Week 8: Kenya and Amboseli NP

Hi everyone!

This week we left for KENYA!!! I am currently in this beautiful country and will be here for about another week. Here are all of the exciting things I have done this first week:

On Monday we left early in the morning – 6am! – to commence the 10-hour drive from Moyo Hill to Kilimanjaro Bush Camp in Kenya. We stopped at a fancy store/market where I bought a huge brownie and was really tempted to buy strawberries since I haven’t seen them in two months. I think going here was an example of reverse culture shock! There was a nice of view of Mt. Meru from this store, and as the drive continued, I was able to see the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro far in the distance (and I couldn’t wipe the smile off of my face)! Around Moshi was our “swap” location. After waiting for a little while the Kenya SFS students showed up, and we talked to them for about a half an hour before we swapped cars and went with the Kenya staff. There are only 11 Kenya students to our 26, and similarly there is only 1 guy in their group to the 4 guys in my group (I guess females are more likely to be conservationists). We (the guys) talked to Connor (the Kenya male student) and asked him what it was like being the only dude and also about sports – specifically the upcoming March Madness tournament. He seemed like a really cool guy and I’m excited to hang out with him again when we reconvene in Arusha for our free “city” weekend post-Kenya. After the swap we drove through Moshi towards the border. It was very nice and nostalgic to see the town where I stayed before/after my Kili hike! Once we got to the Kenya-Tanzania border, it took FOREVER to get through customs/paperwork: about three hours! Finally, we drove about a half hour to the camp in the dark, where my vehicle jammed out to a ton of music. Upon arrival, we met all of the staff – they were so warm and friendly, especially the camp director Dr. Okello! Besides all of these new faces, we also had three of our own Tanzania staff make the trip with us: Michael (a driver), Mansuerta (a cook) and Patricia (a cook) – all of which I love! Dinner was also amazing, including CHEESE (man I missed cheese) and mango juice which Dr. Okello poured for all of us himself! He called all of us guys “the bearded ones” and said to my face that “mango juice will make your red beard more lush” LOL!!! The bandas (rooms) that we are staying in are different from the ones in Tanzania. Specifically, there are four beds per banda not in bunk-bed style, meaning that the four wavulana (boys) could room together! There is also no outlets in the bandas, but there are in the large chumba (room) where we eat and have classes. The campus, Kilimanjaro Bush Camp, is newly renovated since the Kenya program just reopened this year after a few year hiatus. The actual campus is much larger than Moyo Hill, with a running track, soccer field, volleyball court and some gazebos within the facility, which is surrounded by an electric fence. Not to mention, it has a STUNNING view of Mt. Kilimanjaro…a view that I missed more than I realized. 

View of the bandas and gazebos at Kilimanjaro Bush Camp, Kenya

On Tuesday we had orientation and a tour in the morning led by Becky, followed by a lecture on the Amboseli ecosystem by Dr. Okello. I cannot emphasize enough how kind this man is! He was the former camp director in Tanzania, has hired many of the current Tanzania staff, and has given lectures around the world! One thing that is different between Tanzania and Kenya is that English is spoken much more frequently here, as it (along with Swahili) is considered one of Kenya’s national languages. Later in the day I played some football in the heat (it’s much hotter here than in Tanzania) and visited the local market in Kimana with everybody. Following this, I took a nap before dinner, and saw some bush babies (a type of small primate) as the sun set!!! After dinner we went on a night hike around campus with Dr. Kioko, who used to teach at Moyo Hill just last year before switching to the Kenya program (he did what Dr. Theisinger does).

On Wednesday, I had cook crew so had to get up early for breakfast. Today we went to Kimana sanctuary, a community-run conservation area, where we did some animal counts with the picturesque view of Kili in the background. Afterwards I tried to read before lunch to no avail (I have read maybe 30 pages of this one book since I’ve been in Africa lol). In the afternoon I played soccer (world cup) and football on the soccer field for at least two and a half hours before going on a small run around campus!!! I had so much fun but was filthy and exhausted by the end. A cold shower afterwards revealed that my skin was actually white and not brown – that’s how dirty I was! After dinner and cook crew we watched a documentary on the projector about elephant poaching in Tanzania and Kenya and efforts being done to fight the poachers. Finally, before going to bed I packed for Amboseli National Park – our first expedition/camping trip while in Kenya!

