in, the culture of the area, the subtle differences in the way people behave here and so on. In Kenya life is a bit more business-like. People are more on time and things happen more according to schedule which on one hand is nice and on the other hand is a bit of a bummer. Breakfast actually happens at 7:30 not at 7:36 or 7:40 or 7:48, but actually at 7:30:00. It seems that this general attitude permeates through the culture at least where we are.
This attitude is interesting because Tanzania was a mandate not a colony, and a mandate decrees that the country in governance must benefit the native people (as opposed to a colony where you can come in and do whatever you want), and because of these requirements the British didn’t really settle Tanzania. They didn’t take the time to establish themselves or set up infrastructure or promote their language. This means that today Tanzania doesn’t have very good facilities and infrastructure and their percent of population living below the poverty line is higher, but that their culture is more intact and their language is officially Swahili and their whole attitude is less “western”. In Kenya (a colony of the British govt) the British settled in for a longer stay and with that came infrastructure, the English language, and a “western attitude”. Here in Kenya things happen on time and people aren’t as skilled at just being. Its interesting because I spent the last two months learning how to be and relax and know that things weren’t going to happen when they said they would on paper. Now that I am flexible in that way, it's hard to be flexible to a new system that is on time and more business-like. Funny that works.

Halloween
I really didn’t know you could have a Halloween party in Kenya but I guess when there is a concentration of 28 young Americans and a wonderful pseudo mom (Molly our Student Affairs Manager here in Kenya) you can do anything. We had a full out Halloween party with jack-o-lantern carving, and bobbing for apples, and everyone had a costume and we even performed fun dances for each other and the had a dance party. I was really quite stunned and had a total blast!

Kimana market
We live outside (about a ten min drive) of Kimana a small town that is more established than Rhotia and has small shops and a market every Tuesday. We went to the market last Tuesday. What a world full of color. The Maasai here in Kenya are more colorful in the things they wear, the jewelry they make and they way they present themselves and interact. The Maasai are the main tribe here in Kimana and it really makes a huge difference in the culture of this area. In the market there are always three Maasai mamas following you out dangling beaded jewelry in your face and saying “200 only 200, very cheap……….”. On some occasions it’s enough to drive a person crazy, but on others it can be fun and interesting to interact with them and look at their jewelry and learn how to say no in affective ways. I had a wonderful time looking at clothing that was selling for 100 KSH an item (the equivalent to $1.35), picking out bead colors so that we can learn to make bracelets from the mamas, buying a pair of bright blue shoes, and admiring the hilarious array of Obama t-shirts and yellow satin ruffley skirts.

Amboseli
When we left for Amboseli we were supposed to have a traveling lecture through different parts of the park by stopping places and standing out of the hatches of the land rovers and having our professor give his lecture, but it was pouring down rain. It’s interesting how either the heavy absence of rain or the overwhelming deluge of it is always a factor of life in East Africa. So instead we sat in our cars peering out of our cloudy windows and received our lecture over the walky-talky system in the land rovers. It was thoroughly entertaining. By the end of our lecture the rain had started to taper off and so we by the afternoon we were able to game drive out of the park standing out of the hatches. Amboseli is a very small park that is basically a dry season source of water for many animals, elephants especially. As it is the beginning of the wet season the animals are moving out of the park so there is less to see, but there were still tons of elephants everywhere. We watched a young male who was in musth (ready to mate), and was very aggressive towards one larger male in particular. The younger male kept instigating fights with the older male and getting beaten. He was obviously frustrated, so when we tried to drive away he came charging at us trumpeting and shaking his head making his ears flap. After we got away, we drove through the swampy grass lands and were blessed with the most spectacular cloud show I have even seen… the golden light, the puffy cotton candy clouds, the stringy soft clouds, and sky reflecting off of the water in the swamps, the green green grass, the birds soaring and calling above our heads. I have rarely felt so wrapped up in each aspect of the world. And just to put the cherry on the ice cream we got to see a cheetah as Mt. Kili was poking out of the clouds and the sun was setting.

Sending my love,
Sara

Jambo Kenya!

Wow, its really funny to finally be here. There are vervet monkeys and baboons, and bush babies, and birds of every size and sort IN our camp! There is Mt Kili. in the back ground who was spectacular today! I say "who" because the mountain is such a presence that it is like a person. The trail around the inside of the fence is gorgeous and its a blessing to be able to go places in camp and feel totally alone. It rained twice about four days ago and everything is fit to bursting with fuzzy green buds and little shoots of grass coming up everywhere. Its really a treat to be here...in spring...I guess! Just letting you all know that I am here and alive and well.
Love Sara

Kwaheri Tanzania!

