There goes gravity...back to reality.

Hello Toronto! I'm home... safe and sound... for actually almost a week! The word I am looking for to describe my trip home is "rushed". Rushed? you ask. YES. Rushed! I got to the Nairobi Airport late and I waited in a massive line to put my luggage through the x-rays. When I was finally out and had some glimmer of hope of catching my flight, I approached a woman for help who then told me that "my flight had left yesterday".

So naturally, I started freaking out. In between the time of running to the counter to get a second opinion on my ticket, where they told me my flight was perfectly on-time, I had managed to wake my mother up in Canada on the telephone to tell her that my flight left.... and then proceed to run out of credit, leaving her to believe that I possibly was stuck in Kenya for another day. All was well when I made it out of the lobby, to my gate where I purchased more safaricom credit and remedied the situation.

THEN. My flight was delayed getting into Amsterdam and I narrowly made my connecting flight thanks to my leopard-fast agility. Unfortunately, my bag didn't make it...Not that I expected it to. After all the rushing was finally over, I was HOME :)!

Time to go home...

Tech savy Sheena realized that "blogspot" had this handy-dandy trick where you can make your blogs post at specific set times. Right now, although this post has just posted, I am actually sitting in the airport, waiting to catch my flight home, anticipating my 18 hour journey ahead of me.
Can anyone REALLY believe that I've been in East Africa for 4 months? I have to say, I'm really sad to leave. 4 months man. That's a long time. I've become comfortable here. Aside from the odd moment, I've adjusted to a "Kenyan" way of life... I've compiled a list of all things that make me Kenyan/things I now known about Kenya and East Africa to prove just how integrated, to finish this long blogging journey off!

1. I eat like a Kenyan and I grocery shop like a Kenyan, complete with road side purchases of bananas and  the Nakumatt as my one stop shop where I feel comfortable purchasing sketchy looking Kenyan snacks (but trust me they are yummy).  

2. I can speak kidogo kiswahili - even though I may have forgotten a lot of what I learned from my classes last semester, the stuff I can say is a careful distillation of the most useful everyday phrases for everyday encounters.  

3. I automatically brush my teeth with bottled water. 

4. I can name you at least 5 stores/restaurants located in every mall in Nairobi, from memory (just to prove it to myself they are: "Kazuri Beads", "textbooks", "Nakumatt", "Kikoy", "Artcafe" and "Nairobi Java House". 

5. I adore my mosquito net and I am so appreciative of it. It makes me feel like a princess and its ability to keep a mosquito out of my ear is something I will never forget.    

6. I've lived out of one backpack for 4 months (jaws should be dropping) and I have become very, VERY good at packing it, swinging the huge thing onto my back and carrying it up and down staircases. 

7. I've worn the same few pieces of clothing for four months which have grown a few sizes due to my handwashing abilities and clothes line drying. (I will be opening a laundry service soon). TIP: Make sure to calculate how taught your clothes line needs to be with WET laundry hanging on it. Expect re-enforcements to be necessary. 

In these past four months, I drank the equivalent of all the chai I have ever drank in my life pre-East Africa. I've camped for a month on end and I am totally not fazed by squat toilets, toilets with pee all over them, or having to use no toilet at all.

The day I left home (Jan. 15th, 2011)

I’ve learned a lot these past 4 months in terms of my academics, my living abilities, my ability to take risks/do things that I may not be comfortable with at first.  My trip to east Africa has been an experience I will never forget and one that has taught me a lot about myself.

I'm going to miss my Kenyan friends. My Maasai mama - Suzanne, our Bunduz Chef - Dan, my kids and friends at First love, my friends from Kibera that showed myself and my parents around and a random splattering of Indian friends :)

I barely stayed in one place longer than 1 week.  Waking up at 8 am was a sleep-in, and when I don’t have ATLEAST 3 field trips a day, I feel like I’m wasting my time. Home life will sure be different.

