Hi everyone!
Similar to last week, this week was spent working on Directed Research (DR). This time around, we wrote our final papers and created our presentations for the community that we will be giving tomorrow (Monday). That being said, this week was not very exciting but I thought I'd inform you on what I did anyway.
On Monday, I went back to bed after breakfast (I stayed up late the night before watching Nascar and Chase Elliott WON at Talladega!!!). The rest of the day was spent writing the final paper with my DR group and relaxing. I also played soccer before dinner.
Tuesday was a "rinse and repeat" of Monday - working on the paper. My group also met with Kiffner to put our finalized fecal samples (the particles remaining in the fine mesh) in detergent to dissolve all of the organic material. Whatever remains in the mesh after this will be sent back to Germany with Kiffner to be analyzed for evidence of microplastics.
On Wednesday, I skipped breakfast for the first time this semester and slept in until 9:30am. Being the first day of May, I was finally able to shave my mustache (after growing out my facial hair for the last 104 days)! People could barely recognize me with my bare face! After working on the paper some more, I went with a lot of people to Karatu in the afternoon to take a break. I ended up going with a group to the "juice shack" followed by Happy Days (where I ate off of Mindy's plate of delicious mac and cheese). Before dinner I played badminton with a few other students and then watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" before going to bed.
On Thursday morning we had our individual oral presentations, where I met with Kiffner and he asked me a few questions to make sure I knew the main parts of my research project. This went pretty well in my opinion, and I hope I got a good grade on it. The rest of the day was spent finishing our final paper - we had to make more edits so it went longer into the afternoon than I expected. Let's just say, after the past month of working on DR, I was SO GLAD to be done! Before dinner I played soccer with the wavulana (Harrison, Evan and Luke). We were all put on the same team for once (we play with a group of local boys) and this was by far the best game of the semester! We all had some great plays, including one where Evan and I ran up the field passing it back and forth before I took a wide arching shot that hit the crossbar! That evening, we played some pranks on the girls: we saved our facial hair that we shaved and stuck it to the door knobs of their bandas. To be fair, they pranked us first earlier in the semester by covering our toilets in saran wrap! Anyway, after this drama some of us watched an episode of the "Ted Bundy Tapes".
Similar to last week, this week was spent working on Directed Research (DR). This time around, we wrote our final papers and created our presentations for the community that we will be giving tomorrow (Monday). That being said, this week was not very exciting but I thought I'd inform you on what I did anyway.
On Monday, I went back to bed after breakfast (I stayed up late the night before watching Nascar and Chase Elliott WON at Talladega!!!). The rest of the day was spent writing the final paper with my DR group and relaxing. I also played soccer before dinner.
Tuesday was a "rinse and repeat" of Monday - working on the paper. My group also met with Kiffner to put our finalized fecal samples (the particles remaining in the fine mesh) in detergent to dissolve all of the organic material. Whatever remains in the mesh after this will be sent back to Germany with Kiffner to be analyzed for evidence of microplastics.
On Wednesday, I skipped breakfast for the first time this semester and slept in until 9:30am. Being the first day of May, I was finally able to shave my mustache (after growing out my facial hair for the last 104 days)! People could barely recognize me with my bare face! After working on the paper some more, I went with a lot of people to Karatu in the afternoon to take a break. I ended up going with a group to the "juice shack" followed by Happy Days (where I ate off of Mindy's plate of delicious mac and cheese). Before dinner I played badminton with a few other students and then watched "Fantastic Mr. Fox" before going to bed.
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| Before |
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| After! |
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| The cat at Happy Days |
On Thursday morning we had our individual oral presentations, where I met with Kiffner and he asked me a few questions to make sure I knew the main parts of my research project. This went pretty well in my opinion, and I hope I got a good grade on it. The rest of the day was spent finishing our final paper - we had to make more edits so it went longer into the afternoon than I expected. Let's just say, after the past month of working on DR, I was SO GLAD to be done! Before dinner I played soccer with the wavulana (Harrison, Evan and Luke). We were all put on the same team for once (we play with a group of local boys) and this was by far the best game of the semester! We all had some great plays, including one where Evan and I ran up the field passing it back and forth before I took a wide arching shot that hit the crossbar! That evening, we played some pranks on the girls: we saved our facial hair that we shaved and stuck it to the door knobs of their bandas. To be fair, they pranked us first earlier in the semester by covering our toilets in saran wrap! Anyway, after this drama some of us watched an episode of the "Ted Bundy Tapes".
On Friday, we had a class after breakfast on what to include in our DR presentation/PowerPoint. We then had time to work on these presentations and practice presenting. In the afternoon I checked out the mural which was mostly finished (see pic below), played some clarinet, played soccer before dinner, and watched the movie "Hitch" after dinner.
Saturday morning was spent giving our mock community presentations. This was our final graded assignment of DR and resultantly of the whole semester! I personally felt really good about our presentation: it only had to be 6.5 minutes and I enjoy public speaking. However, our group got the most criticism from the staff which was pretty surprising to me. Oh well. Later in the day I hand-washed my laundry for the last time, took some time to meet with my group and edit our PowerPoint, and played volleyball. After dinner we had our last "night out" of the semester by going to Farm of Dreams lodge (this is the first lodge we went to wayyyy back in early February). I wasn't in the best mood and decided to just spend the night doing whatever I wanted. I really wanted to swim and nobody else did so I swam alone (and actually enjoyed having the whole pool to myself). I then relaxed in the lobby in my sweats the rest of the evening drinking a Kilimanjaro beer while everyone else had fun and got super drunk. Yeah, maybe I missed out, but I really needed some "me time". While at the lodge we also did semester superlatives, where I got awarded "best facial hair" and "most likely to survive in the bush alone"!
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| Relaxing at Farm of Dreams lodge |
Sunday was our LAST free day of the semester :(
It was also my last time having cook crew, and the staff already made most of the food before we showed up so I only had to make toast. In the morning I went into Mto wa Mbu to trade my old shoes and my semi-broken water bottle (I ended up getting a good deal for these when I would have thrown them out otherwise!). Then, I took a fat nap in the afternoon and typed this blog. After dinner I washed dishes for the LAST TIME and called my parents before getting ready to watch Nascar. I am beyond excited to see my parents in four days (and be able to watch Nascar on tv instead of listening to the radio broadcast on my laptop)!!!
This semester has been incredible, but with two more full days left at Moyo Hill Camp, I am very ready to go home. However, give me one week back home and I bet I'll want to come back to this beautiful country! Tomorrow, we give our presentations to the community (there will apparently be A LOT of people there) for most of the day, and Tuesday will be spent getting ready to leave. Still expect one more blog post in the middle of next week!
Thanks as always for reading!
-Matt
Great painting. Love your “clean face”. See you soon.
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