Closing Time

12.11.10

It’s over! We are about to leave Kilimanjaro Bush Camp for Nairobi. I will fly out tomorrow to spend the week in Greece. And then I’ll be home.

I’ll write later about our community presentations and how the semester wrapped up, but for now my concern is getting myself around the world!

Re-entry. Oof. I am so excited to see all of you. But unsure of how I’ll react to being home. All I ask is that you’re patient with me. Coming back home is not easy when you’ve been to a developing country. So it’ll be a process. Nonetheless, I am beyond excited to tell you all my stories and to hear yours.

I’ll see you all soon!

Shakin' in my Boots

12.03.10

An Emerson quote helped me come here. I was pretty scared to study abroad in East Africa. There were times I was terrified. I was scared of being overwhelmed by this program, by not being good enough for it. I was scared of finding that the other students were genius scientists who would intimidate me. I was scared of not having time to truly prepare myself for leaving, and being caught up in a wave of culture shock.

“Always do what you are afraid of.”

So I came, of course. Despite feeling unprepared and apprehensive of the unknown. And I found that, in part, my fears were realized.

I am overwhelmed. I’m not enough to solve wildlife management problems. But that’s true for everyone. We are all striving to find solutions. And heck, to even fully understand the issues. But they are huge. They involve immense tension between wildlife and people in a mess that makes you feel like you can’t possibly please both sides. I’m not the only one to be humbled by East African wildlife management.

And these students are brilliant. But not in the ways I expected. They are personable, and they think about spirituality and world issues and how to be a good community. They’re real people. Go figure. And they’re so intelligent. In ways that aren’t stuffy and superior. They can articulate their knowledge in ways that make sense to the world. Wow. And they don’t intimidate me, thank God. They inspire me.

And I’m always shocked. I’m shocked right now. But it’s something I can handle. I fly out of Kenya in 9 days. And the weeks following that will be quite an adventure in itself. Life is shocking, isn’t it?

My scare right now is DR! Directed Research. It seems huge. And impossible. And beyond my capabilities. But I’m a research trainee, dang it. And although these next few days of write up and presentations terrify me, I am allowed to make mistakes and not know everything. I’m allowed to be scared of it. But I’m obligated to breathe, think, and work through the very thing that makes me afraid.

Not All Fun and Games

11.24.10

Day 5 in the field

My day wasn’t very exciting, but other teams in my group had some craziness.

The team that calls themselves Ay Bay Bay (baha - if only you could hear our advisor attempt to say that) had to stop their transects due to being surrounded by elephants. They were trying to go around the first herd they saw, but kept running into other groups! The elephants were pretty on edge ... because there was an elephant carcass in the area. Ay Bay Bay could only smell it and ran into scouts who confirmed the death was due to poaching.

Crazy. And so unsettling.

Another team, the Kilimonsters (ha ha) ran into the carcass. Exhale. It had been poached last week, so it was somewhat decayed, but it was further along in the face - in other words, the tusks had been taken.

This is one of those things that just silences me. I have nothing more to say because I don’t have solutions and I don’t know what more to say about the issue itself. I am just silenced. Because it is that upsetting.

Not Your Typical Office

11.22.10

Yesterday, we had a much-needed day off! We went to Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary, one of the places my research group had worked this week. I decided to go even though I had seen wildlife there during my work because we were planning to go see their LIONS! KWS takes care of four lionesses and 1 male lion (named Boy) whose parents were lost to retaliatory killing (pastoralists kill lions who hunt their livestock). They’re kept in enclosures, but KWS hopes to eventually release them in Tsavo National Park.

They were amazing. And they were angsty because they were about to be fed. The male just kept pacing back and forth and rubbing himself on the fence (which allowed me to touch him, woohoo!). The officers slaughter a goat and give each of the five lions a portion. They don’t allow the lions to hunt the goat because one would make the kill and then dominate the meat.

They first brought a goat head and leg to Boy. The lions were going nuts. Crazy. Roaring and grumbling. Gimme food! The meat is put in smaller enclosures, and the lion accesses it once a door is pulled back. As the officer was putting the meat in, Boy jumped up on the fence and ROARED at him. Phew! When he was allowed in, he hurried to the goat, but then stood over it. I’m not sure why, but my best guess is to claim it. He has no competition because he’s kept separate from the females, so he can take his time.

Watching him eat was so intriguing. Bones crunching. Meat tearing. Boy’s wrinkled nose. He ate every last ounce, bones and all.

The females were more vicious in receiving their meat. As the meal was put into the enclosure, they were winding in and out of each other as they paced back and forth, their eyes never leaving the meat. They darted in as fast as they could until each of them got a healthy portion.

It was amazing.

11.23.10

Day 5 in the field.

Today was definitely the most hard core day in the field. Unfortunately, it also means that it was the most exhausting and dangerous. We worked in Elerai Rupet Wildlife Sanctuary, and it’s a beast. It’s 52 square kilometers and full of shrub grassland. In our section, I was up to my waist and sometimes my chest in grass. We had to battle thorns upon thorns upon thorns. The worst was all the way in on the back of my knee, about a centimeter. Mmm, fun.

I also fell in a few holes. They were actually pretty hilarious, the things we were having to deal with. But in the back of my mind, I was pretty concerned over snakes. Tall grass is all too perfect. Yikes. At one point, I looked to my left about two feet and saw a reptilian tail slide into the grass. I have no idea what kind of snake it was, or if it’s venomous. Eek!

Other than the scary stuff, we saw 8 giraffe, 4 elephants, 4 impala, and a LOT of Kilimanjaro. Yeh, I worked under Kili today and it took my breath several times.

Oh hey there, Elephant ...

11.20.10

Day 3 in the Field (snippets)

Elephants. Hundred meters from us. They were stunning.

