Still alive and well. (Mail Address Included)

     Alright, it’s about high time I finished this post. It has been half written for a week and things just keep cropping up so that I never finish. Oh well. Today marks just about the one week mark for us in Tanzania and I cannot stress how different this country is from Kenya. Everything is green and lush, the air smells of moisture and vegetation, the weather is cool and mostly overcast in the morning, the terrain is mostly hills and farms, the people hardly know any English at all, all the while Kenya is seemingly the exact opposite. The staff here say that the shocking contrast is only due to the fact that we are here during the wet season and normally water is a problem, I find it extremely hard to believe.

     The camp itself is much more recent, there are five bandas divided into two. Three or four people are on each half. Each side has an attached bathroom, complete with a hot shower…an absolute luxury comparatively though I do miss team showers after playing soccer. The camp is much smaller, still fenced in but we are allowed to leave the fence and wander into the town or wherever else we want at any time. Such freedom did not exist at KBC, in fact our soccer field is at the primary school half a mile down the road. The staff here is just as fantastic and I do wish we had met them earlier so coming here would have been more akin to visiting old comrades rather than a repeat of KBC orientation. Unfortunately, we cannot see Kilimanjaro from where we are, but we do have a similarly fantastic view of the surrounding hills, as we are very near the summit of one of the larger ones.

     The schedule has been quite busy lately which is one of the reasons this post has taken so long. Since arriving, we have had three classes, one traveling lecture, two informational movies, a trip to Lake Manyara National Park, a field exercise, two assignments assigned, and a day trip to Ngorongoro Crater conservation area. Today we have class and packing for expedition. Tomorrow we leave for a five-day spell in Serengeti National Park (be jealous). After that we have one exam, then the remainder of our time will be spent slaving over our Directed Research projects (yes I know this is a fragment).

     In reality, there has just been way too much to talk about in this past week. I’m not even going to try. However, Ngorongoro is the most spectacular place and it would be a shame if I did not elaborate on our time spent there. Lion cubs. That is all.

     Alright fine, I guess more is needed. Ngorongoro crater is the 6^th largest unbroken crater in the world, and it’s extremely unique in that it harbors an extremely high diversity of flora and fauna. In fact, the crater has the highest concentration of large cats than any other protected area. There is also a somewhat healthy population of the extremely endangered black rhino in the area, of which we saw 6. The crater rim is such that some of the wildlife cannot move out of the crater area, presenting a rather unique ecosystem for studying predator-prey relations and human wildlife interactions (as the traditional Maasai still utilize the land for grazing cattle). As already mentioned, we saw rhino’s for the first time, as well as a cerval cat, multiple hyenas, wildebeest galore, elephants, and many lions. In fact, we were at one point 3 feet away from a lion and lioness as they slept o the side of the road. Very cool.

     But the highlight of the day belonged to a rather intimidating lioness with her two young cubs. We happened to spot them as the lioness was observing a large group of zebra and unfortunately for her, the zebra knew she was there. However, her cubs did not care much for hunting They decided to pass the time by playing with each other and trying to take down the mother (which was quite amusing to watch her annoyance build). Fifteen minutes observing them resulted in practically hundreds of photos taken by our group as well as a few videos (ask me about them when you see me next, they are worth seeing).

     So, I think I’m done writing for now. Oh one last note, I shaved my head. Oh and here's the Tanzanian mail address before I forget...

Kevin Sherman
SFS Center for Wildlife Management Studies, 
P.O. Box 304
KARATU, TANZANIA
East Africa
 

Cheers.

I regret to announce, this is the end.

     I am going now, and I bid you all a very fond farewell. Appropriate, as this is the last post you shall be reading from Kenya (worried were you?). Tomorrow at 6 AM we are loading up the land cruisers and undertaking a 6-7 hour journey across the border into Tanzania. As exciting as this sounds, it’s actually quite difficult to pack and leave willingly. None of the staff switch with us, which means for the second half of the semester we shall have totally new professors, camp staff, even SAM (Student Affairs Manager). I’ve even heard that the new camp doesn’t have its own football pitch nor volleyball court…not exactly pleasing news but we shall see what happens.

