Author Archives: jlp551

We’re done!

DSC_0010.jpgTanzania and Kenya 013.JPG

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About two or three weeks ago, I was very homesick and ready to come home but something has changed. I think it was Tsavo that did it. The beauty and magnificence of the volcanic hills at Tsavo awakened a whole new appreciation for Kenya and Africa. I don’t think I’ll ever live in or visit a place as wonderful as this again. I’m still the same person but my experiences here have humbled and matured me in a way that I don’t think would be possible in the United States. Maybe it’s just living in another country away from all familiarity, or just being another year older, but Africa has given me a confidence and respect for life that I wish I found a long time ago.

I have a newfound appreciation for life and all of the surprises and wonders it holds. TIA (this is Africa) is the motto of our lives here. The lack of discipline, disregard for time and seeming carelessness frustrated me at first but I soon realized that these were simply a result of people taking their time, appreciating the moment they live in and accepting circumstances they really can’t control. Too often, I find myself worrying about things that I cannot change and sweating the small stuff. There are too many other life threatening and important things to worry about here, like surviving. Worries such as what to do on the weekends or which restaurant to go to are suddenly extremely trivial and insignificant. My wish is that everyone could experience something like this in his or her lifetime. I wish everyone could step out of his or her comfort zone, travel the world and experience it’s wonders. But this is not always possible so I hope my words and experiences are a suitable alternative. It has been very hard work and I do miss home a lot but I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world and hope that anyone who reads this is compelled to appreciate the privileges and experiences they have had.

Yesterday was the last day of academic work and therefore my first day as a college junior. When I think back to who I was coming into Penn State 2 years ago, I can’t believe that the girl sitting here, typing on a laptop in Kenya is the same girl who was terrified to be a college student. All of the amazing opportunities and experiences I have had over the past 2 years have turned me into a confident and adventurous young women ready to take on the world. I never would have thought that in a few short years, I would be living in Africa, conducting research and sharing our results with the community in an attempt to improve their lives. The research and data collection was hard work. We spent countless hours in the hot sun, walking for miles hoping to see some sign of wildlife. We spent many more hours staring at our computer screens trying to come up with the best ways to analyze and present our data and then compile it into a comprehensive research report. The culmination of our work finally came in the form of community presentations. We spent 5 hours on a Saturday afternoon sharing all of our research with the community and government officials. They had the opportunity to ask us questions and make sure they understood our recommendations so they could improve their lives and those of the local wildlife. The past 3 months have been stressful and a lot of work but also a lot of fun. Everything we did was completely worth it and probably helped to improve the livelihoods of those who live around us. I’m so grateful to have had such an experience here in East Africa. I’m nervous and excited to go home because I think it will be a huge adjustment but I know I will never forget what I learned and the people I met here.


Location: Kimana, Kenya

Directed Research


I’m sorry that it’s been so long since my last blog post! Life has been so busy here lately. We have finally started our directed research projects. The next 4 weeks will be completely devoted to data collection, data analysis, paper writing and presentations to the community. There are three projects that we could have chosen from. The environmental policy DR focuses on water usage/shortage and how it affects the politics and policies of the region. Similarly, the wildlife ecology DR focuses on how water availability affects the ecology of riverine habitats and people’s attitudes towards conservation. My DR (wildlife management) will examine the habitat viability of 5 different sanctuaries in the surrounding area. We spend hours everyday walking 10km or more through these sanctuaries counting animals, marking their GPS coordinates and identifying the different habitats. We will eventually input all of this information into GIS (geographic information systems) and determine the extent of habitat overlap for different species and how sustainable the current environment is for all populations. In 3 weeks we will have the opportunity to present our findings to the local community including the officials who manage these sanctuaries. Hopefully, they will listen to our recommendations and we will have helped improve these wildlife sanctuaries!

            The work is demanding and the days are long but it is still so much fun. The other day, my group of three students, a local guide and a KWS (Kenya Wildlife Service) ranger were dropped off at our starting point only to find a family of giraffe about 200m to the west, a herd of gazelles about 300m to the east and a herd of over 20 zebra running across the open grasslands with Kilimanjaro, clear as day, in the background. It was the most breathtaking scene I’ve ever witnessed. Yesterday, we came across a family of elephants! We even saw two sets of lion prints but no lion sightings.