Hilarities:

[To our KWS guard]

Me: “Raymond, what’s your favorite animal?”

Raymond: “For seeing or for eating?”

We found a manyatta (traditional Maasai home) and the kids started running to me because I was jumping and playing with them from a distance. But when Raymond (benevolent, but wearing full camouflage and carrying a rifle) happened to come out from behind a tree, they turned and ran in terror. Baha.

Many crazy stories from Raymond - including being chased by elephants and buffalos and shoot outs with poachers.

Raymond and our local guide, Joel, helped us make a flag representing our power ranger colors - yellow and pink.

Me = sunburnt

Many dung beetles rolling, well, dung. One of the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

Day off tomorrow! Sleeeeeep.

"Even Zebras can kick you to death if they're angry"

11.19.10

Day two of fieldwork.

Today we started our animal counts/transects. We used the map we generated yesterday to plot blocks for our four groups to cover. My group, Chui Wadogo (“Little “Leopards”), is composed of myself, another student, Jackie, a local guide, and an armed KWS ranger. Our goal was to view and log wildlife in at least 30% of Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary.

It was exhausting, but so good! I walked over 9 kilometers today, but had quite an adventure. For reasons I won’t get into, we had to plot the exact location of every herd we saw - aka, we had to walk toward wildlife. It felt soooo amazing to be so close. We chased zebra, Grant’s gazelle, and Thomson’s gazelle. We did this until we stumbled upon an angry wildebeest. See, we have to be pretty aware out there because we want to piss off anything that can hurt us. I barely noticed the wildebeest because it was positioned straight at us and was narrow. It was grunting and turning and freaking out. So needless to say, we didn’t go any nearer and got out of there asap.

Another group ran into buffalo, which is one of the biggest dangers in the field. They like to hide from the sun (and in turn, hide from you) and are really skittish. When they’re startled, they charge. So safe distances and awareness are key. We’ve found a way to log locations of these animals without having to walk to them.

Tomorrow we go to Kili Tome Wildlife Sanctuary!

Walkin' on Kimana

11.18.10

Day 1 of fieldwork!

I love my life. Today was such a good day, and I’m on fire for how exciting this is going to be.

The goal of day 1 was to map Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary. We are the first to be allowed to research there, so there aren’t any maps or grids about what’s inside. This area of land is about 46 square kilometers, and is situated with other sanctuaries to support wildlife corridors (where wildlife disperses from national parks during the wet season). So Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary forms a sort of line of land with other sanctuaries so that wildlife have somewhere to go from the national parks.

We’ve split into four groups of 2-3 students to complete field work. Today, each group was dropped off at some point on the sanctuary boundary with a local guide (who knew the boundary well enough to lead us around it), an armed KWS guard (to protect us from elephants, etc), and a GPS! We mapped coordinates with the GPS as we walked the boundary, and composed a map based on these points.

Working with four groups made the work go pretty fast, but I must say, we had an exciting day. Besides seeing wildlife (elephants, zebra, waterbuck, Grant’s gazelles, impala, warthogs), we got stuck in our land cruiser. It was crazy. Our advisor, Shem (renamed “Chui Kubwa” - “Big Leopard”), was driving and soon as he hit a big mud pit, he realized and said, “Ooooh, I’ve made a blunder.” Bahaha. We were tilted in this pit of mud, which was entirely engulfing one of our rear tires. To get out, we had to be towed with our other vehicle and commission all of our guards to push. The hole that was left behind was about two and a half feet deep. Kinda crazy!

I’m very excited to be so close to wildlife. It feels like we’re taking an 8-day walking safari, and happened to be taking notes. We’ll start transects and animal counts tomorrow!

Directed Research!

11.16.10

We’re onto the final leg of the semester! We finished up our exams a few days ago and have begun to focus on Directed Research (DR) projects, which is basically the pinnacle of our semester here.

We have three DRs reflecting each of our main courses - Wildlife Ecology, Wildlife Management, and Environmental Policy. I’m in a group of ten students who will be doing research in Wildlife Management, studying the viability of the wildlife sanctuaries in our area. Our question is this: What is the relevance and contribution of communal and privately owned conservation areas to conservation space and range for large mammals in the Amboseli Ecosystem? We’ll write a proposal, analyze the data we collect, write papers as individuals, and do a group presentation for the community at the end of the semester.

We start eight days of data collection tomorrow. We’ll do transects and wildlife/livestock counts throughout 5 wildlife sanctuaries in order to assess the overlap between wildlife and pastoralists and their livestock. Basically, we want to know how much potential there is for competition between these two groups - will wildlife be able to use wildlife sanctuaries in the way they need to? Or will it have to compete with livestock for much-needed resources?

Woohoo!

Still Alive!

11.12.10

This last week we spent in Tsavo West National Park on a 5-day expedition. The afternoon before we left, many of us were thoroughly scared. Tsavo is known for being home to man-eaters. Although this is a thing of the past, we were warned of the aggressive behavior of the wildlife (due to the abundance of poaching in this park), the risk of scorpions, and the fact that SFS has been close to losing students to lions twice in the past 10 years.

Uhm ... what?

It’s kind of hilarious that we didn’t even see lions our entire time there. But we saw more scorpions than we cared to - in our sleeping bags, shoes, and firewood (unfortunately, one of our guards was stung this way). African scorpion stings, though they aren’t fatal, cause hours of debilitating pain. So none of us were taking anything lightly.

We were well-protected overnight by four guards - two of our own and two from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) armed with AK47s, James and Hussein. KWS has it’s own law enforcement and security department of over 200 rangers. Ask for my stories on these guys later. They are intense.

