To live in a crazy world, you've got to be crazy.

Well, I've safely made it to Tanzania, my new home for the rest of my semester in East Africa! We arrived on Monday night and are getting settled in to our new camp, which is quite different from KBC in Kenya! More on that later. Just to forewarn: internet is even worse in TZ than it was in Kenya (didn't think that was possible) so I won't be able to post nearly as many pictures unless I do so in the middle of the night or early morning when no one else is online. So, my apologies. Here are a few pics I had uploaded in Kenya from the last few days before we left!

elephants in Amboseli and a cattle egret along for the ride.

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we were so glad that Kili was out for our last day in the park. I could finally get a picture of some wildlife with the mountain in the background!

March 15 was our last day of academics in Kenya! We had our last exam—EP— in the morning after spending the previous few days studying and hating life (just like finals back in the States! good times). Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday prior were all devoted to studying and preparing for our three 2-hour exams exams (except on Tuesday afternoon we took a little study break and went to the Kimana Market for our last market day to get any final gifts and things we wanted in town or from the mamas!)

Didn’t do much of anything to celebrate St Patty’s except wear green. We got our exam grades  on Saturday and I was pleasantly surprised. Before dinner, I went for a walk to go see the bush babies one last time with Ally and Patrick. One cute and curious fellow up in the tree came about 10 ft from us, but before we knew it he was jumping away amongst the trees so we headed back to camp for dinner. Just as we got to the bandas I stepped on this huge thorn which stabbed the arch of my left foot and broke off under my skin. It hurt!...Real bad. It started to swell up and was pretty painful (apparently because the thorns here commonly have toxins on the tips....great) so I told Jenna and she said she’d get it out after dinner. She dug around trying to pull it out, but it was pretty stuck so I had to soak my foot for a while before she attempted again. Mollie, being the sweetheart that she is, sat with me and held my hand because it was pretty painful getting prodded and poked with the needle and tweezers for what seemed like forever before Jenna extracted the culprit.

ze bush babyyy! It was worth getting a thorn in my foot for. I will miss these little fellas. so cute and curious and small :)

Saturday we went for an epic hike in the morning because it was a non-program day. The hill was called Oloisoto (literally "big rock" in Swahili) and had an amazing vantage point of the Amboseli ecosystem where we've been living and studying for the past month and a half. It was good exericise climbing up the steep, rocky hill and definitely a great memory I will have of the beauty of Kenya.

being a tree on a rock outcrop :)

Sunday March 18 was our last full day at KBC. We had our session debrief outside under the trees where we constructively criticized our experiences with SFS thus far and also reflected upon our time here. At the end, we went around and shared in one or two words how we felt about our experience. My word was eye-opening, and a few things other people said which encompassed a lot of my feelings were: life changing, opportunity-of-a-lifetime, grateful, pleasantly surprised, surprisingly comfortable, at home, peaceful, and thankful.  As soon as our sweet, soft-spoken WM prof, Shem, started speaking, we all started crying because he said he thought of us like his family. [Cue group hugging, laughing, crying and smiling.]

The rest of the day we spent packing, cooking for our big feast and walking around taking pictures of every last minute thing we never thought to photograph before. Different people made special dishes for the feast and we took over the kitchen for the day. I made guacamole to go with someone's black bean burgers. There was also delicious chicken wings, chapatti (like a pita/tortilla), falafel, fried rice, deviled eggs, snickerdoodle cookies, PB cookies, pineapple crisp and the most amazing brownies everrrr. We moved all the tables together and feasted with the staff (who just stuck with their traditional ugali, cabbage and vegetables because they're not really fans of our food). Can you say food baby?

walking around the inner loop one last time and taking enough pictures of kili to remember it forever! the pictures will never do it justice though.....

one of crazy beetles found in the chumba at night sometimes. Not nearly as many bugs in TZ as there were in Kenya! (not complaining)

We left KBC at 7 a.m. Monday morning to begin our adventure to Tanzania. We frantically finished packing up our bed sheets and final things which we had unpacked only 7 weeks prior (which seems like just yesterday). I wish we could’ve had more time to enjoy our last breakfast and say our goodbyes but we were on a time budget to get to the border and swap cars, groups and countries. It was sad to say goodbye to KBC and all the amazing staff we were leaving behind, but I was excited to finally see what Tanzania was like.