Amboseli Expedition

Day 1:

On our first day of the expedition we woke up early and drove to the Amboseli National Park gate. Upon arriving, we started a game drive where we practiced identifying birds for our field exercise tomorrow. During this I spent very little time IDing and lots of time looking at wildlife and Mt. Kilimanjaro. We saw a herd of elephants crossing the road, drove past a creepy abandoned lodge and saw so many dust devils (looking out at the landscape you could see one at any given minute). There was a spot where Kili was covered by palm trees in the foreground and it looked like something out of Jurassic Park! One aspect of Amboseli that I liked is that the elephants are very comfortable around people and would walk right in front of the vehicles. One famous elephant (that I only saw from far away) was Tim: a 49-year-old male with tusks that almost touched the ground! He is a “Presidential animal” who is monitored by guards who provide updates every 30 minutes (the President of Kenya is also given updates regularly) - this is in an effort to protect him from poachers. We had lunch at an observation point on a hill followed by a long lecture on the wildlife/terrain of the area. Then, we had a game drive around Amboseli where we saw the prevalent buffalo, elephants and hippos that eat in the deep, swampy regions of the park. There was also a lion that walked right up to some wildebeest but did nothing! At camp that night we spotted a spitting cobra about 10 feet away – they can “spit/shoot” their venom up to 10 feet!!! This added an element of fear around camp but it was still very neat to experience. I was Mawnafunzi of the Day today so for my presentation I taught everyone how to march like a member of the Blue Band. Everyone seemed to have a good time and I’m glad that they liked it! Before going to bed I played code names and bananagrams…

Day 2

Not only does the park have nice views of Kili, but so does our camp! This morning we did our bird identification exercise in the morning. I am personally not good when it comes to birds but I was able to learn a lot from the other students in my vehicle who were knowledgeable about them. We then returned to camp before lunch and had a lecture/talk by an Amboseli warden who told us about park initiatives and responsibilities of the staff. Amboseli is one of the only national parks that allows locals to enter to have their livestock graze due to the high availability of water (runoff from Kili). After lunch we had a lecture on land tenure and policy by Dr. Borona, one of the SFS Kenya professors. Her lecture was very interesting and made me realize that people/communities are just as important as wildlife when considering conservation. We then had another game drive. Off in the distance Kili was completely covered by some ominous black clouds…this combined with numerous dust devils blazing in the sun made the park look like some unreal scene from a movie. It never did rain on us, but we were drenched with lots of wildlife spottings! I saw a serval for the first time (a type of cat), a dead hippo in the water, a hyena nursing her two 8-month old pups (so cute!) and elephants eating at sunset. Speaking of sunset: it was INCREDIBLE. I took too many pictures to count! On the way back to camp I then saw my second serval in the same day! Because of being so far away for the sunset, we had to speed back to camp in the dark since we were (illegally) out past 7pm. This was so much fun and standing with the breeze in my face as darkness covered the landscape made me feel like a little kid – I couldn’t stop smiling! Back at camp I tried to take a shower before bed. Key word: try. The shower head didn’t work so I took my “shower” using the faucet that was about one foot off of the ground.

Day 3:

Today we woke up at 5am for a sunrise hike up to the observation point where we had lunch on day one. We raced the sun in our vehicles and I sprinted up to the top of the observation point to get some decent pictures and a time lapse video. The sunrise was very nice and I was able to look upon it and Mt. Kilimanjaro while eating my packed breakfast. We then went on a small morning game drive where we saw lions AND an oryx which is a very rare ungulate species. Some students also saw some cheetahs but they were practically invisible in the tall grass by the time my vehicle got to their location. We also saw a giraffe that ran unbelievably fast (for a giraffe) when our vehicle approached it. We then returned to camp where camp was packed up and we drove to a lodge where we were treated to a buffet lunch and swimming! The food was once again AMAZING and I loaded up on all of the delectable treats (and two heaping slices of chocolate cake). At the pool I got burned pretty badly – the sun in Kenya is vicious – before heading back to camp and relaxing.