It’s the rainy season here in Kenya, so the wildlife in Tsavo was sparse (70% of the time, especially during the rainy season, wildlife is found outside of national parks). This wasn’t disappointing, though, because the Tsavo landscape is absolutely phenomenal. Rolling hills and lots of green. On Tuesday, we hiked up the Chyulu Hills (another national park nearby) to the most beautiful view I’ve ever seen. You could see the west side of Chyulu (the area where our home camp is) for miles and miles. You could see Kilimanjaro and Shatani lava flows. Blaaaaaah. If anybody wanted to see beautiful land anywhere in the world, I’d take them to Tsavo.

We also got the treat of seeing wild dogs. Wild dogs. Did you hear me? We saw a pack of 30 wild dogs. No one in our entire group, including faculty who’ve been to national parks countless times, has ever seen anything like that. They were right in the middle of the road, on a silver platter. Playing and running and letting us fully experience them for about 15 minutes before running off into the bush. Wow.

We had a lot of guest lectures throughout the week, many from KWS employees. Unlike Tanzania, Kenya has one institution that’s in charge of all wildlife matters throughout the country. They handle national parks, research, the human-wildlife conflict in surrounding communities, wildlife sanctuaries, etc. Kudos. What a job.

I only have about a month left in Kenya, and from here on out, it’s exams and our directed research project, which is basically the pinnacle of the program. Woohoo!

Amboseli: Kilimanjaro's Royal Court

11.04.10

Since getting to Kenya, we’ve been getting to know our area (Kimana Group Ranch) and the human-wildlife conflicts that face it. Talking with local people has been really eye-opening, and I’ll talk about that in my next post. But the biggest, baddest problem animal in this area for farmers is the elephant.

I saw a bull get defensive of a matriline in Lake Manyara National Park, but never really fully saw how aggressive they can be until today. I mean, elephants are HUGE. They’re absolutely massive. But I always saw them as gentle creatures. You can tell where they’ve been because there are trees down everywhere, but this isn’t aggressive (or so I still believe anyway).

We went to Amboseli National Park today. It was wet and rainy. We had lectures over our land cruiser radios, baha.

Elephants usually leave the park when it gets really wet. There are 3 main wetlands that they rely on within the park, but when water is everywhere, they are free to roam. So we weren’t expected to see many elephants, but they were everywhere. I probably saw around 130 elephants today. And one of them was a little punk.

There was a herd right next to the road, so we stopped to watch them. They were just sauntering along and foraging. And there was a massive male just minding his own business. A younger male, the punk, confronted him and they fought. It was actually scary, and I was praying that no tusks would be broken because they were locked much of the time. The larger male just pushed him off as many times as the punk came at him. And so the punk started messing around with a female, then back to the older male. He was just looking to cause trouble.

Then. Then ... he trumpeted and charged one of our land cruisers. Thank GOD it was facing the other direction and our students were able to evade him, but their lives flashed before my eyes. I can’t even begin to describe ...

Moral of the story: elephants are awesome and beautiful, but oh they can trample you.

The Other Side of the 'Jaro

10.29.10

Kimana, Kenya!

Phew. I can’t even begin to tell you how crazy this last week has been. Saying goodbye to my family in Rhotia, Tanzania. Coming to a new place, a new home, where other students have already spent 2 months. And then having them leave for Tanzania, what still feels like our home, with the Tanzanian staff that accompanied us to Kenya. Wow. Saying goodbye to the remaining staff felt like saying goodbye to brothers (and a sister), but I know that Kenya is an amazing place too, and that it is right that I’m here.

Our camp is phenomenal. It is absolutely amazing. It’s about three times bigger than our other camp, is more remote, and just feels like wilderness. I think what I’ve experienced already paints a good picture for what our new camp is like.

We can see Mt Kilimanjaro. Everyday. Sometimes she hides behind the clouds, but it is ... just amazing. It’s a nice balance to see Tanzanian soil while adjusting to Kenya.

The stars are also amazing. All you have to do to see a shooting star is going outside, look up, and wait a couple minutes.

I have befriended bush babies. We congregate behind our bandas (cabins) around 6:25 pm every night and will see them jumping around. They are beyond cute! BAH! I’ve never seen anything so curiously cute. If a bush baby is curious about you, it will stare at you with its cute big eyes, cock its head all cute-like, and poke its cute little head from behind its branch.

Hornbills perch on our bathroom sinks and peck themselves in the mirror.

Today was my favorite. Our bathrooms are outdoor, and I was there getting water for laundry. As I was walking back to my banda, someone shouted a heads up to me. I looked over to see a big male savannah baboon standing about 15 feet away from me. Guh. He was huge. And he was staring at me (no worries, I didn’t have food :). I just kind of stared back until he sauntered off. AH he was so cool!

Class is underway and we have hit the ground running on readings, assignments, and lectures. Craziness! I’m adjusting well to this place, and starting to feel like home.

Moyo Yangu

10.21.10

“If God doesn’t exist up here, He doesn’t exist anywhere.”

This is what Jackie said as we reached our destination at the top of Moyo Hill. It’s a hill by our camp that has the most phenomenal view. You can see Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro forest, and plenty of pasture with a few houses. Wow.

Today was the perfect release to a week of stress. We had three reports, a written assignment, two data analyses, a poster, and a presentation due this week. This morning, I finished with a presentation on mammal counts and habitat preference. So this afternoon, a few of us took a hike up Moyo Hill and laid there. Really, that’s what we did. I laid belly down on a rock overlooking all the amazingness. I’ve said it once and I’ll see it again - I wish that you could see it like I do.

Find a beautiful place to breathe in today. Do it.

Kwaheri already?

Hey party people.

I'm leaving for Kenya in 10 days, so I thought I'd throw out my Kenya address in case anyone was thinking of sending anything. It takes a long time for things to get here (some letters arrived today that were postmarked mid-September!), so from here one out, send to Kenya!