One would think that the road leading to the Kenya/Tanzania border would be well marked/ patrolled/ established. ...Wrong! Kenya is never really what you would expect :) The road which we turned off of the paved main road to head towards TZ was an indistinguishable dirt path with scrubland on either side, with nothing else in sight as far as the eye could see (besdies the occasional sighting of zebra, gazelle, giraffe, ostrich and Bustard [a very prehistoric looking bird with a neck like an ostrich, but much much smaller than one] in the distance). Just as I was beginning to fondly wonder how the hell the drivers know which road and what turns to maneuver along the way, we became aware that we were, in fact, lost... except not really -- moreso just disoriented in the middle of nowehere, so the drivers asked some local Maasai at a boma which way to go. Next thing we know, we caught up to the 3 cars that we had separated from. But they were stopped and people walking around outside, which confused us....until we saw that one was tire-less! The entire wheel literally popped off and the car full of luggage was stuck partway into the ground. Whoops! On a tight time budget (which is ironic in Kenya..nothing is ever on time) to get to the border, we had to improvise quickly and squeezed everyone into 3 cars, turning the fourth one into the new luggage storage space. It was a very cozy ride (and extremely bumpy over the washboard roads--I felt like my brain was jumbled into mush and many brain cells were lost from the drive, which lasted about 2 hours until we got to the border).

"Daniel, Daniel, do you copy? do you copy? we have a problem."

It was so cool to see the transformation from Kenya to Tanzania. Even before we got to the actual border, there were huge mountainous hills covered in trees and greenery, which became increasingly common once we crossed into TZ. At the border, we had to “Exit” Kenya then declare ourselves in Tanzania and wait for our Visas. While we were waiting, we got to meet the other group leaving Tanzania for Kenya (strangely bizarre to see the “parallel universe”). None of them were very sad or seemed upset, and they were probably wondering why we were all so blubbery and crying while saying goodbye to Jenna and Tara (because KBC was AWESOME and we didn't want to leave...don't judge us!). It was a sad goodbye to our staff which we got to know so well over the last month and a half. Soonafter, we were handed over to Whitney, our new SAM in Tanzania, swapped land cruisers and began our drive to our new home.

The air is more humid in TZ (but not in a bad way) and everything is so lush and green! The roads were also all completely paved (strange) because it’s a common tourist stretch and even the buildings in the roadside towns are made of cement which makes it look more established and almost nicer. It's strange though because the level of poverty in TZ is way higher than Kenya (34.6% of people live below the poverty line). The per capita income in TZ is $592 USD;  life expectancy 58.2 years and the illiteracy rate  is 27%.  Just to put things in perspective.

After about 2 hours, we made a stop at the Shoprite center in Arusha,to visit the grocery store (bought new PB to replace my jar of good PB that was scavenged by my fellow vulture students when I accidentally left it out after making a PB&J one morning) and also got gelato at a cute little Italian café. Nutella gelato. ‘nuf said. Once again, people went crazy for the iced coffee beverages, and we were on our way after one hour.

The land became more Jurassic-park like as we neared our camp. Does this look like a scene out of Jurassic park to anyone?

It took another 2.5 hours to get to Moyo Hill Camp (MHC). As we neared our camp, Tanzania got even more amazingly beautiful—tropical-esque—and rolling hills with lush green vegetation everywhere. It definitely reminds me of Jurassic Park because it looks like somewhere you would expect to see some dinosaurs pop out of the forest. We climbed up and up this gradual incline of a hill slowly, back and forth through the switchbacks. Next to the road there was a huge drop off overlooking Lake Manyara and tons of beautiful baobab trees! They are so amazing!

driving up the escarpment to Rhotia

We unpacked Monday night and went to bed exhausted from the long day. Tuesday morning I was awoken by some roosters cocka-doodle-doo-ing at about 6 am (the perks of being right next to a little town). We had a little orientation to our new lives in Tanzania with and were guided along the running trail to get a feel for the area because here the loop is actually outside the fence. We then got to walk into Rhotia, the tiny town about a ten minute stroll from our camp, where we can go explore and shop and get clothing made from our fabrics when we have free time. Rhotia is really quite minimal and basic, with a few dukas selling random necessities, some bars and a tailor. We aren’t allowed to go into any of the bars here because of the program rules and the fact that the home brew/local booze they drink is a very dangerous mix of stuff that can make you go blind (maybe it's the gasoline they put in it? just an idea.). Despite this, we were told that alcoholism is a pretty bad problem around here because it’s really cheap and comes in these little Capri sun-like pouches, which are littered all over town.