     That being said with a few random bits of news to note on, not a whole lot has been going on here the past week. Everyone was busy studying for exams, which went relatively well, and finishing up the last of the assignments, which was just annoying. Preliminary grades are in, so far so good on that front, and now it’s on to packing. Now to the random news: celebratory goat roast accompanied by KBC version of Party in the USA sung and written by us, last minute laundry scrambling, too much free time to speak of, last football game at the secondary school in which I re-pulled my quad, preparations for a D&D game that will easily pass the time on our border crossing trip (don’t judge), and I do believe that’s all I have.

     I also want to mention a gift idea that a friend and I came up with. One of the staff members here, by the name of Abdi, is a big fan of music. He once told me a story one night around the campfire about a past student, who for his going away gift, gave Abdi his little Ipod shuffle (the clip on kind). Abdi said that the little piece of hardware held about 300 songs and he listened to it during his work here. Apparently he even went and bought a semi-decent speaker set from Nairobi (for how much I didn’t ask) which he set up in his shop in Kimana so he could play his music all the time. According to his account, a month after getting the gift his store was robbed and everything was taken, including the IPod. This brought me to thinking, and as my friend Molly was sharing CD’s and music with him I decided to combine my gift and hers. Therefore my Ipod has now become his Ipod, with separate playlists of my music and Molly’s music for him to explore. As it was a gift to me, I have no attachment to it and I think he will be overjoyed and the gift will be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately I don’t have an extra set of headphones so I’ll have to work that kink out. Oh well.

     Anyways, that is just about it from the KBC. I’m really going to miss this place, the staff, and the mountain. It’s going to be very odd waking up the rest of the semester without Kilimanjaro in the distance.

Expedition to Tsavo

Hamjambo! Habarini ya asubuhi? Yes I am still alive, much to the demise of more than a few lions of Tsavo West National Park. If you’ve ever watched “The Ghost in the Darkness” we were basically camping for six days in the man-eaters’ territory. There were two other guys in my tent, which even though it was meant to be a four-person tent it was still a little cramped. Also on a random note, only about 10 people showered the whole time we were there (I may not be included in that number) and no guy shaved. So at the moment of writing this I have the makings of a pretty full, red-ish beard. Not sure whether I’m shaving it or not. Overall though, the trip was fantastic. Commence the novel writing.

Day 1-> We started out the trip at 6:30 AM on last Wednesday by driving to a hill overlooking a primary school and the crux of the three adjacent group ranches. After climbing the hill we had our last Wildlife Management lecture in Kenya on top, followed by climbing down to get mobbed by six year olds that were swarming our land cruisers. They have been dubbed Zombie Children in respect to the way they were pouring out from every direction as if we had unknowingly walked into a zombie movie. From there it was a two-hour game drive through Kuku Group Ranch and Tsavo Park to get to Mzima Springs. If this name isn’t familiar to you, I would suggest you look it up online. Mzima springs is the equivalent of a desert oasis, and it is equally gorgeous and teeming with life. There was a pack of about 10 hippos (pronounced e-po’s) relaxing in the water 60 yards off from the observation deck where we were standing, and they were massive. Not a huge fan of them (bad temperaments and all) but the hippos are a key stone species in that environment and without them, the whole system would fail…so I guess they are ok.

Day 2-> The whole day consisted of an excursion into the Chyulu hills for an Environmental Policy lecture on natural resource management of the Tsavo region. Probably the greatest/worst drive ever…great for those of us able to ride outside the hatches of our land cruisers, terrible for those who were driving. The roads [term used loosely] were about 30% rock, 70% pothole for about 2 hours until we hit Chyulu NP. From there the land cruisers morphed into submersibles as the elephant grass, which was about 2.5 meters in height, had completely overgrown the road. So it was basically a blind drive up and through the hills; over cliffs and whatnot that dropped about 400 feet mind you. It was a good drive for sure. And after the lecture near a KWS outpost, there was a hike up the neighboring large-ish hill. Unfortunately, I failed to remember to pack the machete or the spear, so the hike was basically a swim/walk through the grass up the hill. At the top, clear view across the range lands almost all the way to the foothills of Kilimanjaro and also you could see some of the volcanic craters of the surrounding hills. And to make it even better, on a branch of an acacia tree at the very top [I happened to have climbed the tree next to it unknowingly] was a chameleon, which are extremely rare.

