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.
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