From Africa with Love

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Sema? (What’s up? in Maa – the language the Maasai speak)

Well my time here is winding up and I think that this will be the last email I have time for.  The last day of my field work was wonderful!  A great end to all the hard work.  We came across some abandoned bomas (Maasai homesteads) and my partner, Ian, and I played in them for awhile.  It was so dark inside them that we had to take pictures with our cameras to see what was in front of us.  Our local guide and guard thought we were crazy I am sure, especially when I decided to crawl inside the hut meant for baby goats.  Later when we were walking I found a dikdik leg!  It still had its hide on but had clearly been ripped off the body as it was being eaten, I decided that I should collect it and later snuck it into one of my professor’s office; he got quite a kick out of it.  Next, as we were walking we started to smell something rotting and we were getting closer but still couldn’t see it, and then it caught our eyes, it was a dead giraffe!  It was so cool it still had a lot of the hide still on it, we climbed around and examined it until we couldn’t breathe in the putrid air any longer.  And so our field research ended.

The next day, we heard news of the Virginia Tech shootings, one of the girls here goes to a school nearby and the news shook us all.  It really made us all realize that even though we feel like we are living in a dream world here, things haven’t stopped happening at home.  That same night a girl almost stepped on a black mamba right outside the main chumba, I got a chance to see it alive before an askari bludgeoned it to death.  After we were sure it was dead we got close and held it, it didn’t look so scary, but the askaris said that if someone were to get bit out here, they were as good as dead. 

The majority of my days have been filled with data analysis and write –up but we have had two days off. One of which was pretty uneventful we went to town to eat and have a drink, get us outside for awhile since we have been sitting in front of our computers for so long.  The other off day was a few days ago and we went back to the Olitoktok orphanage.  Again the children sang for us and recited a poem about AIDS and we played frisbee with them and sang the hokie pokie together.  After playing at the orphanage for awhile we decided to walk to town to go to market.  I forgot to mention that as soon as I got out of the land cruiser Sirinketi was at my side.  Another girl latched on to me too, about 13 years old.  She kept stroking my hair and playing with my fingers.  As we walked to town, I was in the middle of the two and we were all holding hands.  I entrusted my camera to Sirinketi and he captured some very interesting pictures of town from his point of view.  It was really fun walking around town with them and after they all went back, we had a bite to eat and I finished all my purchases at market.  I think I am going to have a really hard time integrating back into the US, I am going to try to bargain with people for all my purchases and it just isn’t going to work.  I have gotten used to the fact that all prices are negotiable here. 

We went on a night game drive a few nights ago and saw a genet, a feline, up in a tree, sadly we made it loose its dinner when it was stunned with the spot light, we saw a bird fly out from its paws.  It had a spotted belly and back like a leopard but a striped tail like a raccoon and amber eyes.  We also stopped right in front of Mt Kili to admire her for one of the last times.  She is magnificent at night, all the details are lost but the snow atop the main peak radiates a light pink glow.  It started sprinkling on us and we started to drive back to camp and ended up stuck in a field of rocks, merely 5 meters from the road but unable to reach it from all the erosion due to all the recent rains.  We finally made it back to camp!  I didn’t sleep too well that night, I was woken up by Shelby making a commotion.  It turns out Frank, our resident rat, was rustling around in her shelves and took a flying leap onto her mosquito netting, right on her face (and on closer inspection, Frank is Frankette).  We have grown quite fond of our resident rat and gecko, but we would prefer they don’t jump on us as night and they have both become a bit too friendly for our liking.  I found the gecko asleep in my running shorts a few days ago. 

As all the girls have collected bundles of fabric we had Suzzane give us a lesson on the traditional wrapping styles.  It was a great break from writing papers.  We ended the session with a lesson on how to wrap up babies.  All the women her carry their children on their back wrapped in their shuka clothes.  Since we had no babies, I wrapped up my bandamate Jessy.  It worked out pretty well though I had quite a time trying to untie her, she didn’t want to get down she said it was so comfortable she could easily fall asleep.  So if anyone is having a baby soon I volunteer to carry your baby around like a Maasai woman! 

I have started to donate a lot of my stuff and clean up so it is easier to pack.  I am dreading leaving, though am excited to see everyone.  I will return to the states on May 8th after a short stay in Nairobi.  And I will be in Texas May 10th for graduation on the 12th.  Thank you all for sharing my time with me, I cant wait to see everyone.

Asante sana na kwaheri (Thank you and goodbye),

Angie

Friday, April 13, 2007

Whew, I am tired! This is where most of you will stop being jealous and start thinking this is what I deserve after having such great fun.  We started our directed research about a week ago.  We are doing our research in Mbirikani Group Ranch mapping all human presence (agriculture, institutional structures and bomas) and the part it plays in replacing wildlife in a critical wildlife dispersal area and travel corridor for wildlife in Tsavo West and Amboseli National Parks.  The first 10 days of the DR is strictly field work.  So for the past week I have been up before the sun to eat breakfast, pack a lunch, then pile in the land cruisers with our Kenya Wildlife Services armed guards to pick up our local guides in Isinet town.  With 13 of us all shoved in we head to the area we are to map for that day.  We usually get dropped off at our site at 9 – 10am in our groups of 2 or 3 students with one guard and one guide.  That’s right, we are packing heat as we walk through the bush in case we run into any predators.  Then we walk. We walk and walk and walk, GPSing every boma we see saying “Ashe Oleng!” (thank you in Maa) to the owners and moving on to the next structure or tracking the next group of wildlife.  The mornings are normally not too bad until about 11am when the heat really starts to hit us, we carry up to 5 liters of water in our back packs which adds up weight wise, we also have to carry lunch and some water for our guides.  We stop for lunch for about 20 min then keep walking in the heat until about 3-4 pm so we can make it back to camp before dinner.  The least we have walked is about 10 km in a day, and the most was 30 km! Ill fill you in on a little of what has been going on in the field and the days off. 

A few days before DR started we went to church in Kimana.  We went to Christ the King Catholic Church for Palm Sunday.  The service started with some songs, I know what your thinking and I have never been to a Catholic service in the US, but I am guessing the service was much more lively than a traditional service.  The choir had choreographed dances and the little kids came dancing up the main aisle with palm leaves.  Then there was a procession into the center of Kimana where some Bible versus were read.  While he was reading he dipped a cow tail fly swatter in water and flicked it over all of us.  Then we returned to the church for more songs and a sermon in Kiswahili.  It was lots of fun and we were greeted after the service by everyone.

The next day a group of us walked into Kimana for market day, after making a few more purchases, we went to the New Paris bar for a Tusker and to play some cards and eat chipati on the back porch, it was a great relaxing day in town with all the old men at the bar.  They mainly just like to watch us and try to figure out our card games but most of them don’t speak Kiswahili, only Maa so we don’t converse too much.