I’m sad to leave but happy to know that I have a home in East Africa. Wish me a safe flight! Kwaheri kuonana, East Africa (Good bye until we meet again, East Africa)

Love,

Sheena

2.65 Billion Kenyan Shillings

It is pretty cool to experience a world event through the eyes of another country. Throughout my trip with the CFSIA program, I was pretty much deprived from all news, aside from the random newspaper floating around. When the revolution was occurring the Arab Spring, I was riding a truck around Kenya, living in a boma, with no access to media. Now that I am in Nairobi again. I have access to the news!

With yesterday's royal wedding taking place, I was so excited to watch it on a Kenyan television station (Good ol' KTN).
First of all, I completely forgot it was on until I saw some advertisements for the BBC wedding week at my friends' apartment in Hurlingham where they had Satellite TV. I didn't image I would be able to watch the wedding at the orphanage since they do not have Satellite TV but I guess I underestimated the magnitude of this event because I later learned that I missed it while everyone at the orphanage watched it love on the local news.I wasn't too sad. I was pretty satisfied to watch the Kenyan News Station do a recap of the highlights and it was really interesting to hear the facts from the wedding from a Kenyan perspective. For example, the cost of the wedding in total was 2.65 BILLION Kenyan shillings. Can you even image what a figure like that sounds to a kid where I'm working? Where, for them, paying 190 kshs (just over $2 Canadian dollars) is considered expensive for dried mangos....

Even more ironic was the news feature juxtaposed to the wedding story. The main issue in Kenya right now are the rising petrol prices. This has caused an increase in food prices and therefore, an increase in the overall cost of living in Kenya which MANY people are affected by and upset about. I personally know 45 children affected in a huge way who also just learned that they would no longer be getting bread every morning due to the rising costs of food and that it would be reduced to 3 times a week. Furthermore, chai (a cultural STAPLE) would only be given out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, due to the rising cost of milk. Needless to say, everyone was extremely, EXTREMELY upset.
After hearing about these food cutbacks, I see a story about a wedding that involves a dress that costs almost half a million dollars. Although I enjoy watching the wedding moments as much as the next person, seeing it from over here in Kenya really puts things into perspective for me....

PRESENTING: The First Love Kids

The kids at this orphanage have a three week holiday. When I get a three week holiday at home, I usually go somewhere or I sit around watching TV at home.  
These kids are pretty much going to be located on their property in Karen, Nairobi Kenya, unless they go to the church or the doctor (the latter has been happening way to often)....


So I thought to myself - What can I do for these kids so that they are slightly entertained? So I thought - WHY NOT HOST A TALENT SHOW? On Tuesday, I announced there would be a talent show on Friday and that I wanted them to start practicing because I would give the participants something special (spoiler: I made chocolate chip cupcakes).... I thought a talent show would be a good idea because I learned REALLY QUICKLY that these kids are such incredible dancers. When I try to dance with these kids, they laugh at me (which is not unexpected. I laugh at my own dancing). I figured they would be excited to perform some of their dances and play their drums in front of each other since they did that all day every day anyways.  


Unfortunately, I was having a lot of trouble trying to encourage the kids to perform...especially the older ones (I guess teenagers everywhere are just tooooo cool for school). So for the next 3 days I went around BEGGING these kids to perform. I mostly received 'NO's, or really weird looks followed by laughter.... except for Francisca who kept telling me she was going to perform to a song called "Ganja Man" which I was also obviously surprised to hear she was listening to...


The day of the talent show came and on my list, I had a massive SEVEN (*sarcasm*) acts lined up which did not include one boy or girl over the age of 12. So. I made a banner (obviously b/c my special talent is banner making) that said "First Love Talent Show" and tried my best to set the stage. 


I was expecting incredible dancers and.................................... Incredible dancers is what i got! These tiny girls got up there and SHOOK IT. Everyone was having a really good time and so as the acts proceeded, many kids came up to me, telling me they had an act to perform as well! In the end, I had to cut them off because we got to 20 acts!!

