Where is the World is Amber Danielle Goguen?

One Last Post from the Islands

2010-12-25T21:16:00.001-08:00

I will be headed home from my adventure in the Islands on December 30th, but I wanted to put out one more post before I left. Hope you enjoy!

Karst. Karst is a coral that is really sharp and pointy. It is not fun to walk on barefoot. Don't do what I am doing in this picture. It really hurt. Karst is all over the forest too. It ripped two pairs of new hiking boots to shreds in 8 months. I am going to be excited to return to forests with "normal" rock.

A secluded beach we found hiking on Saipan.
Forbidden Island. You can actually hike out to the top of the point and there is really awesome snorkeling along the beach. We have one of our experimental sites near this lookout point.
The sunrise from my front porch.

Although we don't have snow out here, and it may have been 85 degrees on Christmas, I have been very surprised at the way the islands compensate for such losses with Christmas lights.
Outside the Dynasty Hotel on Tinian.
The main road (Broadway) on Tinian.
A close up.
Biggest light display I have ever seen and it was on Tinian!
My Favorite. The Tinian airport ticket desk.
The Tinian airport waiting room. Yes there is only one room. They call your name when it's your turn to get on the plane.
Christmas Eve Fireworks on Saipan. They had a full firework display that was the biggest and longest I have ever seen. professional grade fireworks lit off from someones back yard. We had the best view on island.
Street Market. Every Thursday there is a street market were all the local restaurants have stands and you can get 5 choices for 5 dollars. So good!
Saipan Decorations
Island Santa
Street market Christmas decorations.

Christmas Day. How do you spend Christmas on a tropical island? You wear your bathing suit, kayak, paddle board, play Frisbee, and drink Bloody Mary's.
Frisbee!
Playing games in the yard.
I went to a friends house for Christmas Eve. I spent most of the night playing with the dogs. We also sang Christmas karaoke songs.

Happy Holidays everyone and I will be home soon!

JAPAN Part V: Magome, Tsumago, and Food

2010-12-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

MAGOME_____________________________________

After our day hiking in the mountains we headed south to a small town called Magome. Another town well preserved in the Edo style. Here we wandered over the cobblestone street taking in the view and munching on street food. We stopped at a small restaurant and had "milk shakes" on the balcony.

A basket of flowers on the side of a building.
Our Ryokan. A traditional Japanese Inn. Although our Japanese language skills didn't greatly improve during out time in Japan (I am afarid there is a rather steep learning curve) we decided to spend a night at a traditional Japanese Inn where very little English was spoken. This is the inn that we stayed at in Magome. There are no hotels in Magome and every store closes at 5.
Which is why they feed you very well at the Ryokan. They give you a sampling of traditional Japanese dishes all made from local ingredients from Magome and the surrounding towns. Very fresh, very good, and a ton of food!
Above is the feast before... Below if the feast after.....
After we ate all that food all we could manage to do was waddle back to our rooms and lay down on our mats and fall asleep. The room at the Ryokan was really nice. It had a table with a tea service in one rood and another there where mats for us which functioned as beds. The best nights sleep we had on our whole trip.

MAGOME-TSUMAGO TRAIL____________________________

There is an 8 km trail between Magome and Tsumago that follows a section of an old pilgrimage road that ran through the Kiso Vally in the Edo period. Normally people will walk the trail spending one night in Magome and another in Tsumago. There is a luggage service that will drive your luggage over for you. We decided that it would be easier to just walk to Tsumago and back again so we checked out of our Ryokan in Magome and left our luggage there for the trip. It took us a while to explain with hand signals to the person at the Ryokan what we wanted to do. Eventually, using a map and pointing at here we wanted to go and making walking motions with our fingers we explained what we wanted to do. When he understood that we wanted to walk there and back he told us that normally it takes a person 3 hours to walk from Magome to Tsumago put he pointed at us and told us it would only take two hours and then showed his arm muscles and said strong and pointed at us again. When we returned five hours later our bags where still there so we think they understood. Here are some photos from the trail.
A view from the top of Magome. You can see the buildings starting the bottom right hand corner and follow then downhill towards the left hand corner. Magome is on a pretty steep hill. There is mist in the valley below because it was still early morning.
A beautiful turquoise river along the path. It was really exciting to see rivers since we don't have any on Saipan or Tinian.
A grove of trees along the trail.
We saw signs pointing us to the male and female waterfalls so we decided to go check them out. This one above is one of them and the one below is the other. We tried to figure out which one was the male and which the female but we couldn't come to any definite conclusions.
The other waterfall. The walk along the trail was really nice and the town of Tsumago was identical to Magome. We ate Kobe beef on sticks with green tea and it was amazing. Kobe beef is a high quality meat that is from a particular breed of cattle that is raised according to traditional methods in this particular prefecture of Japan. I think this was probably the best beef I ever ate. It started to rain (the one day we forgot out jackets!) so we hightailed it back to Magome. I really enjoyed a walk though the woods without sweating in 90% humidity and no wasps.

FOOD________________________________________

Much of our trip to Japan involved eating and looking at lots and lots of food so I decided to give food it's very own section.
The famous Tokyo Fish market. In the morning all the fish are sold here. They used to let toursits in early, but so many people wanted to go that they had to close it off. Once we got there we understood why. There are soo many forklifts and car roaming around you had to be really careful. We wandered around the market looking at all the bizarre things everyone was eating. Then we went and had the freshest sushi we could find. It was soooo good!
A big frozen Tuna. There was lots of tuna in the market, but none as fresh as that still warm raw tuna I ate on Tinian.
More fish and such for sale. Not really sure if the tuna head makes every thing look more appetizing...
Really old salt. 350 million years. Still tastes like salt! They grate it off with a tiny cheese grater.
Crabs anyone? The guy at this stand made us each at a crab leg out of the basket in the middle of the picture. In the top of the picture are really big crabs with bodies over a feet long that were still alive in a tank. Here you can eat your food and watch it too!
Fish flakes.
Octopus? These ones were pretty big. Most of the octopus you eat on the islands and in Japan are a lot smaller. This is the last picture from the Tokyo market.
One of their favorite street foods in Japan. Octopus balls! Octopus inside fried dough ball with special sauce, sea weed, and fish flakes on top. Octopus is really chewy, so you cant just swallow it quickly. It also freaks me out then you can feel the tentacles with your tongue or see them like in the picture above.

The Pictures below are from the food markets in Kyoto...
Octopus shaped lolly pops...I don't think so. These are tiny octopus on a stick. Deceiving huh?
Fish or sale!
One of the best places in Japan. The dried fruit stall at the Kyoto market! Every type of fruit imaginable dried and the best part... free samples of everything!
A typical food store. Signs and things everywhere! It looks (and feels) rather chaotic.

The cat. This cat is for sale everywhere. They even have entire shops that have store fronts are are full of different sized statues of this cat that have moving paws. It is a common japanese sculpture that is supposed to bring good luck to the owner.
Cookies. Lots of tiny cute shaped cookies.
Chocolate covered bananas on a stick in Tokyo.
We found that they love doughnuts so much they even try to make healthy tofu doughnuts.
In Japan they have 126 different flavored KitKat bars. This was one of the more interesting kinds. We also saw apple, hot chili pepper, and soy bean paste.
Am example of the quality of plastic food displays. These are all different kinds of creeps that you can buy, most with ice cream, some with eggs or chili. All of them looked amazing. The Japanese can really do desert. Have have so many doughnut shops, cake shops, ice cream and parfait shops it is incredible.
It takes two chefs dressed in great outfits to make a crepe that beautiful. It was pretty funny to watch. They spent 5 minuets making our crepe. One would hold it while the other carefully decorated it with whipped cream and sprinkles.

And that is the end of my Japanese adventure. Hope you enjoy! I will try to keep up with my posts from now on! Happy Holidays everyone!

Japan Part IV: Takayama and Kamikochi

2010-12-02T18:11:00.000-08:00

TAKAYAMA________________________________________
After spending over a week in the crowded Japanese cities we decided to head north to some smaller quieter towns. Takayama was our first stop. It was a two hour train ride north of Kyoto. This was probably one my favorite train rides. As we headed farther and farther north you could see the trees changing colors. The train tracks ran along a beautiful river between the mountains. Unfortunately it was raining so none of my pictures from the rain spattered windows on the train came out very well.

Takayama is known as a merchant town. Parts of the town have been preserved in their original state from the Edo period (1600's-1800's). This region is known for it's sake distilleries. We found a store that let you do sake tastings. The women there let us try almost every kind, I am now a sake connoisseur. The expensive stuff really is better!
Morning markets. In the morning in Takayama there are two local farmers markets. The best part is that you can taste everything. We wandered around tasting all different types of apples and pears. They have some of the biggest apples I have ever seen! Also, the cheapest fruit we bought in all of Japan.
Looking down the river at the red bridge.
Another view down the river.
Takayama has a great walking course that goes through all the temples and shrines just outside the center of town. This is just one of them.
Another view from our trip on the walking course.
Old wooden temple.
We accidentally wandered off the trail and found ourselves in this persons back yard. We took a quick snap shot of their flooded rice paddies.
Walking through a grave yard. The grave yards in Takayama are spread out within the forest.
Some fall foliage at last! One thing I have been missing very much out here in tropical paradise.
Japanese Maple.
Bridge over a pond in a temple garden.
So red!
Just north of the center of town is a large hill that you climb up. On top of it used be an old castle which was destroyed. The path to the top was carpeted in fallen leaves.

KAMAKOCHI_________________________________________
East of Takayama is a region of Japan commonly known as the Japanese Alps. We took a bus east up through the mountains, around some rather tight turns for our large bus, and ended up here in Kamakochi.
This defiantly isn't Guam.
We didn't scale any of those snow covered summits, but instead wandered along the valley floor next to a very cold mountain stream. Looks a little like New England doesn't it?
The river we followed.
Japanese Wildlife! A snow monkey also known as a Macaque. Apparently they also have bears in Japan unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) we didn't run into any bears! Everyone else that was hiking was wearing bear bells.
Another view from along the trail.
More snow covered peaks.
A fresh (and very cold) mountain stream surrounded by cedar trees.

JAPAN Part II: KYOTO and HIROSHIMA

2010-12-02T17:07:00.000-08:00

KYOTO____________________________________________
We spent 6 days in a hostel in Kyoto and traveled to some of the nearby cities during that time as well. Kyoto is considered to be one of the cultural capital of Japan. We spent many nights wandering around the markets and shops and eating some pretty tasty food. One of my favorite days of our whole trip was when we rented bikes in Kyoto. One fo the first things that you realize when you get to Japan is that there are a lot of people. Everywhere. What is even more astonishing is that there are always people on bikes riding every which direction and no one wears helmets. There don't seem to be too many biking rules. People ride on the side walks, on the road, in ever which direction. Also, in case you didn't know, people in Japan drive on the opposite side of the road from people in the states (like in the UK). This is an additional challenge to the US biker. I was surprised how easily they rented bikes to us. We just gave them money, they showed us the three different ways you need to lock your bike up and sent us on our merry way with a poorly drawn map not remotely to scale. Here are some photos from our adventure.

Out side of the main part of the city was this beautiful turquoise river with many river boats. We were able to bike along side of the river and waved at the many river boats full of tourists, mostly Japanese. Up the hill to the left is something that they call monkey mountain. If you pay $10 you can climb up it and feed hungry monkeys that have sharp teeth. We opted out if this one, and chose to take our chances on the busy streets with our bikes.
Wooden slats with script outside a temple in Kyoto
One of the bridges crossing the river, with artists drawing along it's bank. Another thing that I really liked about Japan was the large number of retired men and women who you would see drawing and painting at spots like this one. Some of them sold their work, others looked like they were just enjoying themselves. This scene reminded me of an impressionist painting.
Another view of the river with a river boat.
Farm plots just outside of the city center along the river bank. Many people farm in Japan, even if they live in a big city like Kyoto, there are plots within the city and just outside. It is illigal to import rice in Japan, so all the rice consumed in the country in also grown there. The current issue is that the average age of the rice farmer is over 50. The younger generations are not interested in growing rice, and soon Japan will either have to open it's country's doors to labors from other countries willing to take on the task, or allow rice to be imported. There are waling paths and bike path through the fields along the river. It was a beautiful bike ride and very flat!
The Golden Pavillion (Kinkaku-ji) . We decided that it would be fun to ride to see the golden pavillion. Not only did our map make it seem deceptively short, it failed to show elevation contours. On our one speed bikes, dodging tourists on the sidewalk and cars in the street we huffed and puffed uphill for an hour to see the Golden Pavilion. And it was defiantly worth the trip. True to it's name the pavilion was gold, literally, covered in gold leaf. In the setting sun reflecting in the pond it was absolutely gorgeous. We even got to hop on an English tour with a bunch of Americans to learn about it's history and place in Japanese culture.
A close up. I wasn't lying when I said it was pure gold.

HIROSHIMA_______________________________________
A two hour train ride from Kyoto is Hiroshima. At Hiroshima we visted the Peace Park and Museum.

The Sign Reads: "WORLD HERITAGE SITE: HIROSHIMA PEACE MEMORIAL (GENBAKU DOME) As a historical witness that conveys the tragedy of suffering the first atomic bomb in human history and as a symbol that vows to faithfully seek the abolition of nuclear weapons and everlasting world peace." It then says the the dome was established as a World Heritage Site. Genbaku dome was near the center of the explosion of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima to end WWII. The dome was one of the few structures in the area that remained partially intact, and now stands as a reminder of the destruction of the atomic bomb.
Genbaku Dome
Genbaku Dome
Genbaku Dome
Fountain and pools at the peace park. In the center in the background is the Genbaku Dome
Inscription in front of the Peace Bell
Ring! Ring!
Statue of Sadako. There is a book writen about her and her 1000 paper cranes. Sadako developed leukemia after beign exposed to radiation from the atomic bomb. She thought that folding 1000 paper cranes would allow her to overcome her illness, sadly she was not able to fold 1000 before she died. Now school children from all over the world have folded 1000 paper cranes and sent them to Hiroshima as a symbol of Peace. They are kept surrounding this statute and throughout the peace park. To help during the war many Japanese school children volunteered time to help their nation. On the day the the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima many children were working to clear fire lanes for the city right in the path of the bomb.
Here are some of the cranes they have folded.

Miyajima Island______________
After spending the better part of our day wandering around the peace park and museum Nelly and I decided to ride the Hiroshima trolley down to see the Itsukishimo Shrine Torii Gate. We actually had no idea where we were going, and were pleasantly surprized when we arrive at a ferry dock and happened to have free passes for the ferry to Miyajima Island.

JAPAN Part III: NARA & OSAKA

2010-11-20T20:37:00.000-08:00

NARA__________________________________________________________
Nara was one of my favorite places we visited. It is known for its numerous shrines and temples as well as being home to the largest wooden building in the world. The park is home to over a thousand deer which have been designated a national treasure and are considered to be heavenly animals. We dubbed then Deerities (deer and deity).
They wander all over the park and in the town occasionally finding their way into restaurants and shops. They look peaceful enough but watch out...
Notice how they seem to single out elderly women and young girls.
This is what happens when you try to feed the deer.

