Peace, Love & Kili

Haven’t written in a while because the massive elephant shit has hit the fan. All I can say is I wish the program/staff here was more balanced and organized. Our first two weeks were leisurely and consisted mostly of sitting in the chumba listening to lectures. Next was a week of activities (our neighbor's boma, EP transect field exercise, visiting the manyatta and the homestay). This last week, we were assigned sooo many different things to do all at once. Needless to say, I am currently quite envious of people whose study abroad adventures are jokes in the school arena.

To start off: some pictures that really belong with my previous posts, but I still wanted to share them while I got the opportunity (fast internet for uploading pics is hard to come by here!)

Patrick, Jen and myself reppin our SFS t-shirts...mine will need a good bleachin when I get home. Why they decided to give us white shirts to wear in dusty Africa still puzzles me....

Our class at the primary school. (Girls wear dresses, boys have sweaters or button ups....notice it is mostly boys)

Swimming at a lodge near Amboseli National Park on 2/19 for our non-program day.  Normally our non-program days are still structured/planned activities so it was nice to relax and do nothing for the day :)

it was such a cool pool! strange to think that for some people who just stay at resorts, this is a major part of what they see/think of Kenya.

We had various traveling field lectures and exercises this past week but mostly just papers, presentations and assignments due basically ever other day. This would be more manageable except for the fact that we still have (at least) 4-6 hours of classes, 6 days a week. I guess in the big scheme of things, I’m still very lucky for having this amazing opportunity and my “problems” are really so insignificant (first world problems?)….I just have to remind myself that there are kids and adults here, especially females, who would do anything to go to school and the ones who are lucky enough to get an education are so passionate about their educations. I know I’ve already talked about the kids walking along the busy road 5km to school each way....but seeing it everday is a humbling reminder to be grateful for this and other opportunities I’ve been graced with!

The most interesting/exciting part of the past week was probably our Wildlife Management field exercise that studied the impact of humans and elephants on woody vegetation. We got split into groups and were sent off with a local guide to walk a 1-km transect using a compass, GPS and tape measures. Our objective was to measure 30meter by 30m plots and assess any damage to the vegetation that shows evidence of elephant damage or human use (this is where our guide, "Wiper" came in especially handy.) Wiper is a close friend of KBC who we've all met in town before. He is currently running for some governmental position in Kimana and is always a cheerful, friendly guy.  He is also very knowledgable and gave us tips which helped us so our transect walk was efficient and quick. He then gave us all Maasai names...mine, nashipai, meant "always smiling"

:)

A frequent site when driving around here...this is our car attempting to drive down the gravel road to camp when coming back from the field exercise. Wiper had to get out to shoo the livestock off to the side because they were in no rush to move anywhere quickly despite the fact that our professors and drivers give us girls heart attacks when the practically bump the animals to give em a little encouragement to get out of our way!

Other than that, the week was standard class and homework stuff, so I won't bore you with those exciting details.

However, Saturday 2/25 was a great non-program day. Despite having all of these assignments looming over our heads, the majority of us left around 9 to go on a hike in Loitoktok.  This neighboring town is about 30 minutes away, near the Tanzania border, and is hilly, lush and green (quite the contrast from the mostly flat and dry Kimana area). It was gorgeous! The hike led us down to this amazing waterfall oasis where we climbed on rocks and explored down the winding river.

"peponi" means paradise in swahili

We ate lunch here then hiked back up to the cars and continued on to our next destination of the day: a local Voluntary Counseling and Testing Center for HIV/AIDS patients. This is a stop the SFS always does and thus the program has a great relationship with the clinic’s administrator, Mary. We got the chance to hear stories of four women who are HIV positive. All were mothers of at least two children and shared with us the stories of how they found out about their status, and how it has affected their lives and the lives of their family members.  Listening to these brave and inspirational women speak was an incredibly touching experience. Each has their own family to take care of and they are all just trying to live regular lives in this society that is still very prejudiced and scornful to those who are HIV positive.

