After my day as a professional cattle chaser we packed up our gear and went to Malindi. We pitched our tents less than 100 feet from the indian ocean and spent a glorious afternoon turning our white tummies a vibrant shade of red. The town was really neat and we had a bunch of lectures on conserving the costal forest, and one from this group that runs around saving sea turtles - but really it is all shadowed by the long-awaited beach time. We had to say goodbye to our Bunduz crew (they drove us all around kenya in massive trucks and cooked our meals when we were camping and were generally fabulous) which was very sad - but they actually baked us a cake! On a fire! It was totally outrageous. We detoured for the chance to stagger and crawl along the longest and sketchiest raised walkway that took us over a mangrove forest on our way to mombassa - made flycamp for the night and then started out at an absolutely ungodly hour to make our flights to Zanzibar.
We arrived on Saint Patty's Day and celebrated by a taste test of each brand of Tanzanian beer. We are still in Zanzibar now and have settled in until the end of the programme (only another 4 days!) It is actually a million degrees here (generally 32C in the morning hitting a balmy 40C by midafternoon) with the added bonus of being a highly muslim area so that you have to be covered to your knees and shoulder to elbows at all times, and occasionally a headscarf during call to prayer. I am uncovering a whole new level of sweating I would never have believed existed. The culture here is absolutely fabulous. It has been a major port here for centuries so there is a wonderful meshing of indian, arabic and african influences into this distinct 'swahili' culture. Our class spends most of the days listening to lecture from poloticians and professors from the university of Dar Saalam. Its incredibly interesting. For lunch we are given free range of stonetown so it has become a bit of a competition to see who can find the best quantity and quality of food for under $3.50. - And you would be surprised at how far that goes. On Saturday we had a spice tour of the island, which included ruins of the home of a Zanzibari princess, a massive lunch, and a tour of a spice plantation. On Sunday we got to go out in boats to see the dolphins and snorkel in the reefs of the marine conservatory. And then yesterday we were taken out on one of the large traditional sailboats called a Dhow which are absolutely fabulous - although I don't have any pictures so I'm going to have to again refer you to a google image search.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
And then...
Hello loved ones! I hear its practically spring time which is very exciting news! Right now I am learning just how much one person can sweat in a day, but I'll get to those details in a bit.
So in Nairobi (I'm back to the first week of march) we spent some time hanging out in the National museum and where all our little bits of archeological gold were going to end up to be sorted, catalogued and studied. We also visited another of the large slums in Nairobi called Mathare to see the education project that the Beijing consulate has started funding - a group of students dressed in bright red little dresses and did this really wild traditional dance that put every school pagent/performance I've ever been a part of to shame on a scale of cool-ness. We also discovered that flash photography in the Beijing school is a novelty of epic proportions and spent a good couple of minutes provoking screams of delight from entire classrooms of small children. So much fun. Besides that in Nairobi we wrote finals for our second session courses and enjoyed a few days of running water.
On the 7th we made our way to Tsavo East national park. Our campsite was right inside the park which means that we were accompanied by a team of armed askaris to keep wildlife at a safe distance. The coolest part is that a 'safe distance' was at one point as close as 50 feet for this pair of enormous elephants that were terribly curious about our setup. One night a lion actually ran through our campsite which freaked everyone out pretty thoroughly (Tsavo is where the 200 railroad workers were killed by man-eating lions - its the plot of the movie 'ghost in the darkness') needless to say our risk-management guy was not terribly pleased. Tsavo east has the highest concentration of elephants anywhere in Kenya so we spent alot of time talking to people about conflict with the animals -who are notorious for crop-raiding and trampeling people to death - not quite the gentle giants I had come to expect. We visited a secondary school to see the wildlife education programme in action - and I met this fabulous girl my age who is in her last year and wants to become a nurse to council people on HIV/AIDS. She says she's already working to set up a peer councilling circuit among the schools to help girls stay safe and finish their education. The next day the Geography class (my session 3 choice) went into the park to herd cattle (who illegally graze and take resources from the wildlife) across the boundary line. It was exhausting and so futile... and oh man my internet time is up... more to come! xx
So in Nairobi (I'm back to the first week of march) we spent some time hanging out in the National museum and where all our little bits of archeological gold were going to end up to be sorted, catalogued and studied. We also visited another of the large slums in Nairobi called Mathare to see the education project that the Beijing consulate has started funding - a group of students dressed in bright red little dresses and did this really wild traditional dance that put every school pagent/performance I've ever been a part of to shame on a scale of cool-ness. We also discovered that flash photography in the Beijing school is a novelty of epic proportions and spent a good couple of minutes provoking screams of delight from entire classrooms of small children. So much fun. Besides that in Nairobi we wrote finals for our second session courses and enjoyed a few days of running water.