Carrie Kern

Center for Wildlife Management Studies

PO Box 27743 (Nyayo Stadium)

00506 - NAIROBI, KENYA

East Africa

I'm already getting a little sad to leave Tanzania. I have made so many lasting friendships here with the staff. Tanzanians, at least the ones I know, have a way of having sweet moments with people. They'll talk about their best life lessons, or they'll tell you exactly how they feel about you. In the last few days, I've been told multiple times that I make them happy, that they love me, that I'll make a good wife and mother ... the list goes on. They are sweet people, and part of me will stay here.

We walked up Moyo Hill today. It's just a little trail from our camp up to the highest point around. I'd never been yet, and I regret that because it is phenomenal. Almost a full panorama of Rhotia, Lake Manyara, a hill called Kilima Tembo. Ugh, it's disgustingly beautiful. Askari Burra, one of our guards, went with us (he's rafiki wetu, our friend, now). He doesn't speak much English, but it encourages us to speak Swahili. Plus, one of the things I love about language barriers is the depth you can reach despite them.

We were walking down the hill, and I was commissioned by a girl I've met before, Catherine, to herd goats. Yeah, weird. And random. When I joined the group again, Askari Burra used his emotions to tell me how he's going to cry when we leave. He just burst into this long speech about who knows what. I heard moyo yangu (my heart), marafiki yangu (my friends), and some other things that helped me piece some of it together. I'm not sure of much of what he said, but the look on his face ...

Something so great is built here. This isn't just a study abroad program. It's a community.

Serengeti, "Endless Plains"

10.14.10

Ok here I go. Forgive me if this comes out disorganized or as a ramble.

SERENGETI!!!!!!

Ahhh it was amazing!

I saw leopards. I saw lions. I saw a hyena carrying a zebra leg. Zebras and hyenas roamed our camp at night while we slept. A hyena walked 20 feet behind me as I was journaling one night. We saw giraffes and hippos and buffalo and impala (my favorite ungulate!) and hartebeest and jackals and topi. For a split second, I saw a serval. I saw baboon copulation, which was actually pretty gross. I saw a baby crocodile.

Am I satisfied? Oh yes.

Our experience was just so intense. We were prepared well to ensure we didn’t get hurt, and there were a lot of precautions. At night, we had to be escorted to our bathrooms by askaris (guards), one of which was armed with an AK47, to protect us from wildlife, especially unseen buffalo. There was protocol for dealing with wildlife that roamed our camp.

After a few days of game drives in the sun, field exercises on birds and antelope interactions, guest lectures, and discussions, we had a relaxing day on Tuesday. We had a guest lecture in the morning and then game drove to Serena lodge, which took about two hours. Oh my goodness, talk about luxury! After camping out in the bush, having dirt tattoos everywhere, and not even wanting to attempt to brush the rat’s nest on your head, it was almost shocking to walk into a lodge with stone paths, cozy beach chairs, and a POOL overlooking miles and miles of Serengeti savannah. It took my breath away. You would not believe how amazing it feels to jump into a pool after being that dirty. Ah, bliss. After swimming, we indulged in free coffee and treated ourselves to fruit cake with chocolate drizzle while sitting in the most comfortable chairs! Wow.

We left the lodge for our camp a little late, and then got a call that someone from our group had left a hat at the lodge. We had to turn back, and our driver was a little nervous, because driving at night in a national park is a whole different experience altogether. Dusk is when everything happens, wildlife is the most active, and it’s easier to hit them. So while she was nervous, the rest of us were silently excited. I wanted to see a kill. So badly! Unfortunately, we didn’t see any predators, but I can’t complain. Everything else was so active. There were impala running and zebra moving and crying. Things were alive, unlike the daytime when you can’t even count the amount of wildlife you just see standing around, grazing. And I got to see the African sunset across the plain. It was pink and blue, in case you’re wondering.

Each day, one of the students is Mwanafunzi (student) of the Day (MOD). One task of the MOD is to run something we call RAP (Reflection, Announcements, Presentation) after dinner, in which they give a reflection, usually involving a quote or thought of the day, announcements, and a presentation on something, anything. It can be a game, a short research presentation, anything. Our last night in SNP, Scott taught us how to swing dance. Let me tell you, dancing with a heavy-footed Kenyan chef is hilarious. Arthur, our cook, would lead me through the basic step and then turn me repeatedly and without rhyme or rhythm until I almost passed out. Baha, what a partner. :)

I wish you could see African stars. They’re not even star-like. They glitter, and it feels as if you’re looking at a palate full of sequins. You get lost. Dizzy.

Reflecting on this week, I guess what the Serengeti did for me was gave me confidence about my future. I look ahead and feel scared. How am I going to make my ambitions into realities? How can I work abroad and in Africa? I always picture people being reluctant to hire a mzungu (white person) other than locals, and to be honest, that shakes me up a little, too. But I met a guy named Hagai at Serena lodge who is a naturalist/entertainment coordinator/walking safari guide going on 16 years. I only mentioned that I would love to come back to Tanzania and work, and he got excited with me! I have his e-mail and he told me to contact him after I graduate. “We’ll hire you! You can be the boss and we’ll make your standard of living like it is in the States!” Uhm, seriously? Really? Are you pulling my leg? Honestly, I don’t think I’m ready for it to happen that fast, right after I graduate in December. But I will keep his e-mail, and he gave me confidence that yes, I can do it. I can, and if this passion stays with me, I will.

Serengeti. Amazing.

I’ll start putting a blog together. As for now, it’s just too overwhelming! But to hold you over, here’s an unfortunate update on what’s going on in Serengeti National Park. I encourage you to read it all - it’s not that long but is very informative as to why this is such an issue. It breaks my heart every time I think of it. National Parks are to be protected so that biodiversity can thrive, and this just seems like an overstepping of bounds. There are so many reasons it’s important to keep the Serengeti as is.