On the bright side, I'm excited for Sunday because its our first non program day and we get to go into Karatu, the neighboring bigger town and go to a restaurant there which serve American-style food (pizzas, burgers, mac n cheese, ice cream) and also cold (safe) beer! We're all looking forward to it! There's also a pizza place in Mtu wa Mbu (say mmm-tuwambu) that I can't wait to go to.

We had our first actual classes on Wednesday. First things first: the breakfast here is amazing! Well, all the meals, actually. Everything is just a tiny bit more flavorful and fresh tasting (maybe because there’s actually water and not desert-like heat here all the time). The eggs seem yummier (and they have flavorful green peppers and onions, even some mushrooms!), there’s BACON, potatoes (that don’t seem so soaked in oil), thick-cut tomato slices with fresh herbs sprinkled on top, the standard pancakes, beans and oatmeal. There is also delicious fruit , cereal, and soft bread for making cinnamon toast (uber-yum) and egg sandwiches. Satisfied with breakfast, we headed over to the classroom – which is separate from the dining hall here, unlike back at KBC – for our first EP lecture. We were nervous because of none of us reallllly liked our old EP prof, but John Mwamhanga (Mwamhanga, as he likes to be called) is actually very interesting and engaging. We then had a break (nap time!) and WE at 10:30 with John Kioko (or Kioko as we call him). That afternoon, we went to Lake Manyara National Park for our first national park outing! We did a species association exercise for WM and just enjoyed the opportunity to get a feel for the park. Our WM prof, Christian, is the only white professor we’ve had. He’s from Germany but actually has more of a British accent, which is a refreshing change from the sometimes hard to understand East African accents we’ve become accustomed to.

Our drive in LMNP was absolutely beautiful. It is like a different world here! Seriously hard to believe we’re even on the same continent, let alone only one country away! The trees are very dense and some have large, tropical-like leaves that remind me of Costa Rica. The baobab trees are my favorite and there are also other huge trees with huge trunks that tower way overhead. Although we didn’t see as much wildlife as we were accustomed to in Kenya (except tons of dik diks!) it was still a beautiful afternoon enjoying the landscape and getting a feel for the area. Thursday morning we went there again for a WE exercise studying the behavior ecology and feeding habits of baboons.

A zeb right next to our car during the exercise in LMNP.

Friday we had our first traveling lecture around Rhotia and Mtu wa Mbu. I cannot begin to tell you how gorgeous this place is! I'm very excited to do DR here and call it my home for the next month and a half! Tomorrow we are going to Lake Manyara Ranch, a protected area, to study the impact of wildlife on water resources and vegetation (by counting piles of poop--bet you wish you had my life!). I'm actually pretty excited though because water quality/accessibility/management is more in my line of interest!

we sat under this tree for a brief leture...I could barely focus because I was in such awe of how huge it was! (this is a side angle....the other side is probably 3x as wide!)

A little bit about Moyo Hill Camp: it is fenced in and much smaller than KBC. Our bandas are like little duplexes with two sides: each side has two bunkbeds and some shelving, as well as a private bathroom with shower. The bathroom is a weird little room that is raindrop-shaped and has a sink (where I can brush my teeth without using a water bottle to pour water on my toothbrush!). The shower head protrudes awkwardly from the wall and there’s no shower curtain of any sort to separate it from the toilet so you just shower in this wierd little room and the water runs into this drain in the floor (but in reality everything just gets wet). It’s odd to have our bathroom attached to the banda, and I strangely (and unexpectedly) miss walking to the bathrooms at KBC and showering in the open-air stalls (maybe it was the lovely view of Kili over the top of the shower door?). There's also a gorgeous raised gazebo in the middle of camp for hanging out, doing homework or just enjoying the breeze. The staff seems pretty cool too, but they speak a little more swahili and a little less english than we were used to at KBC, so that will take some getting used to. Also, I've sort of acquired the name "crazy" here because when I introduce myself to people, they think that's what I'm saying and that's what it sounds like when anyone from East Africa trys to say my name. So it's been interesting (to say the least) introducing myself to the new staff and the little kids we meet while walking in town (and the kids think its hilarious). Excited to get to know them better over the semester and also to compare the ecology of Kenya and Tazania!