            Even though I love all the work I’m doing, I’m so glad that today is a non-program day. I think I’m going to visit Laitokitok and walk around the market for a few hours this morning before relaxing at a new lodge bordering Amboseli National Park for the afternoon. It should be a wonderful and relaxing day before another 4 days of data collection. Until next time!

 


Location: Kimana, Kenya

Tsavo Maneaters

In less than two weeks I will be going on another 5 day expedition to Tsavo National Park which is famous for it’s man eating lions! There has been a book and even two movies made about them! (Bwana Devil and The Ghost and The Darkness)

It all started in 1898, when the British started building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River. Led by Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson, the team of hired help from India worked for nine months on the project. Throughout that time period, two maneless, male lions began stalking the campsite and dragging worker out of their tents at night to eat them. The workers desperately tried to scare the lions off with thorn fences, campfires, and traps but to no avail. The lions weren’t phased, crawled right through the thorn fences and dragged away some more workers. It’s not surprise that hundreds of workers fled the area, fearing their lives and therefore halting all construction of the bridge. Patterson tried for months and was finally able to shoot and kill one of the lions. Three weeks later, he caught and killed the second. He made the 9 foot long skins his floor rugs before they were sold to the Chicago Field Museum in 1924 where they are now on display along with the lion’s skulls. The crew finally returned to the area to finish the bridge.

Research at the Chicago Field Museum has been conducted analyzing bone collagen and hair keratin. Isotopic signatures of human flesh were compared to normal lion prey and revealed that on lion at the equivalent of 10.5 humans and the second lion ate 24.2 humans! There are several spectulations for this extremely unusual behavior and appearance of the Tsavo lions. First is an ourbreak of rinderpest disease (cattle plague) in 1898 which wiped out a great majority of lion’s normal prey forcing them to look for alternative food sources. Another reason may be that the Tsavo lions became used to finding dead humans along the river from slave carivans heading to Zanzibar. One study suggests that a damaged tooth in the first lion could have significantly influenced his decision to hunt for easily captured human prey.

It is now just a rumor and superstition that the modern Tsavo lions still seek out humans. The lions are however still unusually large and maneless. This is probably due to the fact that Tsavo has an extremely high density of thorny shrubs and trees that would snag a thick lion mane. Lions of Tsavo have adapted to their surrounding and no longer have the characteristic dark mane. The lions of Tsavo also hunt as entire pride (females and males instead of just females) which is due to scarcity of prey.

The staff here has had a blast the past few days sharing horror stories about the lions at Tsavo but students have been going to Tsavo for many years now and haven’t had a problem yet. It will be just another adventure here in East Africa 🙂


Location: Kimana, Kenya

Kenya culture

The days are beginning to blur together. I can’t tell what day of the week it is without looking at my watch and 3 days feels like one. Every day is some combination of hiking, walking around town, sitting in lecture, playing volleyball or sleeping. I certainly don’t want my blog posts to get redundant so I figured I’d describe some cultural differences that have begun to stand out in all my interactions with the locals. First, is the use of cellphones. My parents would be appalled if they saw the type of cellphone manners that are practiced here. Africa managed to completely skip the era of landlines and go straight from no phones to cellphones, just like that. Now, everyone here has one and everyone uses it. Texting is big, but so is calling. Sounds pretty familiar so far, right? Well, here, it is quite common – no – the norm for people to pick up their ringing cellphones in the middle of a meal, an activity or even a conversation. It’s just the way it works here and it’s perfectly acceptable. It’s also funny to hear the locals speak sometimes. Especially here in Kenya where a lot of people speak English, the language blends into what I’m beginning to call “Swanglish”. When we did our PRA’s the other day (participatory rural assessment) to interview the community about human/wildlife conflicts we had the opportunity to hear the locals speaking to our translators in Swahili. I would listen carefully to see how much Swahili I could understand and every few words would be in English! The words seemed to be completely random too like “fence”, “farm”, “animals”, and certain numbers. That’s just what happens when you’ve got two languages swimming around in your head I guess!
Some other interesting observations come from differences between Kenya and Tanzania. There are actually quite a few which is surprising considering our close proximity to the border. There are some differences in the Swahili which probably comes from the wide use of English in Kenya. The formal greeting for elders and those that deserve respect, “shikamo” is hardly ever used here. Some people will actually look at you funny and might not respond. “Pole”, which means “sorry” is also used very infrequently here in Kenya. Moses (one of the staff members in Tanzania) told us before we left that people in Kenya will wonder why you are saying sorry for everything if you use it too much. Pole is used for everything in Tanzania from feeling badly for someone doing hard work in the field, to bumping into someone on the street. Another, interesting difference is the hair. I would say that about 80% of everyone’s hair in Tanzania was completely shaved, children, adults, men and women. I had gotten completely used to it until we came to Kenya and women actually have hair! The dress is a lot less conservative (more American) and people actually have substantial heads of hair. I’m still trying to figure out why this is…