As we finish up everything in Tanzania and get ready for the switch to Kenya, I am especially aware of time here and how time moves. We had umpteen assignments to finish and there are umpteen last things to do before we go. Everything moves so slowly here that you are never rushed, things just happen when they happen. But because things move slowly there is never quite enough time to do all of the things we were trying to do. Its odd how in the end it all works out. I am not quite sure what makes it work out, but so far it has managed to. Perhaps it is the accepting present attitude of the Tanzanians that just makes the whole world flow.
On Saturday we worked at the primary school just down the road to help them build a kitchen. We have just begun to build what will eventually be a closed stove type cooking area, which will use less than half of the firewood than the open fires they have been using to cook. It was exciting and fun to help out and give our service and work with the kids to cement the floors of the new structure. We had a few adventures along the way… we were cementing the second and last room, and we were almost finished so only Aaron and I were in the room smoothing the last of the cement. All of a sudden the children who were leaning in the windows watching started shouting and pointing. Coming out of the newly put down and still soft cement was a medium sized black mamba! It slithered its way right out of the cement only two feet away from Aaron and maybe five feet from me. We all backed quickly out of the room and one of the Tanzanian men came over with a rake and killed it. I was a bit taken aback, as were many of us, and then we started thinking about the reality of a black mamba around children. If one of them were to be bitten out here where there is no immediate medical care available, that child would almost certainly die. After that realization I decided I understood their actions (interesting how this place puts things into perspective).
We worked all day long and at the end of the day we finally dragged our weary selves to camp. As I walked back to camp, I looked out over the mountains and valleys, the trees and fields, the cows and people, and realized that I truly felt like I was walking home. I felt deeply at peace with this place. It is definitely a challenge after finally feeling at home to pick up and transition to Kenya, but it also puts my heart at ease to know how quickly I feel so comfortable here.
I will miss hearing the pigeon peas rattling in their husks as the wind sweeps over the fields. I will miss the sunsets out side our gate and the way the mountains turn a hazy blue. I will miss our walks around this area and greeting everyone we pass. I will miss reading with the children at the primary school and having each one hold my hand and pet my arms and stare up at me with wide eyes. I will miss our incredible staff and the family we have built together. We have started saying goodbyes and after leaving a dear friend tonight I sat down with tears in my eyes and said “I hate this!” a fellow student came to comfort me and replied “I know, but the best part is you love these people more than you will miss them and that’s what matters in the end.” What a piece of wisdom, and what an incredible thing to know in my heart.
With that, I will write next in Kenya!
Much Love, Sara

EXPEDITION!

Below are the long overdue snippets of our five day expedition to Serengeti National Park. I hope you enjoy!

The Serengeti…
Serengeti comes from a Maasai word meaning endless plains. When I heard that I though it was nice, but when I saw it my jaw dropped. These so called “endless plains” are an ocean of grass. Sometimes we would drive along a road in our land cruisers and 3 of 4 sides would be completely flat grassland until the horizon and on the 4th side there would be some small hills in the distant blue background. I have never experienced the feeling of smallness you get from being in the ocean, when I wasn’t in the ocean, but standing up in the land cruisers seeing stretches of grass up on grass blowing in the wind made me feel smaller than I ever have before.
Serengeti National Park is located on the northern boarder of Tanzania. It is especially famous for over 1.5 million wildebeest that migrate back and forth between Serengeti in Tanzania and the Maasai-Mara in Kenya. The wildebeest are just now beginning to make there way back down from Maasai-Mara, so we did not see many in the Serengeti, but we saw so many other amazing animals I wasn’t really thinking about what we weren’t seeing.

Favorite Moments from Serengeti
A New Cat
Driving back to our camp on the last afternoon and we saw something moving through the grass. It was too small to be a lion or even a cheetah or leopard, but it looked a lot like a cat. Finally we got a clear look at it, and it was a Serval. They look a lot like house cats but about three times the size. They have long legs and striking patterns and enormous ears. They hunt by hearing their prey until they are close enough to pounce on it. Their long legs help them get above the grass height so that they can hear rustles made by prey. It was an incredible creature and a very shy one at that so we were especially lucky to spot it.

And It Rained
On our second day we came back to camp from our morning drive and lecture to eat lunch and rest. After lunch it looked like it was going to rain so I climbed into my tent to have a nap and pass the storm. I woke up when a tent mate said “Sara, is this all water under our tent?” she had here hand on the bottom of our tent and that looked like a water mattress. I put my rain gear on and went out in the a down pour like I have never seen. I didn’t know there was that much water in East Africa or that it was possible for it to all come out of the sky at the same time! It was such an unbelievable thing to see it rain after a month and a half without it that we just laughed and watched as a small creek formed and flowed directly under two of the tents. I have more respect for African Safari tents than just about any inanimate object in this world. Our tents were a bit damp and the bottoms of our sleeping pads were wet, but for the most part and especially considering the amount of water that had come out of the sky, our stuff was shockingly dry!