Some singing

some acting

some poetry reciting

some dancing and drumming

By the time the talent show was over, the boys had performed TWICE, almost every single older girl danced or sang and it was all really great success. I was also really surprised by creativity of these kids. At one point in the show, the song “one step at a time” started playing from nowhere and one of the older girls walked in in high heels and started strutting her stuff like she was in a fashion show. 

Overall, it was a really fun night and I really hope that it made these kids more confident in their abilities to get up in front of a crowd and show people all the talents they've got!

"Kukumanga" Mystery Solved!

Kukumanga = Pomegranate.

I spent 10 minutes trying to teach 2 children how to say POM-AH-GRAN-NIT after we hit them down from the tree using an iron rod, to eat them.

My religion major comes into use...

Before coming to work at First Love Kenya, I asked about their religious affiliation and just how "religious" a day in the life of one of these children was. I was told that they have prayer/devotional time after dinner, and that they go to church on Sundays. That was about it. 

On my second day here, a church group came from Atlanta, Georgia and their plan was to spend the next two days teaching about God and the Bible..... that pretty much upped the anti in terms of the "religiousness" of a typical day in the life of a First Love child. So - First Love is a non-denominational Christian-run orphanage. Now, I don't really want to use this blog to talk about the ethics of the values that these Christian organizations impart on children in a vulnerable position.... I know it all and I know both sides of the argument and we can have that discussion when I get home... What I do know is that right now, this organization provides these children with loving caregivers, that their bellies are full and that they are going to school.

The religious affiliation thing is interesting to me (I am a religion major after all) and it fascinates me what these Kids are taught on the concept of "God" and how they integrate their beliefs into their every day lives. I wonder what this religious addition does for them in their life and how their lives would be different without a religious component. I wonder if it gives them more hope for a better life.

What I did learn today with by watching the Atlanta group interact with the kids is that it must be really hard, in general,  for the kids and for the volunteers that come in to teach the kids… I doubt the majority kids understand what the volunteers were teaching, especially the young ones and especially due to their southern accents, and I bet that the volunteers feel a barrier as well (which they tried very hard to overcome with visual aids and dances etc), just as I had when I started. Soo… I wonder what they are trying to achieve and I’m really interested to see where these two days go. 

Richard and Emmaculate

Kelly and Daniel being silly

Vero, Lucy and Cynthia mass producing chipati (I tried to make chipo and failed cuz i was too afraid of the OPEN FIRE they were making it on!!)

And..cue dancing! cue costume change! cue ridiculous story line.

When I finally got to the orphanage, the kids were extremely shy and I was feeling pretty excluded, especially because they were all speaking Swahili and laughing (possibly at me??) and I didn’t have a clue about what was going on. There was also no one else my age and so I was feeling a bit scared and not sure what to do to connect with these kids… Usually I'm pretty good at working with children… but I can also usually speak the same language, so this was clearly a new challenge and experience.

The “campus” of the orphanage is quite large. There are 32 girls and 13 boys and they have different floors of a sleeping dorm building. They have a “rec hall” type area where they eat and have lots of other activities, and tons of space to run around outside, a large vegetable garden and lots of fruit trees with what they call “kukumanga”. It was the first thing I was brought to by a young girl named Hawa.

I became friends with Fridah, who is one of the older girls here. She is 15 and I asked her to give me a tour of the place and we chatted about school etc.. I also noticed that a young and very QUIET boy named Michael would follow me around and sit next to me, but would refuse to look at me when I acknowledged that he was there…. By the end of the first evening, 3 little girls had taken a liking to my backpack (I mean…who wouldn’t, it says DIVA) and by the time we sat down in the evening after dinner, they wanted to share their books with me, which was a really touching gesture…so there was some hope after all that I would get along with these kids.

To top off this crazy day, after dinner I was ushered into the TV room by all the kids where they gathered around a television. I had heard whispers that this tv show was called “Sherry” and that it was everyone’s FAVOURITE thing to watch…so I was like ok.. Sherry, cool.. I'm down for watching a TV show about a mzungu… only to find out that these kids' FAVOURITE TV SHOW is ACTUALLY AN INDIAN SOAP OPERA, so dramatic that my GRANDMOTHER wouldn’t even watch it, dubbed over in English, called “SHREE”.