The day before DR started we took our last game drive in Amboseli NP and I saw what I have been wanting to see for awhile, baby wildebeest!  The wildebeest is my favorite animal here, everyone else thinks it is ugly and always looks confused, but I love them enough for everyone and just as I suspected the babies are awfully cute, though a bit awkward looking.  As you can see we tried to pack all our fun stuff in before DR because we knew we would be stressed, after all the field work we have a 50 page paper and data analysis to look forward to.

Now on to what I have seen in the field.   The first day we didn’t see anything too exciting we crossed the “Pacific Ocean” a huge grassland, which was covered with zebu cattle.  We mapped two abandoned warrior bomas, all the warriors of the Maasai tribe live in bomas separate to the rest of the population so they can quickly be mobilized against any threats.  The next day we came across lots of occupied bomas which was more exciting because we got to see people and animals (very young calves, sheep and goats stay at the boma during the day while the herds go out to graze).  And for the first time a little girl presented her head to me.  It is a custom among the Maasai for young children to bow their head to people they perceive as elders, or respected people, to lay a hand on the top of their head as a greeting.  It was very exciting and it made me feel very much like I belong instead of the children giggling and running around us like crazy.  That day we also came across a shamba or farm that was grinding maize into flour with a very old-style machine, it was really cool.  The young men welcomed us in to look at it and examine it, it looked like a machine I had seen at a farm museum in Oklahoma this summer.  John was our guide that day and we talked a lot about the pastoralist life and he said that when I come back for my PhD he will sell me my first calf so I can become an African pastoralist.  Another field day we now refer to as the day of ticks and rain was very memorable.  The morning started off good until the ticks came.  Alida, a girl in my group looked down and saw her pants had gotten really dirty, upon closer inspection we realized it wasn’t dirt, it was about 300 baby ticks.  After removing them all with duct tape we kept walking, very disgusted and paranoid.  I looked down a few minutes later and saw what looked like a quarter-sized clump on my leg, a large bundle of joy, if you will.  We soon realized the best strategy was to flick the bundle off before the ticks started to spread outwards.  The ticks had been present other days but I could pretty easily keep up with them, looking down every few minutes and pulling off all the ones that had breached my line of comfort, anywhere above my knees.  But that day we had the bundles plopping on us and the big ones crawling up our legs (somehow I only found 3 attached ticks in the shower, a good day in that regard!)  The plan for the day was to walk about 20 km from one road across a big piece of land to another road for pick up.  Well we had almost made it to our pick up point when we settled down under a tree for lunch, and then the rain came.  At first small drops then large, John our guide, informed us that if it started raining any harder that the road for our pickup point would be impassable and we would have to go all the way back to our pick up point.  The rain came harder. All huddled under a scantly leafed tree, we started singing a ridiculous song called “Jambo Bwana,” we were singing and dancing and I am pretty sure that heat exhaustion played a part in this ridiculous display.  Well, we had to walk.  So we turned into the rain and started heading back to our drop off point about 15 km away.  We were slipping and sliding around in mud and zebra poop and if we took our eye off the ground for a second we would likely fall into an aardvark hole.  Tim, our KWS guide would randomly break out into Jambo Bwana and add versus like “mvua mingi” lots of rain and “land cruiser ni wapi?” where is the land cruiser.  Alida and I would start wiggling around dancing while trying not to fall in zebra poop or a hole.  We walked as fast as we could and as we climbed the last hill we saw salvation! The two land cruisers and Okello, our advisor, who ran over to us and said “ oh you are not dead!” He was pretty worried we would get stranded, we all looked like a bunch of stray dogs, sopping wet and covered with ticks.  All the other guards shook our hands and welcomed us saying we were no longer mzungu (tourists).  Proud of our feat, 30 km in 5 hours, half of that in the rain, we climbed into a car and got comfortable. But that’s not the end of it. About 5 minutes later we got stuck in the road, we were voted as the chief pushers since we were already filthy and all the other groups had managed to get to the cruisers before they got too muddy.  Our boots sunk completely into the sticky mud and we were free within a few minutes and had to walk about a half km to get back to the car (you cant stop or else you might get stuck again).   After crawling in again, Alida and I quickly passed out, slumped over on each other for the ride home.  I woke up only once to see the main road scattered with stranded cars and hearing Okello say that “DR wasn’t a cup of chai, it is a cup of lemon too, brew to taste” and then I was out again until we pulled into camp.  Naturally I was ready for a hot shower because I was chilled from being in wet jeans for about 3 hours.  Oh yeah that’s right, we have no hot water, so I had to shower in ice water and layered on about all the warm clothes I had and curled into bed for a few hours so I could get warm again.

Thankfully the next day was a non-program day, I slept in and went beading with the mamas in a nearby boma in the afternoon.  We walked to their boma and each of us paired up with a mama and started to follow along.  It was really hard trying to understand each other, there were about 12 pairs of us with only Susan to help us understand our partner.  My mama had a baby all wrapped up in her shuka.  As soon as I got a hold of it, I started making my own bracelet and she started to make one.  It was such a great afternoon. I was sitting on the earth under a nice shade tree next to a Maasai mama who was teaching me how to make the beautiful beaded bracelets while she was nursing her baby boy.  His little feet would knead my arm as I beaded and he would grab at my hand every once in awhile as I reached for some beads from his mom’s lap.  I would add all the beads and she would close off the bracelet and secure the clasp for me.  Someone took their camera out and she wanted a picture together, we sat there with our legs outstretched sitting on an empty maize flour bag and she reached over and put her hand in mine.  We left soon after with a small following of children and an escaped baby goat.  They stopped just past the boma entrance but continued to wave and say “byebye” until we were out of sight. 

The past two days of field work have been less stressful, less people but more wildlife, and no rain.  At one point yesterday we found ourselves in the middle of a group of 12 giraffe all staring at us curiously before they broke into their slow motion run with their tails straight up in the air.  I also found some cool elephant bones and posed with one as a bracelet, I felt like Wilma from the Flinstones.  We also inadvertently started a zebra stampede while trying to count them but it was really cool to watch them all run past us.  Today was a pretty short day but we saw lots of zebra, ostrich and giraffe. And I of course chased around all the baby cows and goats.  We got to our pick up point early and found a great climbing tree. We ate lunch and I crawled up into the tree for a little shut eye. 

I only have 3 more weeks and expect to only write 1 more email. The time has gone by so fast.  In other news, my offer to attend Oklahoma State University for a Masters of Science in Fire Ecology came through and it is amazing. It includes: a $1,800 stipend for the first 9 months, $1,500 for each month after, a waiver for out of state tuition, and the university in paying for 6 resident credits for each fall and spring semester!  Life is good.  I take that back, life is AMAZING!  I hope you all can say the same.

Love always,

Angie

Friday, March 30, 2007

Hujambo!

Hello friends, it has been a long time.  As I said I was gone for about 2 weeks to Nairobi and Maasai Mara National Reserve and we didn’t have internet available.  I have done so much since the last time that I emailed but for your sake and mine, I will try to be relatively brief, I will do my best.