This is one of the many signs from the Nara Deer Support Club.
Another wonderful sign. No idea what it is for.
The park at Nara has many shrines and temples. This is just one of them. You can talk up to the rope throw a coin into a slot, say a prayer, and then pull the cord and a bell with dong. Again, not to much information was in English (besides the deer signs). We spent most of our day wandering through the park people watching, frolicking with deer, and going in and out of temples and shrines. We ate fried meet and fish on a stick for lunch from street vendors and found the only store in Japan that sells whipped cream.
Incense and candles outside a shrine.
I don't really know what this is, but they were everywhere all over Japan and they look pretty neat. They are pieces of decorated cloth tied around stones.
Another temple
Hanging lanterns outside a temple.
The biggest bronze Buddha statue in Japan called Daibutsu. This was pretty majestic. It was absolutely huge!
The largest wooden building in the world which houses the Buddha statue. It is called Todaiji Temple.
Interior of Todaiji Temple. It was huge! The interior is painted red, with massive columns, and lattice work on the ceiling. Also, lots of people, especially Japanese school children in their uniforms.
This is a statue outside of the Todaiji Temple. If you rub he part of the statue that ails you and then rub the same part on your body it is said to take away your aches and pains. I watched this very tiny old Japanese women walk up to the statue and reach up and rub the statues behind and then rub her own. It was very cute.
Stone lanterns. These are also very common around temples all over Japan, but this particular section of Nara park was just covered in them. I can't image what it must have been like when they were all lit up, it must have been a lot of work too.

OSAKA_________________________________________________________
Osaka is said to be one of the food capitals of Japan. We spent a lot of time here eating and looking for food. This is city is known for a dish called okonomiyaki, which translates to "what you like grilled". It is sort of the Japanese form of pizza. They make a giant pancake out of a batter with lots of cabbage and then add whatever you want to it. The Japanese tend to add pork and squid with mushrooms and onions, we tried this one and we also went for the "American" version which had mushrooms, bacon and cheese. Every table in the resturant has their own hot top where the cakes are cooked in front of you, then they add mayonase, a special sauce and seaweed and fish flakes. My favorite dish we tried. We also waited in line for 15 minuets for Krispy Kreme doughnuts. It seemed like the right thing to do since everyone else was doing the same thing. They also have the best frozen yoghurt resturant called Yoghurt Land. Again, we decided to go since there was a huge line outside. They have serve yourself non-fat frozen yoghurt in 20 differnt flavors, most a little bizzare (this is Japan we are talking about after all) And then all the toppings you can imagine. It was really good except for the tiramisu flavored stuff.
This is the Osaka Castle. The inside was a museum that had the history of the city, old paintings, letters, and armor worn at various periods in history of the castle. There was also a great view of the city from the top floor.
The castle moat and a watch tower with the city in the background. Japan is a very modern nation with huge skyscrapers in their cities, and a much better public transportation system than anywhere in the US. But in every city you will find places like the this old castle and shrines and temples surrounded by development that are kept in their original condition. In the morning at the shrines in the city you can watch business men in their suits with briefcases going to a shrine to pray before work. Japan seems to of found a balance between old and new, traditional and modern.
Flowers in the gardens at the Castle.
One of the main shopping streets in Osaka. If you want to go shopping in Japan go to Osaka. They have a labyrinth of covered shopping malls that rivals anything I have ever seen anywhere in the world. The amount of signage is overwhelming.
There we are!

Street performers on a bridge between two huge sections of covered malls. Not only is it a populr place to hang out but an excellent place to people watch. There is some great Japanese fashion in Osaka. The most popular clothes items...Flannel, fur leg warmers, thigh high black leather high heal boots, little flouncy lacy skirts that are actually shorts, and short denim shorts with black tights. Men wear lots of patterned leggings. Also pink!

Japan Part I: TOKYO

2010-11-20T15:58:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't put up a post in a while, but I promise this one will make up for the past couple months. I have been living on the wild side on Tinian, a small but beautiful place where not too much is going on. I was also busy planning a trip to Japan. Nelly (my best friend and roommate from college) and I decided to go to Japan for 2 weeks (November 3rd through the 17th). The trip was amazing and I have way too many pictures to share with you. So here it goes.. enjoy!

As with all trips Nelly and I were really organized about planing the whole thing out before we got to Japan. We figured the language barrier might be just a little large for us to try and book nights at hostles as we went along. I think we were right in assuming that. Before we left for Japan, we knew two words: goodbye (sayonara) and anime porn (hentai). Not a very useful vocabulary. When we got to Japan we never even heard anyone say sayonara. We did learn some basics, like different types of meat, thank you very much, excuse me, hello, ect. We also learned that if you just say thank you and excuse me enough and bow a lot everything seems to be alright. Now that I am back in Guam I have to resist the urge to bow to the cashier in the grocery store, although now I do know how to ask the hordes of Japanese tourists on the beach to please move out of the way when I am running.

However carefully we planned our trip we still missed one major point. The fact that Nelly's flight didn't get to Japan on Wednesday, but Thursday since she was flying over the international date line. We realized this about 12 hours before I left for Japan. The worst pat was Nelly had my Rail Pass for all the trains. I got in to Japan at 7:00 pm on Wednesday and walked around the airport looking confused and pointing at a map of where I wanted to got until someone pointed me in the right direction. I finally got on the right train and looked around at the other inhabitants of the car. Everyone was wearing Pea-coats and scarves with boots and tights or jeans. All the men were in business suits. I was sitting there in rolled up pants and a tee shirt. I realized that it was cold and for the first time in 5 months put on a sweatshirt. After the train ride I wandered around looking for my hostel until this really nice elderly couple helped me out. The little old man who was severely hunched over but walked quickly down the road was spouting Japanese at me. The only three words I understood where Arizona, Ohio and Tennessee. With his help I found my hostel and was happy to go to sleep actually using blankets. The next day Nelly arrived and our adventures began.

A quick overview of our trip. We started in Tokyo (the capital) and then took a train to Kyoto, passing by mount Fuji on the way. We stayed in Kyoto for 6 nights and from there took day trips to the surrounding cities of Osaka, Nara, and Hiroshima. Then we headed up north to the mountains and visited Takayama, Kamikochi, Matsumoto, Magome, and Tsumago, some older more traditional Japanese towns. Then we headed back to Tokyo for our last day, before heading home.

TOKYO_______________
The City!

Temples in Tokyo. These are right near the hostel we stayed at in Asakusa, outside of the center of the city. In the morning you can see businessmen in their suit with their brief cases going to the temples before work.
More Temples in Tokyo. I wish I could tell you more about them but all the signs and pamphlets about them were in Japanese.

A Market in Tokyo. Sooo Many people! And lots of sweets for sale.

The Electronics District. Before Nelly arrived I befriended a guy from Australia and we went to the electronics district. Sooooo many electronics. A devise for everything! Things you didn't even know you needed a devise for. Also, I discovered that the Japanese men have a thing for girls in French maid costumes. They have entire restaurants where all the waitresses are dressed as French maids. The girls stand out on the street handing out cards in their costumes trying to attract costumers. I accidentally almost went into this one of these restaurants. Since I can't read any of the menus, I was forced to judge a restaurant by its plastic food display. Basically every restaurant has a sample of its dishes with prices made out of plastic on display outside of the restaurant. The restaurants with the French maids all had really good food displays.
Beware of pigeons in the park. Some of the best signs ever.
I think this one may be my favorite.
Trees in a garden at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. We couldn't actually get into the main part near the palace, but the gardens around it were really neat. We spent a lot of our time in Toyko shopping, so I don't have too many pictures. Everyone in Japan is always dressed up to the nines, even at the grocery store at 10 pm. We felt a little scruffy in our tee-shirts and jeans. Fashion is really important to them, and everyone is always shopping. There are huge malls everywhere. You really can't avoid them. They are at all the subway stations and train stations. They even have huge covered malls all over the place, and it is really easy to get lost in them. We like to think that we were indulging in modern Japanese culture of fashion...

Stories from the field: Large Lizards, Unexploded Ordinances, and Spam, Oh My!

2010-08-17T02:50:00.001-07:00

Working for EBL I tend to spend a lot of time alone in the forest each week. This doesn’t always lead to the most interesting tales but here are a few things that have happened to me while working in the last couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy!

There are no really dangerous animals out here in the CNMI, which is great if you are walking through the forest alone most of time. There are no large predators, poisonous snakes, or insects. The most dangerous thing you can do out here is drive your car. I did wake up this morning to a cockroach climbing up the back of my shirt, not dangerous, but defiantly gross. The one creature we have out here that can certainly give you a pretty nasty wound is the monitor lizard. Monitor lizards can grow up to be about 5 feet long and weight over 5 pounds. They are carnivores and the only large carnivores present on most of the islands (feral cats are another, although smaller). Most likely the lizard was transported here by the Chamorros when they first arrived on the islands a very long time ago. Monitor lizards have a nasty bite that is prone to infection. They are not aggressive animals, but if put in a situation where they feel threatened they could bite. So you don’t want to put a wild monitor lizard in a situation where it might bite you, which is exactly were I found my self last week.

In the forest we have enclosures, in which we grow young seedlings to see how they are affected by insect herbivory in the forest. All of the enclosures have two parts: one is surrounded by chicken wire but open on the top, and the other is surrounded by chicken wire and the top is covered in bird netting to keep birds out. (There are pictures of them in some of my previous posts). Part of my job that day was to spend three hours alone collecting data on the herbivory of all of the seedlings in our enclosure. When I arrived that day I dropped my bag, grabbed my supplies, and stepped into the enclosure only to quickly jump back out at the realization there was a meter and a half long monitor stuck inside our 4 by 6 meter enclosure. The thing was obviously terrified and really wanted to get out but was having some difficulty since the trees in the enclosure were not easy for it to climb. I definitely could not safely walk around this small square for an hour and a half trying to collect data with a large frightened lizard for company. I sat there for a while and stared at it while eating my lunch wondering what to do and hoping it would escape in the time it took me to eat my PB and J. Unfortunately, I don’t think monitor lizards are known for their intelligence.

To get into the entirely covered section of out enclosures, you have to step into the non-covered part (the part currently entrapping the lizard) and undo some ties and crawl on the ground through a little hole into the covered section. I waited for an ideal moment, then, when the lizard was trying to conceptualize the idea of a fence with holes (it kept sticking its nose through the hole and expecting it body to be able to follow, and getting its nose stuck in the fence). I hoped into the enclosure, untied the opening to the other section, took a quick look at the monitor still distracted by the decoy fence, and turned my back to it and slipped though the little opening (called the birthing canal by EBL employees. I quickly turned around and closed up the fence, just as the monitor registered my presence. I was now secure and safe, locked inside a 4 x 6 x 3 meter cube in the middle of the forest. I felt a little ridiculous but I started to work and the creature wandered around the enclosure for a while. He came pretty close to the fence that separated us at one point and I got a pretty good look at him. Luckily for me (and him) he eventually figured out how to escape, and ran away.

Another task we have to do is collect fruit (containing seeds) that we will then grow up in our nursery, and plant in the forest in our enclosures. My job for the day was to collect fruit. It sounds so simple, but really it is a difficult task involving carrying 10 foot long pole cutters through the forest and balancing precariously over 40 foot cliffs attempting to reach ripe fruit. This is the problem with collecting fruit from trees at are dispersed by birds. This task would be much easier if we had the ability to fly and I have asked my boss several times for a jet pack, but she doesn’t think it is in the project budget. So I found myself wandering along cliff edges looking for fruit and stumbled across an interesting cave. Some of my friends had recently been to some caves in the area that had skeletal remains in them. Locals and Japanese soldiers used these caves to hide in during WWII.

A quick history lesson, to explain why people hid in these caves. The Japanese were in control of the CNMI at the start of WWII. On July 15, 1944 70,000 U.S. troops attacked the Island of Saipan that was harboring 31,000 Japanese troops and close to 30,000 civilians (Japanese colonists, indigenous peoples, Koreans, and other inhabitants from nearby islands such as the Philipines. Tinian and Guam were taken in August. During the fighting and after, the civilians and the soldiers hid in the caves. From what I have been able to find online, most of the locals were removed from the caves by American soldiers and put in concentration camps until 1946. Many of the Japanese held up in the caves, and were killed by American soldiers. The Japanese refused to surrender, and many committed suicide. The last Japanese solider, Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi, was found hiding in a cave on Guam in 1972.

You can find these caves all over the islands, and I happened to stumble across one of them when I was collecting fruit the other day on Saipan. I decided to take a break and go on a little exploration mission. It was full of old bottles and pottery and other odds and ends, but no human remains in this one. Many of the bones of the Japanese soldiers that died here were brought back to Japan. I didn’t have a flashlight with me so I was just wandering around in the dark and I saw an object that looked like it might be a backbone. So naturally I picked it up and brought it out the entrance of the cave so I could have a better look. In the light of day- to my disappointment and shock- I discovered that I was not holding a backbone, but in fact an unexploded hand grenade. I quickly muttered some profanities to myself, turned around, lightly placed the hand grenade on the ground and ran away. I decided that it was probably safer to stick to my actual job of fruit collection, rather than cave exploration.

On Saipan not all of our days are spent collecting fruit. We have plants at the CNMI Forestry nursery that need to be kept after. A few of my stays on Saipan were spent transplanting at the nursery. The workers at the nursery (all older Chamorro men and a few women who work in the office) sit down to lunch at about 11:30. So at 11:30 they made me drop what I was doing and go eat lunch with them. I was embarrassed to bring my BP and J sandwich so I just went to sit down and chat for a few minuets. As my previous experiences with Chamorros and food should have taught me, I would not get away without eating something, and in fact had all sorts of odd processed meat products heaped onto my plate, including none other than Spam. This was the first time that I have ever eaten Spam. It was cooked in Campbell’s tomato soup. It actually tasted pretty good, except for the fact that I know what is in it and how bad Spam actually is for you. Other delicacies at the table included hotdogs, corned beef straight from the can, and some pretty good tasting pork someone’s wife had made. All of this was eaten on top of rice. There was a cucumber at the table but no one would touch it. For some reason Chamorro men really like to make sure you are well hydrated, and are always offering me drinks. Unluckily, we were at lunch at work so there wasn’t any beer, but instead I was given a drink that had 49 grams of sugar. 49 grams! I didn’t know you could put that much sugar in a drink! It’s a wonder there aren’t more dentists out here.

The next day I spent at the nursery I came prepared with my own rice, bottle of water, and some hotdogs cooked with onions and green pepper. Apparently, hotdogs with vegetables are not as appetizing as Spam straight out of the can. The Spam was devoured as I sat with my hotdogs untouched. I offered them to the guy sitting next to me who politely took a small spoonful but that was about it. I have plans for making Spam with vegetables next time I eat lunch at the nursery to see if the desire for Spam overrides the apparent dislike of vegetables. I will let you know what happens.