The Next Batch

10.1.10

Ngorongoro Crater. Awesome.

So we woke up bright and early this morning to leave for Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). It’s different from a National Park, in which no residents are allowed. NCA has Maasai living in it, but they have to cooperate with conservation efforts (i.e. they can keep livestock, but can’t farm or hunt). It helps keep this area free from detriment by human hands while still giving them access.

Within the conservation area is the biggest caldera (crater caused by a former volcano) in the world. It is GIANT. To get in, you have to drive along the rim and then take the zig zag road down the inside edge. It’s ridiculously steep.

I don’t want to talk about anything but the fact that I saw 14 lions today. FOURTEEN! A few people in my cruiser hadn’t seen lions yet, so we were on a mission. We passed a group who had seen lion CUBS and told us where to go. On our way there, Corina saw something out of the corner of her eye, and I’m so glad she did.

There was a lioness crouched in the grass stalking a line of wildebeest. It was amazing. Unfortunately, the wind was against her and she was detected by the nearby zebra. She was walking around and headed straight for us. She was no more than 5 meters from our vehicle when she crossed the road. She was big and so beautiful. These are the moments I live for; I lost my breath and couldn’t help but get emotional. There’s nothing like seeing a lion like this.

Moses, the staff member that was driving us around, thought that the lioness would eventually try to cut off the wildebeest ahead, but we were torn between that and the cubs. I seriously hope we didn’t miss a chase.

But we got to see cubs! Right along the side of the road by a watering hole sat two lionesses (pregnant maybe?), four cubs, and a male lion. Another one of our groups was across the stream from us and had two of the cubs lying underneath their vehicle. Free shade! Oh man, they were gorgeous. I know I say all these words that don’t do justice; I wish you could just see.

They were napping (lions hunt near dusk), so after a while we crossed the stream to keep going. Moses pulled us over and he and Erica stepped out of the vehicle only 75 meters from the lionesses.

We had a flat tire. And of course, being the fearless African he is, Moses decided to change it right then and there. He was crazy; and Erica was freaked out.

So I can say today that I stood watch over two of our staff members while they changed a tire. Stood watch for lions. LIONS. They were at first just looking at us with curious eyes, but they did get up to move around and at times disappeared into the grass, which is just ... really scary.

My favorite quote of the day is as follows:

Us: [urgently!] Uhm ... the lioness is getting up, she’s moving around looking at us!

Erica: Moses, they’re up!

Moses: [calmly, in his great Kenyan accent] Oh that’s ok ... just let me know when they’re 4 meters away

Bah! He was so calm and it freaked us all out! It seemed as if all day Africans were able to walk around dangerously close to lions as if it were no big deal while we mzungus were cautioned to keep a safe distance. According to Charles, another staff member, it’s because we’re salty and white. :P

After the tire changing, a few of us reallllly had to go to the bathroom. But we got to the bathroom area to find ... get this ... male lions laying on the steps to the ladies’ room. I’m not even kidding. I feel like I should be joking, but I’m not. There was another building for restrooms right next to it, so Moses got out (because he’s not salty and white) and kept watched while we snuck into the other bathroom.

Lions! Really!

So on our way out we saw a couple more lions, one of which was a male that was sprawled out on the sand. You know that thing your house cat does when it’s feeling cuddly and wants to get comfortable? When they roll around on their back and lay with their belly to the sky? Yeah, imagine a lion doing that.

One of the last things my dad said to me when dropping me off at the airport was advice against cuddling with lions on safari. This moment challenged me, but then I remembered the teeth and the claws and the MASSIVE size and the words of my wise father.

Thanks, dad.

10.05.10

On Sunday, five of us went to church with three of our staff, Charles, Paulo, and Safari. It was a catholic church in Rhotia and it was so beautiful! I’ve only been to pentecostal services in Africa (Uganda) and there was a lot of energy - singing, dancing, even the sermon was fiery! But at this church, it was in between the calm and peaceful services you find at catholic churches in the States and the rowdiness of many protestant churches in East Africa.

This church has two service Sunday morning, so when we were driving down the road to get there, there were masses of people walking the other direction (having just left the early service). It was really amazing to see the crazy amount of people that gathered for church!

We went in and sat down and I asked Charles a few questions. Practices are very much the same, just with an African touch. The service was in Swahili, but I was sometimes able to tell what was going by the order of the service.

I also learned a few sweet Swahili phrases: Pokea Mungu Wetu (Receive our God) and Sadaka wa Moyo Wetu (We offer our hearts).

My favorite part of the service was by far the choir. They started singing and dancing from outside and made their way into the church this way. Kids were in the front (with matching yellow skirts), followed by the women, then the men. Their voices were stunning. I love African choirs! Each song they sang was accompanied with some sort of small dance (pews don’t allow you to move much) - mostly sways and hand gestures.

I was very filled after going to church. I loved watching them worship and even though I wasn’t able to understand much of what was being said, the experience was still worshipful. God’s bigger than language barriers anyway.

Yesterday we had our last lecture before exams. Yesterday and today are study days and our midterms start tomorrow! Eek!

The lecture was for my Wildlife Ecology class and was about the bushmeat trade. You know you’re in the right program when you have lectures that churn your stomach and pull at your heart. Here’s what I learned ...

Bushmeat is a huge issue in East Africa, especially in Tanzania. It’s legal to hunt in Tanzania (unlike Kenya), but you have to have a license and and according to CITES, there are certain species that are off limits. Bushmeat is in part causing species decline because its over-exploited; while hunting used to be for subsistence (consuming the meat yourself), it is now more for income (selling it to others), so the more you get the better. There are a ton of reasons people hunt wildlife here - religious beliefs, preference, good sources of protein, to get rid of pests, easier access to wildlife areas and small arms, inadequate law enforcement (police and rangers are found inside Protected Areas, but rarely outside; once wildlife migrates outside of PAs, it’s more difficult to protect them).