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On Sunday, our free day, I went on a hike in the morning. We met up with some armed rangers and drove to this agricultural area where we started. After about 15 minutes our hike became very steep with a loose dirt trail that we basically had to bushwhack through. This led to a stream that consisted of Kilimanjaro runoff water! We followed this stream to a stunning waterfall and cliff area. It was here that we all stuck our feet in the water – it was so crystal clear and cold after all. However, things didn’t stop here. Evan and I decided to jump into the water and go underneath the waterfall, because why not?!? The only problem is that we did this in our regular clothes (I was wearing white cargo shorts lol) so we had to walk back soaking wet and near-hypothermic (near-hypothermic in Kenya is something I thought I’d never say) but it was SOOO worth it and so much fun. We actually got everybody (including Becky) to get in the water with us and as we all dried, we also swung on this huge vine hanging from the cliff. Overall this morning was a 10/10. Once back at camp I mostly relaxed and got some miscellaneous work done as well as set up one of the soccer nets at the field on campus. During dinner there was an earthquake which was later discovered to be 4.8 in magnitude and originated nearby!!! I spent the evening doing my regular activities (typing this blog, calling and Nascar) and packing for our next expedition which starts tomorrow…we’ll be in Tsavo and Chyulu Hills National Parks before spending next weekend in the city of Arusha. It’ll be another busy week but I am excited and grateful for all of these experiences I am having!

Thanks for reading!

-Matt

Week 7: Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater!

Hello all,

This week was very busy, as a lot of assignments were due before spending four days in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. Regardless, it was still an amazing week!

Monday and Tuesday were spent working on assignments and our DR (Directed Research) proposals. My group's draft proposal grade was a little rough but it had a lot of helpful criticism from Dr. Kiffner. Tuesday I tried the soursob fruit that I found while doing the bike tour of Mto wa Mbu...it didn't taste the best (it was probably not ripe enough) but at some spots you could definitely taste the "sour apple candy" that it is often described as tasting like. At 12:46 on Tuesday the sun was at exactly 90 degrees overhead, meaning that we had no shadows!!! This was really cool to see and it made objects on the ground look like optical illusions. Then that night we watched a movie on the great wildebeest migration for Wildlife Ecology class.

No shadow!

Expedition to Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti!

Day 1:

Today we woke up bright and early to leave for Ngorongoro Crater. After around an hour we arrived at the top/rim of the crater with stunning views! The crater is the remains of a volcano and is technically a caldera. Wildlife thrive and are very prevalent inside, and while they can leave the crater, the walls are very steep and provide lots of protection for all of the species inside. Upon our descent into the crater we saw a caracal - a rare medium-sized cat! The temperature all morning was cool and really pleasant, and this added to the wonder of being inside this magical land! We saw lots of wildebeest, huge buffalo and eland (the eland were much bigger than I expected), a female lion right next to our car, and for the first time - hyenas!!! We also saw a herd of buffalo chase away ten lions (safety in numbers am I right?!?) before stopping for lunch at a hippo pool. We were able to walk up right to the water's edge and it was definitely scary and intimidating to be within 20ish yards of the hippos in the water. One thing that amazed me during the morning game drive was just the magnitude of animals: so many different species were intertwined and went on as far as the eye could see! Following lunch we continued our game drive in search of rhinos (which we are more likely to see in the crater than in the Serengeti) but didn't find any. It was frustrating to see a "rhino" far in the distance only to find out that it was a buffalo EVERY TIME. Two of our vehicles however were able to see a rhino very far into the distance - so far that it was barely noticeable while using binoculars. In the late afternoon we took the long, dusty drive to the Serengeti. We stopped at a gift shop/bathroom area where I bought some Maltesers and walked up to a great view of the open plains. Following this, we drove to our campsite towards the middle of the park. Along this drive some highlights included seeing topi and a lion sitting on a rock outcrop. Once at camp I set up my things in the "wavulana tent" (boys tent) - all 4 of us decided to sleep in one tent and put our things in another tent instead of being 2 and 2....because we're cool like that...lol. The cool thing about camp is that it is literally exposed to the national park on all sides: animals have been said to enter the camp frequently and we have to walk anywhere with an askari (guard) at night. Hearing hyenas "whoop" as I fell asleep was amazing and hard to believe was real!