I recently departed the bustling metropolis of Saipan with soccer leagues, ultimate Frisbee Friday, Egyptian themed dance clubs, karaoke bars and almost all-natural peanut butter, for the quite island of Tinian, where I will be staying until mid-September. Luckily this time around we have Internet, and hope to get some posts up with pictures. Hope you enjoy! Have a wonderful end of the summer!

Mist Netting on Saipan

2010-07-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

I am back from the wild Tinian, and am living on the tamer Island of Saipan, but not for long! Saipan has such luxuries as yogurt and internet access. We also live in a house with two other biologists that work for the Institute of Bird Populations (IBP). They go out every week and capture birds for population estimates and collect other data such as age, sex, and molting time for the forest birds on the island. They were nice enough to let me tag along with them this weekend to see what they do and get up close and personal with some of the forest bird species we have here on Saipan It was a great opportunity since we never get to see the birds this close while we are working on our project, even though our work is related to forest birds we don’t actually work with them directly.

So on Sunday morning I woke up at 4:30 am (birds are early risers) and was in the filed setting up mist nets by 6:00am. What they do is set up ten nets in predetermined locations at specific sites on the island. A mist net is a really fine small netting that is used to capture birds in. You set up a big net, like a volleyball net but it goes almost all the way to the ground, and then the birds fly into it and become entangled. We walk around to every net every 40 mins to see if any new birds were caught. If we catch a bird we take it out of the net (much easier said than done since these are wild birds and don’t exactly enjoy being handled by humans) and put it in a cloth draw-string bag and wear it around your neck while you walk around to all of the nets.

Once you have collected all the birds from the nets you go back to the car where we take data on the birds. I had never done this before but the IBP people helped me out. They taught me how to age wing feathers and how to tell if a bird is molting. They also taught me how to age a bird based on whether its skull is completely ossified or not. You can see a bird’s skull through its skin. A young bird has holes (or windows) in its skull where the bone has not completely connected yet. We also sexed birds based on their wing length and weight. We also measured the beak length of some birds and the funniest part of the whole thing was weighting them. The only way to weight a bird is to stick it head first in a tube so that it can’t escape and put it on a scale (see picture). We also banded birds if they were not already banded, most were, which means that they have already been captured once. The number of times you catch the same bird is used to estimate the population size. The IBP interns also helped me to learn to identify the bird songs so that when I am out working in the forest I know what birds are singing at me.

Once you collect all the data we had some of the birds pose for close-ups and then we let them go. We did this from 6:00am until 12:00 pm and then headed home after taking down the nets. It was a really fun morning, even if I did have to get up really early on my weekend, and I am planning to go out with them again sometime to try and see some different bird species and get more experience working with mist netting birds. Here are some more photos. I hope everyone is doing well and I will have more to write soon now that I am back with internet access. The mist net
A bird in the net
Weighting a Rufus Fantail
Measuring beak length
Golden White-Eye: Cleptornis marchei
Golden White-Eye: Cleptornis marchei
Juvenile Micronesian Honey Eater: Myzomela rubratra (When adults these birds are bright red with back wings)
Juvenile Micronesian Honey Eater: Myzomela rubratra
Bridled White-Eye: Zosterops conpicillatus
Bridled White-Eye: Zosterops conpicillatus
Rufus Fantail: Rhipidura rufifrons saipanensis
Rufus Fantail: Rhipidura rufifrons saipanensis

Tinian Again

2010-07-17T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! SOrry it has been soo long since my last post. I have been trying to write more but our work schedule has been really busy and unfortunately we do not have internet on Tinian right now. We have to go into town to a cafe and buy food to use the internet. I promise that there will be more in my next post, but pictures are alwasy the best part anyway. Hope you enjoy!A Japanese shrine. After WWI Tinian was occupied by the Japanese who cleared 80% of the land for sugarcane plantations. This is why we have almost no forest on TInian.
Scooter rides! They rent scooters for tourists so for the 4th of July Shahla and I rented a scooter and explored Tinian. It was really fun and really hot in the sun.
Shahla and I on my scooter
The scooter and a palm tree
Shahla (the other intern) and I with out pilot after our flight from Saipan to Tinian. The airplane is a little six seater.
A bright red insect that we see in the forests here on Tinian

Some of our seedlings in the forest. These are the ones that I have to carry gallons of water into the forest to water when it gets really dry, luckily the rainy season is here and we don't have to water nearly so much.
The is one of our field sites. We set up an exclosure and we plant seedings from forest species inside and monitor their herbivory by insects in the forests. We expect to see different types of herbivory on plant on Guam since there are less birds in the forests eating insects there.
Shahla collecting fruit. We collect fruit from forest trees and grow them up in our nursery and plant them in our field sites to monitor insect herbivory
More fruit collection.
Some of the fruit is really high up. I am about 4 meters high in a tree holding a 10 meter pole in the air trying to collect fruit. unfortunately we didn't get any becuase it was too high up.

Cock fighting chickens. Cock fighting is a big sport out here and there are lots of breeders for it.
A view of Tinian from above. The road you see is Broadway, the main road on Tinian. Notice also that is seems to be almost the only road.
The ocean
More beach
More beach
And More beach
Last beach

Some pictures from Guam

2010-06-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Perlite the chicken/dog
Petting the chicken on the couch watching a movie.
walking through the forest
A butterfly
looking for coconut crabs

A (Somewhat) Typical Day on Guam

2010-06-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

My day began at 5:07 to loud knocks on my door. I slept through my alarm. I jumped out of bed and within minuets was driving a friend of the project to the airport. She had stayed with us last night and is flying back to the states as I write this. She is a very nice Spanish teacher on Rota who did Peace Corps work in El Salvador.

Once I returned from the airport I quickly made coffee, ate breakfast, checked my e-mail, found out I am flying to Tinian this weekend, looked up where in the field we are supposed to go today (we don’t know where all the sites on the island are but they have directions online), made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and packed up for the field.

I then took the second round of people to the airport, this time members of the project going to Saipan. We dropped them off with large luggage bags and two very large bags of Perlite (not our chicken, but a product we use for planting that is only available on Guam). After airport round two we finally headed over to the University of Guam and our field house where we have a nursery and keep all of our gear, but not before we stopped to buy a massive cinnamon bun, which was very very delicious. “We” refers to Shahla and I, the other intern hired with me.

We finally made it to the field house, watered the plants, moved all of our gear to our field truck (a very large and official looking white pick up with Government of Guam plates). We then drove down the road about 100 feet and realized that we had only looked up directions to one of the three sites we had to visit today. We stopped at a coffee shop and used their computer and internet to look up where the sites actually are, but the file that describes them didn’t work. Fortunately, the really nice people at the coffee shop let us borrow their phone to call a crew member. The only answer was from a crew member all the way out on Tinian who gave us directions to the sites, but the conversation kept getting interrupted since every time a customer came into the coffee shop to pay with a credit card they had to use the phone to let the payment go through. We were finally in the car and on our way into the filed. Note that the time is now 7:30 am.

Sample Directions to one site:

1) Flagging on Grassy area to the right of where you park. It may be pink or Orange.

2) Enter under the flagging, through Tangantangan (a plant species) and into the forest down a pile of karst.

3) At the end of the karst there will be an open area with lots of weeds

4) Look for a huge shrub with many vines next to a deformed pandamus plant and enter the forest here. There may be flagging on the edge.

5) Go three feet into the forest. Make a sharp turn to the right, don’t go straight down the karst into the forest. This may be flagged.

6) When you hit a more level part of the forest it curves to the right.

7) In 40 m more curve to the left

8) Climb up a small hill and you should be there.

Today our job was to plant 82 seedlings at one of our sites. It sounds simple, until you realize that this job entails. organizing seedlings based on parent tree so that you plant the right ones at the right spot. You also have to transport them to the field in the car with air conditioning (this part isn’t so bad), Then you bring them into the field (this part is really hard). You have to carry the plants in a laundry basket over the karst (really rough coral rock) carrying 6 gallons of water on your back following the above directions. Then you plant the plants, most often digging into the karst. There really isn’t a lot of soil in the forest, mostly rock. Then you water them. Each plant has a certain location it is to be planted in. Lets just say this takes a while and normally an extra trip or two to bring in more water.

We finally hauled everything into the forest and found our site. Then sirens began blaring on the road near the site. I though “oh, maybe they will stop”. They never stopped. They were going for 6 hours. We decided that they must be for one of the following reasons.

1) A typhoon was coming. There was thunder in the distance.

2) A huge wildland fire was coming our way or a large house was burning down.

3) A huge drug bust was going down right over the hill in the forest

4) They were giving school children rides in police cars.

5) None of the above.

Then the thunder heads rolled over. High winds began blowing through the forest and the thunder was booming and the rain was pouring. I thought to myself “Oh! It can’t rain any harder than this!” It rained harder. The earth was vibrating with thunder and there was lightening and, well, we just kept planting since we were almost done. We finished planting and headed out of the forest to our truck for a lunch break, with one more site to go. As soon as we got into the truck I commented on how my arm was tingling /stinging. I kept looking but I couldn’t see anything. Shahla showed me some battle wounds from biting ants. We then realized that we were covered in biting ants! They were all in our clothes. We were franticly trying to kill them all while staying in the truck so we didn’t have to go outside in the storm. Eventually the ants were all dead, 30 or so, and we finished out lunch in peace. I also managed to get two spiders in my hair out in the field. The big kind that is in the picture from my last post.

The rain let up and we headed out to do our last planting of the day. Unfortunately the rain didn’t hold up for long, and the ants were still on out packs. We quickly followed another set of vague directions mostly dependent on plant species to find the other site. We got there, got ready to plant, and realized that we had left the plants back at the car. Once we got the plants and got to work things went quickly. The forest was really dark though and wet and full of toads and mosquitoes. We finally finished, but realized we had accidentally planted 6 to many plants. Luckily it was easy to figure out which ones were extra, and we took them back out. Finally we were done.

I don’t have any pictures from our day in the field but I would like to describe my appearance at the height of our activities. Hiking boots, kaki field pants (that are very dirty and smell awful) and a white tank top (that is actually brown from dirt and very wet so it is see though and you can see my blue sports bra underneath). I am also wearing an extra large bright orange traffic cop vest so that we don’t get shot by hunters out in the forest. I have on a large maroon internal frame backpack full of gallon jugs of water and am carrying a large container of plants in my hands. It is raining so hard everything is wet. You could of dumped a gallon of water on me and I wouldn’t have noticed. My hair is soaked and I am covered in large specks of dirt and bark. Water is dripping down my face like sweat. I’m not sure if a camera really could of captured the moment.

We got back to our truck and changed into dry clothes. The site we went to today is at a racetrack that is no longer in use, but being expanded into the forest. We are driving out of the site, so glad to be done with field work, and listening to the radio. Shahla suddenly stops the car and says “I don’t remember this”. Somehow we had managed to drive onto the old dirt bike track and up on top of one of the big dirt bike jumps. We had stopped at the top. We both looked at each other and burst into laughter and backed down the jump and onto the correct road. I can only image what the people driving by thought of the large white pickup parked on top of the big dirt bike jump.

We headed back to the University of Guam, unloaded our gear, parked the truck, and headed home in our car. When we got home we took warm showers (my first on the island) and I actually put on a sweatshirt. I didn’t think that I would ever use it.! We then made popcorn and tea and watched Pretty Women with our pet chicken (Perlite) sitting beside me on the couch happily peeping as we fed her popcorn and pet her. We normally don’t let her in the house anymore but she got beat up by a rooster and needed some time in the house to recover.

The remainder of the day involved making dinner and entering data and just milling around the house. This isn’t what all days are like on Guam but sums up how a lot of them go!

Some pictures to come shortly!

Tinian

2010-06-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

Hello! In my last post I said I was off to Tinian. I spent two weeks on Tinian. A majority of that time was spent alone on the island so I had a lot of time to myself to explore. Here are some photos from Tinian with some descriptions....
A Spider: A rare sight on Tinian. We have noticed a big difference between Guam (an island without most of its forest birds) and Saipan, Tinian, and Rota (islands with many forest birds). On Guam there are tons of spiders and many huge ones. On Saipan, Tinian, and Rota there are many more small spiders and many less large webs in the forest. We don't know how (or even if) this relates solely to the presence or absence of birds but it certainly makes walking through the forests on Guam more difficult because you get webs all over your face. I think these particular spider webs are really interesting. You can see in the picture that it has a big zig zag through the center of the web. This web was probably over 3 feet in diameter and the spider with its legs was larger than the palm of my hand.
A view of the main harbor and beach on Tinian. Tinian is pretty flat. This is taken from on of the highest points on the island. The brighter green section in the front is some of the limestone forest that we work in. Most of the limestone forest on Tinian was cleared either by agriculture (sugarcane) or from WWII. Most of the forests that remain on Tinian are on steep slopes.
This is one of the secluded beaches on Tinian. Most people go to the beach on the weekend and barbecue with their families. If you want to have a beach to yourself you can go to a beach like this one and read your book under a palm tree. I went to a barbecue at a locals house on a Saturday night. The people on Tinian are very friendly and will gladly invite you over and feed you way too much beer and food. So I had some great barbecue and a guy arrived with some fresh tuna just out of the ocean. He cut me off a piece and I had raw tuna. They then fed me raw tuna heart. Not as bad as you may think but I'm no sure I would eat it again. Fresh raw tuna is very good and they put it in soy sauce with lemon and wasabi.
Looking down at the ocean from the cliffs.
As I said before Tinian has a long war history. It is pretty common to find old machine gun tanks rusted in the forest. This is one on the way into out site. There is also the possibility of finding some unexploded ordinances, which happens occasionally. They found one last weekend on the air-force base on Guam. There are also hundreds of Sake bottles all over the forest.
This is one of our sites. You can see the piece of orange flagging on the top of the rocks. We climb up and down big piles/cliffs of karst like this one in the forest. It really does a number on your shoes and your pants. So far I have ripped two holes in the seat of my field pants. I will be very good at sewing by the end of my time here. I also changed my first flat tire on Tinian. So I am learning some useful skills.
Vines growing up the side of a cliff in the forest on the trail into one of our sites.
A cave off the trail at one of our sites. When the US took over the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam from the Japanese, many of the Japanese feared they would be tortured by the Americans. Some people committed suicide by jumping off of the cliffs on the islands and others hid in the forests in the caves and stayed there for a while. There was one solider who lived in a cave on Saipan for 30 years. There are many of these caves at our sites or along the trails we walk to get to our sites.
Tinian was the island where the atomic bombs that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima during WWII were launched from. The island has a hunted feeling to it. You can tell that many of the roads were wider and kept up, but now they are in poor condition and normally you can only use one lane to drive in. When another car is coming you both have to pull off the road a little bit to pass each other. Many things are grown in. The Northern part of island is basically uninhabited except for farms and illegal drug growing operations. That is where the atomic bombs were kept, the area is called North Field.
This is one of the pits where the atomic bombs were kept.
This is the runway that the planes that dropped the atomic bombs took off from. When I was at the area there were two men from the air force visiting. They were wondering what I was doing on Tinian and came over to ask me some questions. They were from the same squadron that the pilots that dropped the atomic bombs were from. They were the first guys in active duty that had made it back to Tinian since WWII. They happened to be positioned on Guam for 4 months and two of them were given time off to visit the site on Memorial day. It was very interesting to talk to them and they gave me a patch off their uniform as a memento.
Old Japanese power plant at North Field.
Old Japanese power plant at North Field.
Old Japanese power plant at North Field.
Old Japanese administration building at North Field.
Old Japanese administration building at North Field.
Old Japanese administration building at North Field.
Old Japanese administration building at North Field.
Old Japanese administration building at North Field.

