Karibuni Zanzibar!

I had a sudden urge to blog as I sat outside a small café, steps away from my hotel in stone town, Zanzibar, as I listened to the Muslim call to prayer (as my friends drink zanzabari tea and I obviously eat NOT JUST ONE, but TWO brownies.). I WAS writing my academic journal (in this ridiculously humid weather) which is due tomorrow at midnight my time, but I couldn’t let a moment like this go by because the only way to immortalize this incredible moment of cultural immersion is in writing.

I'm in Zanzibar, an island just off the coast of Tanzania. For a long time, Zanzibar was its own country or was fighting to be its own country . When Tanganika merged with Zanzibar, the name of the country changed to include both and hence we now have TanZANia. This place is full of winding roads. It is so incredibly easy to enter into this maze, even with a map and get completely lost. I speak from personal experience. I have gotten completely and utterly lost over 3 times here with a MAP IN HAND (although that doesn't say much because I am definitely not one to be good with directions). But really - it's hard to find your way around. 

It’s a good thing that the ppl here are so friendly and always saying “jambo”  and “karibu (welcome)”. I literally can not walk down the street without receiving ten “Karibu Tanzania” from randos on the side of the road. Yesterday I went on a hunt to the Aga Khan Mosque because I was told (before I left) that I HAD to go see it and I HAD to buy some pakoras from “the lady frying them on the street around the corner from the mosque”. (thanks andi).

So I went with my friends: Katie and Natalie and we happily put on our scarves, thinking we would definitely be able to get into the mosque, only to get completely lost and then guided to the door of the mosque by a group of giggling women, at which point we were rejected entry. Which was ok. I could have maybe pretended to be ismaili? But since I was with a crew of white kids, that probably wouldn’t have worked out too well. Despite that setback, we enjoyed the beautiful doors of the mosque and the professional photographer that happened to be passing by. He got some great shots of us at the doors with my camera. Unfortunately I didn’t get to go to the pakora lady because I was pretty focused on finding my way back home, after we couldn’t get in.

Anyways. The streets have become busy and bustling again (now that prayer time is over). And I need to get back to getting my academic thoughts down on paper :).

Spring Tide! - Malindi

Soo now I am on the coast of Kenya in an area called Malindi. It is just north of Mombasa, also on the coast. It took us TWO FULL DAYS by truck to drive there from the Laikipa area (that I epically failed to blog about.) The coles notes version of my 5 days in Laikipia is as follows: In Laikipia, I got the yummy-est food I have had while in Africa (im talking squash soup and real lettuce) and spent my time measuring acacia trees and identifying the ants that lived on them.

We lived in a research facility called Mpala and there were two sites. There was a riverside camp where most of the group stayed in luxury tents (and they saw elephants every day by their campsite!) and there was the main research facility where a group of eight of us (including myself) stayed in cabin type structures with a group from Princeton that has their semester at this Research Facility.

Anyways, these acacia trees that I am talking about, these are the trees that I decided that I HATED from day ONE of seeing them at Lake Naivasha. It must be karma because I had to spend the next TWO full days with the horrible things taking measurements of their height and identify the animals that graze on them (like elephants and giraffes). Dear universe, I promise that I love them now, please never let me deal with them hands-on again.

My research subjects (click for enlarged view)

Ok so now, I’m in the REAL holiday spot (no more fake beach house nabugabo style). I'm camping on a private beach, right on the Indian ocean. This is WHAT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! A body of water that we can actually swim in that doesn’t have shitosomyasis!! It was actually like we were on some sort of educational holiday…

We woke up every morning, put on our swim suits for the whole day – we went to class in our swimsuits because today my class consisted of wading out into the tide pools at low tide to catch some of the creatures that chill there. We caught: Fish, crab, sea urchins, starfish, sea cucumbers, sea sponges, crayfish and ALLLL sorts of other things. Everything I have ever learned about in my evolution and phylogeny classes (hello BIOL 111) all came together today in this course, in REAL LIFE.