The school has a camp very similar to our base camp which borders Nairobi National Park.  Driving there was the first time we had hit blacktop since we arrived here on the drive from the airport, it was a very weird feeling and took a while to readjust to seeing tall buildings and traffic, I think I am going to have some serious road rage when I get back.  Also, we were close enough to the airport that we heard jets flying over head and they always woke me up, I thought it was thunder than realized it was a plane and got mad.  So I am starting to realize some of the adjustments Ill need to make when I return.  On to the excitement.

Our first full day at NPS (Nairobi Park Site) was a non-program day and filled with activity. Our first trip was to the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage that is run by Kenya Wildlife Services.  Baby elephants are so cute, they put cloths over them to keep them from getting sunburned. The smallest one was only about 6 months old and the size of a large dog, he was pretty feisty too. The only thing between us and them was a thin rope for everyone to stand around and see the elephants.  The baby one kept playfully ramming people, which an adult could withstand but there was a group of small school children and every time he headed that way they would all scatter and he managed to tumble one on the ground, it was pretty funny.  He would rub again everyone’s legs then randomly decided to head butt or try and lay on people, it was hysterical!  We got to touch them and their skin was so rough feeling.  Next they brought out the older orphans, 1-2 years old.  They fed themselves with bottles then had a huge mud fight together, I was included when I got a bit splattered with mud when one of them whipped their trunk around.  The next stop was The Giraffe Center, a sanctuary for the Rothschild giraffe and against my better judgment I let my friends convince that I should let the giraffe take food from my lips.  I had been watching them do it and getting a little sick watching that long slobbery tongue wipe all over their face searching for the food then withdraw leaving silvery webs of saliva between their face and the giraffe’s tongue.  But they kept pestering saying I d never have a chance again, which I didn’t really care but decided it would make a good picture at least.  So I did it and then I felt like I was going to throw up a little bit, I squealed and wiped my face, but the pictures were worth it.  Then off to Kazuri, a factory-type place where they hand make clay beads and pottery.  I bought some things for myself but was so used to the cheap prices around Kimana that I could hardly convince myself to buy a necklace for $12.  The last stop of our day was to Nakumatt Junction, a westerner’s paradise, as they call it. Frankly, I felt weird with all the well-dressed white people.  We had a nice lunch at an outdoor café and gorged ourselves, I am sure we stood out like sore thumbs in our scrubby clothes.  There were also some shops including the Kenyan “walmart” – Nakumatt.  The greeters even had blue vests on, it was bizarre.  We all scurried around purchasing things that we had forgotten or run out of.  That night was the first time my hair had been conditioned since I left, I had decided while packing that it was too heavy but with all the game drives and dust, I desperately needed it. We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to NPS through the Nairobi rush hour traffic.  We looked around and laughed hysterically when a man in a truck told Salaash, our driver, that he wanted one of his women.

A few days later we had a game drive and guest lecture in Nairobi National Park.  We were all searching for the highly endangered black rhino.  NNP was one of the only places that we would be able to see the elusive creature and we already went to Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary, so it was our last shot.  The day was ending and no rhinos.  We were on our way to the gate, we had to be out of the gate by 6 pm to get back to camp in time (we are not supposed to be out of our camp past 6:30 pm).  We were going pretty fast with all of our heads popped out of the top of the land cruisers, and all of us at the same time yelled “STOP!!!” to our driver.  He backed up, there were 4 juvenile lions that were literally roadside!  They were just laying there and didn’t seem to mind us a bit, we stayed for about 15 minutes.  We knew they were juv. because they still had some spots on them.  It was awesome!  So at least we saw something good while there and the day wasn’t a total disappointment. We were again racing towards the gate when I said, “hey is that a rock or a rhino?”  Well it turns out it was neither, in fact it was 2 rhinos!!!!! It was so amazing, they are pretty shy animals so we stayed and watched them walk towards the horizon looking back at us every so often, it was a mother and her juvenile calf.  Again racing to the gate, we turned a corner and there in the middle of the road was a robust spotted hyena who posed for some pictures, and then a warthog shot out of a bush nearby.  What a great day!

On the 18th we had community service with NIDRA – Nomadic integrated Development Resource Agency.  They do a lot with rural women and trying to abolish female genital mutilation (FGM), which is something practiced quite a bit in Kenya.  We constructed a fence for them then sat around under trees learning how to bead some jewelry with the mamas, I have mastered beaded rings if anyone is interested!  Again the workmen there commented on how the American women are strong and hard workers, we are definitely showing up all the guys in the program!  The next day we had another non-program day and about half of us opted to go for a hike in the Ngong Hills overlooking Nairobi. It was very beautiful, but windy!  The hills were steep and we were all struggling to make it up the last one when a marathon runner passed us all!  We met him on top and he told us he was training for a marathon in China and this was his morning workout, he did it again in the evening and he lived 24km away!  After the hike, we met the rest of the group at Nakumatt Junction again. Some students had slept in while others went to the hospital to deal with impending medical troubles.  They said that it wasn’t bad, thankfully I am still in full health and am the only one (knock of wood) that hasn’t succumb to stomach sickness here.  I was made for Africa! 

On the 22nd we packed up for Maasai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) for expedition.  It was an 8 hour drive over some of the worst “paved” roads in Kenya. We stopped for lunch and shopping in Narok.  I opted to go shopping and bought some great stuff including a collar for Oscar, when I get back he will look like a wild African kitty! I also discovered the wonder of Kenya drinking yogurt.  It comes in a carton and you drink it with a straw, I liked it so much, I drank a liter!  Gross, I know.  Closer to MMNR I was on the lookout for Maasai warriors, I wont go in to it but there are no current warriors near Kimana.  I was looking out the window when I saw one!  You can distinguish them with their long braided hair (everyone else has shaved heads and only the warriors can grow out their hair) that is dyed with ochre to be red.  They were walking and blowing kisses to the land cruisers in a cocky fashion.  But it was so exciting to get to see them!  While we were there for expedition I got some great pictures of hippo, cheetahs and lions!  The sunsets there were amazing, best I’ve ever seen.  One night after drinking chai and going to bed in my tent I woke at about1 30 am to the sound of an animal very near camp, either a lion or hyena and I really had to pee.  I waited as long as I could then unzipped the tent but couldn’t find any askaris so I cautiously walked to the choo looking for eyes in the tall grass. I survived but the next morning when we woke up, we discovered  a group of hyenas had ate half our trash can near the kitchen and ripped the trashbag down from the choo!

After a great expedition we had one more non-program day at NPS before returning to Mt Kili, which I was sorely starting to miss.  We went to a woodcarving and weaving place and got to see them all making things before we went into the shop.  Then we went to Machaoks, a neat little town, for lunch. Ladd and I feasted, we order a bunch of food and shared it.  We ate lots of nyama choma (roasted meat), chipati and ugali (breads).  After we filled ourselves eating we waddled over to one of the bars to indulge in a much desired Tusker beer.  We fell asleep on the ride home after a wonderful day.  Now I am back at Kili Bush Camp for the rest of my time.  We start directed research in a few days then back to the states for graduation!  Yea!