Day 3->All day was spent at the camp (exciting I know), with a guest lecture from the head research scientist at Tsavo and a presentation by the students to the faculty of solutions we have come up with for the environmental problems in this region. No big deal.

Day 4->Gulia Rhino Sanctuary. Yup. With the exception that we didn’t see a rhino this day made my trip, I shall explain in a bit. We started off the day by driving to the sanctuary and meeting up with KWS representatives in charge of maintaining the enclosure. From there, with the help of a bit of radio telemetry, we drove to the relative location of a collared rhino in the hopes of spotting it. When it became apparent that the rhino was deep in the bush, we headed to a nearby guesthouse for a lecture. However, on the way there, we spotted a pack of guinea fowl on our left, which wasn’t anything too special, until a leopard burst out of the underbrush not ten yards from us. As my goal for expedition was to spot a leopard, this made my day completely. Unfortunately, the cat was too fast for anyone to even think of raising their cameras for a photo. Oh well. So onto the guesthouse, where the aforementioned KWS gave a lecture on how they monitor the rhino population in the sanctuary; only about 60 rhinos sadly remain of what used to be a population of about 300 due to poaching in the 1980’s… Afterwards, we went on an epic game drive through a region of the park called Rhino Valley and though we saw many different species, no rhinos. Kind of puts the magnitude of the population situation into perspective when there are no rhinos in a rhino sanctuary and Rhino Valley.

Day 5->The day began with a species count in Tsavo. There were four groups that divided certain regions of the park, going for a three hour game drive, recording every species seen and the habitat they were found in. I never realized how numerous Dik Diks are in Tsavo (look em up). Our car was driven by our mechanic here, Harrison [happened to be the driver of my car from Nairobi to KBC], and the man must be part eagle with what he could spot from behind the steering wheel. Let’s just say a jackal, lying down, in four feet of grass, 200 yards off. Mighty impressive for sure. From the game drive we went to a lodge, for a well deserved and much needed swim and relaxation period. Might I add that the back porch of this place had one heck of a view? I don’t know if it was artificial or not, but there was a watering hole about 60 yards off that was quite popular with the local wildlife. Upon leaving the lodge, we were alerted by one of the employees that lions were spotted not too far up ahead, and lo and behold, not 200 yards east, a lioness was lying under an acacia bush right next to the road. As strange as it seemed, she was relatively undisturbed by our vehicles. As we were looking around for the rest of the pride a herd of about 30 buffalo crossed the road 20 yards further along, and it became apparent that we were smack in the middle of a stalk. When the lioness stood up to circle the buffalo we drove further up, just in time to see two more lions moving around behind the pack. I was lucky enough to get a somewhat decent shot of the buffalo grazing with the lions moving in the background. Unfortunately, with the fading light we couldn’t stick around to see how the rest of the story played out. With all this excitement at the end of the day, a few of us decided to sleep around the camp fire that night to see if any visitors graced our campground with their presence. We didn’t see anything but there were lions roaring in the distance around 2 in the morning. Not a bad way to end expedition, as the next day only consisted of packing and rolling out. Sorry for the book.

That spear would have skewered a wild boar.

     So the date now is 2/23 and the camp has been without internet for the past four days. As of such I really have no idea when this post will go up. I had intended this to be a small post but as more days are accumulating I’ve just been tacking on more to the end. So I have no idea if this will end up being another book or not.