All I have to say is LOL. 

They are intently watching (click to enlarge)

intense concentration.

Sheena is Cool: Cut, copy, paste.

Back to day one of a new activity and I'm taken out of my comfort zone once again… This is a pretty familiar feeling because  just 3 months ago, I was doing the exact same thing. 

I think I kinda like the feeling of stepping outside my comfort zone and pushing myself to grow. Despite my loooonnng stay here already, I like there's some more GROWING ROOM left for me to do in East Africa.

The first thing I did was head to Kibera with Karen (the head mama here) to see the feeding program in action. We ended up arriving a little late so I sat down to have a chat with some of the mamas in the kitchen, which was the commencement of my long journey to learn and practice my basic Swahili. 

Through this process I met Jack, the 21 year old “intern” working in the first love office right in the slum. Jack was from Kibera and had recently graduated from the school in the slum that First Love worked at. He was typing up some stuff on ‘powerpoint’ in those big and flashy letters that elementary school kids like to use to make their projects look “good”. 

So I thought… this kid definitely doesn’t know what he is doing so I offered him some help by asking him if he wanted some “tips” in using powerpoint. We eventually got to the point where he was just asking me questions, and I realized that these basic programs that I have been able to use since I was 10 years old are foreign territory to him because he never had access to any of this stuff. I mean, he was asking me how he was suppose to lay his fingers on the key board so that he could type quickly, which is something I learned from being on MSN Messenger 24/7 in grade 7. 


Then he asked me how "cut, copy and paste" worked and I was shocked! I was shocked at MYSELF because it had never once occurred to me that this was something people did NOT know how to do if they had any access to a computer. I don't even remember being 'TAUGHT' how to use it, but I guess that is because I had time to experiment with what we would call "basic" programs from such a young age. Computer usage, on my side of the world (and I guess in my income bracket) was the "norm" and so things came pretty intuitively to me. 

This got me thinking about internet access in the slum. I found myself asking many of the kids at the Raila School if they wanted to continue on to the next level of schooling after grade 12. All of them had high aspirations. They wanted to be doctors and lawyers but were demotivated by their lack of access to universities. I found myself telling them that if they studied really, really hard, they could apply for scholarships and maybe get into universities in Europe or North America. Then we got talking about how to apply for scholarships and the conversation turned towards how to access the internet. In the slum, the only way to access the internet is through internet "cafes" set up... each with very slow internet, and quite expensive. If you are going to choose between buying clean water and internet, the money definitely goes to the water. Isn't it funny how powerful the internet is? It makes so much information accessible so that students living in a slum in East Africa can have the opportunity to apply to university whereas they may have not had this option before - yet, under the circumstances these students live in - they still don't have regular internet access and so this powerful tool is lost.... Is it fair that all our information is stored online in this way when only a small percentage of the world's population has access to it? In my opinion, we need to find a way to get internet accessible to these students because it will EMPOWER THEM.... I think quite a few people already know this like the One Laptop Per Child Project.

Then Jack and I practiced cutting and pasting "Sheena Melwani is cool" all over a powerpoint slide for about 10 minutes so that he could learn how to do it. Then I told Jack that he should bring a notebook and that I would come back and teach him some computer stuff and he could write it down and practice so that he could acquire some computer skills.


Jack eventually also came up to the ophanage and together with Fridah, we created his first Powerpoint presentation on the First Love Curio Store. Have a look their hard work.

Jack and I with some of the kids at First Love

So for the next 2.5 weeks...

My plans finally fell into place after 3 days of running around Nairobi with my parents in order to meet with Raquel from AIESEC Kenya, find an apartment, and slot in visits with all of my parent’s family and friends that they have here. Although my parents were doing anything BUT being tourists, they saw a very decent portion of what Nairobi has to offer due to my frantic search to find a place to live and something to do for the next 3 weeks (or I would be sent home and I was not ready to leave Kenya yet because I felt like I had to do some stuff on my own, rather than have had the CFSIA program dictate everything I did while in East Africa).