One woman spoke about her daughter who had to leave school in order to help take care of her before they figured out what was making her so sick. Now that the kids at school know that her mother is HIV+, they are very mean and discriminatory to her and she has not gone back to school since. The lack of education, preventative measures (either due religious or cultural beliefs or the wishes of their polygamous husbands to which a wife must comply), and health precautions for pregnant/nursing women has resulted in rampant spread of disease. However, the lack or inaccessibility of testing resources and medicine in rural areas is also a huge problem (this is where the Mbirikani Clinic that I’ve written about before plays a huge role—they have a cohort of motorbikes that are essentially traveling clinics for testing and treating AIDS patients who may otherwise not have access to these vital treatments. All testing and medicines are supposed to be free because of government subsidies, but if they can’t be accessed there is no point!)

These women were just average people who looked and acted normally, which got me thinking how many people I’ve met or shaken hands with here who are HIV positive who may or may not know it.  It’s so interesting that we learn so much about HIV/AIDS back in the states, and I’ve had various topics in my biology courses about it, but learning from actual AIDS patients and seeing the implications of the disease firsthand in a community where it is prevalent was a far more memorable and valuable experience than anything I’ve ever learned in a classroom. Sorry Bio 204...

My classmates Anna, Emily, Katie and Sarah at the VCT befor meeting the women and hearing their stories.

The women of the clinic have a small shop where they sell their beadwork and crafts that they make in group therapy and sell as a source of income (because the medication can have adverse side effects with lots of sun exposure, so they can’t continue with their daily lives and must seek other sources of livelihood). I bought some of the most beautiful jewelry I’ve seen yet and felt great knowing that I knew where and who this money was going to.

Oh ya know, just some women casually strolling about... with bananas on their head. This was in Loitoktok before going to the market.

We then got the opportunity to go to the Oloitoktok Market and shop around. I got some fabric and a bracelet and even randomly met a woman who came up to me and introduced herself…and her name was Christine! The people here are just so friendly and welcoming, I don’t think I can tell you guys enough times.  Oh, we also saw a guy wearing a Green Bay Packers jacket so, naturally, I had to get my picture taken with him (I don’t think he really understood what was even going on).  We also stopped in a little supermarket and got ice cream (a God-send when nothing we get here is really cold…really all I want is an ice cold glass of water. Or a delicious fruit smoothie. But there’s no ice! it's hard at times.)

My new friend Christine! I don't think I'll ever see her again but she was a sweetheart. I didn't know that Kenya could handle two Christines. :)

We then had to hurry on our way because Daniel, our Swahili prof, had gotten us an invitation to a wedding/circumcision celebration at a boma across the street from our camp! Everyone was so excited to get to see this aspect of the Maasai culture, but we didn't really know what to expect. I felt kind of bad because as soon as we showed up, us "muzungus" were more the spectacle to watch and I imagined the bride was probably annoyed (although it wasn't anything like a typical wedding in the states). We watched as the different age classes of warriors danced, jumped and sang in their circles. Then Tara came and told us to follow her to where the bride and groom were being photographed (by whom I assume was the photographer with a small hand-held digital camera that was put to shame by most of our cameras...whoops). The bride had a very somber look on her face and did not look happy at all….I was dying to know what was going on inside her head. Afterall, one of my friends pointed out, she was basically signing over her entire life and body to her new husband, and chances are it was an arranged marriage.

The bride and groom (and I'm assuming the groom's mother). The bride's huge necklace is traditionally worn for the wedding ceremony when the bride is given to her new husband, along with a dowry of some amount of cows.

The warriors jump as a fun competition in the boma while the older men and young chidren look on. Most of the women were socializing outside the boma fence. As you can see, some of the warriors can get crazy air!

It was overall very interesting to see the interactions of the people and families and watch the warriors jumping competitions. We didn’t get to see the actual ceremony because it was earlier in the day when we were in Loitoktok, but it was cool to see the Maasai “wedding reception” and talk to some people. One young man, dressed in regular clothes, approached me and was asking where I’m from, what I’m studying and what I want to do when I’m done "in the university". He was very surprised that I didn’t have an exact plan (he, on the other hand, wanted to be a doctor, and was quizzing me on the different cell functions in the body once I told him I liked biology, which made me feel stupid because I couldn’t remember nearly any for the reason that I had just memorized them for tests and forgotten them….that was definitely a little eye opener to try to start retaining more of the info I’m paying so much to learn in college..ha).