Love you all! And sorry it so long, things should be shorter from now on since Ill be in the field most days. Pictures will be on their way shortly 

Love Angie

TEXANS – I plant to be in LBK from about May 10th – 25th so make room for me!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Hello all!

I will be at the Nairobi Park Site (NPS) for the next 2 weeks. The NPS site is right outside of Nairobi National Park bordering Nairobi.  I will be going into Nairobi on a few occasions on our non-program days.  We will also be taking our second expedition to the Maasai Mara National Park, where we have been told that we will see so many lions we’ll be sick of them.  We should also see rhinos at NPS.  I should have more limited internet access so hope for one email while I am there or else a really long recap when I get back in late march. 

Last Monday for class we went out in the community again and stopped by Maasai bomas and Kikuyu shambas and asked them about different aspects of human-wildlife conflict in the area.  I wont bore you with all the details but one of the most interesting things about it is that every time we say “Hodi” (which is like knocking on a door) we enter to see people who are dressed in very modern clothes yet living in mud and manure huts.  I mean seriously modern, one guy was wearing khakis and a Stone Cold Steve Austin shirt, another guy a 50 Cent shirt. It is so bizarre. Though there are still a lot of people wearing traditional shukas (mainly Maasai) but there is such a difference between the 2 forms of dress. Tuesday we walked to the near by lodge to have a pool party for a birthday celebration, 2 girls turned 21 so we had a great time despite the fight I got in with the vervet monkeys.  I was splashing them with water and they were throwing sticks at me, they were outnumbering me so I got some backup form Roland and Jake, we won.  We were a bit late walking back and got a jambowagon driver (we call the safari vans jambowagons) to drop us off on his way to Kimana.  We passed the rest of the group and just waved and got back early enough to do yoga in the yard while the sun was going down! (one of the girls brought yoga cards so we all drag our sleeping mats into the lawn and she directs a class)

Wed we walked down the road to Kimana Secondary school and hung out with all the high schoolers during their game time.  I met 2 girls who were form 4 (seniors) named Lucy and Leah.  Though most people around here have traditional names they go by their baptized names.  They showed me their classroom and we sat in their desks for awhile.  On of the girls asked me if I like black people, which was a really unexpected question. I said yes then she asked me if I liked her because she was brown.  I guess they call the lighter skinned ones brown here, though she really wasn’t that light compared to some people in America.  I will elaborate on the school for my mom since she is a teacher so feel free to skip to the next paragraph.  The compound was pretty large and had 400 students, form 1-4 is like 9 -12 grade.  Boys and girls had dormitories on opposite sides of the compound and there were night guards to ensure no funny business.  Classes were also segregated so girls and boys didn’t have class together they only socialized during game time (4-6 pm every MWF) and their social activities on Sat.  The students all lived there but could go home holidays.  Forms/grades had their own classroom and desk which they didn’t leave, the teachers all rotated and there weren’t any teacher desks in the rooms.  Just a chalk board, student desks and a wall full of shutters that were open, allowing a few birds to nest in the ceiling. The students were in their classroom at 5:45am for prep or homework time, had classes all day then after dinner they had prep time again to 9:45 pm then to bed.  The school had 5 cows to provide milk for the school.

I have been here for about half of my time and it feels like I have been here forever, which isn’t a bad thing and I have a feeling the rest of my time is going to fly by too quickly though.  We had our first case of malaria in camp this week too.  A girl named Ashley came down with it and went to the clinic on Olitoktok and is recovering nicely. Ian also got an ear infection because he is an idiot and is trying to stretch his ear holes with pieces of bone and plants he found on the ground.  They both said the clinic wasn’t too bad. 

Friday was our non-program day and we started with a hike in the morning where we hop-scotched back and forth across the river separating Kenya and Tanzania, so now I have been to Tanazania a bunch of times, technically.  It was really fun, kind of like climbing rocks in Grand Marais, thankfully I didn’t get the cancer elbow and fall in (inside joke with the family).  I would have been a bit more reckless but I had my camera.  The best part was that we came across a cliff with water trickling down and I decided to shoot an herbal essences shampoo commercial it was pretty funny.  That afternoon we were supposed to go learn how to bead with some mamas, well just about as soon as we walked out the gate all carrying baskets on our head (with corn and flour to bring to the mamas) we started feeling enormous drops falling on us, a sure sign that the skies were about to pour down on us.  Everyone huddled in the askari hut, I was going to try to make it back to my banda but got caught under the mechanics garage and sat and chatted with them for 30 min or so.  Well our afternoon with the mamas was shot so everyone went and changed into shorts and t shirts and started up a mud volleyball game, we looked like a bunch of filthy little kids when we were done.   The rest of the day we watched movies in the chumba and snugged up in our long underwear with hot cocoa, tea and popcorn. 

Yesterday was our community service day and we worked at the Oloisoto Secondary School (the same place we did community service before where I made friends with the construction guys).  My job was to collect rocks to like the flower beds, so I walked back and forth to the river. I met 2 new people, Mantu and Simon.  They were both very nice and good rock collecting companions.  While I was walking and chatting with Mantu someone walked by going the opposite direction and said something and he replied.  I don’t think he knew I could understand a bit of Swahili, I caught what he said in return, something like “she is my white girl.” I started laughing and he looked really embarrassed.  All the male students were all trying to find their own white girls and if any of us were unattended we immediately had a new companion, it was pretty funny.  Simon “stole” me away from Mantu and was talking to me about a guy he knew that was in America and asked if I knew him.  Everyone thinks we all know everyone in America, he also told me that the population of Kenya is 30,000.  After we came back yesterday someone was walking outside the fence and saw Simon who asked if they knew me and to tell me hello and that I was pretty, so I think I have found my second Kenyan boyfriend, haha!  Also, Matthew, one of the construction guys saw me and came over and said “Angie, do you remember me?” and shook my hand, we said it was good to see each other than got back to work.

Today is study day we have finals tomorrow. We are pretty much done with classes and will be starting our directed research when we return from NPS.  I have recently become better friends with a lot more people here and now only a select few bother me.  I think it is probably because I hang out with the group less and the staff more so I don’t get as sick of the other students.  Anyway, I have managed to ramble on for too long so I will get to studying for my finals, wish me luck!  For all of you on spring break I hope you are having a great time!

Love angie

Cody, Katy and Robin -  I am having the hardest time studying for these damn finals, I wish you were here to convince me to go to the bar instead of studying (Robin remember that night before Wallace’s final!)