Soooo in my efforts to find some place to stay and something to do, we ended up traveling to “Karen” which is an expat suburb of Nairobi to visit an orphanage called “First Love Kenya” that has its roots in the slums of Kibera but has branched out to an orphanage for 45 kids. I was made aware of the organization by my dad’s friend’s mentee… (thanks Michael and Ken… I know you are both reading). This orphanage is run by Kenyans but is funded by a well established organization in the USA that also funds an orphanage in the Philippians. So my parents got to see some of the development efforts going on in Kenya as well. Then we were taken to the Kibera slum to see the other work of First Love Kenya, which is a feeding program that feeds approx. 1000 children every day. As a result, my parents were introduced to the “other side” of Africa, rather than just the touristy side, and I was happy that they got to experience some of what I had been learning during my program…

In addition to that, we looked at some apartments on “Ngong Road” and in “Westlands” (which is the Indian area). My friends eventually found an INCREDIBLE apartment in the “Hurlingham” area, which is the NGO area, and it is quite possibly the nicest apt that they will live in during their careers as students. It has a hot tub/Jacuzzi thing. The reason why I say MY FRIENDS are living there is because I am not, as I chose to work at this orphanage for about 3 weeks so I am currently living up in Karen with 45 kids and helping out with the feeding program at Kibera (but I did go to their apt for a really lovely dinner and to catch up on the GOSS that I missed out on while they were in Zanzibar and I was on safari.)

Now that you are updated, I’m ouuuuut. Goood night!

Déjà vu in the Serengeti

After Ngorongoro crater, we traveled to the Serengeti, aka the setting of the Lion King. Basically, my life has come full circle (get it?? hahah The circle of life...) from my childhood, from watching the lion king on my television to going to the birth place of Simba.
The Serengeti was definitely special, but not because of the animals (they were the same old lions, zebras, etc... hahah I'm being obnoxious on purpose), but, really, it was special because of the hotel that I stayed at with my parents. 

A nice view at breakfast....

It was a day like any other. I was showering - my dad was using the internet. He had come back to the hotel room to use the bathroom but since I was using it, my mother sent him off to find an alternative place. 


So I'm peacefully showering when all of a sudden, in the reflection on the glass of the shower, I saw an ENTIRE HERD of elephants cross in front of our balcony. I obviously got really excited and started shouting from the bathroom to my mother to look at outside!


She couldn’t figure out how to open door without my dad's help sooooo there she was shouting to open the door so I ran out of the shower, (tracking soap and water everywhere) to open the balcony door and snap some pics of my mom with the elephants.

Thinking that my dad missed out on the whole experience, my mother and I laughed to ourselves, only to have him come back and tell us that he saw ALL THESE ELEPHANTS DRINKING FROM THE WATERING HOLE right by the swimming pool…(which is something I HAVE YET TO SEE.)

My mom with the elephants outside out room!

Anyways. Check out the hotel. It's beautiful..and probably Russian owned. The best part is that they didn’t try to be fake by planting totally outrageous things that would usually NEVER grow, like GRASS (like at one of the other hotels we stayed at).  The Serengeti landscape was made into the feature point by the hotel and it was very well done. Propzzz.

Safari in Tanzania

I was pretty lucky because my parents decided to come meet me in Zanzibar after my program was over. (I'm planning on staying here in East Africa till at least the end of April, so they used it as an excuse to come and check out this place!). My family. Came ALL THE WAY TO AFRICA. Because of ME! It is doubtful that they would have ever come if not for my participation in the CFSIA program, so it's kinda cool that I'm pushing my family members to step out of their comfort zone, in addition to my own.

After 2.5 months of living in the bush, I was treated to some first-class Safari adventures and clean flush toilets with toilet paper! (I'm not sure if y'all are interested but here's a link to the story of the worst toilet that I encountered on my program).