Day 2:

This morning after a beautiful sunrise we started recording data for our only assignment of the expedition: we were collecting data on the amount of time tourist vehicles spent looking at different wildlife in order to estimate the "income" each species provides to the tourism industry. We also recorded all observations of carnivores in the park. I chose to be in the "crispy car" (the car with no roof that leads to all of its passengers being quite "crispy" from sunburn at the end of the day). In the morning we saw a herd of elephants playing in the sun, a goliath heron, crocodiles and a ton of hippos. Additionally, I was able to cross another species off of my list: a leopard! It was pretty far away in a tree but you could definitely tell it was a leopard. We ate lunch back at camp and then had a small lecture on the history of the Serengeti. Following this we drove to the visitor center where very cute hyraxes and mongoose were EVERYWHERE. In the late afternoon we had another fieldwork session where we spotted the same leopard in the same tree and enjoyed the pristine span and silence of the plains. Apparently the silence we experienced is not always present, as we are visiting the Serengeti during the slow season...during the busy months of July and August there can be 60 vehicles around a single lion! Right before heading back to camp for dinner my vehicle "stumbled" across a cheetah! A CHEETAH. We were talking about random things and not paying attention when the cheetah literally crossed the road right in front of us. It then laid down in the long grass and you could not even tell that it was there. Needless to say, all of the other students were very jealous of us as cheetahs are hard to come across and they didn't see any. Ironically, that evening we had a lecture from Dr. Theisinger on cheetah ecology (he has worked in cheetah conservation for several years now).

Day 3:

Today we recorded more tourist and carnivore data. We saw a pride of lions with cubs laying in the shade as well as the same leopard in the same tree again! We then stopped by a hippo pool where there were tons of baby hippos, a baby crocodile, and a huge monitor lizard on the coast. Here I learned that Kiffner's vehicle saw a serval cat which hopefully I will see at some point... After this, the vehicles raced each other to the lodge that we were spending the afternoon at. I swam in an infinity pool with a glass of pineapple juice in hand and had a nice relaxing time! Afterwards, we went on another game drive where we saw the same leopard AGAIN. I had fun just standing in the car with the wind in my face enjoying the beautiful landscape of the Serengeti...That evening during REKAP we had a hyena walk up within half a football field of our group circle (very cool!), and then I had to do dishes for cook crew before sitting by the fire with some other students. It was at this fire that Evan and I threw some rocks in the brush to scare everyone into thinking there was a hyena right there - it worked better than we thought and people actually ran to get a staff member!

Day 4:

This morning we woke up early to take down our tents and pack the lori (truck). We then drove through the park to get to the gate and leave. During this drive, one vehicle saw a spitting cobra, and all of us witnessed approximately 20,000 wildebeest cross the road right in front of us! It's interesting that the wildebeest cross the road in a mostly single file line...the same way they cross other obstacles like a river. Later on we also spotted a cheetah with two cubs on a dirt mound in the distance. They were hard to see but it made me feel better that all of us were finally able to see a cheetah. Right near these cheetahs was a baby wildebeest all alone (this was very sad but is a part of nature). Other highlights included seeing more hyenas and a huge male lion right next to the road. After leaving the national park we went to the Olduvia Gorge and museum where we had a intriguing lecture on human evolution and looked at some ancient remains. It is believed that humans originated from this area of the globe which is really cool! On the drive back to camp we spotted some camels (camels?!?) that some Maasai people used as livestock. As a last stop, we went to another viewpoint of Ngorongoro Crater where we got a group picture and sawwwwwwww RHINOS down in the crater! They were hard to see but you could definitely tell that they were rhinos (I love rhinos so this was a very special moment). Once back at campus it was nice to take a cold shower and get all of the layers of dirt off of my skin. Overall, this expedition was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and will be something I never forget!

Sunday was a free day! I spent the morning doing laundry and typing my one paper which was due at midnight. For lunch I went with six other students to Gibb's Farm, where we were treated to an INSANE buffet filled with so much food that I haven't had in months: chicken marsala, fried broccoli, meats and cheeses (it's been so long since I've had decent cheese!), fresh veggies, frittatas, and for desert: raspberry mousse, cake, cinnamon fritters, rice pudding, fresh fruit, pineapple tarts and a sauce that was the king of all sauces (basically brown sugar and melted butter but it tasted like heaven).....mmm I miss it so much already!!! What's great is that almost all of the food in the buffet was grown on-site and while I ate two huge plates of food, I didn't feel disgusting since the food was for the most part fresh and healthy! While at Gibb's Farm I also had to check out the fancy bathrooms (super fancy), and then our group hung out with some goats before we left. Here we had some issues... First the car wouldn't start so we had to get out and push it. Then, we got "pulled over" by some man claiming that Amelia (our driver/student affairs manager) was driving recklessly even though she wasn't. He literally forced us off of the road and explained that as a "government official" (he never showed ID) he was able to go much over the speed limit, and his speed combined with our turning onto the tarmac meant we were reckless.....Amelia explained that things like this happen all the time sadly because she is a white woman driving in Tanzania and men like to take power over this...