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Friends and Family,

Ninapenda Kenya! (I still love Kenya)

Contrary to popular belief I am not bored with it, I am still loving the area and rustic accommodations, which is not to say I wouldn’t mind a good gin and tonic and bag of gummy colas candy.  Though I must say that I am not all that excited about the people on the program, I am astonished at the percentage of college students here that are completely dependent on other people to do everything for them.  I like to think of myself as pretty independent and self-sufficient so this is a bit annoying to me.  For example, students cook breakfasts everyday and we are split up into groups to do it and one guy in my group didn’t know what a skillet was when I asked him to start scrambling eggs, he has had a cook all his life.  That is one of the downfalls to the program, it is so expensive it tends to attract very spoiled people.  On the other hand there are a group of girls in camp that insist on wearing make-up and painting their nails, I guess to impress the 4 single guys we have on the program? (though in my mind none of them are worth impressing)  But there are definitely a small group of people that I am enjoying and just try to avoid the others.  OK on to the good stuff about how I didn’t get eaten by the man eating lions of Tsavo.

So our program has a few expeditions included, each one is about a week that involves us tent camping in various national parks of Kenya.  Tsavo is only about an hour and a half to the south but surprisingly more brushy, similar to the hill country in Texas for those of you who are in Texas.  We started our drive to Tsavo early the 24th and did a traveling lecture all the way to our campsite.  The first stop was the Shetani lava flow.  Shentani means “devil” because the locals thought that the devil was in the hill causing all the smoldering and volcanic activity.  It happened a few hundred years ago and there has been some vegetation growth but a large part is still bare.  While there we saw the very cute klipspringer, it is only about 2-3ft tall.  Next stop was Mzima springs where we had lunch and watched a vervet monkey steal a European woman’s sandwich, it was great because we all know better by now then to take our eye off those boogers for even a second, they are sneaky!  Mzima springs had a wealth of animals for us to enjoy.  I finally got close enough to some hippos to get some good pics, along with baby vervet monkeys, blue monkeys, a nile crocodile hunting in a stream (it just lays with its mouth open where the stream joins the spring and waits for a fish to come swimming down and snatches it).  There was also a very neat underwater room that we could see all the fishes and hippo poop on the bottom of the spring.  The fish in the spring and the hippos have a very interesting relationship where the fish eat the hippos poop and also clean the hippo, the hippo even opens its mouth to allow fish to swim in and clean between its teeth!  That evening we set up camp and had an open-air buffet and made a fire to sit around.  We had armed guards patrolling around the tents at night and they had to escort us from our tents to go to the bathroom.  Of course because I drink too much tea at night I experienced this.  I had to flash my flashlight at a guard and wait for him to come to my tent then walk me over to the bathroom, and by bathroom I mean smelly whole-in-the-ground portopotty.  It was kind of scary, needless to say I cut myself off of liquids a good hour and a half before bed time the rest of the nights.

We had outside lectures everyday in which we climbed a volcano cone, surveyed habitat preference, and took some other great hikes.  We went to the Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary but they turned out to be quite elusive.  On the way to a lecture way up in the Chyulu Hills the land cruiser I was in almost tipped over, but thanks to Harrison, our phenomenal driver, he was able to get us back on track while all of us girls in back were shrieking, bravo to Harrison.  A funny story was one morning I was looking through my bag in the tent and saw two pieces of poop each about quarter size and started wondering what the hell kind of animal got into the tent and pooped in my bag, after a few minutes of severe confusion I realized they were only pieces of the Shetani lava flow that I had collected.  Also you have never been truly dirty until after combing your hair you look at your comb and see it is caked in dirt. Now that wasn’t my fault really, technically there were supposed to be showers we could use on our 6 day expedition, but the water pump got taken out by an angry elephant our second day there. 

One day we went to a gas station in the nearest town and everyone gorged themselves on American food, I went for the peanut m & ms and chocolate chips cookies.  We also went to a lodge and enjoyed a nice drink poolside, the lodge made sure we all showered before we got in because everyone looked so filthy, and we were!  We went on a ton of game drives and saw a lot of new wildlife including reedbuck, waterbuck, dik-dik, leopard (though highly sought after only a very small amount of people get to see leopards because their amazing camouflage I stared at the tree for 10 minutes, with binoculars without seeing it! Very infuriating), oryx, lesser kudu, impala, ground hornbill bird, secretary bird (called such because it looks like it has pens behind its ear feathers), rock hyrax (that was at the lodge and very friendly from being fed and walked right up to me and enjoyed being patted), hartebeest, mongoose, owl eagle, crested eagle, and chameleon.  The other awesome part of expedition was that we got to hang out with staff at night, they normally disappear to their bandas after dinner.  I really got to know some of them.  One named Marias and I had a good 2 hour conversation about Kenya politics, past and present.  He has dreams of running for parliament but you had to have a college degree to run so we spent along time also talking about scholarship possibilities and ways for him to do night courses or distance learning since he has a family and is spending money to send his 2 kids to school (public school here is apparently crap).  It was very refreshing to be able to connect with some local people. 

One night it decided to rain on us, and I got my shower! Turns out our tents weren’t in the best condition and I got the brunt of it, I woke up shivering a few times and in the morning everyone said I looked like I had taken a shower because my hair was so wet.  Outdoors stores really need to work on making waterproof sleeping bags and pads.  My sleeping bag just absorbed all the water under me and the water dripping on me from the top slowly seeped in.  No complaints it was pretty funny and a beautiful day the next day, though I think a bug took refuge with me in my sleeping bag because I woke up with bites all up and down my legs!

I think that maybe I could go on forever but I will leave you with one more reason to be jealous.  Last night there was a lunar eclipse, I don’t know if any of you managed to see it but is was only supposed to be partially visible from north America and we were apparently in the perfect position to see the whole thing.  I woke up at 1:15 am and sat in my camp chair getting a crick in my neck for the next hour watching the moon disappear and turn into a reddish-gray shadow, the crick was worth it!  Some experts said that it was supposed to be the most magnificent in 50 years. 

OK one more thing then I promise I am done. I have been invited to say after the program a few days by the professor I mentioned that gave a guest lecture to come to Nairobi and talk about possibilities for PhD research!

I heart Africa and I heart you all too!

Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007

Habari za mchana? (What is your news today?)

Hello all!  This email will be a recap of my past week, not too much has been going on as we are getting ready to go on expedition tomorrow, so no contact from me for about a week.  We are going to Tsavo West National Park, which if any of you have seen the movie Ghost and the Darkness about the true story of man-eating lions that ate about 100 people in the late 1800’s when Kenya was trying to build a railroad, that is where the movie takes place.  So I hope I don’t get eaten, the staff said they set their tents up around the students so they would get eaten first, comforting huh? We also have armed guards watching the camp all night.

The most exciting thing that happened last week was our non-program day.  It started off with a morning hike to Tanzania.  We hiked to a waterfall across the border so we never actually crossed at a border station and we had armed guards with us in case we ran into any problems.  We walked through a jungle of corn and hanging trees and popped out the other side of the border right in front of a beautiful waterfall.  We had packed lunch so we ate when we got done playing around in the waterfall, after checking for crocodiles and hippos that is, and climbing all the rocks and vines.  There were these super huge vines hanging down from a cliff so we were all swinging on them playing Tarzan, thankfully and miraculously no one got injured!