SO those are my pictures from Tinian. I am now on Guam but will be retuning to Tinian for another month this summer. It is a very bizarre and interesting place. The war has had a huge impact on not only the people and the economy of the island but also the forests and the environment. I am excited to go back and see more. I also hope that I can find out more information on the history of the Island before I return.

There will be more from Guam soon!! Hope you all are keeping cool!!

SAIPAN

2010-05-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning Haldre drove me to the airport and I got on a plane with old school propellers. It had a tiny built in staircase that you had to use to climb in. The flight was loud but there was a great view from the plane into the bright blue water below and we were surrounded by fluffy cotton candy clouds. Unfortunately I was in a seat right next to the propeller so I had to watch it spin around if I wanted to look out the window, which freaked me out a little. The flight from Guam to Saipan was about 30 min.

Saipan is a smaller island but I like it a lot more. Also there are no chickens living in the bathroom of our house. Our house in Saipan is beautiful. We share it with scientists from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The only down side of living with them is that they tend to store dead birds (whole specimens from the island) in our freezer, which is always a surprise when you are looking for your edible frozen chicken. It is up on a hill overlooking the ocean and there is a wonderful breeze, which makes it much more comfortable temperature wise. On Saturday afternoon I went to the beach with Jenny (another EBL worker) and it was beautiful. The water is so warm it’s like bath water, it and the ocean floor is covered with sea cucumbers – an interesting change from the murky seaweedy water of the cape. On the beach we napped and talked in the shade. All in all a very relaxing afternoon. I also tried to go running. I didn’t go very far. It was still way to hot. You can’t run here when the sun is out, particularly when you live on a steep hill.

Saturday night we went to a festival called the taste of the Marianas. I ate way too much local food (most of which was deep fried) and it was very good. At the festival we watched something called a bartending competition. Each bartender had 5 mins to make a drink. The only problem is that pouring different liquids into a container and mixing it is not that entertaining. So the bartenders were juggling bottles of vodka, lighting things on fire, riding motorcycles to make the event more interesting. It was really quite ridiculous which made it marginally entertaining. After the festival we went to a bar called Godfathers. Apparently this is the best bar on Saipan. It was definately an interesting experience. The walls everywhere are covered in paraphernalia from the movie and actors in the Godfather. Weirder still was that the bar had waitresses that all wore matching outfits. Apparently they have different outfits every night. This night they were wearing little plaid skirts and black tank tops. All in all it was very bizarre but I did learn that you can still get Bud Light in a bottle for 2.50 even out here in the middle of nowhere. On Sunday we barbequed on the beach all day. Not a bad weekend in Saipan.

On Monday I actually did some real field work. The Ecology of Bird loss project is looking at the effect of bird loss on the ecosystems of these islands. The brown tree snake is an invasive species that arrived in Guam during WWII. By 1980 Guam had lost 10 of its 12 endemic (native) forest bird species. It still has two Mariana crows (unfortunately both are males) and there is a small population of swifts on the north coast near the military reserve where they have intensive snake control. There are also invasive (nonnative) bird species here. They estimate that there are 13,000 snakes per square mile. The snakes are also thought to be effecting the rodent and lizard populations. On Rota, Tinian, and Saipan (also know as the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands, which is still U.S. soil) there are no snakes. So we are looking at the difference between these islands to see what has changed since the birds are gone. In particular we are looking at seed dispersal, insect communities, and agriculture.

So what is that I do? We have a few different experiments set up on each of the islands. We have grids with seed traps to collected seeds to see how far seeds are spreading from their parent tree. We expect to see that seeds fall a lot closer to their parent tree on Guam where there are no birds in the forest to disperse them. We are also looking at how seedlings grow when they are dropped near their parent tree compared to father away. We collect seeds from trees and plant the seedlings (raised in a nursery and then transplanted) in the forest at sites near and far from parent trees. We are also beginning to collected insects from other sets of seedlings on different experimental plots in the forest. So basically we collect seeds, grow them, and plant them in the forest and monitor how they are doing. All of our sites (and there are a lot) are in the limestone forest, which is very difficult to move through. It has a lot of vegetation, lots of jagged rocks and cliffs, and wasps! From day to day I will go into the forest at different sites to check on the experiments, water our seedlings, collect data, or just wander around the forest to collect seeds to grow in our nursery. There are a lot more things going on as well but that is the big/general picture. I am also learning how to identify the main plant species on the island, all the birds and reptiles, and the insects we find on our seedlings. Each day starts at 7:30 and goes until we are done. Technically we have weekends off but sometimes plants need to be watered. We have a lot to do and are very busy every day.

On Monday I went around with Jenny and we repaired seed traps and checked to make sure all were in good order and watered lots of plants. I also got stung by two wasps (one on each hand) and it was very painful. After our long day in the field where it would rain every half hour and then get really sunny and humid we watched the sun set from the highest point on Saipan and then went out for Sushi. Real Sushi. And it was amazing. The next day I flew to Tinian …to be continued.

the lizard (gecko?) that was on my counter when I got home today. It was the size of my pinky finger from tail to tip of nose and very cute.
The sunset on Saipan. The little back things in the ocean are huge cargo ships.
The coolest cloud ever!
The beginning of sunset.
Saipan to the South. Very faintly on the right hand side in the back you can see some of Tinian.
Saipan to the north.
Some of our seedlings growing in the forest. Papaya seedlings.
A seed trap
The chicken eating a cockroach.

GUAM

2010-05-21T03:09:00.000-07:00

I am in Guam and it is very hot. I haven’t really stopped sweating. But it is awesome. This is how the first week of my journey goes… I graduated from College with two bachelors degrees and two minors on Saturday May 15^th. On May 17^th my parents dropped me off at the Boston Airport early in the morning and then I flew to LA from LA I flew to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Guam. So I slept through Monday on all my flights and missed Tuesday all together because I crossed the International Date Line. I arrived in Guam on Wednesday May 19^th at 2 am. On my flight to Guam I was sitting next to a girl who was moving to Guam for 2 and a half years because her husband had been stationed there for military service after they got married. Across the isle was a girl who went to college in California but was coming home for the summer. Between the two of them I learned that all cities/towns are called villages in Guam, do not go to the Horse and Cow bar, do go to Chamorro Village and everyone speaks English among other useful tips.

So I was picked up at the airport by Haldre, who is the PhD student running the project that I am working on. We drove to one of my new houses from the airport (about 10 mins). The house is one story with a few bedrooms, a kitchen, living room front porch, and a back yard – defiantly an upgrade from my very small apartment in Amherst. Even better it has working internet! Who knew you had to go to Guam to get a good wireless connection! When I entered my new house for the first time it was about 3 am and I was very tired and defiantly jet lagged. Haldre showed me my room and my closet it all seemed pretty ordinary. As she was leaving the room she turned to me and said “Oh I forgot to tell you we have a pet chicken and we keep her in the bathroom at night so keep the door closed.” Haldre went to bed and I was forced to confront the chicken alone. As I approached the bathroom I could hear some faint peeping. When I opened the door perched above the shelves on the toilet was a small tan chicken about 10 inches high. When I entered the bathroom it flew down form its perch pecked my foot and my ankle and then proceeded to eat some food and occasionally run really fast across the bathroom for no apparent reason. The chicken’s name is Pearl l Light, but I prefer to call it chicken. The worst thing about the chicken is that it is not house trained. If anyone does know how to house train a chicken please let me know. Apparently you can train a chicken to poop on command but we have yet to master that skill and the question still remains what happens when the chicken needs to poop and you don’t command it. The chicken loves to follow us around the house- it even sits next to you on the couch. It also loves to perch on the top of your lap top when you are working on your computer the only problem is that it likes to sit with its behind towards you meaning that at any moment a surprise may land on your keyboard. In conclusion of this tangent not all birds on Guam are gone – we have a chicken living in our bathroom.

The morning after my arrival I was up at 8 am and was given a more in depth introduction to the project by Haldre. I am working for the Ecology of Bird Loss Project (soon to have a logo designed by yours truly). We are looking at the effects of invasive species (the brown tree snake) on the ecology of the Mariana Islands (Guam, Rota, Saipan, Tinian). On Guam most of the endemic bird species are extirpated by the snake but the other islands still have many of their endemic species although some have been extirpated due to loss of habitat and other invasive species but not nearly as many or as quickly as seen with the brown tree snake on Guam. We are looking at the effects of bird loss on seed dispersal and insect communities and their effect on vegetation including agriculture. We are working in the limestone forests of these islands. We have different girds and enclosures in the middle of the woods that we visit to collected data. After my introduction to the project I went straight out into the field to one of the sights that we have on the northern tip of Guam in the National Wildlife Refuge. It was beautiful! The forest is teaming with plants and lots of sharp limestone. There are tons of spider webs with huge colorful spiders (not poisonous) and beautiful black butterflies with blue dots that flutter around you when you walk and sunlight streaming through the canopy. So basically I work in paradise – but a very hot paradise. After fieldwork we went to the beach – a white sand beach with crystal clear water coral reefs and palm trees – again paradise. My second day of fieldwork (Thursday) was very similar- all day walking through the forest and we spent lunch under a palm tree on a private beach eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (yes they have peanut butter!)

Besides running around in the forest I went to Chamorro village on Wednesday night. It is basically a local barbeque, which actually means deep fried food – they don’t use barbeque sauce! It is for tourists but also locals and very busy and fun. I ate fried pork, fried shrimp, and a fried banana on a stick. Very yummy! On Thursday night I took the car out for a grand adventure – to Kmart! The Japanese tourists love to shop and there are two huge malls and a Kmart open 24 hours. I survived and got a free CD from a guy in the parking lot.

Now that I have told you all about Guam I am actually leaving Guam tomorrow morning (which for you is Friday evening). I am going to Saipan for the weekend and will be headed to Tinian on Monday to start to learn the sites and fieldwork to be done there so that I can take over work on the island when the current crew member has to leave in a week. Tinian is the island from which the atomic bomb was launched during Word War II. Is it 10.5 miles long and 5 miles wide with a population about half the size of my graduating class from Umass. So wish me luck on my adventures and I will write more soon! I don’t have any pictures yet but I will have some very soon.

My first day in Senegal

2009-05-09T16:24:00.001-07:00

I arrived in Senegal at 1:30 in the morning on Friday. After passing through customs I found Nelly outside waiting for me. We walked to the cab that was waiting for us but there were four men their trying to take my bags and shv9e them in the taxi before Nelly had settled on a price with the taxi driver. As in Kenya you bargain for everything in Senegal and because you are white everything is always more expensive. Nelly did a good job though she speaks French and Wolof well. If you can speak Wolof they normally give you a good price. We took the taxi back to the house she was staying at and dropped of my luggage and then headed out to the club where the rest of her friends form America where. It was their last night in Senegal so they where all out together for one last celebration. We danced the little remaining portion of the night away – Senegalese dancing is much like that of Kenya so I picked it up pretty quickly.
The next morning I woke up and took a bucket shower – there isn’t really any running water in the house. It only works at night- sometimes. I then meet the family and we ate breakfast – Nescafe and a baguette with butter. After breakfast we had to head out to the research center where Nelly’s program was based out of. I hung around and practiced some French while Nelly had a meeting and then the whole group of students sat around and ate lunch together. I ordered fried fish and when the plate came there where literally two fried fish (the whole body including head and tail) with some French fries. Mom and dad you will be proud of me I ate the fish without a second thought – everything except for the head and the bones! After Lunch we headed over to the Market on a little bus of sorts painted all the colors of the rainbow in true Senegalese fashion. The market was much larger than any market I had been to in Kenya. We wandered around and bought a few gifts for the families we are staying with. The market guys are just as crazy as those in Kenya if not worse. Nelly and I had some great bargaining skills though, Nelly would often try to bargain and if the vendor thought the price was to low then they would just ask if they could have me instead. Luckily she didn’t sell me off for a couple of scarves.
After the market we arrived home and had dinner. In 7th grade my French teacher had been to Senegal and she taught us how to eat couscous out of the communal dinner bowl – never did I think I would actually use these skills. At dinner they spread out a cloth on the floor and placed a bowl in the center with couscous some sauce and a little bit of meat and potatoes. We all sat on the floor or stools and used spoon to eat out of the bowl. It was pretty awesome. After we hung around and chatted.
My French is surprisingly good I understand a lot and am able to communicate pretty well. I feel comfortable staying in the house when Nelly leaves- except of course the first time she leaves the weirdest thing happens. All of a sudden I heard a crash and a cry- a kitten who can hardly walk fell from the roof. So here I am in this house with the mama and the papa and Nelly is out with the kids and there is this baby kitten meowing bloody murder because it jest fell off the roof and into the house. In Senegal you don’t really have pets nor do to you take care of them. I walked over to the kitten picked it up and the mama was just staring at me. I looked at her and said a baby cat what do I do with it in French. She looked at me and laughed a little. She told me to put it on the roof again but I said it would fall again. She told me that I can put it in a box and its mother will find it our walk on the roof and put it in the terrace next door where there are walls so that it won’t fall again. Right now I have the kitten in my lap wrapped in a bandana so it can’t scratch me and I am waiting for Nelly to come back to help me climb up on the roof. I tried but it is very difficult to climb with a squirming kitten in your hand.
`After lunch today we plan on heading back to the market for some last minute shopping. Tomorrow we are going to a baptism with Nelly’s other host family and then heading out to the country side where there isn’t any internet – however there is the beach and I can’t wait to see the ocean.

One Last Post from Kenya

2009-05-04T12:04:00.001-07:00

Sorry it has taken so long to post but the internet has been out for a long time.