My banda! Myself, Karen and Sidra are on the left side.

We have classes this week and next week, then have an exam on Saturday the 31st and leave April 1 for our expedition at Serengeti National Park! Very very excited for that. Unlike Nakuru, we are not fenced in there (which is kinda scary because of the high population of carnivores in the park....this should be interesting). Stay tuned for more on that :)

Kenya dig it?

I honestly can't belive how fast time is flying by in Kenya.  I remember arriving in the beginning of February thinking how May seemed like it was sooooo far away and even wondering if I might get homesick. Next thing I know, expedition has come and gone, and now it's time for finals and moving to Tanzania on the 19th! I don't want to leave this place and the amazing staff at KBC but I'm really excited for my next adventures and doing Directed Research in Tanzania!

 It was an eye-opening and amazing experience going to Lake Nakuru National park. For one, I got to see a lot of Kenya on our long drive there. I also didn't realize until we arrived back at KBC on Wednesday night how much it feels like home to me (never thought I'd be so excited to get back to my bed net and banda--spiders, mice & all). It didn't really seem like home when we left, but something about being gone and sleeping on the ground for 5 nights and driving 10+ hours each way made me realize how much I love this place.

Our adventure started Friday March 2nd at 5:15 when we had breakfast, packed lunches and finished loading up the vehicles for our long day of traveling.  We left at 6 am before the sun was rising. Despite how tired my body was, I could not fall asleep in the car!  My car was driven by Jackson, co-piloted/DJ-ed by our intern Jenna, and accompanied by Elyse, Sarah, Maggie, Katie and Carey.

Got up bright and early to depart at 6 am for our expedition. This is the sun rising over the Chyulu Hills.

Our first stop was a bathroom break, followed by a grocery/everything store (good ol' Tusky's) to purchase ourselves some fun snacks/cravings we've been itching for. My purchases consisted of mostly chocolate and peanut butter. After another few hours, we stopped at a little souvenir shop to get hasseled by the locals trying to sell us stuff and pee in some really questionable bathrooms. There was an amazing view of the Rift Valley, so we snapped a few pics and headed on our way. Last stop: everyone's dream come true. A small coffee stand that served COLD drinks--smoothies, milkshakes and iced coffee (I'm a non-coffee drinker but everone else was freakin out). Another two hours and we finally arrived in the town of Lake Nakuru by 5:30pm -- surprisingly, the drive actually didn't seem that bad (maybe because I was so excited to get there!). Side note: driving in Kenya is sheer and utter chaos, let me tell you. I thought Costa Rica was bad, but Kenya takes driving to a whooooole new level. People are CONSTANTLY passing eachother on the roads, whether or not you have a clear view of oncoming traffic, and people/bikes/motorcycles are just winding through traffic between cars, especially in traffic jams in the city. I'm honestly amazed I haven't seen more accidents...I guess the drivers just know what they're doing. (attn: mom & dad-- despite this apparent craziness, I feel safe with our drivers...SFS is very particular about rules when driving...they drive very carefully with their precious cargo:))

A pic I snapped of a small road-side town we passed through on our drive. This is Africa.

Nakuru had an awesome feel to it. The streets were bustling and the sidewalks and store fronts crammed with people selling things. Guys on motorcycles and little mtotos lined the roads (cabs here--they have 3 wheels and probably comfortably fit 4 although there's usually like 6-8 people jammed in them).
We set up camp as the day was winding down and ate our first of many meals out of our tupperware dishes. The camp, as I said before, was a small fenced in area inside the park (necessary to keep the buffalo, waterbuck, lions, leopards, gazelle, impala, rhinos, etc. at bay). We woke up each morning to a breathtaking view of fog settled in the valley among the hills, dotted with grazing buffalo and the occasional rhino and ungulate. After breakfast Saturday morning, we piled into the vehicles for our first field lecture in the park.

morning sunrise & our tents.

 waking up in the morning in Lake Nakuru National Park entailed cool temps, fog and this lovely view outside our camp fence