Anyways. the toilets are not that important (even though they kind of are), but ya so I got a real treat, getting a visit from my parents and being able to travel with them in "luxury". I forgot how much I missed them and I guess I got used to being on my "own" (with 37 other students all the time) and it was just really exciting but strange to see my parents turn up at my hotel in ZANZIBAR.

It made me think about how cool travel can be! Someone can get on an airplane and fly across our planet... are huge, large, planet, and end up in the exact same spot as you. Aka, the tiny little Marine Hotel in Stone Town in Zanzibar, Tanzania.  Safari in Tanzania was AMAZING. Although it consisted of the same animals and what not - being in a smaller 4 Wheel Drive vehicle with a pop-up roof, rather than a MASSIVE truck, made a big difference! We had some pretty cool encounters, like having a huge elephant cross the road in front of us!

But obviously, just like a lot of things in East Africa, our trip did not go as smoothly as one would hope. On our way to Dar from Zanzi, our flight got canceled and we ended up being delayed by two hours, causing us to miss our connecting flight to Kilimanjaro, therefore causing us to miss our first game drive! When we stopped in Dar, we were told that my bag had gone missing (my diva bag :( ), only to find out that it hadn't been checked all the way through to Kili and was making a bunch of revolutions in the baggage claim.

And then, to make matters worse, we got on the truck and drove into the park for 1.5 hours, as the sun was setting and came across a full on RIVER separating us from our hotel that was only another 4 km away. Over the course of the afternoon (while we were stuck in airports), it had POURED. As a result, many of the seasonal rivers had filled up. Our driver (named Moses, how ironic) took a look at the river and almost considered crossing it - but thankfully turned around. At that moment I was convinced we were going to have to sleep in the truck overnight so I was getting a little scared. Lucky for us, Moses had been in the business for 25 years and took us to a hotel that didn't require any river crossing.... and we were rewarded with a beautiful view in the morning after our very trying day.

The first place we went on REAL safari was Ngorongoro crater, which is kind of like this pristine area - a volcanic crater, that has trapped all these animals - perfect for our viewing. it was cute to see my parents get excited about giraffes and elephants and zebras and lions just like I had, on DAY ONE of my trip, back in Nairobi National Park. Then I got to seem really intellegent by telling them all the stuff I new about the animals that I had learned - like how hyenas eat bones, which is why their poo is white (thanks Tay...), and how a zebra's tactic to avoid being eaten by a predator, is to gather in a group so that their stripes confuse the predator, and the individual is less likely to be eaten.

Happy parents and Moses!!

All in all - Ngorongoro crater made us all pretty happy....

Andddd... I saw Pumba!

From there on we traveled to the Serengetti which u will hear about more laaaaaaaaaaterrr.
Good luck with all of your exams (to those of you at McGill), and good night!

Doors of Zanzibar

Zanzibar is completely amazing with their alleyways that are lined by these BEAUTIFUL doors. I can't go anywhere without stopping a few times (ok..alot) to get shots of the doors. My friends dont mind too much...yet....

School's out for the Summer!

And so, with the completion of our final presentations, our program ended in Zanzibar with the flourish of my signature on the release form. The program CFSIA 2011 is over.  It was two and a half months of intense travel and while it may have felt long and arduous while it was happening, now that it is over, I can only remember the positive experiences that I had.

We were given the chance to express what we felt about this program and I had to echo the sentiments of everyone around me: This program is the way that education should be. It should be hands-on, interdisciplinary,exciting and engaging. I couldn’t have asked for a better semester during my undergraduate experience. Sometimes I think about how I DIDN’T spend this past semester in MTL and it kinda doesn’t seem real to me – I still have a hard time believing that I did a whole semester abroad!

The proof of my experience, however, can be found in the ways that the field school has changed me:

1. I will be a different type of tourist. I will question the places I choose to stay - Who owns the place? Who profits? Who do they employ and how do they treat their employees?

2. I want to learn the stories of the people I talk to: Where did they grow up? Why are they here? What are the biggest challenges they face every day and how are they affected by the government?

