So I apologize for dropping off the face of the planet for the last ten or so days. Directed Research is in full swing here at Moyo Hill, Tanzania. I’m living on a diet of coffee and data analysis, and still don’t know how much logical progress I’m making. But I’m going to be optimistic.  

Allow me to catch you up. Over our eight days of field research we interviewed over 257 adults, 45-some students and 15 or so teachers. Our subjects came from the Karatu, Mto was Mbu, Isilalei, Majengo B, ChemChem and Kilimatembo areas. My classmate Sam made this nifty map of our interviews via GPS point plotting.

 

 

As I mentioned before, I’m looking at how many Tanzanians are able to visit National Parks (48.6%) and how many want to visit (89.8%).  Doesn’t quite add up, huh? The biggest preventative factor is lack of money- for park fees, transportation, overnight accommodations and food.  I’ve finished the majority of my data analysis (after several days of entering some three hundred two-page interviews).

 Some of these babies I tried to conduct in KiSwahili. It was only yesterday, long after we had finished our interviews that my Swahili teacher Yohanna told me I had been asking people how many pockets they owned (mifuko) instead of livestock (mifugo). Thanks.

Embarrassment aside, I would much rather be talking to people than writing all their responses up. Yet some cool patterns are emerging. One of the most interesting trends I saw was that while adults want to go to Parks to “experience nature” (meaning to have fun, relax, watch animals and see the landscape), students want to go to learn. Perhaps not a huge surprise, but it support my new argument: it is better to support people below the age of 19 (the age bracket 10-19 has visited the parks the least out of any other generation) than adults because it will most greatly influence their education and therefore their attitudes towards wildlife.  If you didn’t catch that, I have this nice little column graph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So finally, here I am, sitting on the computer for the fourth of fifth day in a row. I hope this paper will be good, but it’s also my first scientific paper (possibly one that could be published, says my adviser Mwamhanga). I don’t have much confidence in myself yet, but maybe this work will help me get there. Onward! -Kate

 

 

Location: Moyo Hill, Tanzania