     First off kudos to anyone who knows where the title is from (rather obscure LOTR reference for those of you don’t) and yes there is relevance to it. Well sort of…there weren’t any trolls involved. In short summation, the majority of us here at KBC are now deemed mzungu murran…white warriors, as we all have recently acquired Maasai spears. Actual spears. Handcrafted at local bomas, each spear incorporates one hardened, metallic, pointed end for all throwing urges, while the other end resembles a double-edged machete, honed to a point for all one’s daily hacking and slashing needs. Suffice it to say that any sharp and shiny object meant to be thrown is quite ok in my books.

     Moving away from the army that has now formed here, we took a return trip into Amboseli National Park. This time we were conducting a total ground count of all visible wildlife in coordination with the Kenyan Wildlife Service. The joint effort meant that the land cruisers were now given free reign offroading whereas normal safari etiquette stresses on keeping to the roads or getting shot by the KWS (not entirely true but you don’t want them catching you for sure…apparently they’re more feared than the police and army combined here). The count went smoothly, with many teams and the park divided up into blocks, it only took about 5 hours. With this count and the previous records, conservation efforts can now be further fine-tuned as to the changing ecosystems.

     Yesterday was our non-program day (day off) and with it came a new string of adventures. Next to the town of Litoktok there is a gorge, and at the bottom of which is a waterfall and stream. The hike down was extremely scenic (fantastic views of Mt. Kili) and the waterfall was pristine. However, I had more fun scrambling over boulders and climbing the fallen logs while following the creek downstream. It was pretty amusing because other people were following me for a bit before they figured out that I was intentionally choosing the most difficult route to challenge myself. We don’t have too many opportunities to climb here (too many trees have thorns the length of my index finger which I’d like to keep out of my palm) so I took full advantage…and I only got yelled at for going to high on the bank/gorge wall twice. Quite an accomplishment I think hahaha. Sometimes I revert back to being five years old…

     Some random things to conclude for now. I have a spear (I can throw it). I own a sweet pair of tire sandals. I had my hair cut by a friend here (traded a chocolate bar for it) and I’m not sure if I care whether I like it or not because I am twenty times cooler now. Work has been increasing, and many people here are starting to get stressed which may be a problem in the weeks to come. We’ll see what happens with that. Sawa [Ok] that’s all for now. Hopefully this will be able to go up soon.

Jambo mzungu!

            Jambo (=Hello)! Sorry for taking so long to put up a new post but last week mainly constituted in attending class and making observations on bats for a report, so honestly there wasn’t too much to write about (excluding another secondary school futbol match). However, the past three days have been rather exciting, but before I get into that I just want to throw out some random things that are on my mind at the moment. I also realize that all of my posts turn into mini novels, my apologies (poleàpole lay =sorry). pronounced

            With wind comes dust here. With giant thunderstorms blowing in from one direction at around 3 PM daily following an 80-degree day of sun comes walls of flying debris. I wish I had my camera for one of the more recent ones, you could literally see the advancing line of dust as it quickly advanced on our position.

I can understand why the people here were not happy with sleeping under mosquito nets when they were first advised as preventative methods to combat Malaria. The nets are treated with chemicals, that unbeknownst to me, are rather irritable and seems I am somewhat allergic to. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem if I didn’t have to untuck and tuck every time I get into bed…so of course I now have what looks like poison ivy all up and down my hands and arms and on the bottom of my feet (and I cannot tell you how itchy it is).

            Alright well that’s enough of the random things for now, I think I’ll enlighten you as to some of the cultural aspects of this region as our past two days held quite a stark contrast (this will make sense in a bit). The local people living in and around Kimana are the Maasai, semi nomadic pastoralists/agriculturalists who happen to be extremely kind to our school and the program. We visited one of our neighboring bomas earlier in the semester (one of the earlier posts mentioned it…we sang Twist and Shout for them) and in the last two days we were able to see the people in a new light.