An impala leg goes for 100 TSh (about 7 cents); or you can get any kind of meat by the kilogram (50 TSh ~3.5 cents). If you get caught and go to court, you only get fined 1500 TSh (about a dollar).

There hard part is (oh there’s always a hard part) many bushmeat hunters are poor. So how do you ask them to stop or decrease doing what they do for income? Alternative sources of income (farming, pastoralism) are difficult to get started - 1 acre of land in TZ costs about 10,000,000 TSh (~$6,667 USD), which is a LOT of money. And even then, it’s easy to run into cultivation issues due to lack of rainfall during certain times of the year.

Ok now I’m rambling. This issue just ... it gets to me. But what do you do?

...

Well we have exams tomorrow and Thursday. Saturday we’re off to a 5 day expedition in the SERENGETI!!! I won’t be posting until mid-next week, but I’m sure I’ll have a lot to tell you about. :)

The Next Batch

10.1.10

Ngorongoro Crater. Awesome.

So we woke up bright and early this morning to leave for Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). It’s different from a National Park, in which no residents are allowed. NCA has Maasai living in it, but they have to cooperate with conservation efforts (i.e. they can keep livestock, but can’t farm or hunt). It helps keep this area free from detriment by human hands while still giving them access.

Within the conservation area is the biggest caldera (crater caused by a former volcano) in the world. It is GIANT. To get in, you have to drive along the rim and then take the zig zag road down the inside edge. It’s ridiculously steep.

I don’t want to talk about anything but the fact that I saw 14 lions today. FOURTEEN! A few people in my cruiser hadn’t seen lions yet, so we were on a mission. We passed a group who had seen lion CUBS and told us where to go. On our way there, Corina saw something out of the corner of her eye, and I’m so glad she did.

There was a lioness crouched in the grass stalking a line of wildebeest. It was amazing. Unfortunately, the wind was against her and she was detected by the nearby zebra. She was walking around and headed straight for us. She was no more than 5 meters from our vehicle when she crossed the road. She was big and so beautiful. These are the moments I live for; I lost my breath and couldn’t help but get emotional. There’s nothing like seeing a lion like this.

Moses, the staff member that was driving us around, thought that the lioness would eventually try to cut off the wildebeest ahead, but we were torn between that and the cubs. I seriously hope we didn’t miss a chase.

But we got to see cubs! Right along the side of the road by a watering hole sat two lionesses (pregnant maybe?), four cubs, and a male lion. Another one of our groups was across the stream from us and had two of the cubs lying underneath their vehicle. Free shade! Oh man, they were gorgeous. I know I say all these words that don’t do justice; I wish you could just see.

They were napping (lions hunt near dusk), so after a while we crossed the stream to keep going. Moses pulled us over and he and Erica stepped out of the vehicle only 75 meters from the lionesses.

We had a flat tire. And of course, being the fearless African he is, Moses decided to change it right then and there. He was crazy; and Erica was freaked out.

So I can say today that I stood watch over two of our staff members while they changed a tire. Stood watch for lions. LIONS. They were at first just looking at us with curious eyes, but they did get up to move around and at times disappeared into the grass, which is just ... really scary.

My favorite quote of the day is as follows:

Us: [urgently!] Uhm ... the lioness is getting up, she’s moving around looking at us!

Erica: Moses, they’re up!

Moses: [calmly, in his great Kenyan accent] Oh that’s ok ... just let me know when they’re 4 meters away

Bah! He was so calm and it freaked us all out! It seemed as if all day Africans were able to walk around dangerously close to lions as if it were no big deal while we mzungus were cautioned to keep a safe distance. According to Charles, another staff member, it’s because we’re salty and white. :P

After the tire changing, a few of us reallllly had to go to the bathroom. But we got to the bathroom area to find ... get this ... male lions laying on the steps to the ladies’ room. I’m not even kidding. I feel like I should be joking, but I’m not. There was another building for restrooms right next to it, so Moses got out (because he’s not salty and white) and kept watched while we snuck into the other bathroom.

Lions! Really!

So on our way out we saw a couple more lions, one of which was a male that was sprawled out on the sand. You know that thing your house cat does when it’s feeling cuddly and wants to get comfortable? When they roll around on their back and lay with their belly to the sky? Yeah, imagine a lion doing that.

One of the last things my dad said to me when dropping me off at the airport was advice against cuddling with lions on safari. This moment challenged me, but then I remembered the teeth and the claws and the MASSIVE size and the words of my wise father.

Thanks, dad.

10.05.10

On Sunday, five of us went to church with three of our staff, Charles, Paulo, and Safari. It was a catholic church in Rhotia and it was so beautiful! I’ve only been to pentecostal services in Africa (Uganda) and there was a lot of energy - singing, dancing, even the sermon was fiery! But at this church, it was in between the calm and peaceful services you find at catholic churches in the States and the rowdiness of many protestant churches in East Africa.

This church has two service Sunday morning, so when we were driving down the road to get there, there were masses of people walking the other direction (having just left the early service). It was really amazing to see the crazy amount of people that gathered for church!

We went in and sat down and I asked Charles a few questions. Practices are very much the same, just with an African touch. The service was in Swahili, but I was sometimes able to tell what was going by the order of the service.

I also learned a few sweet Swahili phrases: Pokea Mungu Wetu (Receive our God) and Sadaka wa Moyo Wetu (We offer our hearts).

My favorite part of the service was by far the choir. They started singing and dancing from outside and made their way into the church this way. Kids were in the front (with matching yellow skirts), followed by the women, then the men. Their voices were stunning. I love African choirs! Each song they sang was accompanied with some sort of small dance (pews don’t allow you to move much) - mostly sways and hand gestures.