Ancient Footprints
Oldupai Gorge, the cradle of humankind. It was pretty amazing to really be there. They have this funny little falling apart museum that is full of replicates of all of the incredible artifacts they have pulled out of the gorge. They made a large emphasis on the fact that it was named after a plant in the Maasai language spelled Oldupai, but the first scientific papers that were written said Olduvai, so most people know it spelled with a “v” but they were trying to correct that misconception. So I am passing that info on to you and furthering their attempt at correcting history. The display and replicate (plaster mold) they had of the set of the Laetoli Footprints were truly amazing. The information plaque talked about the importance of a print versus a fossilized bone. The bone gives you the structure and alignment, but the print tells you exactly how weight was distributed on the foot and the movement that created that particular print. I could hardly comprehend that a being, very similar to me, with feet that look just like mine, had moved in such a way, in such a place, in such a time, so that it happened to be preserved, captured in rock, for millions of years. The whole exhibit was amazing.

Cheese.
We bought the buffet for lunch at the Lodge in Serengeti and I have truly never enjoyed cheese as much as I did that afternoon. Things they don’t tell you when you are going to Tanzania 1. There is no readily available cheese 2. You will miss cheese tremendously 3. When you do finally eat cheese you will think you have gone to heaven. My friend Sally was sitting next to me at the table as we ate our cheese (we ate other things too but most importantly cheese) and she said with a smile on her face “Oh my god, I just died. I’m dead.” Pretty much sums our cheese experience.

Pride Rock
There are kopjes all over the Serengeti. A kopje is an outcropping of rocks in the middle of the plains (think Pride Rock, Lion King). They are really cool and bizarre looking structures in an otherwise completely flat area. We got to visit one of them and climb around on it (“but not too much because you might hurt yourself” tut tut tut… says our stand in Mom named Erica. Really, she’s awesome. I can only imagine the stress of being responsible for 27 20-ish-year-olds who had been cooped up in cars for two days and now they have giant rocks to climb around on). It was super fun and beautiful and there were pink/purple/blue lizards running around on all of the rocks.

Birds!
We did a few field exercises on ungulates and birds. I learned a ton! For those birders who are reading this and especially requested to know the birds we have been seeing here is a partial list!
Abyssinian Black Wheatear, African White-backed Vulture, Bare-faced Go-away Bird (really big and totally cool bird!), Black-backed Weaver, Common Bulbul, Dark-backed Weaver, Drongo, Grey-backed Fiscal, Helmeted Guinea Fowl (tons of them everywhere!), Von der Dekens Hornbill, Lilac-breasted Roller (such beautiful birds. They are purple, and blue, and turquoise, and pink), Little Bee Eater (also super cool green and yellow bird!), Magpie Shrike, Martial Eagle, Red-headed Weaver, Ring-necked Dove, Sandgrouse, Scaly Francolins, Superb Starling, Blue-earred Starling, Brown Parrot, Brown Snake Eagle (super intense birds, wouldn’t want to be small and fuzzy), Egyptian Goose, Fischer’s Lovebirds (I thought these only existed in book and maybe pet shops), Hildebrandt Starling, Hoopoe (very large rust colored bird with an extravagant crest), Marsh Sandpiper, Three-banded Plover, Black Crake, Blacksmith Plover (the previous four are really interesting water birds. We got to watch them looking for food for a bit which was quite entertaining),White-browed Coucal (craziest call I have heard so farthe description in my bird book which is ver accurate is “hoo-hoo-hoo-huhuhhuhuhuhuhuhuhu… and a series of gurgling notes likened to water being poured from a bottle”), Yellow-billed Oxpecker (they really do hang out on the buffalo)…! Ok, I hope that was incredibly satisfying for some and sorry for other’s who were 100% not interested.



We also saw an incredible amount of lions, male, female, and little ones, leopard, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, zebras, topi (they are really interestingly colored), gazelles, impala, hippos (saw two out of water! They are the most enormous creatures! Where did they come from and who thought it was a good idea for all of the hippos to hang out together cuz they are the grumpiest animals I have yet to come across!), crocodiles (ah scary!), warthogs, hyraxes (related to elephants even though they look like rabbits), banded mongoose (mongeese?), Buffalo (saw a herd of them that must have been a few hundred strong. Wouldn’t wanted to have been on foot I can say that much), hyenas, and jackals.

In a nutshell it was astounding!