Back at camp I finished my paper, ate little dinner - I was still full from Gibb's Farm - packed for Kenya and called my parents before you guessed it: NASCAR.

Oh wait, did that word slip...am I possibly LEAVING FOR KENYA TOMORROW MORNING??? Well the answer is yes, and I will be there for two weeks!!! I will still try to blog while there but can't make any promises. Here's to our ten hour drive tomorrow....

Have a great week!
Matt

Week 6: Intro to DR + Maasai

Hi everyone!

Week 6 is done and we're close to halfway done with the semester ALREADY! Time flies when you're having fun...

Before starting to talk about this week I wanted to add something from the end of last week: we watched the movie "Catch Me if You Can" one night. This is one of my favorite movies and you should definitely check it out!

On Monday we had a traveling lecture to Gibb's Farm which is a super fancy farm and lodge that grows 90% of its own food! We toured their coffee plantation and learned about different ways Gibb's Farm naturally tries to deter wildlife including chile pepper fires to repel elephants. We also saw lots of farm animals including goats which had their own goat tower!!! Following this tour, we traveled to some nearby local farms that Dr. Kiffner was coordinating with to test two wildlife repellent techniques: bee fences and chile pepper fences. These techniques are pretty self explanatory: the bee fences are bee hives attached to wire fences. Elephants are actually scared of the sound of bees (and their sting too) and any contact/vibration of the fence will send the bees out to attack their "intruder". A downfall of this technique is that there are not enough flowers to support a large enough bee population to fill all of the hives on the fence: only 1/4 of the tested hives were occupied. The chile pepper fences involve attaching squares of fabric drenched in old motor oil and chile peppers to the wire fences. These are much cheaper and slightly more effective at deterring elephants however, a downfall is that the fabric has to be re-soaked every couple of weeks. After this lecture we had a homestay debrief which turned into a heated town hall meeting with Amelia and Dr. Kissui as lots of students were upset about the intense workload we have had lately with a lack of free time. We later learned that SFS included the same amount of work into this semester as last semester even though we'll be in Tanzania for two less weeks (due to the Kenya trip)!

Goat Tower!!!

View from the bathroom at Gibb's Farm

On Tuesday we had a lab class for our Wildlife Management poster project where we learned how to use pivot tables in Excel. OH MY GOD why have I never learned how to use these?!? - they make data analysis so much easier and literally saves hours of time. Needless to say, this class changed my life and made doing research as a career seem a little more feasible. Additionally, on this day I finally got my Olive Baboon report back and did pretty well!

On Wednesday we had another (4 hour) lab class for the poster where we learned some more pivot table techniques and a program called "distance" which was super complicated and something I wasn't planning on using for my poster anyway (it calculates population densities and I was studying the seasonal habitat preference of wildebeest). That afternoon we had a community service session. I went with a few students to the Rhotia tree nursery where we swept the nursery of leaf litter and made little pots by packing flimsy cylindrical plastic sheets with dirt. This work was a lot of fun (and painful) and we left a little early as the afternoon rains started to come. As we get even closer to the long rainy season, we typically get a small shower almost every afternoon and occasionally overnight. That evening we also found out our directed research groups and topics: I got my first choice for both! I am working with Dr. Kiffner and will be with two other students analyzing the prevalence of plastic pollution in Manyara Ranch. An exciting part of being in this directed research (DR) group is that my group of three, as well as his two other research groups, will be spending four days camping in a wilderness area that for the most part has zero data and is an eight hour drive away!!!

On Thursday we started a camp-wide game of assassin, in which I died within five minutes of the game starting...talking about academics though, we had two guest lectures on Maasai culture from a Maasai tribe member. We learned about the different ceremonies, the process of men becoming "warriors", and discussed sensitive topics like how all boys are circumcised around the age of 16 and how the tribe used to practice female genital mutilation until the government banned it.