Hello all!
Not very much has gone on here in Kenya for the past week and a half – at least not in camp. For three days we did data analysis and spent seven more writing up our final research papers which totaled just under 90 pages long. Currently we are creating a power point presentation that we will present to the community on Sunday. During the time that we worked on our papers we did have a day off to get out of camp and relax. I chose to return the orphanage in Loktokitok and visit with the children there one more time. As the rainy season progresses it gets colder and colder here (cold meaning somewhere between 60 and 70 degrees). Loktokitok is at a pretty high elevation because it is in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro just north of the border with Tanzania. When we arrived it was “too cold” to play outside so we were warmly welcomed into the living room of the house. Of course we bought some goodies with us – a box of 120 crayons and some drawing paper (thanks mom!). After some introductions to each of the children- names and where they came from and how they are doing in school -we broke out the crayons and paper and craft time ensued. Right now the children are on vacation so many had gone to their guardian’s houses where they help on their farms or herding their cattle, although some remained at the orphanage. During their semesters (three per year) they have a very rigorous academic schedule so very rarely do they actually get to sit down and just draw for fun. At first they all stared at their papers clueless on what to draw if they could draw anything. With some encouragement they began to color and soon pages and pages where covered with pictures of cups, tables, rainy days, and bomas just to name a few. After a two hour long drawing session we decided to eat lunch. We know funds are tight there so we had brought with us some peanut butter sandwiches, cheesy potato chips and sweets. Combined with some bananas and hot coco from the orphanage we had a feast. Most of the children there had never had peanut butter before and none of them had had potato chips, especially cheesy potato ships. At first the children just stared at the potato chips and I was surprised they didn’t get more excited. Then the woman who runs the orphanage told us that they had never had them before and encouraged them try. Soon half the bowl was gone. After our feast the sun had come out and we went outside to play soccer with the new soccer ball we had brought with us. I learned how to play some game with a tennis ball-the name of which I can’t remember. Eventually we had to go but not before we traded pictures with them and left our address to write letters.
I have also made some changes to my travel schedule. Originally I was planning on spending two months backpacking through Europe with my roommate Nelly, however, Nelly had decided to stay in Senegal where she is living with a host family and I have been invited to go as well. So I will be heading off to Senegal on May 7th to live with Nelly and her host family until the end of May. All of those years of French will finally come in handy! So I will have more African adventures to write about granted that I will have access to internet. I am told that to get internet access I must “hop on a vegetable cart and travel 45 minutes into town” wither this is true or not we will all find out.

DR photos

2009-04-22T10:21:00.000-07:00

Walking through a waste land

data collection

sun bleached bones

Feirce

On the rangelands

The view as I brush my teeth in the am

Amboseli Lakebed

The cutest puppy in Kenya. Most dogs ignore you but this puppy wouldn;t stop following us around. I had to stop and pet it so it would stop nipping at my ankles.

Our research team

A data sheet. read carefully

In a incomplete boma

getting my foot bandaged after stepping on a thorn

Today is my birthday and we have been doing data analysis since 8 am – it is now 10:16pm. I did get a wonderful cake and thank you very much for everyone who sent me cards and e-mails and facebook messages. Field work is over and we are all exhausted. We walked 150km in 9 days through lands that could be identified as deserts. One day we would be mapping almost 40 bomas and the next we would be walking through wastelands. On one occasion we walked 20 km and saw only 6 animals – 4 giraffe and 2 gerenuk. That day we saw more dead livestock than living creatures. On our fifth day I stepped on an acacia thorn and it went straight through my shoe and about an inch into my foot. You forget that here everything has thorns, you must be cautious not to step on any sticks, grab any trees, and always clear the ground before you sit for lunch. The worst part about that incident was that we still had to walk 28 more km that day and acacia thorns release a poison that makes you feel like you have a bruise. It was painful to walk on for a couple days but it has healed. I previously told the story about seeing the cheetah, but we had many more encounters with this animal. Everyone in our group ended up seeing a cheetah during our field work, sometime a little close than they would have liked. The most intense encounter happened on day 4. A group was watching a cheetah from the distance and slowly approaching to get a GPS point. They stayed to long and the cheetah began to get angry. At first it began to walk away but as the group began to approach it stopped where it was standing it turned around and began to walk towards them. It then began to jog and as it got within 30 m it broke out into a full out sprint. The KWS guard, who had is gun cocked and ready and fired a shot towards its feet. This slowed it down and it stopped approaching at 15m. The entire time the group of students was walking backwards and keeping eye contact with the cheetah. The cheetah turned around and walked away, but it was a close call, not really for the students but for the cheetah. The KWS guard said that if I had gotten 5 m closer he would have had to shoot it. When we heard the story we were all terrified to think that we could have been the cause of the death of a cheetah. They are on the endangered species list and a rare species to see in Africa. Normally cheetahs will not behave so aggressively but we believe that it was guarding its cubs since it seemed to be highly protective over a certain area. It was lucky that nothing else happened during the rest of our field work. We saw some interesting species that were not believed to be living in the area anymore. The last Lesser Kudu to be seen in the group ranches was seen in the 1990’s and we saw three on three different occasions. We also experienced some true African rain. We have all learned the importance of water, especially from our experiences during our research. It rained and rained and rained. It was raining so hard that we could not see and the roads where so muddy that we almost got stuck several times and actually did get stuck once and where forced to get out of the car and push it out of the mud. When we got back to camp we arrived on a scene of mayhem. It actually looked like a rugby game. Students were covered head to toe in mud running around smearing it on each other and tackling each other. Immediately I joined with a few others from our group in celebration of the true beginning of the rainy season. It was an amazing experience. Two days after the rain we began to see the effects of this rain on the landscape as slowly little green sprouts of grass where appearing from earth and the landscape began to change colors and look alive again. On the last day we drove through the lands that we had seen in the first few days of research and the landscape has begun its transformation- it was raining when we went through and we knew there was hope for those that were struggling through this drought. Let’s just keep hoping that it keeps raining.
Still on the topic of water. When DR ended we had a day off to do a community service project. We raised 52,000 KS doing an auction among students. Items include shampoo, banda cleaning, laundry, breakfast in bed ect. With this money we bought a huge water tank (it was at least 8 feet tall) and set up a rain water collection system on a church in Kimana town. It was day of celebration – the church member where their helping out and we cooked a huge feast. We even had a DJ with a microphone run on a generator. The children from all around came and sang and danced while we worked outside digging holes, making cement, hammering, and sawing wood. At the end the church members gave us a great thanks; they talked about how useful this collection system would be. Clean water is a huge issue here, during the dry season you see people collecting water out of puddles on the side of the road. We hope that this will help reduce the spread of waterborne diseases by supplying the church members with clean water.

Right now we are in the middle of intensive data analysis and then we will begin writing our papers. The next two weeks are going to fly by.

HAPPY EARTHDAY!!!!!

2009-04-12T11:49:00.000-07:00

Our classes have officially finished! However, we do not have a break; we have begun our DR (directed research). We are divided up into groups and conduct research for our professors. I am working with our wildlife management professor, who is a little crazy. The research we are conducting is about the dispersal areas around Amboseli National Park (ANP). The park is 392 square km which is not a lot of space for the large volume of wildlife it supports. The areas surrounding the park are group ranches. Group ranches are communal holdings of Maasai land. Individuals move freely throughout them but are governed by a set of rules so that no one person may take resources from another. There are also privet holdings of land. ANP has no fence so the wildlife disperses freely into these group ranches. The issue is that the Maasai settlements are increasing around the parks edge (the Maasai are actually allowed into the park to water their livestock since the only water sources in the area located within the park. We are looking at how much space these buildings take up and their orientation to see if they are blocking migration corridors. We go out into the field and map roads, bomas, intuitions, agriculture, and livestock. We also mark all wildlife and their distance from these structures. How we do this by using GPS.
On our first day we were all really excited to get going, but we have no idea what we were doing. We were driving along in the land cruiser with our professor to be dropped off somewhere in the middle of one of the group ranches. All of a sudden we saw a herd of elephants. Upon noticing them our professor swerved off the road and began driving towards the elephants. All of the students in the back were yelling about soil compaction and the effects of off road driving on vegetation, not to mention animal harassment. As we neared the elephants the professor stopped the car and said ok get out we need a GPS point as close to them as possible to get their location. We all looked at him dumb founded. We are not allowed to leave our fence because of the threat of elephants, and here our professor was telling us to walk towards a herd of 11 elephants. It was then that we realized why we have armed Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) guards. (Every group that goes out into the bush has one armed KWS office, one local guide and two to three students). We all clamored out of the car slightly confused and turned on our GPS units and began walking towards the elephants. Occasionally we would turn back to look at our professor who would wave his had to notion that we should go a little further. About 60-65 km from the herd we stopped. The group of elephants really didn’t seem to take much notice of us; we took our points, stared in awe and wonder, and hurried back to our vehicle. We all thought what a wonderful first DR experience. This is such a wonderful way to start DR, but things had not even begun to start.
We began driving down the road and yet again the car swerved off the road. Our professor yelled at us to go mark a Tompson’s gazelle and a giraffe. I went to the giraffe with two others while two more students went for the gazelle. As they were approaching the gazelle they noticed something in the grass and stopped. Identifying it as an animal they believed it to be a lion. When the animal noticed them it got spooked and began to run away. It was a cheetah! Out very first cheetah! One of the guides attracted our attention and we saw the cheetah run away into the bushes. The movement of its body was surprisingly haunting. The slinking movement made it seem like a dark and ghastly creature as it slid into the distance.
After the cheetah and elephant experience we were dropped off and actually began our work. This first day we walked 22km, the second 15km, the third (today) 25km, and expect to do the same tomorrow. Not only are the distances long (1.6 km to a mile) but there is no rain, no cloud cover and little vegetation cover. We spend from 8:30 am to around 3 or 4 outside in hot African sun trekking through open shrub and grassland. It is exhausting, I will be in bed by 9:30 (we also wake up at 5:30 am each morning) but it is awesome! We are truly getting a feel for what these arid rangelands are like and you can’t beat seeing the animals on foot. Today a group saw a cheetah with two cubs.
Besides seeing wildlife we are also seeing some people. Most of Kenya is experiencing a drought but the region we are doing our research in is extremely dry. Most of the bomas have been abandoned as people move to water areas. There is no green vegetation in many of the areas. It is not uncommon to see a dead zebra or livestock while walking. The unoccupied bomas have cow carcasses lying outside. The eerie stillness of these bomas is disturbing. Belonging were left behind, cups, shoes, and clothing are left laying on the ground, in the door ways of their huts, or stuck in the acacia fences . Of the few bomas that were occupied everyone was preparing to leave. AT one boma least 6 cowhides where being stretched and body parts of livestock there littered around the outside, mostly skulls with horns and a little remaining piece of their skin on the forehead and the bottom half of their legs with skin and hair still attached. We saw one child whose legs where so thin that they could barely support his body weight as we wandered around with only a tee shirt on. An elder women at one boma asked us why we were plotting her boma for the purposes of wildlife when she and her family where starving to death. She asked where is the government why aren’t they plotting her bomas so that they can come and bring her family food and water. For this we had no answer. We felt helpless to help them. We knew we had water and food in our packs, but not enough to give to everyone even in one boma. And if we gave it to one boma the others would soon hear about it and then what would we do. I still am trying to think of a way to help them but we are powerless to do so. Kenya makes enough food to feed all of its people but the Kenyan government sold most of it to Sudan. So people in Kenya are starving to death so that the government could make more money- but that money does not go towards helping these people. They are applying for relief from external agencies to help those that are in need, when really they had the food and sold it. The situation is really getting desperate and the only current solution is rain. Rain would revive the rangelands to support the livestock which are the lifeline of these people.
We all are really beginning to see how wealthy and privileged we are not only from the experiences above but some talking without guides and guards as we walk all day. Joseph has been working for KWS for 20 years, since he was 18 years old. What he makes in one whole year of work I pay for one month’s rent on my apartment in Amherst. He told me that he wants to come to America so that he can make money to improve his family’s live. It is odd to hear the American dream still spoken about by so many people here, when many of us have left America in search of something different as if we are dissatisfied with it.

More Photos

2009-04-05T05:01:00.000-07:00

This is not proper wildlife management, however, it was fun. The soccer stars at sunset

Does this really need any explanation. SIMBA!

Lake Nakuru

The view of the gorge towards Tanzania

Inside the gorge

Lake Nakuru at sunset with a line of buffalo along the shore

White Rhino

Husdon River School Style - Lake Nakuru and Me

I accidently downloaded this one twice and I dont know how to delete it

View of the rift vally from its eastern edge

A very muddy baby black rhino

Baby elephant with its keeper

Can you guess what this is?