During the hottest part of the day we have free time to swim in the WARMMMM water of the Indian ocean and we can walk out really far since it is quite shallow. But when the high tide comes in, then we get the waves and spend hours being thrown back and forth by the ocean, as well as do a little bit of body surfing. 

Our tents...right on the beach

enjoying the ocean

Class presentations on the beach

Today, I was especially lucky to be on the coast of Kenya right at the equator right on the beach. As many people know, tides are controlled by the gravitational pull of the moon. We were so lucky because today was SUPER moon, aka the closest the moon has been to the earth in the last eighteen years. And when the tide came in today, it was HUGE and deep! The waves crept all the way up the beach to where some of our tents were pitched and had to be moved! The Usually high tide happens every twenty eight days and is called the “spring tide”. Shelby pointed out to be that it was pretty amazing that we got to experience the “super moon” in a place that is soooo affected by the placement and cycles of the moon, and see the many hidden effects of our position in our solar system. Plus, the moon glowed a beautiful orange in the sky as it rose, in all its glory over the Indian ocean.

Super moon!

A Whole Different Dynamic

Sooo, I was driving down a “road” in a land cruiser at 11:30 pm at our site in the Laikipia area (we get AMAZING FOOD HERE at this research site I CANT BELIEVE IT), and I came to the conclusion that my prof was driving like a wild child on purpose because, u know… hes a man and men like to drive CRAZY for absolutely no reason other that pure amusement (aka praveer and vineet. Hi, that’s you two).

And then I thought: This is weird. I’m in the back of an SUV with my prof driving in the front. This has never happened to me before. And then I slowly started reflecting on all the things I’ve done on my trip with my prof’s that have taken them off of that untouchable university pedestal that makes our profs seem almost unapproachable and god-like, when they are just completely normal people. (I sound like one of those magazines that creates a section on “Stars – They are just like us! They grocery shop, just like us, they get flat tires, just like us! Etc etc).

I have had so many prof-student interactions that are pretty special/hilarious/very interesting… For example:

1. I played the card game “president” with Dr. Green, my bio prof, who came in last and was deemed the “bum”. So, I called my prof the “bum".

2. Dr. Chapman, aka Lauren took us on a hike to the papyrus swamp and before we climbed a hill, took out multiple chocolate bars to feed us for “energy".

3. Dr. Bird (the ornithology prof) told us the story of how he met his wife around the campfire (it was a lovely story. 

4. I watched Thom, aka Dr. Meredith, the coordinator of this trip, jump off our moving truck. He is our Indiana Jones.

5. I was having a conversation with Lea (the health prof) back in Kibale, at dinner. She is quite short. And I may or may not have seriously asked her (or called her) a midget.

I also never call my profs by their last name (and its really awkward if we do.) How will I ever go back to McGill and deal with the awkward, formal student-prof relationship again?? .

Dr. Bird hving some fun.

By the time you read this, the program is probably coming to an end (I set my blogs to have timed, automatic postings). And i have yet to blog about Nairobi, Laikipia, Malindi  (the coast bababyyy) and Tanzania. And as of now, while I write this, I have no idea what the heck my plans are after the trip. Nairobi really isn’t the kinda place you can just set up shop and feel safe. But hopefully I stay in Nairobi for an internship or to work with AIESEC, depending on my comfort level (aka my mothers confort level).

Lets hope that by the time this is posted, everything's worked out :)

Elangata Wuas - The Boma Stay - Part 3: "Sleeping" in the Boma

Soooo our accomidation for the three of us, plus our youth guide was a wide but very short “bed”, aka, a raised stick platform with cow hide over it and our sleeping bags on top. All four of us lay squished in the heat of the boma with our legs hanging off the end.

Our sleeping accommodations

SO… my malaria pills have been giving me vivid dreams once in a while (Don’t worry, it’s a common side effect. And they aren’t bad, just really vivid.) So some nights I get really disoriented while I am sleeping. Meaning, I go to sleep in one direction, but when I wake up, I feel like my body is in the other direction, or I don’t know where I am.  So, I went to sleep in the boma but right before that, I saw A LOT of bugs that looked like earwigs, crawling up and down the walls. I guess they come out when food comes out. I was a little grossed out. In the middle of the night, I woke up because I thought my HEAD was basically at the ceiling of the boma and I saw all these bugs crawling around it (although this was a dream). Now I will replay the dialogue between Shelby and myself:

Sheena: Shelby, Shelby! Where is my head?
Shelby: Sheena, you’re in a BOMA.
Sheena: BUT where is my head??
Shelby: How do I know? You know better than I do!