We only got to see a brief preview of a few habitats in the park  (and an awesome view from a look-out point on top of a hill/mtn) before we had to head back for a guest lecture. BUT on our way back to camp we were all ecstatic and extremely lucky to see a leopard about 20 m from the road!!! Erin, a girl in my car (from Wisco! represent), spotted it (teehee...no pun intended) as it slunk down this fallen tree and disappeared into the tall grass. That image will forever be engrained in my memory. We stopped to look for it as the rest of our caravan (4 land cruisers total) stopped behind us, semi-confused what we were looking at. All of a sudden, the leopard jumped into a tree and began climbing, turning back to look at us with its scary eyes before it slipped into the cover of the trees. It was unreal.

is a caption necessary for this?!

Back at camp, we had a woman from Kenya Wildlife Service speak to us for a short lecture on the basics of the park and it's history.  Lake Nakuru National Park was fenced in back in 1976 because of the encroaching civilization that was generating a lot of human-wildlife conflict. They then re-introduced the Rothschild giraffe, White rhino and Black rhino -- all endangered species -- because of the relatively safe nature of the park from poachers.  After a brief WM class, we left for our first game drive in the park on which we saw plenty of wildlife and enjoyed the scenery.

Sunday morning we had a species/habitat association field exercise, which we are now doing data analysis for to determine if certain species specialize in particular habitats. We left early and began our transect drive through the park. At times, we were driving along the park fence, which is electric.

Elands--the largest antelope. They are freakin HUGE! Jenna told us about how the last time she went on this transect exercise, they saw one get electrocuted by the park's fence! ....luckily we didn't see any animals get electrocuted

some impala getting dangerously close to the electric fence....

Around 8:45, as our transect entered this strange bushland/scrubland, I suddenly spotted something orang-colored beneath the shade of a bush. A male lion!!! I loudly whispered to Sipaya to STOP STOP STOP and we slowly backed up to ogle the male. He was resting in the shade about ten meters away from the road, with a few females under nearby bushes.  We were all super excited and feverishly snapped photos from our vantage point through the hatches. All of a sudden, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye on the right side of the car, even more secluded in some bushes. Baby lions! FIVE of them!!! I may or may not have shed a tear because I was so excited that I was the one to notice these regal animals that we would have otherwise just driven right past. We spent about half an hour watching them and taking pictures, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at their cuteness, before we (reluctantly) continued on our merry way. My day was officially made before 9 am.

overwhelming cuteness!!!! the babies were all different ages and sizes.

The coolness of the rest of the wildlife was dwarfed by the lion-sighting, but we diligently finished up our wildlife ecology exercise and then got to drive around until lunch at noon. After our lunch, break and a brief Env Policy lecture, we went on another game drive until dinner.

A waterbuck--one of the heftier deer-like things I'm sure my dad would love to hunt/have mounted on the wall. Also one of the favorite animals of our Wildlife Management prof, Shem (an incredibly peaceful and sweet man who kinda looks like an older Obama).

Rothschild giraffes! They are bigger than the giraffes that live elsewhere in E. Africa and sadly only exist in protected areas.

probably the largest rhino horn I've ever seen.

The beautiful Lake Nakuru!

Somewhereeeeeee over the rainbow.....flamingos flyyy....
It usually rained in the afternoon or evening in L. Nakuru. There was this beautiful rainbow (that turned into a double rainbow!) over the lake on our way back to camp Sunday night.

Monday we woke up bright and early (a trend on this trip) to head out for our Env Policy traveling lecture.  The night before, some groups had seen a leopard kill up in some trees on their drive along the lake.  They didn't see any carnivores at the time, but as we drove past that same spot Monday morning, there were 3 other cars parked along the road--usually the sign of something interesting/exciting. Sure enough, there was a male lion who had claimed the leopard's kill -- a small buffalo from the looks of it -- and was carrying it along the trunk of this massive fallen tree. We popped open the hatches quietly and snapped pictures as he began feasting on the day-old carcass. Pretty sweet if I may say so myself. He walked around for a bit then proceeded to gracefull fall/half-jump after the carcass that slipped off the tree trunk and he was out of sight. Next goal: see an actual lion hunt/kill go down (very ambitious, I know, but we're hoping we might in Serengeti).

nom nom nom

mine.