I was very filled after going to church. I loved watching them worship and even though I wasn’t able to understand much of what was being said, the experience was still worshipful. God’s bigger than language barriers anyway.

Yesterday we had our last lecture before exams. Yesterday and today are study days and our midterms start tomorrow! Eek!

The lecture was for my Wildlife Ecology class and was about the bushmeat trade. You know you’re in the right program when you have lectures that churn your stomach and pull at your heart. Here’s what I learned ...

Bushmeat is a huge issue in East Africa, especially in Tanzania. It’s legal to hunt in Tanzania (unlike Kenya), but you have to have a license and and according to CITES, there are certain species that are off limits. Bushmeat is in part causing species decline because its over-exploited; while hunting used to be for subsistence (consuming the meat yourself), it is now more for income (selling it to others), so the more you get the better. There are a ton of reasons people hunt wildlife here - religious beliefs, preference, good sources of protein, to get rid of pests, easier access to wildlife areas and small arms, inadequate law enforcement (police and rangers are found inside Protected Areas, but rarely outside; once wildlife migrates outside of PAs, it’s more difficult to protect them).

An impala leg goes for 100 TSh (about 7 cents); or you can get any kind of meat by the kilogram (50 TSh ~3.5 cents). If you get caught and go to court, you only get fined 1500 TSh (about a dollar).

There hard part is (oh there’s always a hard part) many bushmeat hunters are poor. So how do you ask them to stop or decrease doing what they do for income? Alternative sources of income (farming, pastoralism) are difficult to get started - 1 acre of land in TZ costs about 10,000,000 TSh (~$6,667 USD), which is a LOT of money. And even then, it’s easy to run into cultivation issues due to lack of rainfall during certain times of the year.

Ok now I’m rambling. This issue just ... it gets to me. But what do you do?

...

Well we have exams tomorrow and Thursday. Saturday we’re off to a 5 day expedition in the SERENGETI!!! I won’t be posting until mid-next week, but I’m sure I’ll have a lot to tell you about. :)

D & D!

I would like to share with you all one of the things I'm learning in Tanzania.

I don't really know how to say this. But I'm learning how to play Dungeons and Dragons. I found myself a few nerds who recruited me to partake in an adventure of the imagination.

... LoL ...

I spent 2 hours last night filling out a character sheet. Two hours. This game is intense, and we haven't even started playing yet.

Behold, my friend, Megan's, character. She's a halfling bard named Chloe. She's lawful neutral, in case you were wondering. Megan was unavailable for photograph. She's a beautiful bashful person. Pity. : P

And my roommate, Jackie's, character, an elf druid (who is currently nameless). She's the lawful neutral bringer of death in the forest. She's also very attractive.

... but clearly not as attractive as my character, Helga, a 30-year-old, 6 foot 7 half-orc cleric.

I ... am a tank. And also a sexy beast.

09.29.10

Wow, I have a lot of catching up to do! It’s been busy ‘round these parts.

Our last day off was last Thursday, and it was a really good day. We get a day off pretty sporadically, and try to do fun things when we get a chance. That day we started with a hike up a mountain in Mto Wambu. It was gorgeous. Absolutely stunning. I was exhausted, but it was well worth it. There were a few times I just had to look behind me and gasp a little. We had a great view of the hills with Lake Manyara National Park in the distances. Bah you have no idea!!

My favorite part of the hike was spending time with Johana, one of our Swahili teachers. I really enjoy his presence - very gentle and welcoming, yet strong. He taught me more Swahili and we laughed a ton. Honestly, I don’t think I remember any of it, but it was still fun. Too much at once, I guess. :)

The next day we conducted interviews for Environmental Policy. We’ve been learning about participation from rural communities - aka letting people tell us what they need instead of spending a little time in their community and then telling them what they need. The goal of these interviews is to get all your information from rural communities who live the issues you’re pursuing, and to take your own bias out.

My group focused on difficulties facing small-scale farmers. Small farms surround us, so all we had to do was walk outside our gate with our guide and translator, Daniel, and find our neighbors.

This day was super insightful, and was probably the first time I had any interest in policy. We asked each family we crossed about many things, but the problems they face in particular. Man, there were so many! Some families seemed discouraged, while others were well off. But overall, the system seems pretty disorganized. Just as we predicted, the biggest problem facing farmers in this area was lack of water. There are no irrigation systems, and each farm has to wait for rain, which is unreliable. We asked if anyone regulates water in the area, and each one said no. The next day I found out that there’s a water committee in Rhotia. We were going to interview them (aaaahhh I wanted to so badly!), but national elections are coming up, so we weren’t able to get time with them. I want to know why no one knows about this committee and what they do. What is this gap between the people who need water and the committee devoted to it? There’s water for domestic use in Rhotia, but no sort of irrigation system for agriculture.

Other difficulties included (and I won’t elaborate) pests, lack of capital, inadequate seed, soil quality/erosion, low market price, and lack of agricultural education.

A couple days ago, we did home stays with families in Rhotia. Best day ever. We were paired up and dropped off with certain families to spend the day with them, cook, work, see what their lives are like.

My partner was Robbie. He’s from Illinois and also goes to school there. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him, and we have more in common than I thought. Funny how that always happens. He’s constantly laughing and really appreciates people; you can just see it.

So Robbie and I spent the day with a family who spoke no English. Crazy, but so valuable. My Swahili failed me many times, and I wish I knew more. But we achieved a deep level of connection anyway, and we felt like members of their family. One of the best things about language barriers is how you overcome them.

