I present to you...TIN!

Photos: 1&2. Maasai spear throwing/Kenya's Next Top Model-esque photo shoot. 3. On top of Observation Hill in Amboseli National Park.

I don't think I have ever woken up so freaked out before. At 2:00 am I awoke to an elephant trumpeting. At first I couldn't tell if it was my malaria pills messing with me, but then I continued to hear shouting (from our askaris and probably neighbors) and dogs barking. Lights from presumably flashlights kept shining into my banda, like how floodlights from cars flash across your window at night. Except at night here, the only sounds are usually night bugs and animals and the only lights are from the moon and stars. Apparently, an elephant was right outside our fence. Animals try to come into our camp frequently because, since it is fenced off, there are no effects of grazing and thus lots of forage. Maybe a week or two ago a few elands managed to break down our fence at night. Previously I had heard a few times people banging pots and such in the distance to scare away elephants. But this time it was really close. I really thought the elephant was inside our camp and I was just waiting for it to bust down my banda walls. Luckily, we have askari (guards) who do an EXCELLENT job at keeping us safe, and the elephant(s?) never made it past our gate. I was still scared though, very spooked out. It's interesting how in the states we view elephants as these majestic animals, but here they are a threat. I have spoken to farmers who said that because elephants destroyed their crops, they cannot afford to send their children to school, let alone live comfortably. Although they are endangered throughout Africa, they have become over protected. With changes in land-use practices by the local people, conflicts with the wildlife worsen. This is something we have been studying a lot in our classes, it is an extremely complex issue.

On a lighter note, we went to Amboseli again on Wednesday to have a "tourist" day. We went to a cultural boma, which is a Maasai homestead that gives tours. Having seen our neighbor's boma and learned more about Maasai culture, we had a long-winded discussion on authenticity and culture. Again, another very complicated issue. Afterwards, to be like true tourists, we went to another lodge in Amboseli and ate at the buffet. All you can eat for 1200 ksh (about $16). It was more than you expect to pay for things here, but it was soo worth it. I ate four plates of food. There was a variety of cheese and deserts and Indian dishes. I even got a glass of water with ICE. It was so decadent but mmmmm worth it! Then we went swimming at the lodge, followed by a short game drive out of the park. It was a strange day because we don't really do the tourist things here, but it was nice to do it just once...

We also recently got Maasai spears. They actually came in about a week ago, but our Swahili teacher just taught us how to throw them. Perhaps you are unaware, but I'm pretty spastic and, in general, I throw "like a girl." So give me a spear that is taller than me and is insanely sharp and I freak out. After a few throws, however, I shed my fears and would throw my spear bravely and proudly. Fyi, a Maasai can kill an elephant, lion, you name it, with one throw of their spears. Hardcore. We also got Maasai swords. I'm so dangerous!

Today I was MOD, mwanafunzi (student) of the day. It's not as cool as it sounds. It's not an award rather an assignment. By alphabetical order, we all have to do it. MOD duties are turning the solar panels throughout the day (which the staff tends to do), ringing the bell before class/meals/meetings/anything, and giving RAP after dinner. RAP stands for reflections, announcements, and presentation. After announcements are made, the MOD either gives a reflection (poem, game, discussion, etc.) or some kind of presentation that pertains to Africa, the environment, or whatever. I gave my presentation on couchsurfing.com today. It's usually fun and interesting, but the whole RAP business isn't really my kind of thing...

Now that we have been here for a few weeks, we have reach a level of being very comfortable with each other and needing to find our own entertainment. The greatest example of this is "Tin." Tin is a band consisting of two guys who play their tin plates by the washbasins after dinner. I'm the founder and manager. We just held auditions for back-up dancers. The competition was tough as there is apparently a lot of talent in the greater Kimana region. There were a lot of dreams fulfilled and crushed when we posted the results. Tin is a really big deal here at KBC.

Photos: 1. the chumba - our everything building; 2. lion in Amboseli, details below...