On Friday we spent almost all day at a Maasai cultural boma (enclosure for houses and livestock), where we performed traditional daily activities like collecting water, firewood and spikey acacia wood for their livestock enclosure. We also made some bracelets, toured one of their homes, and learned how they "paint"/protect the outside of their homes using a mixture of cow dung, termite mound dirt, and water. It was very messy and surprisingly fun to mix fresh cow poop with our bare hands, and then use these same hands to take the poop concoction and "paint" another layer on the outside of their walls. Let's just say that it took a longggg time to get the poop smell off of my hands.
Towards the end of this stay we had a discussion with a few of the Maasai men, where we talked about the impact of cultural tourism on their lives and practices/traditions. They said that they love the tourism, as they earn more money that can go towards maintaining their livestock and allowing them to get an education. In general, a Maasai man's wealth is determined by how many cattle they have, so for them to be able to sell less cattle is very beneficial for them. This was yet another eye-opening experience that helped me further appreciate how important tribal cultural is. On Friday my plastic DR group also met with Kiffner to discuss our draft proposal, where we sorted out many of the details of our research.

Saturday was mostly spent looking up papers related to plastic pollution and typing up our proposal. Mindy (the other student from Penn State who is actually in my DR group) made chocolate chip cookies which helped relieve some of the stress. Overall, this week was super stressful with four assignments due in four days! That evening we went to a lodge as a group - this was the same lodge we visited several weeks ago. I drank my first full beer just to say I did it - in reality it was pretty nasty and I practically gagged after every swallow lol....I guess this solidifies just how innocent of a person I am! Anyway, I swam most of the night and had a lot of fun talking with other students and watching some of them get way too drunk.

Sunday was our free day! I went on a waterfall hike near Mto wa Mbu with a few students. The guides were the same ones as when I did the bike tour (last weekend?), and the hike was relatively easy leading to a beautiful waterfall. The source of the waterfall is in Ngorongoro conservation area and the water eventually ends up in Lake Manyara. Along the way we saw blue monkeys in the fig trees and learned more about the surrounding banana plantations and how water is irrigated from the waterfall to support these plants.We relaxed at the base of the waterfall for almost an hour and I enjoyed just letting my mind wander. That afternoon I cancelled my plans to play basketball in Karatu and instead decided to take a long nap and chill out. That evening I typed this blog and got ready to watch Nascar as usual...

In a few days we leave for Serengeti National Park! I can't wait!!!

Have a nice week everybody,
Matt

Week 5: Homestay Week!

Hello there everyone!

This week was once again very busy but a ton of fun! I can't believe I've been in Tanzania for over 6 weeks already. With our two-week Kenya trip less than two weeks away, time has been flying way too fast! Anyway, here are this weeks highlights...

On Monday we had a FREE DAY (what?!? you may ask....free day Monday?!? Yes, free day Monday!). In the morning I went to a wood-carving class where I was able to choose what type of thing I wanted to carve from their shop - I chose a giraffe. The wood carvers there were absolutely incredible at their craft and my finished product looks amazing since they did a solid 95% of the carving (I just carved out in between the legs lol). While the other students and I wished we could have had a lot more freedom in the carving process, I realize that my giraffe would've looked like a four-year-old did it if they didn't help! Following the wood carving class, Evan, Harrison and I walked to Sulemani's art studio (where I did the knife painting class) where I ended up buying yet another painting (it's becoming a problem but I figure there are much worse problems to have in life!). Sulemani is such a nice guy that I couldn't not support his business! From the studio we walked to the Maasai Market where Evan and I finally bought the tire shoes we wanted. Tire shoes literally are sandals or flip flops made from old tires and they are the type of footwear the Maasai wear. After this we went back to camp where I did some laundry and chilled out for the rest of the day.

On Tuesday we had a travel lecture to the Mto Wa Mbu Conservation Area where each vehicle went a separate direction doing animal counts. Most of our counts were livestock besides a few Grant's Gazelle and Vervet Monkey sightings, and after 8 transects we ended up at Selela village - where we had a traveling lecture last week. The rest of the day we had classes, I worked on my vegetation assessment report with my group, and I played volleyball with some of the local soccer players (they were invited into campus to play) before dinner. That evening the cooks made a dessert too: chocolate covered peanut butter "balls"! Being the sweet tooth I am, I MIGHT have eaten 8 of them that night...