            On Wednesday, we took a day trip into Amboseli again, but the purpose of this trip was solely to be wazungu (white people/tourists) rather than wanafunzi (students). And of course, as tourists, we had to go and meet with the real Maasai warriors (cue sarcasm radar).  We visited a cultural manyatta, which is a boma set up to entertain tourism and to profit from visitors. They have routine songs/performances and prayers which were actually quite entertaining though during the prayer we had to kneel and with my perfectly healthy and relatively strong knees (ninacheza=I am joking) this was rahisi (easy). But of course, being used to tourists, these show Maasai have perfected the art of guilt tripping unsuspecting site-seers into buying little trinkets for extremely outrageous prices. Advice: know and avoid a tourist trap when you see one and know how to haggle if you cannot avoid. With my stint in Nairobi, I knew not to get singled out by anyone and made my way through the gauntlet without my pockets getting any lighter (the gauntlet meaning they had this fenced off alleyway with goods/merchants lining both sides as your guide would lead you down it saying “This is my wife…this is my mother…please buy for my family?”).

            So what is really interesting is that today, the day after the manyata, was our homestay with the Maasai in the surrounding area. We were split up into groups of two or three and left with either murran (warriors) for the gents or mamas for the ladies. Our warriors were 22 and 26 respectively and didn’t speak a lick of English and didn’t convey that they spoke Kiswahili either (good thing I took pains to try and memorize a few key, now useless, phrases). The day was interesting though: it began with chai, followed by two hours of weeding a tomato field, with chopping down shrubbery to appease the random knights of Ni that appeared (actually we used it to repair the fencing surrounding their boma but I couldn’t resist the HG reference). Lunch was ugali (African bread that isn’t really bread), a cabbage/onion/carrot/some kind of sauce mixture, and a glass of warm milk.

            More work in the field followed lunch (we used carved staves to push and roll chopped brush and plant debris into bundles in order to clear fields to plant banana trees) followed by another round of chai. I’m not going into all the details here, but what really struck me was how everyone else outside of Maasai culture (and now apparently even inside with the manyattas) tries to obviously glamorize the Maasai tribal way of life. In no way am I criticizing the Maasai pastoralism or agriculturalism, but rather the tourist industry’s and Hollywood’s idealistic notion of “savage” existence and wild people. Let me tell you, almost every Maasai warrior has a cell phone. They know how to work a camera even though they still get a kick out of photographing their buddies and showing it to them on the view screen. Yes, their condition of living may not be too appealing to many Westerners, but in no way is it not acclimatizing to the world around them. In fact, I find it terribly amazing that they can keep so much of their history and culture intact in their daily lives while the government and the rest of Kenya criticize them of being backwards and stagnant. It’s certainly a rare feat in this world.

            Anyways, sorry for another novel, though I didn’t touch upon even half of what I intended. I promise the next post will be sooner…probably Saturday evening following our third day trip into Amboseli (we’re actually partnering with the Kenyan Wildlife Service to conduct a total density count of the wildlife residing there). Most excellent. Oh and before I forget check this link out. http://www.fieldstudies.org/pages/5852_first_impressions_sfs_kenya_to_tanzania.cfm

I've had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-Friday plane!

      Habarini.<How are you all> Just about a week into the program now and there is just way too much to type out. As a preface to this post while it is still fresh on my mind, first snake sighting occurred tonight. Baby black mamba on a banda porch…yeah it was on mine and I almost stepped on it coming back from the shower. And low and behold a second sighting just happened…my roommate just almost stepped on a full grown one that had somehow gotten onto the Chumba steps without anyone seeing it (including myself who had walked by not 3 minutes prior). Pretty freaky. So two black mamba in one night and now the entire camp is paranoid. As for myself, I am securely isolated on my bed underneath my mosquito net and I really don’t thin I shall be moving any time soon hahaha.