Anywho, the reason the celebrations were combined was because within the same family there was a young man getting married and two younger boys getting circumcised, which is the rite of initiation into adulthood here (for both males and females). We have learned a lot about the cultural beliefs behind this practice and why the government & outside efforts to end the practice of circumcision have failed…basically, it is believed that to curb the desires of women and prevent prostitution, young women must undergo the “female genitalia cut” to become a woman and ultimately be able to get married. For men, it is simply a rite of passage into adulthood.  As you can imagine, it is a common way to spread disease and infection because the practices are not exactly sterile. However, no one wants their child to be one of the first to not be circumcised (and thus be “impure” or dirty) due to these long-standing beliefs and customs, so the pressure from the government to stop has in some cases led to more secretive and dangerous procedures, particularly for women. Once again, I will say that I am incredibly grateful for being born in the US as a woman with equal rights and opportunities. I also decided on this day that if I could ever wish for anything in the world (like, for example, if I were one of those contestants in a beauty pageant  that gets asked what I would do to make the world a better place…lol) it would be for equal AND accessible education for all people worldwide. It is really the only solution to many of the problems I see here, and, well, basically everywhere.

Enough of the preaching. Here's some more pics!

The groom (left) and his brother/friend? I'm not really sure. Everyone was very decked out in jewlery and paint for the big day.

Family portraits. (Bet you wish you could say you photographed a Maasai wedding, dontcha, Shelly?)  ;)

When we were invited over to take pictures of the bride and groom, everyone around us thought it was funny we wanted to take pictures of THEM and they really got a kick out of looking at the pictures on our digital cameras. One mama grabbed my camera and took a few pictures of me with this young woman.

cute wittle baby :)

Basically, we saw lots of really awesome warrior jumping. They also do this super cool dance where they stand in a circle and....I'm just realizing right now how incredibly hard it is to describe it but it's beautiful and I have video of it so if we ever get the chance, I'll show you!

 

Here! I tried to put two pictures close together to show you the general idea of the dance. The song they sing is what makes it especially cool though :) The warriors all have the long hair for whipping around while dancing. It looks pretty sweet!

Some mamas strollin.

The SFS group before leaving the wedding. Is it just me or do my earring look HUGE?

Sunday and Monday consisted of presentations and papers and homework. Really exciting stuff. The weather has been cooling off lately and it's been really nice in the evening/at night.  It's also started to rain more frequently--usually in the afternoons just for short periods of time, but occasionally at night it thunderstorms now which is awesome. Also, just to clear things up with anyone who may be confused: our roofs have a metal sheet under them so we do not, in fact, get soaked if it rains here. Sunday night it rained alllll night and we woke up to an insanely snow-covered Mt Kilimanjaro on Monday morning! it was beautiful. I've included the following picture for comparison purposes.....

kili 2/18....what we thought was a lot of snow.......

Kili 2/27. INSANE!

Monday was the first day I got sick here...it was not fun at all, but I'm honestly surprised it took me this long to get sick! Lots of people are coming down with colds and stuff like that (possibly due to the fact that we're all stressin and staying up late to do homework) but I got some weird stomach bug that made for a very uncomfortable day. Luckily we had the afternoon off to prep for our poster presentations today, and I'm feeling much better today.

This Friday we leave for expedition!!!!!!!! We are all incredibly excited to "escape the chumba" as my friend Patrick likes to say. We leave Friday morning for Lake Nakuru, which is 5 hours away, but we make a few stops along the way so it takes 8 hours to get there.  While on expedition, we camp and have various field lectures and safaris. I should also probably note that where camp is fenced in (to avoid the big wildlife, obviously) and we bring our askaris and cook crew with us, so it might not exactly be classified as camping except for the fact that we sleep in tents at night. Been looking forward to this for a while now! We will be gone through Friday 3/2 through Thursday 3/8 though so it'll be a while til the next post.... I hear there are lots of rhinos there (and potentially some carnivores?) so I hope to come back with some cool pictures to share :)

Well, it's bed time for me. Hopefully yall are surviving the winter storms (that may or may not have actually showed up?) in the midwest! I'm glad the only snow I'm seeing here is far away on top of Kili :) Peace and love, rafikis!