So this week, if you can believe it, was the second-to-last full week that I'll be here in Tanzania! Time has FLOWN by and I am trying to cherish each and every moment that I have left. That being said, I am definitely ready to head home soon...This week was spent mostly analyzing data for Directed Research (DR) and writing the draft of our research paper. As I hinted at last week, me and the other boys DID shave some of our beards, and I now have a goatee (which I am not a big fan of but I'm doing it for fun).
On Monday I analyzed more of the zebra and giraffe fecal samples by re-hydrating them and looking for evidence of macro-plastics. I was able to find small inorganic matter in two of the eight samples, which I later found out was just small particles of rocks. Having no plastic in the feces was both good and bad: good for the wildlife's sake but bad since we were expecting to see plastics in our hypothesis. After lunch, I went with Maddie and Susanna to drop off pictures from our homestay (back in early March) to Mama Tino. She wasn't home, but we were still able to give her family the pictures and play a bit with the kids. Also in the afternoon, my DR group met with Dr. Kiffner to work on analyzing the data from our road transects. We were using a program called R, which is great for computing graphs, but is also very confusing since you have to manually enter the codes for the program to work. Anyway, we were able to construct a few figures that will later go in our paper. After dinner, I attempted to take a shower. Why "attempt"? Well, because every time I turn the water on, the power goes out in our banda! Why the water is connected to the electricity, I don't know, but I was able to take a shower in Evan and Harrison's shower (which is in the same banda) and everything was fine. The problem went away as the week went on, which makes it pretty creepy, but if the issue comes up again, we at least know how to turn the power back on (there's a switch in our hallway). Before going to bed I watched a few Planet Earth episodes with some students.
On Tuesday, my group analyzed more data: working with R to generate graphs and soldering the inorganic pieces found in the fecal samples to see if they were plastic (they weren't). Today my group was in Kiffner's office for a combined 4 hours just analyzing data! In other news, I believe the rainy season is finally here - typically the long rains start in early April and the delay is really hurting the crops throughout the area.
On Wednesday I went to the tailor to get some ties made from leftover fabric that people had. I also cleaned up my "lab" in the morning where I had spent the past week analyzing the fecal samples. The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent writing my DR paper with my group...to get a change of atmosphere we went to Coffee Corner later in the afternoon to eat some yummy food while typing with a view! I got a delicious chicken and guacamole sandwich. Before dinner I also played a lot of volleyball with some locals!
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| My meal at Coffee Corner! |
On Thursday I went back to bed after breakfast for a few hours, which was quite delightful. Then I had to get going with my DR paper again...I did a decent amount of the "discussion" part of the paper today. Besides this, I mostly relaxed. I decided not to go the Karatu market in the afternoon since I had nothing else that I needed to purchase or trade, and instead I started watching The Office. I've wanted to watch this series for a while since many of my friends are obsessed with it, and for the most part I watched an episode every day this week. In the evening I finished watching Birdbox with Elana (we watched about 40 minutes of it every night for three nights), and I also watched Just Go With It with some other students. The night concluded with me getting rid of the goatee and keeping just the mustache!!! I must say, while I would never have just a mustache back home, I think it looks really cool and really funny just because of how HUGE it is.
Friday was spent finishing the paper with my DR group. It was a solid 18 pages and I was SO happy to be done with it (well, be done with the draft of it...). I also picked up my ties at the tailor. He did an amazing job and I got them for super cheap: 4,000 shillings each or about $2 each! In the evening we all played a soccer game against the staff on the muddy soccer field. We had to end it early due to a vicious looking storm that was approaching, however, a few of us stayed out on the field to enjoy the storm which was mostly just wind and low-hanging clouds. We ended up having a "mudball" fight and I felt like a little kid as we ran around on the field and within the surrounding cornfields!
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| Post-mudball fight! (peep my insane mustache) |
Saturday was our FREE DAY. I went with a majority of the students to Lake Manyara National Park, where we had our last safari of the semester! The morning started off really well, as I went to bed early the night before and got 9 hours of sleep (I rarely get more than 7 hours of sleep a night since we get up early each morning and I naturally stay up late at night...). Upon entering the park we saw lots of yellow billed storks hanging out in trees and flying around with materials for their nests. We also saw a very skinny looking lion sunning itself (we were wondering if it was kicked out of its pride), as well as lots of wildlife including elephants, giraffes, wildebeest, zebras, warthogs, hippos, impala, waterbuck, and many species of birds! At lunch there were these beautiful birds trying to steal our food called red-and-yellow barbets. As the afternoon turned into evening, my vehicle saw an elephant that was missing part of its trunk - it looked like it was "cut off" and maybe it was from a lion attack. As we started to leave, we saw a lion up in a tree! This was a nice sight to see as Lake Manyara National Park is "known" for its "tree-climbing lions"....it was almost like the park was saying goodbye to us! As we drove back to camp there was a beautiful sunset and the sky was so clear that we could see Mt. Meru in the distance as we drove up the escarpment.
On Sunday we had community service during the morning. I stayed back at campus to paint a mural in the classroom. We started to paint a mural of the rolling agricultural hills of Rhotia with an SFS vehicle in the foreground, and will finish it up next week. Today I also did laundry, got my grade back for the draft DR paper that we handed in the other day (my group did ok although I expected a slightly better grade), and played some volleyball. After dinner, I called my mom and then made some s'mores around the campfire! Next week, I will mostly be working on typing the final DR paper and getting ready for our community presentation at the beginning of the following week. I know I've said this before, but I can't believe how quickly this program has gone by!!!
I hope everyone has a nice week!
-Matt
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