As we drove away, Daniel who was driving the car I was in, spotted the leopard up in a nearby tree, where he was apparently shunned to by the lion.

I imagine he was pretty pissed watching the lion eat HIS hard earned meal. Tis (the circle of) life.

We stopped at three different locations around Nakuru to see the land and observe how impossible it would be for Lake Nakuru Ntl Park to exist if it were not enclosed with a fence -- civilization has cropped up right next to the fence! Also, all the pollution from people living in the water catchement area drains into the lake because it's the lowest point around. There has been very little study focused on the implications of this on the wildlife that relies on the alkaline lake for survival -- particularly the diverse array of birds that stop at the park during their migration routes and others that call the park home. There is only one species of fish (introduced tilapia) that exists in the lake for the birds to feast on. Much like what I study in my lab back at UST, this interests me a lot because the pollution that enters the lake affects virtually all the wildlife, particularly the fish, and the animals who eat the fish, etc. etc.  Shem brought up a good point that this would be a great location to do graudate school research for those of us interested in studying water quality, which definitely sparked my attention..... :)

After lunch we had a prep lecture for our Wildlife Ecology excerise that was scheduled for Tuesday morning. Then, of course, another evening game drive!

more white rhinos! my grandma requested that I include more pictures of myself, so sorry for those of you who are here purely for my Nat Geo wildlife pics....you gotta deal with seeing my face..and my nasty camp hair :)

This one's for my friends who are vikings fans.......This is what you fools look like to the rest of the world
 ;)

the elusive Black rhino! it was raining when we saw this guy roaming about. they are solitary fellas, whereas you will see numerous white rhinos foraging together at once.

the flamingos!!!

Tuesday morning we had a WM exercise studying the behavior of white rhinos and zebra. There is no shortage of zebra in the park, let me tell you. Each time we encountered a zebra herd or saw any white rhinos, we had to stop and observe their behavior for TWENTY minutes. Got a little boring when all the zebras mostly did was graze. 

White rhinos foraging near the shoreline of Lake Nakuru.

zebras feeding and one rollin around in the dust.

it's crazy how prehistoric-looking rhinos are. They are insanely cool to see up close and listen to as they munch grass and breath really loudly.

Our excitement during this slow-paced exercise was provided by an entertaining group of hyenas terrorizing the shoreline near some of the zebras we were watching graze for twenty straight minutes.

crazy drooling hyena on the prowl.

The spotted hyenas bickering.

Any time I want to complain about the occasional boring, tedious exercises we have to do, I just remind myself that I'm getting credit for doing this -- being in Africa, going on safaris, basking in the sun and getting all this unique hands-on experience -- when I could be sitting in a lecture or lab in MN freezing my butt off...... Life is pretty good. Hakuna Matata. :)

After our exercise was complete, we headed to a game lodge inside the park where we were treated to the world's most aaaamazing buffet. It was a dream come true. This place is ~$900/night to stay at, but they were gracious enough to let us exploit their swimming pool and restaurant for an afternoon.  I stuffed myself with chicken, red snapper, beef tenderloin, salads, pasta salads, rolls, and more dessert than I ever imagined possible -- creme brulle, chocolate lava cake, fruit salads and passionfruit mousse...and I think I'm forgetting a few things. A few of us even splurged on glasses of wine to completely indulge :)

The workers in the restaurant wondered where we had came from and what we were being fed because we collectively ran a train on that buffet and scarfed down our first plates of food like we hadn't eaten in weeks.  I was so thrilled to get some different food from our regular menu -- especially the amazing desserts.  After swimming and basking in the sun like beached whales, we went on our final game drive of our Lake Nakuru expedition. The weather was absolutely perfect--the sun was shining the entire time, which kept us warm and meant no rain! I think the gorgeous weather was our departure gift from Nakuru.  On our drive, we stopped for the first time to pay attention to/take pictures of the craaazy fearless baboons that line the roads along the lake.

wittle baby! they kinda look like martians...