And then Shelby broke out in giggles while I freaked out and tried to shuffle my head away from the “ceiling”. It was absolutely pitch black in the boma. I couldn’t even see my own hand in front of my face .

So I shuffled my head up to align myself with everyone else. Then I bent my knees so that they wouldn’t be hanging off.

Shelby: Sheena, whats that touching my leg?
Sheena: Its my knee Shelby, its my knee.
Shelby: No Sheena it’s a goats head! There is a goat in the boma. There’s a goat touching me!
Sheena: NO ITS MY KNEE. *Takes shelby’s hand and places it on knee*.

Finally Shelby stops.

LITTERALLY Ten seconds later, Shelby is groping for her shorts to put them on and accidentally brushes my bum.

Sheena: SHELBY WHATS THAT?
Shelby: Whats what?
Sheena: Whats stroking me? WHO is in the boma there is a random person in the BOMA! There is a random hand touching me
Shelby: NO SHEENA ITS MY HAND.
Sheena: Are u sure?
Shelby: YES. 

This all happened within 5 mins. Then Shelby couldn’t stop laughing so I couldn’t stop laughing and so we woke up both Miranda and Peru  who really just wanted to sleep… and so we went back to “sleep”. The end.

I hope you thought this situation was funny. I thought it was flippin hilarious… the next day. I'm not sure if this story really translates to text. Or to anyone that didn’t spend a night in a boma. But it's okay because you can bet I'm going to tell this story again and again when I'm back.

Elangata Wuas -The Boma Stay - Part 2

While staying in the boma, we also met Susan’s kids and we shared family photos. This is also where I got to use the only Swahili words that I remembered:

1. Mama - Pretty self explanatory

2. Baba – Dad 

3. Dada – Sister (its getting a little complicated)

4. Kaka - Brother (very appropriate word)

5. Rafiki (friend – I know yall recognize that one!)

We played with the kids by giving them our headlamps and watched them run around flicking them on and off. We helped cook dinner by shining the light in the pot when necessary. We cooked an entire dinner in the smokey boma (which I had to keep leaving due to the copious amounts of tears and snot that I was producing due to the smoke being emitted from the fire inside the boma.

The dinner consisted of cabbage and potatoes and onions and ugali. Best ugali and cabbage I have ever had in my life! I ate soooooo much! I should also mention that although we collected water, the water and food that we actually ate (as in the raw ingredients) were provided by the the CFSIA program so that our Canadian stomachs didn’t get sick. THEN. Since it was pitch dark outside and there wasn’t too much more to do, we went to “sleep”… which is a whole other story in its self… that I will have to share another day. 

This boma homestay was something special. I have lived my whole life so far without ever thinking of the Maasai that live in the bomas in the rift valley of Kenya. Nothing has ever prompted me to think of these people in my day to day life. But, these people have always been living their lives in this way and will continue to do so when I go back to Canada. Susan will send her kids to school and then she will fetch water and milk her goats. But now I have a connection with a Maasai woman. Our paths have crossed and I will probably reminded of her by different activities in my own life, many times in the future. It just makes me think of HOW MUCH there is in our world and how much I still have to learn.

The kids (Talangu) inside the boma

Susan cooking some chai (obvi)

Elangata Wuas - The Boma Stay – Part 1: Fetching Water

The other incredible thing that I did here was spend a night in a Boma.  A Boma is a traditional Maasai house that is made out of sticks and cow dung. Everyone in my group was randomly assigned bomas all over the Elangata Wuas area with two other students and a local “youth guide” to do some translating for us. My youth guide’s name was Peru (like the country). She was 19 and had just finished training as a flight attendant in Nairobi. She spoke really good English as well.  She is furthest right in the picture.