            Anyways, three major events in the past week that were the highlights. (in chronological order). The first was a visit to a traditional Maasai boma (a small village). The Maasai tribe in general practice pastoralism, so inevitably they constantly migrate with their livestock to better grazing areas. Therefore, their traditional settlements needed to be less than semi permanent and easily constructable from the materials that they had. All of the material is natural (thorny acacia bushes for gates and outer defenses, mud and manure for constructing houses, etc.) but because of the introduction of agriculture, many bomas have become permanent structures (like the one we went to).  I believe I’ve uploaded some photos onto facebook (they don’t nearly capture the aura of the place) but the experience was captured mainly through video and unfortunately I cannot post that.

            Prior to our arrival, we were informed that the mamas would be preparing a welcoming song for us (their way of adopting us into their community) and that it was required of us to respond in kind…uh huh. So we spent the entire day prior thinking of songs to sing to the Maasai (and yes Soldia Boy and Party in the USA were suggested) but thankfully we all agreed to the Beatles’ Twist and Shout. One of the girls here brought her guitar along (she is quite good) so we at least had something to keep us all in rhythm. The mammas went first, there were about 25 of them on a rough estimate…and just wow. There was one leader who would sing (almost chant) and the rest would respond to the point where their voices became the underlying rhythm to their song. Then once they started jumping in time, the bead jewelry added another layer to the music. It’s certainly hard to describe. And then it was our turn…and surprisingly it went quite smoothly. At one point a few of our group went over and actually pulled some of the mamas in to dance and twist. Although they couldn’t understand the lyrics you could tell they were really having a blast by trying to mimic the way our group was dancing. After that we were shown around the boma and our Swahili teacher gave a short lecture on the traditional Maasai way of life (turns out the teacher is Maasai as well; he went to the high school right down the road here and was raised in a boma in a neighboring region). Very cool.

            Next highlight…we visited the school that our Swahili teacher, Daniel, attended. Of course football was the main purpose for this visit (little did I know that it was sports day when we went) and I was totally alright with that. The field was…ok…very large with no boundaries, relatively flat, but it was mainly composed of loose gravel and rocks so there was very little traction. But that didn’t hold those guys back at all. I think the final score was 3-0 (we got our buts kicked). I do believe our team needs a little practice on 1) How to play soccer, 2) What positions there are and what the roles of those positions are, and 3) How to beat a team that is better than you. We are visiting again this Friday and I’m pretty excited because a few of the kids have actually remembered me from our first visit (they come by the camp fence sometimes to talk) and how I was the “good footballer with fancy shoes. Congratulations.” I still don’t know why they congratulate everyone constantly. The kids there though are really fun. I got into a conversation about the EPL with a few of them (one was a Chelsae fan and all he did was make fun of me for liking Man U) and others tried to convince me that they were 40 and their sons attended school with them haha. A few of them asked if I could help them find a girl from the US and apparently a few of them even proposed to some of the girls in my group. Too funny.

            But the greatest experience to date has to be our excursion into Amboseli National Park. If you ever, ever have the chance to visit, do it. The trip to Amboseli was really rewarding in the sense that it put into perspective what we are trying to conserve in terms of the ecosystems in this area. It also allowed us to see countless numbers of elephants that literally spanned the horizon  (the count at one marshland area yielded 193 elephants in sight and there were more just over the ridge behind the water) as well as many other species. The list is as follows: baboon, vervet monkeys, zebra, wildebeest, grant’s and thompson’s gazelle, impala, Bohor reedbuck, Steinbok, warthog, buffalo, ostrich, grey crowned crane, and lions. There may have been more (I don’t have the list in front of me) but it was the fastest and most exciting 4.5 hours I have ever spent standing up through the roof of a land cruiser in 92 degree weather. Apparently we are taking two more trips into Amboseli this semester and one of them will entail working in conjunction with the KWS (Kenyan Wildlife Service) in order to count the species richness and abundance in the entire park. So the conservation efforts and directions for the upcoming seasons will be partially based off our data collected.  How awesome is that? I really cannot wait to go back…it is honestly just as if you had suddenly fallen into an episode of Planet Earth covering the African Savannah.