I’ll try to keep an eye out for more interesting observations!

Kwa heri

 


Location: Kimana, Kenya

At the base of Kili

Yesterday, after a 6 hour drive, we finally arrived at KBC at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. This camp is so much different than Moyo Hill Camp. KBC makes Moyo look like a vacation resort. We only have guaranteed power from 6:30pm-11pm and a lot of the power is generated from solar panels. All of the buildings are semi permanent and communal. There are separate bathrooms and showers that everyone has to share, and there is only hot water in the evenings when we have guaranteed power. (I took a cold shower this morning and actually quite enjoyed it! It woke me up immediately and would be really nice after a very hot day in the sun.) The camp is at least 3 times as big as Moyo with a separate soccer field and volleyball court. We also share space with quite a lot of biodiversity. Within the camp are birds, yellow baboons, vervet monkeys, red spitting cobras, black mambas, green mambas, rats and mice. Elephants will occasionally break down the fence as well to browse within our borders. The wildlife is usually pretty harmless but the vervets love to cause mischief and there is one particularly large baboon who loves to break into bandas and the kitchen. I can’t wait to see an elephant inside the camp!

This morning, I woke up early to go for a run along the perimeter fence. I stepped out of my banda and had the breath knocked out of me by the sight of Kilimanjaro completely clear of clouds. Because of recent rain storms it is completely capped by snow and is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Yesterday, it was very cloudy so we were unable to see anything other than the base but this morning was incredible. Now I understand why students in the other group say that they cried on the last day, before the switch, watching the sun set behind the mountain. I could live here for years and never get used to this beauty. 

We had staff and course introductions today and we are all so excited to be doing our directed research here in Kenya. We will be doing research in the Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem in the shadow of Kili. This particular area has great issue with water use and availability. The ecosystem is usually supplied by water run off from Kili but because of increasing populations of people, there are more and more taps into the water source before it actually reaches the swamps of Amboseli and Tsavo. For this reason, the wildlife is suffering greatly. Drought is affecting even the hardiest of wildlife. I’m excited to research this problem and help the people of the area find sustainable ways to utilize water sources.

I’ll try to post some pictures ASAP!


Location: Kimana, Kenya

One door closes, another opens

I can’t believe that I am starting to pack up all of my things and head to Kenya. I’m halfway home! But that also means, I’m leaving Tanzania, maybe forever. I really hope I come back here someday but you can never really know about things like that. I have fallen in love with the land, the plants, the animals and especially the people. Everyone here is extremely welcoming and is truly interesting in learning from us and just getting to know us. There are two completely different staffs so none of the friends we’ve made here (besides the students of course) are coming with us to Kenya. I know Kenya will be a new and unique experience and I’m so excited to meet new people but I will also sorely miss those we leave behind. I know I will never forget the experiences I’ve had, the things I’ve seen and the people I’ve met here in Tanzania. The 6 hour drive to Kenya on Thursday will feel like leaving home but also finding a new one. When one door closes, another door opens. I can’t wait to see what’s behind it!

ninakupenda sana Tanzania


Location: Rhotia, Tanzania