NPS and Lake Nakuru

2009-04-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

In the past two weeks we have been up to a lot. I could probably write about 20 pages if I described everything so I will just tell you the highlights. I know this may not be very interesting to you but one of the most exciting parts of our trip was going to Tusky’s – a grocery store equitant to a super Wal-Mart in size and products but without all the negative politics. Up until this point in our trip we were only eating Kenyan food products and available snacks consisted mostly of chips and crackers. Highlights of the store included much needed deodorant for all, Ritz cheese crackers, Betty Crocker frosting, apples and much more. There was even a Maasai man dressed in full traditional robes pushing a shopping cart – an example of the adaptive nature of Maasai culture. After the stop at the store we went to our new camp site (the national park site or NPS). It was very exciting to be in a new place, especially since at this site we are allowed out of our electric fence. There is a two mile running route, however we can’t run in the early morning or evening due to the presence of carnivores. One night at around 7 during dinner we heard the calls of a desperate cow, the next day we learnt that two cows were killed just outside our camp by lions. We didn’t ever see any lions while at NPS but we did hear them growling and grunting at night. Even more exciting than our outside running route was the communal soccer field just up the hill. We were allowed there until dark and every evening we played with all of the local children from the area as we watched the sun set behind the Ngong Hills. The last evening we where there we bought a bunch of sodas and a new soccer ball (they told us their last ball popped) and sat and watched the sun set while drinking sodas after a very intense game of soccer.
Although we were close to Nairobi we weren’t allowed to go into the city. We did however have some exciting excursions to the suburbs. Most notably we went to the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage. Where we got to see what they are doing to rehabilitate orphaned elephants (Most of their mothers are killed by poachers) back into the wild. We watched them play and a few came up and tried to play with us. They were only a few years old and some were already bigger than we were. The most exciting part of this visit was the three month old black rhino that they brought to show us. It really liked to have mud rubbed on its skin so it would role in the mud and then rub up against your legs. I got attacked several times and left with my legs covered in mud but that really didn’t matter because I think that baby rhinos are the cutest baby animals ever. They also had a blind rhino at the sanctuary which would let you rub its sides and touch its horn. Rhino skin is amazingly hard and tough and feels like solid wood when you knock on it. Later in the day we visited a giraffe center for individuals who can no longer survive in the wild. If you put a piece of food in between your lips a giraffe with come and lick it out – a giraffe kiss. Their tongues are extremely long and very rough. We also went to the Kazuri bead factory which provides employment for single mothers. They are all hand painted beads made from clay that is excavated at in the foothills of Mount Kenya.
The next day we had classes but as usual our classes reach far beyond the classroom. We were trained in how to use controlled burning as a management tool. After a lecture we walked outside and used drip torches to burn a certain area in out camp. It was fun but also terrifying since we are experiencing a drought and everything is so dry that it catches so quickly. We had “fire truck” with us to make sure nothing got out of hand.
We also walked over to a local primary school house to play with the children and donate school uniforms, books, pens, and sweets. They were very shy compared to the other schools we have been to. They sang us songs and we attempted to sing them some but they always sound so much better than us. We played duck suck goose except modified to twiga twiga simba (Giraffe giraffe lion) and some other games.
After spending a week at our NPS site we headed through Nairobi to Lake Nakuru National Park which is located in the rift valley. We drove along the rim of the rift valley for a long time before we decided into the valley. It was actually cold on the top, an odd sensation since we have been in the hot rangelands for so long. Along the way we stopped at Lord Delamears (an infamous rest stop) where they actually had hot dogs and burgers and smoothies. I know this information may not seem very exciting to you but this rest stop will never be forgotten (Goat meat is really not that appetizing – it tends to smell and taste like wet dog.) We arrived at Lake Nakuru National Park a wet and green environment. We stayed in a little enclosure in the center of the park that was built by the Youth Hostels of Kenya. It was a bunch of rounded structures with green roofs connected by open tiled hallways -A welcomed change from our cabins. From this location we could see and hear the edge of the lake where hundreds of pelicans and flamingoes were feeding. In the grasses just outside the fence where waterbuck, zebra and gazelles, and within our camp were baboons and vervet monkeys. We went on a couple of game drives and the most exciting thing that we saw where both white and black rhinos! Game driving around the lake was always enjoyable because it was not quite so hot and it smelled like the ocean. It even rained one day and we were standing in the hatches with goose bumps as we watched a white rhino and its offspring grazing by the lake. We spent April fool’s day in Lake Nakuru and in the morning one of the students came running through the site yelling that lions made a kill a KM from our camp and we were going to go see. Since it was April fool’s day we all thought that it was a joke but eventually we decided to get in the vehicles and go check things out feeling lucky that we would get to go on an AM game drive. We had woken up early the previous morning and climbed into the car in the dark to see if we could see any carnivores before they hid for the day. All of us where in our PJ’s some still had tooth brushes and well it wasn’t an April fool’s joke. Two lionesses where sitting beside the carcass of a waterbuck and we watched them begin to eat. It was spectacular – a great start to another wonderful day in Kenya.
While at Lake Nakuru we took a day to venture to Hells Gate national park which is home to KenGen a geothermal power plant. We toured the power plant and learned not only how geothermal works but all the methods the company has undergone to reduce their effect on wildlife and the environment since they are located in the national park. After the tour we went on a hike through a gorge. It was similar to the slot canyons in the western states, but the colors of the rocks were yellow and gray. Apparently it was the canyon where parts of tomb raider were filmed. We hiked through it going down waterfalls since it had rained earlier in the day. There were also sections where steaming hot water was falling down the sides of the canyon providing us with a warm shower – something else that we don’t have here in Kenya. When exiting the canyon we climbed up a steep slope covered in red dirt and at the top you turned around and could see the canyon continuing all the way down towards Tanzania. It was a breath taking view of interesting geological formations covered with green trees in a sky just beginning to glow orange as the sun started to set.
After the hike in the gorge we thought that nothing could beat it but on our day off we had the option of going on a hike with one of our local guards or going to an ostrich farm. I and four other girls decided to forgo Ostrich riding and burgers (a wise decision) to hike with Abraham. We set of from camp in the morning with packed lunch, liters of water, and I got stick carrying a large first aid kit because our advisor was worried about out safety. Once we left camp Abraham took us down to the edge of the river. We walked along the river in the shade of Acacia trees and shrubs looking for crocodiles and hippos. We didn’t see any but we did encounter numerous giraffe, zebra, and impala. We even saw a dung beetle rolling a dung ball. We sat down and ate lunch in the shade of an enormous acacia tree. As we walked back Abraham showed us a cattle dip – where they dip their cattle in a mixture of water and some chemical that removes ticks. Abraham asked me how I dip my cattle; unfortunately I had to tell him that I don’t have any cattle. He seemed a little disappointed.
Our trip was amazing but it feels good to be back in Kimana. Apparently we had some visitors when we were gone. Elephants knocked down some of our fence and were hanging around by our chumba. I have some last papers to write and then our classes are over and research beings. Hopefully I will be able to post some photos soon. Happy Spring everyone!

2009-03-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

I know it sounds like being here in Kenya is non-stop adventures, but I am actually doing school work. We just had a serious bout of papers due (four to be exact) and we just finished finals which are 45% of our grades (four of those as well). Now we are about to go to our other site NPS which is located near Nairobi National Park. We will be there for a week and a half and then we are going on another expedition to some of the national parks in the area. We won’t have internet for the next two weeks but I promise to tell of my adventures when I return.
Since we have been swamped with work we haven’t done too much in the past week and a half. For one of our assignments we went out and interviewed farmers in the Loktokitok district about human wildlife conflict (HWC). We were split into groups of four and herded into the landcrusiers. One by one the cruisers stopped along the road and our professor would call out a group number. Those students got out of the vehicle and the professor introduced them to their local guide and then got back in the vehicle and moved on to the next cite. We were dropped off along a side road and introduced to our guide, Edmund, a 20 year old who just graduated from high school and is hoping to attend university within the next few years. Our group, with the aid of Edmund, walked around and asked farmers if we could interview them. All in all we interviewed six farmers, all of who said that elephants destroy about 30 % to 50% of their crops. It was exciting to get out in the field and actually talk to the local people to see their real views on issues. We are presented all this information in class but it really doesn't being to sink in until a farmer shows you the elephant tracks alongside his field, and the maize that was eaten by zebra. We have all come to Kenya as animal lovers and advocates of conservation, yet this experience has shows us how much a nuisance the animals we came to protect are to the people that live here. We are learning that there is a lot more to conservation than originally assumed. The night before our exams I went to bed at 12:00pm. I was having trouble falling asleep because I could hear famers yelling and shouting and dogs barking and howling at elephants that where attacking their fields. I was lying in bed trying to get sleep so that I could pass an examination while these farmers where trying to defend the crops that are their families source of food and income. The experiences here are truly showing us how privileged we are to be in university, not to mention putting things in perspective.
Before our exams we had a community service day. We drove to a local school and built them benches and soccer goals. Since there where 32 of us there were more hands than hammers. Most of our time was spent just playing the children- a mzungu recess. When we arrived this boy came and grabbed my hand and showed me the school rooms and told me what grade he was in and where he lived. Children are easier to talk to than adults here since all of them learn English in school. We played with balls made out of socks stuffed with plastic bags and bamboo sticks. We raced and played the Maasai version of ring around the rosy. They were also huge fans of piggy back rides and piggy back ride races. You would pick up one kid and run around with them on your back and finally convince them to get off only to have another one jump on your back. By the end of the day my legs where so soar it felt like I spent the whole day at the gym doing resistance squats. It also took me 20 minutes to brush all the knots out of my hair. The Maasai shave their heads, even the women and children, so when anyone has long hair, especially long blonde hair they love to touch and play with it. We were so exhausted on the way home that everyone fell asleep in the car, which is not an easy feat since the roads are ridiculously bumpy. One you fall asleep you look like one of those bobble heads that can be attached to the dashboard of your car.
They day after our community service was the last day one of our staff members was going to be with us, Marius. He got a higher paying the job for the government and couldn’t give up the opportunity since he has children that need to go to school. Only primary education is free in Kenyan, secondary school must be paid for and university is very difficult for most to attend from this area. As in any official Kenyan celebration we slaughtered a goat and roasted it in the fire pit. We also played volleyball, which is surprisingly popular in Kenya. At the end of the night we had a “concert” send off where some of the guys played guitar and plates with spoons. Marius gave is a goodbye speech. For a closing remark he told us that “mountains are the only things that never meet.” I thought it was a good saying and that I should share it with you.
Hope everyone is doing well and I will write of my adventures when I return

Photos from Tsavo

2009-03-15T10:31:00.001-07:00

Chyulu Hills

A Rainbow in Tsavo

Me in Chyulu

Dirty and in a bush.

Hippo!

Giraffe!

Lava Flow!

TSAVO

2009-03-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

We started out yearly on Tuesday morning and stopped at a shrub covered hill along the way for a lecture. To our south was Amboseli National Park and Mt. Kilimanjaro and to our north our destination Tsavo West National Park and the Chyulu hills. Everyone was in high spirits since it was our first time really venturing away from the Loktokitok district. On the way into the park we stopped at the Shetani lava flow. It was huge! Miles and miles of dark volcanic rocks with bright green trees growing tall benefiting from the young nutrient rich soils. Rock hyraxes were jumping from rock to rock. The young volcanic soils that dominate the Arid Semi-Arid rangelands of the Massai also cause a lot of issues in this area. The young soils have a thin top layer that is inefficient at absorbing the little amount of rainfall in this area; they are also highly susceptible to erosion.
After the lava flow we entered the park and drove to our campsite. It was a clearing within the thick jungle that is Tsavo. Tsavo is very different from Amboseli (the park we normally visit). Amboseli is open grass lands and swamps with a diminishing amount of woodlands, while Tsavo is a think tangle of undergrowth and with many trees including the infamous Baobab. This thick growth makes it much more difficult to see the animals however, it makes the park feel wild and less like a zoo. We set up our tents under the few available trees to provide as much shade as possible and unloaded our large truck called the White Rhino. We had to pack, and then unpack, enough clean drinking water for 40 people for 6 days, a large gas stove and tables and all of our food. Once camp was set up we went out for a game drive to get our first real look at the Tsavo landscape. We saw elephants and dik dik’s and lots of antelope. As we headed back to camp in the evening we could see a rainstorm off in the distance and as the sun set a rainbow was visible in these distant clouds. As this scene progressed the clouds took on the appearance of a Michael Angelo painting, you could almost see curbs in the sky as if it where the Sistine Chapel. In great spirits we had a wonderful dinner that was interrupted by a rare downpour and a night of telling stories by the fire.
After a 6 am wake up we headed out of camp for a day in the Chyulu Hills. Being in a flat landscape there is very little opportunity to climb anything larger than a 10 minute walk uphill. The elevation of the Cjyulu Hills means there is much more rainfall in the area. Chyulu is covered in a luscious green grass that is not found anywhere else. As we drove up into the hills on a rough road the air became thick with sweet smells of fresh grass and pollen, something missing from our dry and dusty home. We arrived at the ranger station and again armed guards accompanied us through the landscape. We had a lecture and lunch on top of a small hill and later had the opportunity to venture up some larger features. Being one of the first people in line to climb the steep hills through grass up to our waists we stumbled upon a heard of hartebeest. At first they stopped and looked at us but as we approached closer they turned and ran away. It was amazing the see them galloping on top of the crest of a hill and disappearing slowing out of view. The view from the top of the second highest hill in Chyulu was spectacular. We could see out over Tsavo and over the rangelands we call our home and down the backbone of the Chyulu hills with herds of shoats and wild antelope grazing in the distance. On our way home from Chyulu we stopped at a gas station to get popsicles and ice cream. We actually got to eat something cold! It was amazing. Later that night back at camp we were gathered around the camp fire and we heard these low guttural growls. The camp fell quite and as we listened we heard two lionesses growling not more than a kilometer from camp. The next day we spent hanging around at camp having lectures and free time, that night again we heard the growls of lions. Not until the next morning did we find out that a lion had actually slept on the road not more than 50 m from my tent.
The fourth day was another early morning. By 7 we were in the car. We did animal counts for four hours in the morning and are going to analyze the results back at camp. After counting we took a break to climb up a huge deposit of volcanic material in the middle of the park which offered an amazing view of Tsavo’s vast landscape. It felt amazing to have a breeze and from that vantage point we watched verbet monkeys walking across the lava fields below. Later in the afternoon we headed over to Mzuma springs. This is the closest you will ever want or probably could get to a hippo. They have trails through the woods which lead to the springs. It always feels weird being near a body of water, you must resist the temptation to go swimming. As you approach the spring you can see hippos in the water. They actually let you walk up to the edge of the water! There are bridges that extend out into the spring, including an underwater tank that lets you go under the water to see the hippos below the surface. It was terrifyingly amazing. That night was spent telling scary stories around the fire while lions were growing in the distance.
The next day was again an early one and we headed over the rhino sanctuary. On the way over our car was following too closely behind the one in front and being a wet morning we all got dirt stuck to our faces. The effect was an even dusting that covers my entire face and looked like I had been to a spray tanning salon. The contrast of the orange and the blue of my eyes made them looks like they were glowing. It was scary. Later in the day it rained and my dirt tan turned into a poka dot mask. In the rhino sanctuary we met with the guards who spoke to us about the efforts that they are making to bring rhinos back into Tsavo. As you probably know rhino numbers have gone way down in Africa because of poaching. They are trying to bring the numbers back up. Recently they just released rhinos back into the park, out of the sanctuary. They security measures that they lake to guard the rhinos are comparable to presidential security. They have guards on tops of all the hills doing 24 hour surveillance over the entire area. They had seen us drive through the area the previous day and could tell us what car we were in and who was our driver. It was a little creepy. We didn’t see any rhinos either, but it was a fun morning. In the Afternoon we headed to a tourist lodge. So far on the trip none of us had showered, we got to shower and swim and eat at the buffet. We felt like college students on spring break for a couple hours. It was refreshing. That night after dinner we had the guards tell us stories of Maasai lion hunting and our professor told us about the history of the man eating lions of Tsavo. Apparently the lions in Tsavo are very different from all other lions in Africa. They believe that they are more closely related to tigers and have higher levels of testosterone. This means that the males don’t have manes and they are much stronger than “normal” lions. “Normal” lions when and if they kill a person will not eat it but the Tsavo lions will kill and eat people. There was an incidence not too long ago when a population of lions started eating rangers and they had to exterminate the entire population. Once the lions have a taste for human flesh they tend to continue to eat humans. Our professors also told us stories of the first few times they went to camp in Tsavo before they had heightened security measures. One time a group of 9 lions was hanging out by the bathroom and a group of girls where going to bathroom. At about half way a car pulled into camp and shown their lights on the lions waiting by the bathroom for the girls. They screamed and ran away and the car chased the lions of our camp. But it was a close call. Another time a lion lay down on the side of a professor’s tent and was actually sleeping on top of him. When the professor woke up he rolled out from under the lion and by that time the guards had noticed the commotion and scared the lions out of camp. We have four guards that patrol all night long now. We sleep in a circle with the students in the middle professors tents on the outside surrounded by the cars which have propane powered lights on them. We felt pretty safe. Our guards do a very good job of protecting us. One of them has speared 5 lions in the bush. His name means the blessed one because of this. We feel safe in his hands.
After being scared by these stories a tour bus pulled up into camp and 45 students from Mt. Kenya University got out and came over to our camp. They spent the night in the camp site with us and we stayed up until 12 talking with them around the fire. It was exciting to talk to people our age from Kenya. There are very few people around our age back in Kimana. The students were also from Nairobi giving the urban perspective. We had a great time learning about what it is like to be college student in Kenya and they asked us many interesting questions about what it is like to live and go to school in America.
The next morning we woke up and said goodbye to our friends and drove back into camp. All and all it was an excellent expedition. No one got eaten by a lion. Although I did see their eyes in the bushes the first time I went to the bathroom.