            So that’s all I have got for now (which was actually quite a lot) and as the majority of my time is now spent reading class material and observing bats and woodpeckers (for an assignment) I believe the frequency of blog posts may drop to once a week as you might have already noticed. Pole [sorry] but I am quite busy. I’ll try to keep taking pictures but it’s so much easier to let the others take the photos and for me to just enjoy the experience…for some reason to me it’s just not the same to stand on top of a hill and gaze around via the viewscreen of a video camera. Ah well. Kwaherini for now.

Mail Address

Here's my address at the Kilimanjaro Base Camp. Only letters and postcards if you are going to send something please...packages are way too much of a hassle and could be quite expensive depending on whom is working the post office at the time of arival.

Kevin Sherman
Center for Wildlife Management Studies
P.O. Box 27743 (Nyayo Stadium)
00506-NAIROBI, KENYA
East Africa

Mama mugged.

Jambo to all. I do believe I last left off in Nairobi and a whole lot has happened since, let me tell you (prepare yourself for the book that’s about to follow).

            Started off by meeting the group at the airport, a bunch of fun people so it’s going to be a good semester for sure, and then loading up everyone into four extra large land cruisers for a four-hour drive to the Kilimanjaro Base Camp. The rules of the road that I’m pretty sure I described in my Nairobi post applied to this highway…in the sense that there were really no rules. People passing left and right, goats in the middle of a three lane pass, random police road spikes (that had nails about 6 inches long mind you), yeah it was a fun ride. At one point our driver (who happens to be the mechanic here) decided to pass on truck and as he moved over this massive 18 wheeler thing came rumbling around a curve straight at us…a quick acceleration and a swift slide squeezed between aforementioned truck and a van in front saved us from certain catastrophe.

            However, the terror of the highway (named Mombasa Highway, look it up…the facts are scary) was offset by the chance to view the country and even some wildlife. Giraffes were particularly abundant, as well as zebra, ostrich, goats, cattle, monkeys (which happen to run all over the camp), and even a puppy. I took many pictures but unfortunately due to the poor bandwidth here I can’t upload them to facebook…

            So here I am, at my home for the next month and a half. Let me tell you, this place is excellent to the fullest sense of the word. I mean, I wake up with a perfect view of Kilimanjaro through my bandha window (a bandha is a small 4 person cabin with a thatched roof) but as great as that is, it hardly compares to the nights here. The stars are so vivid and plentiful, it’s impossible to not see the Milky Way, and the sounds of everything around really flares up the ole imagination as to what could possibly be the source. So far we’ve had orientation (will tell later), many introductions to the staff, a pick up soccer game with the staff, and a trip into the nearby town for market day.

            Based on my experience with Nairobi market I was somewhat dreading another exposure without any knowledge in Swahili, but it turned out much different than prior. Because I wasn’t the only foreigner I wasn’t singled out and hounded like before and also the community knew we were students so instead of trying to sell us everything they actually talked to us and made us feel welcome. I actually teamed up with a new friend named Lee (she had taken a Kiswahili course last semester=golden) and we navigated our way around trying to detach ourselves from the SFS group caravan. Eventually we did and rather enjoyed ourselves.  There was this one guy that I was particularly impressed by (unfortunately we were advised against bringing our cameras otherwise I’d have multiple of him) because he was walking around carrying what he was trying to sell. I realize this doesn’t sound too impressive, but this guy must have had roughly 80 items to sell and they were dangling from his arms, balanced on his shoulders, strapped to his legs, you name it…but what I loved was that this guy had about 20 different types of hats all balanced on top of his head as he wove his way through the throngs of people. Yeah, the Mad Hatter (as I’ve dubbed him) was quite a sight.

            As for the title of the blog, the mothers at the market were absolutely determined to sell you anything beaded that they had made. And if you caved into one then twenty would swarm to get you to buy something else. They learned pretty quick that I wasn't going to buy (sign language is key in these circumstances) but I rather enjoyed myself watching a colleague struggle to run away from a pack of 10 constantly around him. He literally was running out of room to hold things because he kept buying hahaha. I may have even sent one or two mama's his way when they came up trying to sell to me...but mum's the word on that (not exactly kind of me but it was quite entertaining).

