I’ve made the switch! My time in East Africa is now halfway over. I’ll spend the rest of my time here in Kimana, Kenya. KBC (Kilimanjaro Bush Camp) is so different from our Moyo Hill camp in Tanzania. First of all, it’s so much bigger. We have tons of free space, a soccer field and volleyball court, two fire pits, a mile long running trail, twice as many bandas, a tv room, and an amazing library. There are tons of trees and flowering bushes in camp and vervet monkeys, baboons, bushbabies, and dik diks are often seen inside our fence. Every morning I wake up to the sight of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s snow capped peaks. It’s really quite incredible.

Leaving Tanzania was difficult, though. I truly loved the staff there and loved every day we spent together. On our last night in TZ, we had a sort of going away dinner. They had set the tables and chairs up outside around the fire circle and there were candles on all the tables. We had a feast like never before. There was ugali, rolls, and chapatti bread, scalloped and mashed potatoes, chicken, beef, veggie burgers, fresh juice, and more. As I sat in the firelight, watching the people who had become my family eating, talking, and laughing, I couldn’t help by tear up (…okay, I cried like  baby). I was just overwhelmed by the happiness around me, the simple perfection of it all, and the realization that it was coming to an end. I knew that I was in for more amazing times in Kenya, but still… I had found so much joy in this place and I wasn’t ready to leave Tanzania.

Our environmental policy professor, Mwamhanga, traveled with us to Kenya, and before he went back to Tanzania he hugged me and said to me, “Every time you see Mt. Kilimanjaro, think of Tanzania. That is your home.”  (Even though we can see the mountain from our camp here, its not actually part of Kenya.) I will never forget that.

So, now… we’ve been here for about a week and everyone is starting to feel more comfortable. We are getting to know all our new staff members and they have been keeping us busy with lots of academic work. Here are just a few of the things we’ve done in the past few days:

• �      Field lecture. We hiked up to the top of one of the Chyulu Hills, a pretty intense and steep climb actually, to look out over the Rift Valley and talk about land use in the area.
• �      Interviews. With local guides as translators, we conducted interviews with farmers in our community about human-wildlife conflicts (most people have problems with elephants and zebras tramping their crops in the dry season and want the government to fix an electric fence that will keep the animals out).
• �      Rangeland assessment. We conducted ground surveys in small groups throughout the Tsavo-Amboseli wildlife corridor, looking at erosion, trampling, herb cover, grass height, canopy layers, etc.

Also, on a non-academic note, we had an awesome Halloween party with costumes, pumpkin carving, and candy! We’ve done a couple of nature walks in the mornings and watched some movies on the projector at night. Sometimes it’s still hard to get used to the fact that I’m not in Tanzania anymore. But we are having tons of fun here and there is so much to keep us busy that the days are passing by quickly! I miss our Moyo Hill camp a lot but I hope by the end of my time here I will consider this place home too. 

Location: Kimana, Kenya