This was our Boma

Miranda, Shelby and myself were going to stay at Peru’s stepmom's boma since Peru’s parents were slightly more educated and worked outside of E-Wuas. To get to this Boma, we walked about an hour in the middle of the day, and greeted warmly by Susan (our Maasai Mama) with cups of chai. Can I just say that over the period of one day, I had FIVE LARGE CUPS of richhhhhh, sweeeeeeeet chai  made with WHOLE MILK. That’s right. I’m getting fat. All of you at home that told me to eat up cuz I was going to loose wait (Ahem ARUN), were WRONG. 

Anyways. This was probably the best chai I have ever had in my LIFE, most probably because their idea of “a little” sugar was HALF THE BAG that was dumped into the pot of tea. After arriving, we checked out the smokey dark boma to put our stuff down and then asked to be put to work doing what Maasai people do!

On our way to get water with Susan

So we fetched some water from the dried up river. I filled an entire jerry can of water by scooping it up out of a bore hole using a mug. Their technique to get clear water was cool! First, Susan (Who is no longer a young, agile lady), dug out all the muddy, still water and wet sand and then waited for the water hole to fill with clear water that seeped into the hole. This clear water was collected. Although it took me significantly longer to fill the jerry can than Susan, and although there was significantly more dirt in it than Susan, and although Susan, Peru, the neighboring mama and the school children walking by laughed at me, I was REALLY happy with myself when I finished :).

Watching how its done....

My turn to try

Everyone pitches in!

Thanks to Shelby for the pics :)

Elangata Wuas - The Church Visit

So… as you all know, I am a religion major. So when given the opportunity to go to church, obviously I took it. I got to go with approx. ten other girls to a church in the area called “Mile 46”. Mile 46 is a called the “shopping center” by the locals. Not because it is a mall or anything, but because on Saturdays, the entire place fills up with Maasai women and men selling shukhas (these are traditional Maasai cloths) and machetes and cooking pots. But when the market is not on, the entire place is empty and completely unrecognizable as a market place. The singing and dancing at the church enveloped us as soon as we entered. There were women in Maasai clothing (Which seems obvious, but like its crazy to be completely emerged in the every day life of these people and not just visiting them as a tourist attraction to “see their way of life”)… and had all their elaborate beading on them. My group looked just a LITTLE out of place, especially because I lack the ability to dance “spontaneously”… as many of you know.. So because I can't dance, I got a young girl who was standing beside me…staring, to teach me all these dance moves.. LET ME TELL YOU we were breaking it dooown. .

Getting ready for church (click to enlarge)

Although the church was small and made from corrugated iron sheets, they had this massive speaker system loud enough to fill a gymnasium! And they were singing their hearts out into it. My group ALSO got a chance to go on stage and sing a song… My friend Miranda had taught us a Swahili song (that she learned back in Ontario) ten mins before that point (Video of the song below - we may have sang it better or worse than this video... you can imagine it as you wish).

 

So we sang it, and everyone in the church sang it with us! It was slightly embarrassing because we were more so making sounds than singing words, but they really did love us!

Elangata Wuas - A Three Part Series

After three days at Nguruman, we packed up and went to our last camping spot (for now) at Elangata Wuas which is also in the rift valley, which is slightly more elevated than Nguguman. So,  although it was a sauna during the day, this AMAZING wind picked up every night to cool everything down. We spent quite a while [relatively: six days] at E-wuas so alot happened. As a result, I will be blogging in parts as not to write you a essay.

Part 1 – The Campsite

E-wuas campsite was pretty interesting because it also functions like a community center for the local Maasai people. There was a women’s co-op shop where the Maasai women in the surrounding area would sell their traditional beaded jewelry (you can guess what I got all of my friends!), a kitchen area and some huts/buildings for us to have our classes in. But the most exciting thing about this campsite was the TABLE that we had to eat food on, and to study on, instead of eating food in our laps or studying by headlamp in our tents .Who would have ever thought we would have been appreciative of a table? It’s the little things in life we all never think about man. So today, when your eating dinner, appreciate that table you have to comfortably set your food down, cuz a lot of ppl out here don’t even have that. 