Mom’s name is Agipina, and dad is John. They have eight kids. We met a few throughout the day, but some were away at school. Martin, Onesti, Francisco, Francisca (twins, ha!), Gilberti, Jazz, Magdelina, and James. I spent a lot of time with Francisca. She taught me how to prepare chai, ugali (a corn flour and water mixture), and a cabbage dish. I wondered all day long whether Robbie and I were actually helping - they had to baby us Americans a lot. Honestly, it blows my mind that you can make a room FULL of dirt on an uneven floor clean as a whistle using only a scraper and a rag. Blows my mind.

I spent most of my day cleaning, cooking, and sitting (wow I’m useful!), while Robbie did a lot of work with livestock and fetching water. So the gender roles were very obvious, but I saw a lot of value in seeing a beastly woman cook a meal. You wouldn’t think so, but ugali takes muscle. You have to beat it into submission because it’s so tough. Obey me so I can eat you!

At one point, Agipina brought out the family photo album! It brought me so much joy to see wedding pictures, and graduations, and family events! After showing me all these pictures, she gave me a few and told me to take them to America with me. Uhm, wow! What generosity to give someone else a part of your family! We took a few pictures with them and hope to send them back to Aziz (our Swahili teacher who set this day up) so he can deliver them to John and Agipina.

I loved watching John and Agipina interact. I have no idea what they were saying to each other, but there was a lot of connection and laughter. You could tell that even after eight kids and many years of marriage, they still liked each other and enjoyed each other’s company.

When one of the youngest, Magdelina, came home, she just could not take her eyes off the mzungu (white) girl. She pretty much jumped me and just started to feel my hair. So soft! She went away for a while, but started staring at me again, so I invited her to come sit next to me. She sat for a while, but her eyes drifted up to my hair again and she erupted into playing with it again. She was just suddenly out of control! :P

Sigh. Tanzania.

09.30.10

I have officially had my initiation into this community. This morning, we took the first jigger (like chiggers in the States) out of my toe!

Ok, please do not read the italics if you’re squeamish. I’m about to get descriptive.

I found the jigger last night before I went to bed. They find their way under your skin and grow and lay eggs and it’s disgusting. If you find them mature, they look like a swollen white thing with a small black dot.

To get them out, you go to Erica (our Student Affairs Manager, originally from Colorado). She’s a beast when it comes to getting these things out. You have to be careful to get all of the egg sac out. Otherwise you’ll have growing babies (like my roommate, Arima). Anyway, you have to cut around the jigger to make a sort of flap. Once you turn it up, the white jigger just kind of oozes out. It’s kind of like popping a pimple, except ... nastier. It bleeds a lot, because they usually burrow pretty deep.

After you get the jigger and egg sac out, you have rub an alcohol swab inside the wound to disinfect. Not the most fun thing you’ve ever done. Then you soak your foot in soapy hot water and cover! And you’re jigger free!

We had a goat roast last night. They let us observe the entire process, meaning the two goats were alive when we started.

It was actually really really hard to watch. I won’t detail it, but the death was definitely not quick enough. Yikes.

We watching the skinning (and some of the other students helped) and took out all the organs for a friendly little ruminant anatomy lesson. Their stomachs are so fantastic! I don’t remember what they’re each called, but goats have four. Each of the stomachs have a different texture - one’s like a honeycomb, another has a bunch of ridges, etc - it’s really interesting!

Poor goats ... but they were really yummy. Ask me more about this when I get home; I’m too bashful to admit here which parts I ate.

Ngorongoro crater tomorrow! I hear amazing things, so I'm STOKED!

Panthera Leo

09.21.10

I just watched someone remove a jigger from his own foot. It was disgusting.

We have lots of jiggers here. They just bury themselves in your toes and ... blah ... mature and lay eggs and ... sorry. Don’t worry, I haven’t had any yet. Jinx?

Ok, focus Carrie!

Yesterday, September 20th, 2010 at 11:45 am, I saw my first lion in the wild.

We took a trip to Tarangire National Park yesterday for our Wildlife Management class. We had learned methods of mammal transects the previous day, and took road counts yesterday. How it worked was we went out in our land cruisers, which have removable hatches on the top. We had a recorder who took down all our data, and two people on each side who scanned the landscape for mammals. We would record whatever we saw, the number of individuals, and how far away they were. Woohoo! We saw elephants and zebras and impala and wildebeest and giraffes and dikdiks and steinboks and waterbuck and ... even two carcasses (one zebra and one giraffe). So I was definitely ready to see a predator.

And we found the most amazing Boabab tree. I mean, they’re amazing as is. But this one had a big hole on the side so you could see the hollow inside. It was gorgeous! I felt like a giant owl should’ve live inside.

Anyway. Kioko, our driver, has eyes like a hawk and saw a male lion far off. We took a break from transects, clearly, and made our way down the hill. The first one I spotted was a lioness making her way through the riverine. I saw her just briefly. The male was further than she was, but was right in the open on the riverbed. Oh. My. Goodness. He was so dark, meaning old. He didn’t do much, but honestly, he didn’t have to. He just stood there. But he was so beautiful.

We drove back up the hill after a while, and could see him from the other angle. He walked off right to where we were positioned before. Grrr, thanks buddy.

But but but ... we were driving along later, and saw a lioness walking right along the road. She was just circling, but then she fixed her eyes on something. She got realllllly low and starting to stalk something. Goodness, she blended right in with the grass. She just glided away until she disappeared from view.

We drove across the river and spotted her again, and this time we were to her left. She was probably 250 meters from us, but we could see well enough. Ah she was sooo good! She was moving ever so slowly, and didn’t rise an inch. Just moving like molasses across the savannah. She slowed to a complete stop, her eyes glued to whatever she was stalking. Frozen. Frozen. Frozen. Then BAM, she just erupted. And so did the warthogs she’d been watching. Unfortunately, she didn’t catch any. But man, it was so cool. So cool.

BAH. Not only did I get to see a lion. I got to see four. And a chase. What a complete day. And the perfect way to see something I’ve been waiting for for years.