I finally got to go to Amboseli National Park last Wednesday! Best day ever. In the morning we counted mammals for our wildlife management class. It was pretty tedious, especially when we got to swamps where there were hundreds of animals in a very small space. In one small area I counted about 160 wildebeest! But in all, it was a pretty cool job. The park will use our data for future management and conservation purposes. For lunch we went to a tourist lodge in the middle of the park. Although I really think that tourist lodges are horrible to the local culture and environment, I could see the appeal in staying there. It’s literally in the middle of the park, so on the other side of the fence there are zebra, gazelles, and ostriches. But it was weird because it was so fancy, especially in comparison to every other part of Kenya. We brought our own packed lunches, but I still got a Coke from the bar, the coldest drink I’ve had here, and it wasn’t that cold. After we ate we had a short lecture on island biogeography. Our professor kindly bashed tourist lodges while the employees walked by us. It was very interesting. The rest of the afternoon we game drove throughout the park. In all I saw: zebra, wildebeest, Tommy’s and Grant’s gazelles, impala, oryx, hippos, ELEPHANTS (finally!), warthogs (surprisingly my favorite, they were incredibly adorable, especially the babies), buffalo, giraffe, lesser kudu, spotted hyena (they are insanely creepy!)…We saw sooo many bird species that were so beautiful. Highlights: a huge black mamba slithered by our car, and we watched a lioness come so close to DESTROYING a domestic bull. She put her paw on its back as it struggled to get away (we think it had a broken leg). Then she just got up and walked away. It was crazy!! Yea Amboseli was great…

A few days ago we slaughtered a goat. Some of our Maasai staff killed it in a traditional way, and then some students took turns skinning it. I originally wanted to, but it was pretty brutal so I chose to just observe. Our professor showed us the different organs and chambers of the stomach, which was really cool. Then we smoked the meat and ate it. Yes, I ate it. It’s tradition for the youngest male to eat the testicles, so a bunch of the guys did that. I still can’t believe they actually ate it! I tried some liver, which traditionally only older men are allowed to eat. In the end, it was an excellent experience. I think everyone should watch or even slaughter their own meat. Although I thought it was cool and I’m glad I watched it, I think I might now be a vegetarian for ethical reasons in addition to sustainability ones.

Sunday was another non-program day. We decided to keep it chill because we haven’t had a day off since we got here (would you believe that I haven’t slept past 7:15 here??) We went for a long nature walk further away from KBC. We saw giraffe and zebra – the first time we saw large mammals on foot. It was invigoratingly scary. I also correctly identified my first bird, which made me incredibly proud. The rest of the day we spent in Oloitokitok. As my body has finally acclimated to Kenya, I tried some local food at a restaurant. We ate waaay to much ugali. Then we went to a bar and poached some elephants, aka drank (the biggest brand of beer here is “Tusker,” named after the elephant that allegedly decapitated the owner with its trunk – hence “poaching”). I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed such a warm beer before!

We learned how to tell time in Kiswahili. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but I was taken aback when we learned that it doesn’t follow the Western schedule. There are 12 hours of day that start at 7:00 am, and 12 hours of night at 7:00 pm. It makes a lot more sense than our system, I think. So “saa moja asubuhi” is “hour one of the morning” or 7:00 am. Cool right?

Safi.

I posted pictures, but I'm not sure how the format will work once I press "pubblica post" (the browser is still in Italian...) One is of my banda. It is called "popomingi" which means bat. Ironically, a bat lives in the wall next to my bed and scares the crap out of me when it flaps while I try to sleep. The other picture is the view of Kilimanjaro from our camp. Amazing, right?

This past weekend we did a lot with the community. Saturday we had our first community service event. We went to a traveling clinic of sorts that was set up at a one-classroom school about two hours from KBC. We gave out prescriptions for various problems (mostly antibiotics), gave children vitamin A and de-wormers, distributed mosquito nets, provided measles vaccines, and weighed children under 5 years old to see if they were underweight or not. A lot of people showed up. One of the nurses told me that people had walked many kilometers to get there. There were so many people that, unfortunately, we did not have enough vaccines and netting. It was hard to turn people away, especially with the language barrier because it was hard to explain why they weren’t getting what they traveled so far for. Overall, though, it was a great experience. We played with the kids and tried to have conversations with our minimal Kiswahili. I spent some time in the diagnosis room watching the nurse write down the diagnoses and prescriptions that she was giving people because I couldn’t understand what they were saying. It seemed like about 1/3 of the people had malaria and something else, and almost everyone had some type of parasite or virus.

The next day was another non-program day. In the morning, a lot of the group decided to go to church. Maybe some other time I’ll see what it’s like, but I don’t think I really care to see what church is like here. It’s like wanting to see what the malls are like here. I’m not too interested in seeing Western culture in a traditional setting. Anyway, in the afternoon we went to Oloitokitok to visit the VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing), an HIV/AIDS support and information center. They do free testing, provide people with treatment and information, have a support group, and help the members make crafts to sell to visitors. It is difficult for people here with HIV/AIDS to find work because most work involves manual labor through agriculture and pastoralism, so VCT helps them make some money to pay for the food they need to stay healthy (medicine is provided by the government). Several of the members told us their stories of how they came to find out that they were positive, how it affected their lives, and how they got involved in VCT. It’s really amazing what VCT has done for these people. The support group has helped work to eliminate the stigmas associated with HIV/AIDS here and helped afflicted people learn how to live positively. There are several other VCT centers in the region, but as roads are really bad and most people don’t have cars, several kilometers can prevent people from going to VCT or even hospitals and clinics to get help.