            Alright, I’ve saved the best for last. Orientation, or in other words, what can kill you here and what to do in case you ever have to deal with these situations. The infectious diseases and parasites were really interesting (especially the descriptive tale of Salmonella from the evil cookie dough) but I must say the snake section stole the show. Black mambas, Green mambas, Egyptian cobras, Red spitting cobras…I can’t remember any of the others. Yeah...some good stories accompanied these guys too, like the Black Mamba that found it’s way into one student’s sleeping bag or the Red spitting cobra that dropped from the ceiling of the bathroom almost on top of a staff member that had just dropped trough. Yup. Let your imagination’s run with that.

            Like I’ve said, the internet can’t really support uploading pictures so I’ll have to save them until I’m back (or somewhere with a more reliable location). There was plenty more that happened in these past two days…I’ve only alighted the better parts. Tomorrow we start our classes, which will be weird because it doesn’t feel like any classroom setting…ever. Focusing will be difficult. More to come later.

So yeah...I'm in Kenya

This has probably been the longest day ever so far, and it's currently noon while I am writing this. Started out the morning at 6 AM in the Dirty Jers with a terrible cup of hotel coffee and proceeded to catch my 9 AM flight no problem. No problem means 20 minutes max through security even with my over packed book bag...although I did notice that basically everyone else trying to get through was setting off the metal detector and getting searched. So it would seem that luck was pulling me through (my seat turned out to be a window seat with no one sitting next to me) but of course that's too good to be true. Plane was delayed 15 minutes to de-ice it…ok. Meanwhile little Indian boy behind me decided that he wasn’t liking sitting and then proceeded to shriek at ear shattering levels for the first hour. Wonderful. And to top it off, the in-flight little entertainment rig was busted…for my seat only. Yeah that was the first flight, though I did learn that Iron Maiden makes for an interesting game of Pokemon as I was forced to bust out the old game boy hahaha.

So after the six and a half hour flight we arrived in London a half hour late, which meant that I had to quickly trek to my connecting flight. Unwittingly went through security again (for which I had to down 2 litres of water from the Nalg I filled after the Newark security) and made it on the plane 5 minutes before take off. The flight took about eight hours and forty-five minutes and went fairly smoothly (oh and for reference we landed around 7 AM London time which was 2 AM Eastern) . PS if you’ve never flown a long trip on a British airline, do it. The attendants saying “Cheers” “Luv” and “Cup of tea?” makes it worth it even if the food isn’t much to be praised. So now I’m in Nairobi hanging out at a hotel till tomorrow when the rest of my group arrives. Oh, one bit of advice if you are ever alone in Nairobi…don’t walk by an open market. For one, heads automatically turn in your direction for standing out, but anyone who has anything to sell will immediately become your best friend and WILL NOT leave your side and DO NOT like no for an answer. 

SO taking a nice stroll along the road just looking at sites like the International Conference Center and their Parliament is not possible without 30 people coming up to you. I even had taxis randomly pulling over asking if I wanted a ride when there were people behind me flagging them down. Very interesting cultural aspect. So basically to the workers of Nairobi white man=money. Even if he is a broke college student like myself. So thirty minutes of being hassled to buy crap was enough to drive me back into the hotel, turn on the tv and watch Arsenal somehow pull off a victory with 10 men. Yup. Took some pictures and they'll be up on the book of faces eventually...I don't feel like dismantling my luggage to find the chord. More to come later.

Oh and one last note, the roads around here are nuts. They drive on the opposite side (like in London) but it's almost as if there are no traffic laws whatsoever. Traffic lights might as well be nonexistant as people just blow through red lights anyways. And to make matters worse pedestrians cross where ever and when ever they want...even across busy five lane highways. Yeah...I'd rack up so many points if I was driving over here. Probably not a good thing. Did I mention there are random herds of cattle that chill in the roads? Yup. Oh and I'm dead tired so I apologize for the lack of continuity and lack of proper grammar.