After the hike we headed to the Olitoktok orphanage, mainly kids whose parents had died of AIDS.  As soon as we pulled into the driveway I had been claimed by a little boy who grabbed my hand outside the Land Cruiser window.  When I let go of his hand to get out of the car, he was waiting for me outside the door and grabbed my hand again.  We all sat down together and Sirinketi (the boy) sat holding my hand and playing with my sunglasses and watch.  Next all the kids were introduced and sang some songs for us.  After that, Sirinketi gave me a tour of the orphanage excitedly dragging me along and telling me what everything was called in the Maasai language.  We all played games like duck duck goose, which we renamed twiga twiga simba (giraffe giraffe lion), and partner tag.  Sirinketi didn’t leave my side for longer than a few instants the whole time we were there.  We spent a few hours there and when it was time to leave, he walked me to my car and gave me a hug, it was really sad.  I realized later that day that one thing that has really been lacking here is human touch, no one really hugs each other here or anything so I am going to have lots of hugging to make up when I get home, so everyone beware!

We left the orphanage and headed to our favorite bar, the Tipsy Garden, and had a beer and talked to the locals.  The most amazing thing about the bar is the music videos they play, it is basically guys dressed up in leopard clothes singing about their multiple wives.  Kenyan pop-rap is sweet!

The next day we had a guest lecturer, which I will not bore you with the details of but the outcome is very important.  I realized that Kenya, due to similar climate and soils, has very similar plant species and has management problems with many of the same type of sp. as Texas yet they are so behind in research and the international research community is not as good as you would think.  So I am trying to set up a network between Texas Tech and U of Nairobi to help share the research that has already been done and I have an intensified desire to return to Kenya after grad school to possibly pursue a PhD or research job here.

On Sunday we had a “tourist” day, meaning we saw the area through the eyes of a tourist by going to the tacky cultural villages and lush resorts.  It was a nice day and we had fun but it is not the way to see Africa, so if any of you ever come to Africa I plead with you not to stay in lush resorts with planted tropical plants and beautiful swimming pools, you might as well just go to the Bahamas.  The best part was our half day at the fancy resort was we all got to eat the buffet!  As my professor Okello would say, we all foraged happily, and gorged ourselves.  I mainly ate meat, cheese and chocolate, the 3 main foods my diet has been lacking.  After we all had small protruding bellies we slowly made our way to the pool and swam about.  There was complementary coffee and cake and Jessi, my bandamate got some.  A vervet monkey came up behind her and she was trying to scare it off when another one attempted a frontal assault and managed to go flying into her coffee before Jessi shooed that one away, allowing the one behind her to grab a piece of coffee cake, quickly look around and grab the other piece too before running away.  Later one tried to take a face dive into my tea but I threw a rock at it and managed to scare it off.  Damn monkeys are always trying to steel our food!  The overabundance of European men wearing speedos was also a source of disturbance.  I have gotten used to the conservative dressing style of the local people, and that change was definitely not welcome.

Things to ponder:

• It is said that people experience a lot of de jevu in Africa because it is the birth place of man (the Rift Valley is where all the early hominid skeletons have been found) and I have found this to be very true, I keep having it all the time, weird huh?
• Rauta, one of the staff here had never heard of homosexuality until he started working here when he was 25, and the majority of Maasai society still doesn’t know it exists

 I appreciate the mail I have been getting so thanks to all of you who sent stuff, a special thanks to my cat Oscar for my valentine’s day card and Oscar please stop jumping off balconies!

Love you all and take care this week!

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2007

Sema? (whats up?)

Happy Valentine’s Day from Africa!  The social committee decided to celebrate V-Day by giving everyone a secret admirer and making them funny cards so we are celebrating here, though I will miss the bundle of chocolate my dad normally sends.  Well I have had some requests to add more cultural info in with my emails so I will strive to do that.  Oh and sorry folks this is going to be a long one, I need to start writing with more regularity, forgive me just this once? Starting from the last email I have had a lot of fun.  The night of the 6th some of the staff were talking about how the Maasai warriors form circles and see who can jump highest to impress the girls. Some of the guys in camp challenged Rauta and they all jumped it out in the dining room it was amazing how high he could jump, all the girls here were impressed so I guess it works!  My Maasai spear also arrived that night.  Warriors and herders carry them around for protection and hunting. The askaris (guards) here walk around with them at night.  It is really heavy and I have been practicing throwing it, which is not going so well, but Ill keep trying.  Just picture me trying to lob a long, metal, sharp spear into the air, scary huh? 

On the 8th we had a community service day. We went to a missionary secondary school (which is like H.S.) that was just opened a few months back and still needed some things to be completed like putting up the exterior fence and painting some stuff.  I volunteered for the fence building. We had two workmen supervising our teams and I got really into it seeing as I had been sitting through lectures for 2 days and welcomed some manual labor.  My supervisors, Matthew and Joseph, were watching me and I could tell they were talking about me and kind of giggling. When Id ask them if they were laughing at me, they would just giggle more and say what a hard worker I was.  I kind of ended up taking over everyone’s job and they asked me if I was coming back to help them work tomorrow.  They introduced themselves and we all talked as we worked.  Every so often a new workmen would come over and talk and kind of laugh.  They wanted to take a picture with me at the end with all our tools, it is pretty funny.  The principal of the school came out and was astonished how much work we had gotten done, I guess they didn’t have a very good opinion of the American work ethic, especially a girl from the U.S., hopefully I changed that, if not they definitely got some entertainment out of it.  As soon as we finished up, classes got out and it was time to play games.  We all gathered in a circle and we taught them the hokey pokey again, and this time I assisted in teaching the chicken dance.  Then they taught us a dance that the younger people did.  The best part of their dance was that a few of our guys ended up in the middle of their circle shakin their asses!  Everyone had a pretty good laugh, I think something like a few white guys trying to freestyle is appreciated in all cultures.  After all that we went over to the fields where people were playing games.  A girl named Dorothy introduced herself to me, she is 14. Her dad is a minister in a nearby town.  She was a very smart girl and wants to be a surgeon.  We walked around and I introduced her to my friends and she introduced me to her friends and brothers.  We took some pictures together and exchanged addresses.  Something I have noticed up to this point that may be interesting to some of you is that everyone’s teeth are insanely white, even the traditional Maasai. Want to guess why? Plants! That’s right they use a certain kind of stem off a plant to scrub their teeth white and it keeps them very clean!  Another thing is that no one can pronounce my name, the –gie sound is not really in their vocab so everyone asks if they can call me Angel or Malaika.

On the 9th we went back to Amboseli to do the official large mammal count for the Kenya Wildlife Service.  After the surveying we got to eat lunch at one of the fancy lodges in the park, and sad to say we all experienced culture shock already!  We were amazed by real toilets, hot water to wash our hands, and real towels to dry with!  I also took this opportunity with some of the other students to enjoy a Tusker beer! It was great! We all got a VERY small taste of what it is going to feel like to come home, we all felt very out of place with all the tourists and fancy toliets.