The second great thing (other than the table) was a beautiful look out spot at our campsite at the top of a bunch of rocks where you could see really really far away, because its really flat here and the trees are really small and shrub like. This was also our cell-phone spot soooo to get reception, we had to stand ontop of a rock and wave our phone around. Most of us call home and then get them to call us back cuz its free incoming (SO I hope yall read that. Call me.) soooo there were like a few ppl up there at a time just standing with their arms in the air on top of a rock, just waiting to receive a phone call.. My friend Marie-anne waited HALF an HOUR like that  to get a call from her boyfriend, but was eventually successful.

This is how we get cell phone service

This is how we study

And this is the view while we do those things.. can't complain :)

Nguruman AKA the Furnace of Kenya

After leaving lake Naivsha, we drove a good 10 hours to the bottom of the rift valley to a place called "Nguruman". This is one of the areas that my prof (Dr. Galaty) has done a great deal of research on the Maasai people so we were extremely lucky to benefit from his connections during our stay.

First of all. THIS PLACE WAS HOT! At one point, Andrew looked at his key chain thermometer and it read 40 degrees celcius, and this was as we were getting ready to go out on an active field trip.

Nguruman also has alot of acacia trees and although they look pretty, they are actually scary because they have branches covered in 3 inch spikes that like to whack us as we ride around in our truck... So all over the campsite, thorns from acacia trees were lying around and believe me, it was not fun to walk around in running shoes and socks in forty degree weather to avoid being punctured by acacia thorns and then needing to scrape off the bottom of your shoes due to all the thorns sticking into them after just a short walk across the camp area. 

Although Nguruman was a really tough place to be camping at, I cant deny that I learned a great deal. We were lucky enough to be lectured by David Western who is Kenya's most famous conservation biologist, not to mention the guy who's academic article I was reading as part of my class just two days prior to meeting him and the founder of the Kenya Wildlife Service!

Nguruman is a great place to learn about a conservation method that is in partnership with the people of the community (the Maasai community)... Within the last twenty years there has been alot of tension because of the government asking the Maasai people to privatize their land, which comepletely goes against their pastoral way of life and their need to graze their cattle on communal land.

In Nguruman, they have a great innovative way of distributing land that still allows them to continue with their pastoral way of life. To finally come to a place and see something going in a positive direction in terms of the future of the Maasai was really good. We also have a Maasai masters student from McGill TA'ing our course (named Kimaren) and he gives us such an important "inside view" into maasai life. Half the time we talk to official representatives and they give us one story, and then Kimaren pipes in and says "thats not ACTUALLY the way things happen" and proceed to give us the low-down...

I dont know if i can say that I enjoyed Nguruman, but it was definitely an... experience... The first night, we got in really late and while dinner was being cooked and the students were studying for midterms to be had the next day. The field school set up a generator and some lights around the area and within seconds, thousands of beetles were hovering around the lights. BIG beetles and made noises when they landed due to their weight. The lights were on for 10 mins and then the generator went off and the beetles that had gathered around the lights proceeded to RAM INTO US and land all over our bodies and our soup and around our head lamps and they were ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE. There was screaming and yelling. As our staff member (Monica) tried to make announcements with her head lamp, a group of beetles started hovering around her head lamp and she dropped her book and head lamp and ran away screaming....

I have never been so afraid and uncomfortable and frustrated in my life as I was in that particular situation... I was hungry..and there were bugs and I had a midterm worth 40 percent of my mark the next day.... and thats not the end of the wrath of Nguruman...

After Nguruman, we moved onto Elangata Waus and everyone started developing odd blisters on their bodies in the most random places, like their elbow joints and necks and fingers...Every day for the next 3 days people would randomly acquire a blisters and it was like an epidemic! I couldnt even tent with my friend natalie because the doc told her that she had to be quarantined in case it was contagious!.. You can imagine how that made me feel when i was blister free, and then my TENT MATE GEORGIA got a blister on her face!! It was such a mystery and ppl were getting pretty freaked out about this whole epidemic. Our doc eventually had to drive into Nairobi doctor where she found out that the NAIROBI BEETLE (such as like ones found at Nguruman) will land on you and release a blistering agent if you alarm it.