The view during our animal count exercise

Wednesday morning we had a traveling lecture to start the morning. We were taught about the Iraqw tribe culture from an older gentleman who was full of energy AND knew more facts about America than all of us: he knew the specific date each state joined the US as well as the exact size (in km) of several states!!! During this lecture we also went inside a traditional Iraqw underground home, tried spear throwing, and looked at their biogas system which extracts the methane out of cow poop.
In the afternoon we watched a video in Environmental Policy class about community conservation practices in Kenya and Namibia. In Kenya, one example was that local Maasai members constructed and ran a lodge in which a portion of its earnings went towards conservation. Some struggles that came with community conservation included convincing locals to change their negative views towards wildlife, severe drought, amount of livestock grazing land, preserving indigenous knowledge and culture, and receiving enough funds through tourism. That evening I played soccer at the field with some of the local kids and ended up having to redo HOURS worth of data analysis for our vegetation assessment report because some data points were missing in the group excel sheet...let's say none of the group members in charge of the "results" section were happy (me included).

Our speaker "battling" in front of the Iraqw underground home

On Thursday we had a full cultural day! In the morning we visited the Hadzabe tribe which is a very small hunter-gatherer tribe with around 2000 people. They don't live in one place very long and are legally allowed by the government to hunt in non-protected land areas. While with the tribe we learned how to make fire (using two sticks) and shoot off a bow and arrow! Then in the afternoon we visited members of the Datoga tribe, where we learned how to turn corn into flour and melt down metal "trash" and turn it into jewelry and knives/arrows! I ended up getting a beautiful bracelet that was made from old aluminum pots and copper padlocks. We finished the day by dancing with the Datoga people: overall today was so much fun and it was nice to witness some aspects of each tribe's lifestyle and culture. We take so many things for granted and we forget to realize that there are people in this world who work extremely hard everyday to find their food or earn enough to just survive and support their families.

Hadzabe fire making

Friday morning we did river analysis transects for Environmental Policy class. Over 6 transects my group analyzed factors such as erosion, fire, crown cover, encroachment by human practices and herb presence. Then in the afternoon we had our last Swahili class...our SSC course is split into a Swahili section and a culture section, which we will be starting in the upcoming weeks. I was pretty sad about this, as Frank was such a fun professor and was our only professor to date to learn all of our names (there's only 26 of us). I also was expecting to learn more Swahili so that I could become as close to fluent as possible and this wasn't the case. However, despite there being no more classes I am going to keep practicing Swahili and hopefully learn more on my own! That evening my group FINALLY submitted our vegetation assessment report which everybody was getting tired of doing and getting grouchy in the process...

Saturday was our homestay - this is where we stay with Rhotia families for the day! From 8am until 5pm myself and two other students stayed with Mama Tino, where we did some of her family's daily chores and lived a day in their life. They were one of the wealthier families in the neighborhood and had a really nice house and yard. We swept up leaves and rocks from her property and prepared and cooked our lunch on the wood-fire stove: this included ugali (a local staple which is basically corn flower and water), cabbage, beef and rice. We also did dishes, laundry, and played around with Mama Tino's granddaughters: Maggy and Diana. Maggy was age 6 and loved to play with our hair - she was even combing my beard at one point! Diana said she was 14 but definitely looked closer to 11 or 12. She literally did EVERYTHING for the family: making the food, serving the food, doing the dishes and chores and laundry....I felt bad for her but I had to realize that these types of gender roles were a part of their culture. I was also able to do a climate change interview (for my one class) with one of Mama Tino's sons, Peter, who spoke decent English and was a biology and chemistry teacher waiting for employment. Throughout the day we also drank some delicious sweet/milky tea and Maggy took TONS of pictures and selfies on our phones. When it was time to leave we got some photos with the family (Mama Tino wore a gorgeous dress) and Maggy and Diana walked us back to Moyo Hill Camp. I had so much fun and wish there were more homestay experiences throughout the semester...

Me and Maggy!

Diana making ugali

Combing my beard!

Ooh fun fact: parents names are based off of their eldest son. So we called Mama Tino "Mama Tino" because her eldest son's name is Tino: it is a sign of respect to call parents these names rather than their actual names.

Today (Sunday) was our free day, and in the morning I went on a bike ride tour around Mto wa Mbu. We had several stops along the way including a wood carving shop and an art gallery. We also tried tons of food including green oranges, red bananas, fried bananas and banana beer (although I already tried banana beer after my Kili hike). Additionally, we road alongside vervet monkeys within a banana plantation and checked out rice fields with stunning views! The ride overall was a ton of fun but super humid. In the afternoon I did some laundry and relaxed while many of the students went to Karatu to drink. Evan was able to get a group of six of us together to play capture the flag before dinner and after dinner I wrote this blog, called my parents and got ready to watch some Nascar (go figure)…

Have a nice week everyone!
Matt