3. I will try to educate myself about the place I'm traveling to. After learning the history of everywhere I went, I don't think I can travel again without being somewhat informed.

4. I want to change the way I live. I don't really know how yet, but I have learned that WE as CONSUMERS have a great deal of power. Our money, and what we choose to invest it in, is ultimately US making a choice. I will CHOOSE where I spend my money more carefully and spend it on things I want to support.

I will think critically about my decisions and how they affect global markets and therefore, the global community.

5. I am WAY more inclined to embrace the outdoors. If the goal is to observe the natural beauty of the area: rather than staying in some big hotel, I rather camp on a beach or stay in a small hotel that brings me closer to the things I have come to see.

Never before have I met such a group of characters. That's probably  the best way to describe them. Everyone has a strong personality and are more than willing to share their opinions. Lots of important ideas were exchanged among my group. Whether we were discussing the ethics of giving pens to children in Kibale, or understanding why prostitution is legalized in Amsterdam in the Maasai Mara, this is one very informed group.

While this “exchange of ideas” was super important and engaging, I gotta say that its nice to take a break from it now (and maybe go back home to being the most opinionated/loudest person in my group of friends).

But I can’t wait to see what our reunions will be like. These are the only 37 ppl that will really beable to completely understand the experience I just had, from the Bunduz cooking to swimming in the Indian ocean to walking along the streets of Kibera. And for that, I thank them for their support along this trip and hopefully into the future as well.

Time to get Academic: Our Final Presentations

After our academic journals were handed in and our final exams were written, we only had on elast thing to do: our final research presentations (worth our entire course (basically)). At the beginning of our trip (literally our first week in Nairobi), we decided on the themes for our research across East Africa that were connected to the millennium development goals. (we also decided on our groups before we knew anything about each other – by the end of the 2 months, I knew that I was one of the lucky ones that ended up having an incredible group dynamic and team mates for this huge project). 

My group, which consisted of: Bluth, Justine, Natalie (from Queens), Maya, Andrew, Shelby (from UBC) and Laura decided to focus on environmental sustainability in food production across east Africa, and evaluate the drivers that were pushing for change in food production techniques and whether these changes were more or less sustainable than the old technique…We conducted opportunistic interviews everytime we visited a project or site and held regular group meetings to discuss our findings, write up progress reports and draw some conclusions.

On the 2^nd last day of the program we were given the entire day to completely the project (aka a half-hour presentation) and integrate and analyze ALL of our data. My group eventually concluded that “sustainability” is a difficult thing to define. There are many levels that define something as sustainable. Things can be sustainable at a local level, but not necessarily on a global scale. Through research, we saw first hand, the effects that global drivers of change have on the sustainability of practices here in East Africa. Economic drivers and environmental drivers were the top two and so, as a group, we are ultimately more away of our global impact and the interconnectedness of global systems. 

I’d say this is a pretty important lesson to learn, and that in itself, makes this trip a very successful  and important addition to my education. I'm very proud of our research, presentation and findings so if anyone would like to view the presentation you can find it here!

Stone Town’s Night Market

If and when you go to Zanzibar, you will see that seafood is a pretty big deal here. The fishing done here contributes to 4% of the whole Tanzanian GDP and the market for fish is especially enhanced with tourism and tourists expecting seafood.

Stone Town has a night food market from 7 pm till midnight that sells mainly seafood which is cooked right in front of you. Everyone selling at the market are fishermen and I have to say - it looks a little gross because they lay out all of their raw seafood on a table. The fishermen stand there all night swatting away the FLIES.

In order to eat a such a market, I came up with a list of tricks as that will ensure that you choose the freshest, most LEGIT seafood rather than find yourself with an upset stomach...