Considering there were five thousand beetles and that we must have all killed one or two Nairobi beetles, I'm sure we caused a bit of alarm to them...
And so, the mystery was solved....

Sooo, a summary of Nguruman:

-heat
-thorns
-nairobi beetles
In short: Don't go there.

(Jk there are some redeaming features of this place).

i went on an incredible night safari in a land cruiser where we got out, turned all the lights off and just stared at the night sky. there were billions and BILLIONS of stars. I could literally see the milky way across the night sky. If there was something i appreciated about Nguruman was the lack of habitation (due to the above features probably) that has led to the very few lights and an absolutely beautiful beautiful beautiful night sky. The best I have ever seen in my life.

Bluth's Photos

So... my camera sucks... although my pictures may SEEM good (atleast i thought until this...) they really arent because i am no photographer... and i dont have an intense camera and its really sad cuz i cant capture THE SUNSETS and like the LIONS and the people.. sooo i wanted to post a blog of just pics... taken by Bluth aka Rachel Rosenbluth who also goes to McGill and is on the program.

Bluth your pics are amazing and thanks for letting me share them with my family and friends...

Enjoy!

All 'Hail' Naivasha!

We move so quickly at the field school that it kinda gets hard to remember the order of places and the actual places that I have been in the last two weeks.

After the Maasai Mara I traveled to lake Naivasha which is one of two fresh water lakes in Kenya and I was able to take my first shower in a long time. The campsite we were at was beautiful. It was really touristy cuz they had this perfectly manicured campsite that was covered with large canopied acacia trees and the best part was that we had running water. that meant SHOWERS and FLUSH TOILETS. (The most hilarious thing was that on our way out of the Mara we stopped at a soap stone carving touristy place on the side of the road for a pee break and the washrooms were soooooo nice in comparison to the Mara drop toilets that we used for four days). There was toilet paper and sinks and MIRRORS (which probably wasn't the best idea for me to look at myself in at that point because it definitely LOOKED like I have been camping for a while.) 


Anyways once we got to the campsite and saw all the running water we were a pretty happy bunch.

Beautiful Campsite in Lake Naivasha

The days that followed in Naivasha were pretty interesting. We learned all about the "cut flower" export market. Did you know that 25 percent of the flowers on the market are grown in Kenya?? One factory provides four thousand jobs but the thing is that many of these jobs are manipulated through power relationships meaning that the male managers will take advantage of their female workers if the female is desperate to be promoted from a seasonal position to a permanent position. Its crazy because our market patterns directly influence the work patterns of these workers in Kenya. Their insane over time hours are dictated by our need for rose.

My anthropology class atop a mountain overlooking the flower farms in Naivasha

Over valentines day they have to work their asses off growing flowers and harvesting them and bunching them round the clock. We got to go into Karturi flower farms and observe the whole growing and packing process ourselves and ask all sorts of questions about the quality of a job at the flower farm. The interesting thing about research is that you never know if you are getting the "truth"... all the flower rep told us about were the GREAT things about working on the flower farm... and we were all very confused to say the least because she obviously didn't tell us about the DRAMA that these flower farms cause..

The other crazzzzyyy thing that happened at naivasha was that we got hail! Chunks of ice falling from the sky. In east africa. Our staff told us that this is extremely rare soo we were all pretty surprised... Not to mention VERY worried about our tents that were being pelted with ice and water for half an hour.

The time we got hail in Africa..

But. They were DRY and we celebrated the amazingness of our tents.

Shout out to Brandon who says "give me a shoutout" as I blog on our bus ride to Elangata Waus.

Andddd we celebrated my friend Shelby's birthday and she was my tent mate so I tried to stay up till midnight on her bday to give her a present but we failed and I gave it to her at elevn thirty and went to sleep. Hahahah. Early nights are how things go over here. This was a great place to celebrate birthdays cuz there was a beautiful bar with a star deck with tons of food and drinks n for three nights we hung out... Drank. Relaxed anddd loved life!