Today I was cook crew, which means I woke up an hour early to make breakfast and cleaned dishes after dinner. Once a week we get to do this. I enjoy cook crew. The cook crews are named after Kenyan tribes. Mine is Luo, the tribe that Obama’s family is from. Thus we refer to ourselves as “Team Obama.” Last week we were cook crew on a morning that we had a field lecture, so breakfast and thus cook crew were both pushed an hour earlier. Cook crew at 5:45 instead of 6:30 is no fun…it’s still dark out so you need to wear your headlamp just to find the chumba. But a few chants of “yes we can!” got us through the morning. Today cook crew was at the normal time, and we were given the option of cooking whatever we wanted for breakfast. I took charge and made cheesy eggs (we almost never have cheese here and we always want it). Delicious!

Since then we have had a lot of class. We do not have a real schedule here, it varies day to day. The past two days we have had three classes each day. The classes typically run from 1.5 to 2 hours. All the classes are in the chumba as well as our meals, so a day full of class gets very boring. It’s kind of like elementary school – we are always in the same room with the same people. Unless you check the schedule beforehand (which I stopped doing after a few days of being here), you don’t know what classes you have until the day of. Keeps us on our feet! Tomorrow we are spending the entire day at Amboseli National Park, which I’m uber excited about because I missed the first trip. So although we put in some long days full of boring class, there are plenty of excursions and variation in the schedule to keep us interested.

My GI tract questions why I came to Kenya

Yea, my digestive system has a hard time adjusting. Luckily, I never got the 24 hour bug that went around, but I still have had some issues. The worst though was today. We had our first trip to Amboseli National Park where we were sure to see lots of the large mammals. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning feeling not so hot. All night long I had weird burps that would wake me up and make me think I had vomited, plus a delightfully endless flow of poop. That I would have dealt with so I could have gone to Amboseli, but by lunch, my gut hurt so much that I could barely move. I had no appetite all day and just felt horrible. So I stayed back while everyone left. It was weird being at camp by myself (besides some staff). I stayed in my banda and napped for awhile and watched Freaks and Geeks on my laptop. I felt like I was back at college, lying in bed all day like that. But now I feel much better! I'm a little bummed out that I missed our first trip to Amboseli, but we'll be going three other times this month alone so it's not that big of a deal. Plus I got the camp to myself and I caught up on much needed sleep.

Since my past entry, we have had several field lectures. These lectures are easily the best lectures I have ever had. Two were at the top of small hills where we learned more about the geography and ecology of the area. Another one was held just outside KBC's gate so that we could learn how to make strong field observations. The lectures themselves weren't necessarily too interesting, but it was so nice to get out. The first two lectures on top of hills were especially great because of the fantastic views.

On Tuesday we had our first non-program day. We went to Oloitokitok (pronounced usually as Lay-tok-tok, but people spell and pronounce it in several different ways). It is the largest town in the area, about an hour drive from KBC (distance-wise it isn't that far, the roads are just that bad). Oloitokitok is on the slopes of Kilimanjaro so it is right next to the Tanzanian border. We did a short hike into a gorge that was full of vegetation but dried out (it's currently the end of the long dry season) and then browsed around the town for a bit. I wanted to try some of the local beer there, but unfortunately this was when I started to have digestive issues. I think I'll give myself another week or two to adjust to the diet here.

Some other things that I'll just list:
- For whatever reason my internet browser is in Italian (Sarah, you should have figured that out). I think I made the blog correctly regardless?
- Some critter lives in the roof of my banda and makes a lot of noise at night. It scares the hell out of me! At first I thought it was a bat, but I saw a small rodent running around the banda today...
- My malaria pills give me weird dreams. I kind of like it. It mostly affects me when I doze for a few seconds, like in class. I'll think someone was talking to me and wake up two seconds later to realize that they obviously weren't.
- I really enjoy being dirty and lowering my hygenic standards. I successfully handwashed my laundry the other day, but I think I'm going to wear my clothes an extra day or two from now on because it was a pain to do.

I tried to upload one photo but the Internet is that bad. Maybe next time.

No black mambas yet!