Alright now we are coming on the meat of the email, the “best day ever,” of this week.  We started off our Saturday by going into Olitoktok, a nearby town quite a bit bigger than Kimana, but still small (but big enough to have a bar, do you see where this is going?).  We started off at the Volunteer Testing Center for AIDS and HIV.  We learned about the center and its relationship with the community and were blessed to meet 2 of the women who had made the center so successful.  One of the women had lost her husband two years ago and was told she only had a few years left yet has found a way to live a normal life and inspire others to get tested and greatly improve the prevention and education program in the area.  The other woman was diagnosed as was her last born child.  She has organized a support group and has continually spoken out about her condition trying to reduce the stigma in the area.  They support their families with beadwork and I am happy to say we pretty much bought them out.  They had a quote on their wall that I would like to share. “We are the women men warned us about. For thousands of years women have had responsibility without power while men have had power without responsibility. We offer those men who risk being brothers a balance, a future, a hand. But with or without them, we will go on.  Believe it.  We are the women who will transform the world.”  It was a very emotional morning. 

After that we went to market where we were overwhelmed with bright colors and energy!  We were given enough time to walk around and make purchases then we were to meet at the Tipsy Garden Club.  I was one of the last to arrive and everyone was out back in one of the outdoor rooms.  I picked up a beer and headed back.  We all let loose and had a great time, we attracted some of the locals who we all started talking to.  They told me about a liquor called Konyagi which came in a bag and was 50 shillings (less than a dollar). I got it for cultural experience purposes and it was pretty awful so I passed it around for all to sample.  We all ordered food from the restaurant next door and told them to bring it to the wazungu, literally meaning the white people.  They started cracking up, as if it weren’t obvious who to send it to, we were 30 white kids, pretty hard to miss.  We exchanged emails with some of them and left after about 3 hours.  Rauta made fun of us saying we had just acquired our first husbands (polygamy is pretty big here).  Everyone tore into dinner and we were all relaxing in the chumba starting to feel mighty sleepy when from the darkness we heard some low belly rumbles, a lion!  We were told by the staff to leave the porch lights on our bandas on and that they would have extra askaris out that night.  Well we all went off to bed, but off course seeing as I had been drinking for a few hours that afternoon I woke up at about 11 pm with a very full bladder that couldn’t be ignored.  This called for my huge yellow flashlight and my Maasai spear, not that Id actually be able to use it if I came upon a lion, but I though “just in case I happen to become swift and deadly with a spear.”  Well I made it safely there and back and crept back into bed where I was kept awake for the next hour by a lion’s low rumbles.  After I fell asleep, I dreamt the night away about lion hunting with Maasai warriors. 

Yesterday we got to go out and interview rural communities about their concerns and priorities.  I ended up about a 5 min. walk from the Tanzania border talking to people about their fears.  One family invited us in to take chai, we indulged.  It was wonderful, rich and creamy.  The mama of the household blessed us before we drank.  Almost everyday I have an experience like this when I find myself thinking “am I really here, is this really happening?” The experience has renewed my desire to learn fluent Swahili before I leave, it is a very confusing language so it is hard to stick with.

A few random notes: I finally saw the Southern Cross! Though the Maasai seem to know about every plant and animal, they couldn’t find me the Southern Cross, but one night walking back from the bathroom it just popped out of the sky!  I had been staring and trying to find it for days!  Next, I fear I have just been elected the official scorpion killer.  One of the girls saw a large scorpion on the bathroom door and was just going to warn everyone about it instead of kill it, in fact no one wanted to kill it, so I went to go do it.  Even though no one would do it themselves I had a crowd of ten people wanting to watch me do it. The scorpions here are much larger than the previous ones I’ve dealt with but, no worries it is dead and I did not get stung, and I am now championed as the fearless scorpion killer.  Last, public toilets here are amazing, and now in a good way.  They are like port-o-potties but it is just a hole in the ground with two footholds to position yourself over, I assure you some people were having trouble after a few beers.

OK- that is all for now again sorry about writing a novel I promise I will start to write more often so you don’t spend all day reading my email and I don’t spend all day writing them! Whew!  Miss you all!

STACEY – Someone is listening to Ignition Remix in the chumba as I am writing, awwww!  Maybe I should instate the dance party in chairs in Kenya!

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007

Habari gari? (Is everything good with you?)

Nope, I haven’t shaved my legs yet, I’m sure inquiring minds wanted to know that.  Africa may be beautiful but it sure isn’t glamorous.  Classes are going great, I know a lot of the stuff being taught already which is okay it just means I can pay more attention to being in Kenya and not so much stressing out about tests and projects!  The professors here are great and funny, though it is still hard to pay attention because our classes are in the chumba which is like an open air building so I find myself looking outside more than taking notes (but don’t you worry dad, Ill still ace all the tests!)  We have breaks between our classes and we all normally go out for nature walks or play ultimate frisbee or something, I am already about 10 shades darker than I was when I got here and that is with sunscreen.  We have had 2 outside lectures so far, and I am pretty well worthless in those.  The picture I am sending of Mt. Kili is from the top of a hill we climbed to have lecture, so as you can see, it is hard to pay attention with that kind of view. 

The night before the first outdoor lecture, everyone had been sent a warning from the US Embassy.   I don’t know if any of you have heard about this but a spouse of one of the Embassy workers was carjacked and the 2 people in the front seat ended up getting shot, this was in Nairobi far from us. But the next day we were driving to the site of our lecture and I was in the front land cruiser and as we were driving we saw a car coming in the opposite direction and we pulled over and they stopped.  A guy got out with an automatic gun and was dressed in camouflage.  Salaash, our driver, leaned out the window to say something to him and the man, who looked very serious, didn’t say anything back.  I was sitting in the front seat and I am not going to lie, I was about to pee on myself.  I was pretty scared because I didn’t know what was going on.  Someone asked Salaash, and to our relief, mine especially because my door was closest to the armed man, this man was our guard.  The mountain we were climbing for our lecture happened to be inhabited by lions and we needed two armed guards to accompany us.  Whew!

On a lighter but no less exciting note, I bought a traditional Maasai spear and Salaash is going to teach me to use it!  So anyone up for rabbit spear hunting when I get back to Texas?  I love Maasai culture and am really glad I read so much about it before I got here.  I have been talking to the staff and am truly realizing how lucky I am for all that I have.  About half of Kenyans live on about one American dollar a day!  Think on that for awhile!  A lot of the men have their earlobes stretched and almost everyone has their heads shaved.  I am stocking up on all their beadwork and fabrics. 