On the 7th we made our way to Tsavo East national park. Our campsite was right inside the park which means that we were accompanied by a team of armed askaris to keep wildlife at a safe distance. The coolest part is that a 'safe distance' was at one point as close as 50 feet for this pair of enormous elephants that were terribly curious about our setup. One night a lion actually ran through our campsite which freaked everyone out pretty thoroughly (Tsavo is where the 200 railroad workers were killed by man-eating lions - its the plot of the movie 'ghost in the darkness') needless to say our risk-management guy was not terribly pleased. Tsavo east has the highest concentration of elephants anywhere in Kenya so we spent alot of time talking to people about conflict with the animals -who are notorious for crop-raiding and trampeling people to death - not quite the gentle giants I had come to expect. We visited a secondary school to see the wildlife education programme in action - and I met this fabulous girl my age who is in her last year and wants to become a nurse to council people on HIV/AIDS. She says she's already working to set up a peer councilling circuit among the schools to help girls stay safe and finish their education. The next day the Geography class (my session 3 choice) went into the park to herd cattle (who illegally graze and take resources from the wildlife) across the boundary line. It was exhausting and so futile... and oh man my internet time is up... more to come! xx
Monday, March 2, 2009
February
So from Jinja we went to the Maasai Mara (which is a huge game conservatory)We pitched a little tent city inside the park (actually right inside teritory already claimed by a group of 5 male lions who insisted on voicing thier protest at our presence at various hours of the night)We did game drives every morning, so I got to add Elephants, Cheetahs, buffalo, warthoggs and meercats (who dissapointingly did not break into song, lions, crocodiles and a whole bunch of ungulates (which is the intelligent sounding word for gazelle-things)to my life-list. We took a drive out to the Mara river to see the hippos (there was a 1 day old baby - and it was actually still the size of a large dog), to straddle the line between Tanzania and Kenya, and to see the 250,000 year old stone blades that are just lying around by the river side (I started my archaeology class in the mara so prepare for lots of excitement over rocks.
on the 20th we moved camp to Elangata Waus. It is right in the rift valley, its like camping in a forest - only all the trees are thorn trees, and the dirt is bright red and dusty, and there are peices of animal skulls scattered really notchalontly between the trees. At Elangata Waus they had arranged for us to go in pairs and spend the night with a Maasai family on the ranches in the surrounding area. It was an absolutely unbelievable night. I got to milk a goat and we cooked dinner (with food the programme provided) over the fire inside the tiny mud house (ugali and cabbage for dinner, rice and tomatoes for breakfast)We talked well into the night through our youth guide, who was acting as a language and cultural translator, ugh, it was too nuts, too fabulous. The next morning we walked back to the main road, and the bus picked us up to take us to church. Church lasted from 10-1 (we snuck out early, church normally goes as late as 4), it was a pentecoastal church so there was lots of singing and dancing in the isles which made the time pass quickly. After church one of our professors had organized an 'olympics' of traditional maasai weapons. There was a staff team, a maasai team, a student girls team, and a student boys team (4 on each) and then we had to score points for the win. The first game was archery, the second a rungu toss (its a short club that you throw at gazelles to break their legs - we threw it at a chair- 1 point for a hit, 2 points if a piece of the chair broke off), the last was a spear throw which we had to make stick in the ground like a javalin. The Maasai team unsurprisingly won, but the girls came in second and since we had bet a round of beers with the boys team, I feel like everyone walked away happy (except possibly the boys who came last). The next day we visited a primary school and spent some time talking with the kids and then organized a big game of soccer against some of their older boys. We were owned (3-0) but in our defence many of the 8th graders were going on 20 so the beating is not quite as severe as it sounds.
On the 24 we drove to MPALA ranch (a research centre in likipia) we were still 'camping' but at the ranch the large canvas tents were permanent and comfortably fit 3 beds and all our bags. There was a man who came around and lit a latern outside our door each night and a stone fire pit dug into the ground like a pool, with a stone bench covered with cushions lining the outside. At Mpala the archaeology class kicked it into a seriously high gear since we had 4 days to clear up the excavation site my prof had started in 2005 but had had to abandon since 2007. We spent the mornings rotating between digging in the two trenches (i found 84 peices of flaked rock, and old tools just in my little 1 m patch, Nico found 103 in his!)and surveying the area for surface artifacts made visible by erosion and mapping them on GPS. The first afternoon we made our own stone tools (i managed to smash my fingernail into 3 peices - were I really a homo habilis I feel I may have been the end of the line) and then after that we had lectures for the rest of the week to learn what it was exactly we were working so hard to uncover. On the very last night a huge group of 25 or 30 people came down from the staff village dressed in traditional costume to teach us how to dance (Turcana style). It involved a lot of wild arm flinging, purposful stomping and jumping as high as you possibly can while seeming to not try at all. It was unbelievably fun, and I can't wait to bust out my new moves in the club.