Jambo! Good news! I have not gotten bit by a black mamba, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to post this! But really, Kenya has been pretty awesome. I decided it would be easiest to make a blog. The internet is pretty slow here and we alternate nights to use it. Plus, although I'd love to keep in touch with everyone as best as I can, at night I do have to do homework, unfortunately, or if there is something fun going on like cards or a fire, I'd rather join in than deal with the bad internet connection. This entry will be really long, so read however much you'd like!

I guess I'll describe our site, Kilimanjaro Bush Camp (KBC). It is a 6 hour drive from Nairobi, MUCH further than I had originally expected. We are in the Kimana Group Ranch (a subdivided plot owned privately by Maasai communities rather than the government) which is situated between Amboseli and Tsavo West National Parks. We have a clear view of Mt. Kilimanjaro from our camp, especially in the morning when it is less cloudy around the mountain. It is such a clear view that we can see the snow on top, which if you compare the view to photos of Kili from even just five years ago, let alone twenty, you can see that there is not much left. In a few years, the glaciers will be completely gone. The whole area, people and wildlife, relies on the glacier water, so it is very unfortunate and scary to think of what will happen to the area.

Anyway, our camp is fenced in and guarded by Maasai askaris (guards) to make sure that dangerous animals (i.e. elephants) do not come in. A mile path surrounds our camp which is really nice to walk on to see the flora and fauna in the area. The main features of our camp are the main building, or chumba, and the cabins, or bandas. We do everything in the chumba: classes, meals, meetings. We even hang out on the chumba porch in between activities. Looking out from the porch, there is a large field with five bandas on each side. Each banda sleeps four people, although I only have two bandamates. The rest of KBC is staff bandas and offices. There are also some nice nooks like little gazebo-like structures and a volleyball court.

We have been very busy with classes. We only get about one day off a week, and those aren’t really days off but more like non-program days. They try to keep us busy because we are not allowed to leave KBC without staff supervision because the wildlife is too dangerous (again, elephants). We have gone into the nearest town, Kimana, for market day. It was very chaotic - Maasai mamas flooding to us, the mzungu (white person). It was a lot of fun though, I pretended to do kung fu with some little boys, I don't know where they learned that. We also visited our Maasai neighbors' boma, or homestead. I'm pretty sure it’s only a few families that live in one homestead with several houses, but their kinship networks are very different and I haven't quite gotten it yet. Their homes are made of all organic materials like plant parts and cow dung. They each have a corridor and typically two rooms, one specifically for the mama. They live very simply and traditionally.

To pass the rest of our free time, we tend to go on walks around camp or play soccer in the field. In general, there is a lot of dust here. But when we play soccer, it gets so bad you literally can't see the ball at times. Needless to say, it's a lot of fun and we get very dirty. All of the flora here is covered in thorns, including most of the grass and weeds, so falling during soccer is very painful. After a soccer match, we are caked in dirt (including on our teeth and in our lungs) and usually bloody. Still, playing soccer has been one of the highlights for me. We can’t wait to take on one of the local high school teams, and, most likely, get our butts handed to us.

We have seen a lot of wildlife. On the drive from the airport we saw zebras, giraffe, wildebeests, hartebeests, and impala. On our camp there are vervet monkeys and yellow baboons, although we usually only see the same baboon all alone (our field guide tells us that he is most likely alone because he is an adolescent and finding a new troop). There are a lot of birds including ibis, African doves, and kingfishers which are the most beautiful bright blue color I've ever seen. You can see them from across the camp even though they are small. Sometimes in the morning, our Kiswahili teacher and overall Maasai liaison takes us for nature walks outside the camp. There we have seen dik-dik and lots of tracks (poop and footprints) of elephants, zebra, and aardvarks.

So I am doing very well so far! There was a terrible 24ish hour bug that hit most of the group over the past few days. Knock on wood, I haven't been affected yet. It's very reminiscent of the plague from the camp this summer. Otherwise, we take a lot of precautions to avoid danger. We keep mosquito nets tucked in our bed during the day, mostly to prevent scorpions and snakes (like black mambas, by far my biggest and probably only fear here) from hiding in our beds. I’ve gotten used to shaking out clothing and shoes before putting them on, just to be safe. The drinking water is fine, but we have filtered water just in case the glacier water somehow gets contaminated. Apparently the most dangerous thing in Kenya is the roads, or lack there of. You are 40% more likely to die in motor vehicle here. So warning me to not get AIDS or eaten by a lion was actually very silly. But don’t worry, we have two full time mechanics to make sure our jeeps are in top shape to avoid problems.

Sorry that was really long, but I warned you! There’s still tons more that I could say but I’m feeling really antisocial right now by writing this haha. I get to use the internet some nights between 7 and 11 pm, so if you go on the internet at around noon your time, chances are you can chat with me on AIM. Miss you all!