So I will never get sick of all the wildlife here, and I mean all. I am pretty fascinated every night just looking at all the crazy looking bugs that congregate in the bathrooms. I have learned to be at one with all the bugs here, even all the moths that just hatched in my banda, oh well!  The bees here seem to be pretty aggressive though, 2 people have already been stung when they were just standing around.  Yesterday we took our first safari to Amboseli National Park, which is only about 45 min away so we end up going there a few times.  IT WAS SUPER!  We popped off the tops of our land cruisers and admired the African savannah and the bountiful animals it had to offer.  As some of you know I am not a bird enthusiast but the ostriches were cool but ugly.  We also saw flamingos, an eagle, a hawk, a bunch of water birds, damn pelicans and some others.  Now on to the cool animals!  I saw a ton of elephants!  They were all grouped in families with babies!  Lots of zebra, some giraffe, Grant’s and Thompson’s gazelles, gerenuk, yellow baboons, wildebeest, hippos, cape buffalo, warthogs, and spotted hyenas lounging about by the water.  Our professor said that we shouldn’t get our hopes up for lions due to the weather conditions but you know we all wanted to see them.  It was getting late and we hadn’t seen them yet when Rauta, out driver, saw all the tourist vans turning around and speeding away.  He advised we follow.  When we got close enough we spotted a lioness lying on the ground but we could not get close because there was a block in the road of tourist busses!  We were all getting so mad; they were all looking at the opposite side of the road at nothing and were blocking both sides of the road!   Rauta was trying to maneuver around and just then my heart literally stopped.  An adult male lion leaned up from his resting spot in the grass 15 FEET AWAY!!!!!!!  It took me a moment to snap out of it and get my camera. We saw simba! (If you didn’t know simba is the word for lion in Swahili, and puma is the word for warthog, so whoever said watching movies isn’t educational could learn some Swahili while watching the Lion King).

Last night before I went to bed I went on a bush baby excursion, there are supposed to be some behind one of the bandas.  I didnt find any but I did see a shooting star among all the blazingly bright stars in the sky, and wished you all a wonderful day!

You and I have some exciting stuff to look forward to in the next few weeks.  Another trip to Amboseli Friday, community service at a local school and market day in Oliotoktok tomorrow, and sometime next week we are going to help out in a local AIDS clinic and volunteer at an orphanage for children whose parents have died from AIDS.

I cant honestly say I miss the U.S. but I do love you all and feel truly lucky that I have all of you in my life, thanks for making me so happy!

Until next time…………

ROBIN – I am listening to Mexico 2 cd as I write!

DAD & BECKY – The best part about the lion was that when he popped his head up he looked just like stoney leaning up from some of the papers in the living room.  When he laid back down he just thudded his head on the ground like stoney does on the hardwood floor, it was funny!

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2007

Dear all,

Habari gari rafiki? (How are you friends?)

Well I think that I will be doing a weekly update with pictures with personal notes attached to the bottom so be sure to read all the way to the bottom.  OK done with business talk.  THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING PLACE EVER!!!!! I will fill you in on the highlights of my week.  Sunday I woke up early as I do everyday (6 – 6:30 am) and was groggily walking to the outside toilets when I looked up to behold Mt Kilimanjaro!  It was the first day we were able to see it due to clouds.  I stood there in the path looking at it for a few minutes before I could move myself.  It was beautiful and breathtaking.  Since then I see it quite often but it never fails to make me stop and look, like when I have gone out running, I turn a corner and there it is.  I stop and admire and continue on saying “Hujambo” to any locals I pass.

Yesterday was the most amazing day yet, and get used to me saying that I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of most amazing days ever!  Well this one consisted of a visit to a boma, a Maasai homestead.  It has a central dirt pen with a branch fence formed around it to keep livestock in at night.  Surrounding this central area are numerous dung and grass huts, one for each woman and her children.  As soon as we got there we all gathered in a broken circle with the Maasai women on one side and us on the other.  The women sang a song and did a dance for us (the men are out herding livestock during the day) consisting of 2 shorts jumps and one long hard stomp, we all joined in.  Then we did the hokie pokie for them (it was the only song and dance we all knew).  It must have been the funniest thing to watch as we did it and the tribe woman shadowed us, by the end of it all of us were laughing.  Salaash, a man who works with the school, showed us some of the most important things in tribal life and then we split into groups to go into a home.  I ended up sitting with the woman on her bed with her 2 little children playing behind us as Salaash told us about the structure.  After that the mamas (what the traditional women are called that make and sell their crafts) spread their jewelry and goods out for us to shop. We then left saying “Asante” (thank you) to everyone.

Yesterday was also the first day of classes which all went well. This morning was our first non-program days which means we have no classes.  I went for an early morning nature walk and saw a lot of colorful birds. I then decided to take a jog and towards the end of my jog I noticed that I was being covered with a ton of leaves and twigs from above I looked up to see a vervet monkey following me above in the treetops throwing things at me.  I stopped and he got pretty close to me before I started running again, back to my banda to get my camera.  I managed to get a few shots of the culprit.  The rest of the morning I sat in a chair outside facing Mt Kili reading and relaxing.  After lunch we went to Kimana town to the market they have each Tues.  We split up into groups are were led around town by and SFS(school for field studies) worker.  The market was crazy with people trying to sell us stuff, the colors were brilliant and the fruit looked great (by the way the food is wonderful and I get fresh fruit like bananas, mago, papaya, and pineapple at each meal!).  Little kids chased us wanting sweets or just to touch us then running back to their friends.  We were then let loose on our own.  The people I was with bought a bottled coke and were walking back to the market to look at wraps and fabric when it started to downpour on us!  The land cruisers were on the other side of town so we just started walking.  I am sure everyone in their shops had a great time watching us, but we had fun with it we would jog a little then just walk and enjoy the experience of being drenched in a street together in the middle of Maasailand in Kenya with all the Maasai men and women looking at us like we were nuts.  We just got back to camp and dried off and the storm followed us.  We are all sitting in our open air dining room/classroom watching the rain and listening to the thunder.  Damn I just remembered I had laundry drying on the line. Oh well!  And the last thing to tell about this amazing place is that the nighttime is wonderful.  The staff encourages us to drink so much water everyday that I always have to wake up in the middle of the night to walk to the bathrooms, and normally this would be an annoying inconvenience right? Well not under the Kenyan skies.  I walk the whole way to the bathroom with my eyes on the stars though I know I should be looking for cobras and black mambas.  When I walk back to my banda, I sit on the porch for a few minutes longer to look at the stars before crawling back under my mosquito net and tucking myself in.  By the way dad I have decided I love mosquito nets and I am putting on up in the room! Well I love you all and will get the pictures sent to you ASAP!  I love you all, don’t be shy and let me know how you are all doing!

Love,

Angie

KATY - I love the journal and use it everyday thank you so much!

ROBIN - I know you are the only one who will appreciate this but I recognize all the plants over here, they have very similar plants here, like same genus different species but I can still identify most of them they are just bigger!

JEREMY and JARED - There is a guy here who looks like Jared but has the personality of Jeremy it is wonderful.  I know what your thinking Jared “that guy must be one handsome devil” and I know what your thinking too Jeremy “Wow Angie is so lucky to have the 2nd coolest guy in world with her in Africa” you guys are such snobs! But I love you both!