PICTURES WILL BE COMING

2009-03-02T10:51:00.000-08:00

Above is the goat slaughter. I am attempting to skin the goat. I t was much more difficult than I thought it would be and the knife was very dull. We could really use some Cutco.

Hyena. Scary.
Moses in the school room at the Orphanage

African Buffalo. Even Scarier!

Keri (Yellow) Me (Green) Sapiya (Blue) Keri and I wanted to buy tank tops but could not. We got these uniform instead. Turns out the staff has them as well! This was our soccer team.

A couple days ago we went to visit an orphanage in a town nearby. When we arrived the children came and took our hands and they led us to sit down on some benches underneath a veranda. The town we went to is at a higher elevation than our camp so there is much more rain and it has a tropical feeling. Sitting on the bench with my new friend Moses, it felt like we were visiting a foreign tropical paradise. Moses showed me his past report card. He was ranked number 11 out of 62 and in level 6. He proceeded to show me photos from the past five years that he has been at the orphanage. You can tell that he has grown, but his arms still seemed so small. All of the orphans at this particular site where from parents that had passed away from AIDS. We are truly beginning to realize what a huge impact this disease is having on the communities that we are living it. The transmission of HIV is particularly bad within the rural communities, and especially with the Maasai. The Maasai have at polygamous patriarchal system where men have many wives, and the wives have very little power. A Maasai wife is not allowed to go into town without the permission of her husband, which makes it difficult for them to get tested and treatment. There is also a negative stigma about the disease which leads to many people avoiding testing and treatment.
The children sang us songs and introduced themselves to us and they even taught us a song and dance. Then Moses showed me around the area. They have three dogs as pets and one of them had puppies. They also had goats (Moses’ favorite animal) and a couple cows and chickens. They have their own shamba (farm) where they grow maize. They have a school room in the orphanage but most of the time the students go to school in town. One of the most emotional parts of this experience was when Moses took me to his room. He had a full sized bed that he shared with one other boy, which was very nice, but that was all that was in his room. There was a set of shelves, but he had no belongings on the selves. I keep picturing our rooms here and how they are over flowing with people’s belongings. How much stuff fills our houses but how little we really need to survive, to live. At the end of our visit we put on a show of the children. Our band TIN played. It is two boys form camp that sing in high pitched voices and bang on our metal dishes with spoons. The kids enjoyed it and then we pulled out the hokey pokey and some other silly dances. We said goodbye but made the decision to meet with them at 2 on the local soccer field to play a game.
In town we ate lunch and went into the market. I walked around for the first time on my own and bought some rope. My Kiswahili is getting better. I can have a short and limited conversation with people in town. At 2 we went to the soccer field and watched the children run down the road to greet us. We got onto the field and realized that we had about 40 people on the soccer field and no idea how to make teams so we just started playing. The children were much better than we were. It is humiliating to get skooled by a ten year old who isn’t wearing any shoes, while you decked out in soccer shorts and shoes and twice his size and age. We played for hours, soccer eventually turned into freeze tag and duck duck goose. I got to meet Moses’ uncle who is working as an AIDS councilor in town. He said he wants to support the boys but is unable to, although he helps when he can. He was very glad to meet me and gave me his e-mail so that we can stay in contact. He told me the story of Moses’ parents and about his life. He also said that if I come into town to visit he will walk 1 hour from his home into town to visit me and hang out with Moses. To him an hour walk seemed like nothing, just like going to the corner store. It is amazing how different perceptions can be. It was so sad to leave the children. I asked Moses if there was anything he wanted that I could get him. It took him a while to answer but he said he wanted crayons and then a backpack to carry his books to school. A bunch of us plan on buying items for them before we leave and giving them some of our clothes if they will fit them. Earlier in the day we all donated money to buy food for the children. From 32 students who gave 6 dollars each we were able to buy them enough food for three months for 20 children. We are all beginning to learn the privilege and the power we have as Americans, just by regarding the value of a dollar.
In other events we took our last trip to Amboseli National Park. As the rainy season comes almost all of the animals move out of the park into the surrounding areas because water becomes more available. We are heading to Tsavo National Park for expedition for the next week. We will be camping out in the middle of the park. Apparently there is the possibility of lions, hyena, elephants, and leopards excreta of coming into our camp since we are not fenced in. We have to bring four armed guards into the park for protection and after dark we have to have an armed escort to go to the bathroom. We are all very excited and a little nervous for the experiences ahead. I actually haven’t packed yet and we leave at 7 am tomorrow morning so I need to go do that. I hope you all have a wonderful week since I will not have internet while in Tsavo (or showers!). Be ready for a very long and exciting post when I get back, assuming I don’t get eaten by one of the man eaters of Tsavo.

2009-02-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

I am still alive and here is the evidence. Looking out over one of the swamps in Amboseli National Park

2009-02-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days we have been doing a lot of field work: About five hours outside each day in the hot Kenyan sun. I have managed not to be sun burnt but I am afraid that my hair is going to white from sun bleaching by the time I leave here. It has been amazing to be spending more time outside of camp in the field; we are really beginning to understand the landscape and the environmental issues that are present. We are all really begin to appreciate what an opportunity this experience is, to be able to learn something in our classroom and then that afternoon for the next day be able to go out in the field and see it and experience it.
Today out assignment was a fun one. We have been learning about the benefits and issues that tourism brings to this area. So our assignment was to be tourists (not that we already aren’t) but to do the things that tourists do and compare them to the experiences we have had working with our local community. First we visited a cultural manyata (or a tourist boma) to see what the differences where between visiting them and visiting our neighbor’s boma. It was fascinating to see what points they emphasized, what they thought that we wanted to see as tourists. They showed us how to make fare from sticks, which was pretty cool, but we know they have matches in their homes. I made a friend named John, who told me that if a return to Kenya he would give me a house and I could be his wife. I’m pretty sure that he just wanted me to buy things from him so I gave him a Obama button and we called it even, but he gave me is address just in case. He pinned the Obama button to his Massai robes. It was a little bizarre and slightly comical to see a man dressed completely with traditional Massai robes proudly wearing a button that said Obama on it. Kenyans are very proud to be Kenyan.
After this cultural experience we meet on top of a hill in Amboseli National park and discussed what we saw, and how it was different from our neighbors while well viewing the entire park. Hawks where flaying overhead in the wounds while African buffalo, hippo, and elephant gorging themselves in the swamp below. After this discussion we were required to go to a tourist lodge and experience what it would be like to be a tourist in Kenya. First we ate at the buffet. You never know how much you miss certain foods until you are denied them. I have been having dreams about goat cheese for the past two weeks. This buffet had three types of goat cheese. I probably ate a least 10 dollars worth of goat cheese today. It had chicken and beef, a great variety compared to the goat we are served every day. The cherry on top of the whip cream was chocolate desserts. One of the students actually started to cry when she saw they had chocolate cake, not to say that they don’t feed us well in camp, but everything tends to taste the same, and sugar is not common in any meal, especially not a sugary dessert. Cold drinks where also amazing. AT camp and in the surrounding towns everything is warm, even the soda. After this meal for kings we got to go swimming in the pool. Walking around for many days in a row in basically desert conditions and continuously drinking warm water, and then driving around in the hot sun and seeing animals in swamps, you cannot image how much you crave to submerge your body in water. Our showers are nice, and plenty cold, but there is something about being able to be under the water that a shower cannot mimic. After swimming ourselves silly we collected in our car for a game drive out of the park. We saw many hyenas, and a zebra chasing a hyena which was pretty sweet. We also saw vultures eating a baby wildebeest, a fascinating but slightly disturbing site. Tonight I am going to watch English soccer on the TV with the Kenyans. I hope we get to play tomorrow.

2009-02-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned before, the camp that we are staying at is 25 acres that are enclosed by a fence. In past years students have been free to go outside the fence and wander around, but recently there has been an increase in the elephant population in the area so we are no longer able to go outside the fence without an armed guard. The other night we could hear lions roaring from our beds. We know the animals are here be we never see them except for when they break into the camp, which happens frequently. Just the other night an eland broke the fence and was munching on our untouched grass. On our day off, yesterday, they let us out of your enclosure and took us on a two hour nature walk outside of our fence. We walked past many fields of new crops growing with pipes from the river near our camp pumping water to them. Finally, we entered what Daniel, our guide and Kiswahili teacher, called the jungle. It was an open woodland with parched soil, at first we thought that he was a little crazy for calling it a jungle but soon we figured out what he meant. Not long after we left the farms wildlife became abundant. We stumbled upon a group of Zebra resting in the shade of a tree. Zebra here are like white tailed deer at home, but there is something magical about being able to be on the ground next to them, close to them, rather than seeing them from the land cruisers in a National Park. We saw many elephant tracks, and massive quantities of elephant poop, but no elephants, which is probably a good thing. Daniel said you don’t want to meet an elephant on the ground. They are very aggressive here because they come into constant contact with the farmers. We saw impala and grants gazelle, a dik dik, and many species of birds including a large raptor. What really made this an amazing experience was stumbling upon a group of five giraffe, one male, three females, and a juvenile, in the bush. You never realize how massive a giraffe is until you stand 10 meters from one. They are HUGE! And very goofy looking when they walk, especially the males, which are much larger than the females. You really begin to appreciate how the Maasai have adapted to living in the harsh conditions of these arid lands. We were only out for two hours in the morning and many of us where beginning to feel the heat. I can only image what it must be like to be out every day in this extreme heat. On our way back we stumbled upon a two children who where herding their families shoats. They must have been 7 or 8 years old, and they were going to be out all day with these animals herding them around the area we had just been walking through. When I was seven I was only allowed to be out in the back yard in my mother’s view at all times. When you stumble upon these discoveries you realize how different the culture here is, and how sheltered we are growing up in the states.
Later in the day we all went out to the nearest big town, which is an hour away. It was market day there so the streets where full of people trading and selling goods, including livestock. My friend Keri and I wanted to get tank tops since we are allowed dot wear them in the national parks. All we could find where Lakers jerseys, with matching shorts. My outfit with bright green and orange, Keri’s is bright yellow and green. They are ridiculous looking, and we have decided that we are going to wear them to all national parks where there are large amounts of tourists decked out in safari hats. We have noticed that no matter what country a tourist is from, they have a safari hat. Also, a majority of the Asian tourists have face masks to block the dust, the kind a doctor would wear while giving surgery. These are bizarre but true facts. After our amazing purchases we all went to our first Kenyan bar, well actually it was a club of sorts. And they had reggae tones playing and soccer on the TV. It was a fun time. The most popular Kenyan beer is called Tusker, and when you drink a lot they say that you are poaching because you are taking to may tusk(er)s. We all danced, and when the boys in town found out that the Americans where in the club, they all came in to see what was going on. They showed us some dance moves, while we showed them some amazing American moves such as the shopping cart and the pencil sharpener. A very nice boy named Kevin asked me to be his girl friend. I politely declined, but he was persistent. He said he had a motor bike so he could visit me in Kimana. Apparently as the semester goes on, more and more events like this will occur. The staff told us that once a boy’s father came to gate and told our administrator that his son was going to marry one of the students here, and they were going to live in Chicago and go to University together. Unfortunately the girl didn’t even know who the boy was.
Today we had class for most of the day, and have been working for several hours to analyze the data from our counts we took in Amboseli last week. Tomorrow we have a traveling lecture. It seems that we never spend more than one day in a row without leaving the camp. I am going to go running before it gets dark and the snakes come out. We haven’t spotted any yet, but there have been a few scorpions on the path to the bathroom. Don’t worry dad I am wearing my long pants and closed toed shoes!

2009-02-20T11:59:00.001-08:00

Just handed in my first assignment for grading tonight. We are always having so much fun here sometimes I forget that we are even supposed to be doing work. They try to keep us on a tight schedule but we are all running on Kenyan time.
Yesterday I had a very interesting and new experience. One of your professors bought a goat from the market and the Maasai that work at the camp slaughtered it, and some of us watched. I have never seen a living animal killed before, except for once while waiting for the bus in high school I saw a squirrel hit by a car, but it truly was not the same experience. The goat was a pretty large creature. It was happily eating grass until the men tied up its legs, at that point it let out a shriek, and many people ran away. The events soon after went very quickly, a man in one quick stroke of his knife cut its neck open, and soon the animal was dead. The goat didn’t struggle or cry out when it was cut, it was happily munching on leaves until its last moments. The men said that it knew what was happening, and that it was ok. I’m not sure about that, but it did seem peaceful. For them it was just another goat, but for many of us it was a very emotional experience, most had never seen anything like it, but felt compelled to watch since we ourselves consume meat. I got a chance to skin part of the body; it was much more difficult than I thought. We dissected it, and passed around the individual body parts, still warm and bleeding. We took apart the stomach and looked at the linings of the four stomachs of a ruminant. The Maasai men made a fire pit and sharpened stick s. They roasted the meat on the sticks, except for the kidneys which they ate raw. We all passed around the cooked meat. Unfortunately, I don’t like goat, it smells like wet dog and is a very fatty meat that gets stuck in-between your teeth. But I still ate some anyway. Luckily I wasn’t Chris, the youngest boy here, who according to Maasai tradition had to eat the goat’s testicles. He split them with some of the other boys, but the girls weren’t allowed to touch or eat them. Apparently they are very chewy, it took Chris almost 20 minutes to eat one. The whole experience was very enlightening, to be able to see the whole process from looking in the living creatures eyes to actually eating it reminds you that those clean and nicely packaged pieces of meat come from somewhere, and they once where a living breathing creature. I am still going to eat meat, but witnessing the events have given me a greater appreciation for meat from a local market.
Today we did some filed work. We split up into groups. Some groups went out and interviewed farmers about the issues they are facing; the number one issue in this area is human wildlife conflict. Zebras and elephants can come in and destroy a farmer’s entire crop in one night if the farmers don’t fend them off. The men will stay up to 3 am every night with torches ready to fend off any elephants that come to close to their fields. My group did a transect walk of the area to study what different habitats and areas where being used for. Our guide was from the village. He was wearing dress pants and loafers and a button up shirt while all of us where decked out in out hiking gear, covered in sunscreen and wearing hats, and hiking boots. He made us all look ridiculous, not to mention that he was one of those farmers that was up to 3 am fending off elephants the previous night. He talked to us about all of the issues in the area. Most of the land in the part of Kenya that I am staying in is not suitable for agriculture, but the government is pushing agriculture and giving away land for agricultural purposes. All of the water, which comes from Kilimanjaro, in the area is being diverted into the fields for irrigation. The diminishing levels of the glaciers on Kilimanjaro is a huge issue for these people. If the glaciers are gone, there will be no water in this area, not to mention that droughts have become more frequent over the years as weather patterns are changing due to global patterns in climate change from global warming. We passed a women walking down the road and asked her what she was doing. She was carrying a large jug. She said she was going to get water for her family. We asked her how long the walk was. She said an hour. We asked her how many times in a day does she have to get water. She said four. It was amazing for us to think that someone could spend four hours a day just collecting water, while at home all we have to do is turn on the faucet.
Many people here thought that wash board was one of those things that are in the movies. Here, however, they are very real and quite useful. We have to wash all of our clothes by hand in cold water. I decided to do laundry today because I was out of socks. The amount of wash that I had was possibly a third of a normal load at home. It took me and hour and a half to wash all of my clothes, and they really don’t look that clean, and all of the soap is not out of them. Not to mention that when I was washing my clothes the sun was beating down on me but as soon as I hung them up on the line it began to rain. To look on this positively we call the rain an extra rinse cycle. Some people actually try to wash their close on a day they think it will rain for this reason. I like the think that tomorrow my clothes will truly have that Fresh Rain scent that tide can only attempt to mimic.
Tomorrow is a non program day for us. We have many fun events scheduled. I will tell you about them in my next post. Good Night!