"let me GO, mom!"

the setting sun cast this beautiful lighting on everything making for some awesome picture taking :)

We were all very sad to leave Nakuru Wednesday (3/7) morning, but nevertheless piled into the vehicles to begin our looong drive home. We made the same stops on the way back home to break up the long drive, and my vehicle was lucky enough to get into a little car accident when we were driving through the chaotic traffic in Nairobi. Got a firsthand glimpse at how incredibly corrupt the police and goverment is here in Africa, which was really frustrating/depressing. The man who bumped our Land Cruiser in the round-about and cracked his headlight got the cop on his side even though it was 100% his fault, and WE had to pay HIM (or the cop...I'm still not sure) at the end of it because the cops barely even listened to our side of the story. It was really disheartening because this corruption exists everywhere--especially in environmental policy, which makes me not even want to get involved in that field. Anyways, we walked away unscathed (minus our driver Daniel's wallet) and pissed off at the authorities.  We finally got back to camp (after stocking up on more goodies again at the grocery store) around 6 pm. Even though KBC didn't really feel like home yet before we left, something clicked while I was gone and suddenly I realized how insanely comfortable I am here, how happy I was to be back and how much I love it! We were all exhausted and went to bed pretty early after eating dinner that night.

Thursday was an "all-rest" day for students and staff. While I was under the impression that this meant the opportunity to lounge around, it was actually a day to frantically write our EP papers about our field exercise (interviewing small-scale farmers on human-wildlife conflict) the day before we left for Nakuru. After spending all day hanging out and working on EP and WM assignments, we had our much anticipated Maasai prom. It had been cancelled and rescheduled twice, so we were excited to finally have the time and energy to don our wraps and beaded jewlwery and dance!

some of us at our "Maasai Prom" on Thursday night. (Back, L to R: Ceroni [an askari] Maggie P, Anna, Becca, Carey, Paige, Karen, Laura, Karianne, Sarah, (Front) me, Ally, Elyse, Katie and Jen)

Friday we had a short class to do the statistical analysis on the species/habitat association exercise from Nakuru. Then the rest of the day was dedicated to finishing our EP and WM assignments to hand them in. Work work work....

Saturday 3/10 we took our third and final trip to Amboseli National Park. We started our day with a lecture/Q&A with the Senior Warden of Amboseli. Then we started a field exercise in which we got to walk around a 1 square-kilometer enclosure that KWS & researchers have set up within the park to observe the effects of giraffes and elephants on woody vegetation (it is semi-fenced-in with electric wires about 6 ft high to keep the giraffe & ele out).  There were KWS rangers with their bad-ass uniforms and guns patrolling the area (that was seemingly devoid of life anyways) while the 9 groups walked our transects using GPS and throwing this wire square thing to randomly take samples of the vegetation in different blocks (the data analysis was being done by KWS so we just got to do the fun but very hot field work part). Back at the car waiting for other groups to finish, I was talking and eating lunch with some friends. Someone mentioned how crazy/cool it was that we were sitting out in the middle of Amboseli National Park (something most people are not allowed to do), eating lunch next to our car, with beautiful Kilimanjaro in the distance--all the while getting credit for this.  When each day is filled with new experiences and seeing awesome wildlife, it's easy to forget how lucky I am to be here, learning such amazing stuff with a great group of people.

me, my awesome safari hat and Kili! (in between the clouds)
walking through the enclosure in Amboseli during our vegetation density exercise

Today (Sunday 3/11) was a non-program day. Some of us went to a local church this morning for the first time. It was so interesting to see the different yet similar way of worship here. The service (95% of which we couldn't understand--except for the brief snippits the pastor would occasional say directly to us muzungus) was mostly singing, dancing and music courtesy of a man playing the electric keyboard. There were actually two pastors, one speaking in Swahili and one in Maasai. They were all so excited to have us as guests for the day and welcomed us into their one-room cement buildling they called their church, that was decorated with fabrics and streamers (like the ones people hang up for rummage sales that have small mult-color triangle flags hanging down) and plastic lawn chairs. It was just such a contrast from the church that I'm used to -- so structured and somber. The joy and passion kind of caught me off guard. We stayed for about two hours before we left, although Jenna said that people will literally stay there all day worshipping. Sure made me ponder about the elaborate, expensive places of worship we build in the US.

Monday and Tuesday are full days dedicated to studying for our WE, WM and EP exams on Wednesday and Thursday. Wish me luck!!! Hopefully I can put this knowledge to use and score good grades on my essays.

Now, I leave you with another picture that will make even the manliest man say "awww!"

awwwwwww. how can you not love those faces?!