Yesterday we arrived in Nairobi, today we are going to the National Museum to see what has been found at other sites in Kenya, to see the lab and pique an interest in interning to help catalog and analyze what we brought with us from MPALA.
I will try and post pictures soon, but all our final projects are due in the next few days so the laptops are a very hot comoditiy and I may not be able to get my hands on one until Savo.
Miss you all terribly.
xo
on the 20th we moved camp to Elangata Waus. It is right in the rift valley, its like camping in a forest - only all the trees are thorn trees, and the dirt is bright red and dusty, and there are peices of animal skulls scattered really notchalontly between the trees. At Elangata Waus they had arranged for us to go in pairs and spend the night with a Maasai family on the ranches in the surrounding area. It was an absolutely unbelievable night. I got to milk a goat and we cooked dinner (with food the programme provided) over the fire inside the tiny mud house (ugali and cabbage for dinner, rice and tomatoes for breakfast)We talked well into the night through our youth guide, who was acting as a language and cultural translator, ugh, it was too nuts, too fabulous. The next morning we walked back to the main road, and the bus picked us up to take us to church. Church lasted from 10-1 (we snuck out early, church normally goes as late as 4), it was a pentecoastal church so there was lots of singing and dancing in the isles which made the time pass quickly. After church one of our professors had organized an 'olympics' of traditional maasai weapons. There was a staff team, a maasai team, a student girls team, and a student boys team (4 on each) and then we had to score points for the win. The first game was archery, the second a rungu toss (its a short club that you throw at gazelles to break their legs - we threw it at a chair- 1 point for a hit, 2 points if a piece of the chair broke off), the last was a spear throw which we had to make stick in the ground like a javalin. The Maasai team unsurprisingly won, but the girls came in second and since we had bet a round of beers with the boys team, I feel like everyone walked away happy (except possibly the boys who came last). The next day we visited a primary school and spent some time talking with the kids and then organized a big game of soccer against some of their older boys. We were owned (3-0) but in our defence many of the 8th graders were going on 20 so the beating is not quite as severe as it sounds.
On the 24 we drove to MPALA ranch (a research centre in likipia) we were still 'camping' but at the ranch the large canvas tents were permanent and comfortably fit 3 beds and all our bags. There was a man who came around and lit a latern outside our door each night and a stone fire pit dug into the ground like a pool, with a stone bench covered with cushions lining the outside. At Mpala the archaeology class kicked it into a seriously high gear since we had 4 days to clear up the excavation site my prof had started in 2005 but had had to abandon since 2007. We spent the mornings rotating between digging in the two trenches (i found 84 peices of flaked rock, and old tools just in my little 1 m patch, Nico found 103 in his!)and surveying the area for surface artifacts made visible by erosion and mapping them on GPS. The first afternoon we made our own stone tools (i managed to smash my fingernail into 3 peices - were I really a homo habilis I feel I may have been the end of the line) and then after that we had lectures for the rest of the week to learn what it was exactly we were working so hard to uncover. On the very last night a huge group of 25 or 30 people came down from the staff village dressed in traditional costume to teach us how to dance (Turcana style). It involved a lot of wild arm flinging, purposful stomping and jumping as high as you possibly can while seeming to not try at all. It was unbelievably fun, and I can't wait to bust out my new moves in the club.
Yesterday we arrived in Nairobi, today we are going to the National Museum to see what has been found at other sites in Kenya, to see the lab and pique an interest in interning to help catalog and analyze what we brought with us from MPALA.
I will try and post pictures soon, but all our final projects are due in the next few days so the laptops are a very hot comoditiy and I may not be able to get my hands on one until Savo.
Miss you all terribly.
xo
BACK!
I will take time (when the line up for computers is not knee-deep and verging on a fist-fight frenzy) to tell you all about the adventures of the last 3 weeks. In the meantime I wanted you to know I have found my way back from the wilderness safe and sound and with a new appreciation for electricity.
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