2009-02-18T10:27:00.001-08:00

2009-02-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

Some updates from the field. I no longer have pinkeye; however, I now have a fungus growing in-between my toes. Today we spent the entire day in Amboseli National Park. Each semester the SFS students do a game count and analyze the data to give the Kenyan Wildlife Service about the number and distribution of species within the park. Unfortunately I have an assignment due and it takes about four hours to look up journal articles online because of your very slow internet connection so I don’t have much time to write more. I thought I might share this Maasai Prayer with you. Traditionally the Maasai would say this every morning when they woke up.
“Father-Mother Earth, We pray thee at sunrise and sunset, that you may not abandon your sacred duty of sustaining our lives. The water that quenches our thirst, the air that we breathe, the trees that provide shade, and the animals that give us company, all make life real and creation complete. We the children of the Earth pray for wisdom, that we in turn may be good custodians of these precious gifts to us and our unborn generations. For if we fail to safeguard these resources, man's moral standing as the most intelligent animal will be questionable. Furthermore, if we fail Nature, we shall have failed ourselves and the generations that come after us. And judgment will be very harsh on us.”

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T11:31:00.001-08:00

One thing about Kenya is that it is dusty. Inevitably some of that dust will get in your eye, and if you wear contacts, well that means that some point in time you will probably get pink eye. In my case, I have pink eye. Another unfortunate thing is that most people in Kenya don’t wear contacts, meaning that they are not used to touching their eyes, so when they get pink eye the doctor gives them this yucky yellow ointment that has to be laid across their eye by a second party. This means that three times a day I have to have someone drop yucky yellow ointment in my eye, which then gets stick in my eyelashes and forms a yellow goo circle around my eye that then collects more dust in the vicinity of my eye than there would be if I didn’t have pink eye in the first place. SO while you are reading about what I have done in the past two days please picture me with eyes surrounded by yellow goo topped with a nice layer of dust, it truly adds to the experience.
Amboseli! Yesterday was the first day that we got to visit one of the national parks in the area. My first real safari! We took the tops off of our land cruisers and spent four hours driving around the park standing in the vehicles with our heads out the top. It was amazing, not good for dust collecting goo. When we entered the park we were distracted by many groups of ostrich, zebra, and wildebeest followed by Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelle and many impala. We were beginning to worry that we wouldn’t see any elephants up close, we could see many in the distance, but after an hour of driving we arrived at a swampy wet area where the animals were so numerous it was impossible to see them all. There where groups of elephants walking up to our car, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, hippos, warthogs, antelopes of many species, and reedbuck to name the ones we identified, not to mention the numerous bird species. We later stumbled upon two sleeping lions and several sleeping hyena. All and all it was an amazing day, we will go to Amboseli three more times this month, and I can’t wait to see more. Hopefully we will find more time to closely observe them.
Today (Happy Valentine’s day!) we woke up early for a two hour birding lecture. We wandered around the area surrounding our camp with bird books and binoculars. It was a comical site to the children nearby to see 32 msungu staring at the trees through binoculars following a Kenyan professor in a lab coat that went down to his knees covered in images of birds. The children here must have a very funny opinion of what Americans do. They often see us running around the fence of our camp breathing hard and sweating profusely wearing scandalous shorts and shirts. At times there will be seven of us all running in different directions.
The big event for the day was we visited Rombo to help a community based heath care initiative. SFS donated money to buy the supplies, medicine, bug nets ect for the program. We arrived and were greeted by a group of 20 or so singing Massai women followed by what must have been at least fifty children. They sung for us and then the children, most of whom where in school uniforms (the clinic was located at the local school house), sang some songs. Again they asked us to sing for them but we were at a loss for what to sing. Obviously the hokey pokey was the immediate decision, which both children and adults enjoyed, followed by Their Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, and then we preformed an encore of the Macarena. We thought it to a few of the children, but all they really wanted to do was play, so we all played ring around the rosy, hand clapping games ect until it was time to go to work. There were several groups. Some students were helping the doctors who were diagnosing illness. I was not in this group but they said a lot of people had Malaria, ammonia, chiggers*, ect. Others where manning the pharmacy where antibiotics where being given as well as preventive measures such as mosquito nets. I was working outside at the weight station. We were weighting children under 5 and taking the circumference of their arms to check for signs of malnutrition, giving out vitamin A, and anti-worm medicine. At first it seemed slow and then all of a sudden we were surrounded by people. I had a batteried powered scale on the ground that I was using for the bigger children (the babies where being weight in a scale hanging from a tree. While the children were standing on the scale (which was very temperamental) I was measuring their arms, and then trying to figure out how old they were. They were too young to know much English, and their mothers knew almost none, and we never learned numbers in Kiswahili class. Eventually we came up with a system where I held out my hand and they counted on my fingers. I then had to report this information to two people for a survey, who were lost in the mass of people, as mothers where trying to get their children on the scales, and babies were crying and screaming, we were in the hot sun, they didn’t speak English, and I certainly don’t speak Kiswahili. It was hectic to say the least, but I checked over 50 children, and there was another set of scales across the school yard doing the same. Only a few children where underweight and had skinny arms that suggested malnutrition, none were very bad. The children here are much smaller. What I would think of as a four year old was actually a ten year old; it is amazing to see the difference. American children are going to look like giants when we get back. I already feel like a giant here. There was a very pregnant women what I weighed, I asked her her age, she was twenty, the same as me, and weighted the same as me and she was holding a one year old.
After the weighing frenzy ceased, we got to play with some of the children. They found a pen and I let them draw pictures and write on my arms. They all wrote their names Silantoi, Nebahahtist, Seleyian Moses, Silau, Naneta, Mary, Nayes, and Sios. They also wrote msungu myembo, which means beautiful white person, and one of the older girls who knows English very well drew a heart with the word love under nether it, she knew it was our Valentine’s day. No one wanted to leave and as we pulled out the children followed our land cruisers. The children here are always so excited when you wave to them. Along the road on the way back you can tell when you are approaching them. You hear adorable high voices yelling sweet sweet at you drive by and they try to chase the car, and eventually they fade away as you drive past, only to encounter more, farther down the road.

Still having Image issues. Hopefully they will be resolved.

A Wicked Mzuri Day

2009-02-10T10:54:00.000-08:00

Mzuri means good in Kiswahili. Today was out first “day off”. We didn’t have class but had a full day of activities planned. After breakfast we loaded up or Toyota land cruisers and headed off towards the town of Loitokidok. located in the foothills of Kilimanjaro. On the way the land began to get greener and we passed many fields of corn and sunflowers (used for their oil). We planned a hike into a nearby gorge and picked up two armed Kenyan Wildlife Service guards to lead the way. Whenever we go into the bush we must have guards with guns, more often however they bring spears, because of the high frequency of wildlife in the area.
As we descended into the gorge the smell of green plants was intoxicating, a stark contrast to the dry land that our camp is located on. We all felt as if we entered a time warp and were whisked away to Costa Rica. It is amazing how the presence of water dramatically changes the landscape. Surrounded by lush green foliage we wandered down the gorge and saw a gibbon jump across the trees above us. It looked like a gigantic skunk with a huge fluffy white tail. The humid climate of the gorge was welcoming but we soon left to wander back through the corn fields to the center of town. It was market day in Loitokidok and everyone one was out selling their products. Onions and tomatoes are a huge crop in this area and there were rows of vendors with their produce laid out on cloth in the market area. I purchased a piece of beautifully colored cloth from a mama, and went to a little supermarket to find some chocolate. One of the main t subjects around camp when we are hungry is about food: we all craving cheese, sweets and, like typical Americans, hamburgers.
We left town for the hour long drive back to camp, about halfway we could see rain in the distance and not long after we found ourselves in the middle of our first Kenyan downpour. The smell was amazing, like rich organic matter and the air felt heavy and damp. The ground was so wet and glistening in the sun, it looked like ice was covering the ground. We stopped in Kimana, the town just outside our camp, and bought an ear of fried corn served in the husk. It tastes just like popcorn but doesn’t get stuck in your teeth. Back at camp we all sat in the chumba, exhausted already from the day, and watched the rain poor off our straw roofs. Luckily the rain let up just in time for our soccer match against the neighboring school.
The school is a sort of boarding school. The students live there for three months and then go home for one and return again for three. They are there for four years, and it is a school for both girls and boys. They always are wearing their uniforms, which look very similar to those in the states (even sweaters!). We showed up at the school and decided to do a team lap and stretch to look intimidating. We went into the game thinking that we were going to lose, and loose by a lot, but we held our own. They won, but not by much! The final score was 3-2! We were all very proud, playing soccer for an hour and a half in Kenya, against Kenyans is very difficult (we are all soar and tired tonight). There were added obstacles to our game including a section of the field that was rock, several thorn bushes, no actual boundaries, and the general rule of the game was make your own rule. The students here are taught English in school, so we are able to communicate with them, but the universal language of soccer took over and we played as if we were from the same country. It was a magical experience, playing in their school yard. There were games of basketball and volleyball going on as well, and all those that were not playing where cheering on the sidelines. We hope to be able to go back again soon.
We are planning on watching a movie tonight since we are not allowed outside much after dark, and I have to wake up at 5:45 tomorrow morning to cook breakfast because we are going out for a field lecture early in the morning. Kwahari! The internet is to slow today to upload images. Sorry!

Colors

2009-02-08T11:12:00.000-08:00

A few days ago we went to visit a traditional Maasai village down the road (our neighbors). When we arrived we stood in a line and said hello to every member of the community (in

Kiswahili of course). The women sang and danced for us, and then, rather out of tune and uncoordinated, we sang and danced for them. They showed us their homes and some traditional Maasai objects and how to use them, including a spear! Afterwards we played with the children, who love to have their picture taken and then see it on the camera screen. They also like brightly colored hair ties: I had three on my arm and left with none. The photos posted are from this visit.
Today we woke up early to hike up a hill in the middle of the rangelands, a massive pile of rock that stuck straight out of the flat earth. From that vantage point we were able to see Kilimanjaro to the south, the Chyulu hills to the northeast, and vast expanse of arid semi arid lands (ASAL), which make up the majority of land in Kenya, spotted with circular Maasai settlements. We had a lecture up on this hill and enjoyed the view until the sun began to show and the heat forced us back down to our cars. On the drive back we saw many zebra, a giraffe, and a warthog (which look like a horse head stuck on tinny little pig legs). Nearing the village an aroma filled the car, and being near lunch time made our stomachs rumble. Some said it smelled like roast, others barbeque. The driver laughed at us and said it was burning trash, immediately changing our hunger to nausea. We are only beginning to learn about the ways of this country and its people, and it would appear that we still have a long way to go.
This evening we played volleyball with the staff for over an hour, and for the past three nights have played soccer. On our day off, Tuesday, we have plans to go play the local high school down the road in a soccer match. We have been practicing with the staff, but they tell us the children here are very good and we should expect to loose. The most difficult thing about soccer here are the thorns that seem to be on every surface. The ball gets full of them and eventually the game has to be stopped to remove them. It is even worse if you fall over, you can expect a side full of thorns and a mouth full of dust.
There is a fire outside in the fire pit, and the staff are telling stories and I am going to go listen.

In Kenya safe and sound!

2009-02-06T10:39:00.000-08:00

I left Worcester at 11 am on Saturday January 31st but did not arrive at my final destination until Monday afternoon. Mom and dad dropped me off at the airport terminal entrance and I was on my own, but not for long there were already 8 members of my group waiting at the terminal and we where there 5 hours before the flight. The flights were uneventful, but my 13 hour layover in London was packed full of adventure. We arrived in London at 8 am on Sunday and decided to take the train into the city. Immediately on exit from the underground we were confronted by Big Ben, the icon of London tourism. We stopped at a cute little restaurant and ate an English breakfast, which consists of a fried egg, bacon, sausage, toast, and baked beans. Afterward we wanted around the city encountering a park with a very cold looking pink pelican, guards in front of the parliament building wearing large black furry caps. We crossed the Thames on a foot bridge, and saw the London eye, the filming of a commercial on the edge of the river. Wandering back across the river we saw a motorcycle rally against motorcycle parking taxes, a Chinese new year’s celebration, the national gallery(free entry!), and took an extensive ride on red double decker bus ending at a pub called the Rose. All of this was done in the freezing cold during intermittent snow squalls and bright blue skies, the weather made me feel just like home in New England. We made it back to the airport in plenty of time for our final flight to Kenya.
Arrival in Kenya was again uneventful but the ride to the SFS Bush Camp made up for the lack of excitement. It was six hours in a Land Rover over roads that make any New England road seem newly paved. Amazingly I managed to fall asleep for most of it but not after seeing many zebra, giraffe, and wildebeest. The Bush camp is amazing. We are right besides farming fields and grazing land for the Maasai cattle. A stream runs along the outer edge so the plants are green and there is plenty of shade. Our bandas (the hut in which we are staying) are small but don’t plan on spending a lot of time in them. It is hot but not humid and when a cloud covers the sun it feels like summer in Massachusetts. We have some monkeys that live in the trees by our camp and there are plenty of birds. Last night an elephant was seen in a neighboring crop. I expect to see much more wildlife; I just hope I don’t run into any snakes!
Yesterday we went to the market in Kimana. As soon as we got out of our land rovers were swarmed by young children asking for sweets and pencils, and they all wanted to touch our hands. The mamas wouldn’t leave me alone trying to sell me jewelry that was ornate and colorful. I want to wait to buy anything until I learn more Kiswahili, so I will be better are bargaining. Everyone here says that they are Obama’s brother or cousin. They even have a national holiday after the day Obama was elected and nobody goes to work. I had my first Kiswahili class today. I think I will find it easier to spell in Kiswahili because everything is spelt just the way it sounds with very few exceptions. My favorite word so far is Shoats, which is a group of goats and sheep together (sheep + goat).
I will try to make regular posts, I am still getting used to the schedule here. We are always very busy trying to get the most out of our time here. Hope you are all doing well!