1. Alec told me that one should not buy food early on in the evening, as it is probably left over from the night before. 
2. Maya suggested that one should always make sure to watch them COOK the food. It should be warm when you receive it.
3. My advice - create a bond with your fisherman. Become friends, and that way when you ask him if the food is french, he hopefully will not lie to you. You may say that is a very silly piece of advice - but I made MY FISHERMAN promise me that his fish was fresh and I ate and did not get sick :)

The fishermen that I got talking to were really friendly (...ok we were a little tipsy too....). We met three fishermen but "Mr. Cha-Cha" is the only "name" I actually remember. They were all pretty young guys. We spoke to them about their fishing and their methods and the tourists that they have to deal with. Out of nowhere, Mr. Cha-Cha demonstrated to us that he could speak a little French, and VERY GOOD ITALIAN!... he told us that he works for the government by day but loves selling fish at night so that he can support himself, his wife and his two kids. 

Laurie - Anne getting the inside scoop on our seafood

My fishermen!!

Anyways… after making Mr. ChaiCha promise me that his seafood was fresh, I chose some big prawns to be grilled. Although NONE of my friends wanted to share with me (because they were scardey cats), I found the street food QUITE ENJOYABLE and I was totally fine the next morning.

All our diners in Zanzibar were lovely, especially our final dinner at "Livingstones" which was right on the beach. Livingstones also had a great DJ who played two whole songs that I had never heard before but were apparently "mainstream". My music + everything that is happening with the Arab Spring (more importantly) leave me with LOTS to catch up on when I return home.

But I guess in the mean time, I will spend my evenings smoking shisha on the beach and enjoying the scent and breeze of the ocean for my last few days on this program (which is slowly morphing into a holiday).

Aaaaah– The Tourist Life.

The last few days of my program in Zanzibar have been a mix of relaxing and intense. We were all torn between taking the time to enjoy Zanzibar and everything it has to offer and writing our final essays or exams, and finishing off our BIG presentations that we have been doing research for since Uganda.

In my last few days, I got a chance to study marine biology, specifically about coral reefs and their importance in the underwater ecosystem. There is a ton of conflict between different stake holders in the area with regard to the coral.  Fishermen use harmful fishing methods like dynamiting the coral in order to catch copious amounts of fish in one seating. But at the same time, the coral (that thousands of creatures find their homes in) is being seriously negatively affected. Its pretty sad because there is more biodiversity than you can even imagine (or see while snorkeling) under the water, living in the coral. 

The coral reefs like warm water which is why we don’t find off the coast of Canada. But because of our unsustainable actions that has led to climate change, the ocean water is getting warmer and this creates a good habitat for microorganisms that are a disease to the coral, and in that way, we all have a hand in its destruction through increasing global temperatures.

Miranda going for a snorkel

Anyways, after learning about the coral, we were given the chance to snorkel in Zanzibar’s aquamarine waters so all 38 of us took little dow boats out to an island and enjoyed the underwater world for a few hours. We looked for coral damage and natural predators of the coral. I thought it was a pretty cool application of my lecture.

The second “touristy” thing we got to do was go on a “Spice Tour”. Zanzibar is also known as “spice island” because they grow tons and tons of different spices. But for the most part, the spices are used up within the country, rather than sent aboard. The spice farm was lushhhhhhhhhh and smellllled gooood everywhere! I am pretty in love with spices (you should see my spice cupboard in my apt) so I was loving life as we walked through the trees and smelled leaves and roots and bark to try and identify what spice we were smelling. You kinda forget that our dried spices come for real growing plants/roots/bark… makes you wonder how the first spice makers ever thought of grinding up a random part of a plant and using it in their food…

I saw ginger in its plant form (we eat the root), and turmeric root (which leaves a dark yellow smear where ever you touch it to. I saw cloves and cardamom before they are dried out, and a cinnamon tree whose bark we use for making cinnamon sticks. I spent a few mins just smelling the tree and it was yummmay.

I saw lemon grass and iodine plants and aloe vera. I saw a pepper corn tree, an almond tree, and a pineapple growing in the ground. I gotta say it was pretty amazing because it was so relatable to me and my every day life!

Fresh Cloves

Cardomom

Mmm lichee

tourist apparell

Then we entered tourist mode again at the end of the tour, where we watched a man climb a coconut tree (while singing) and then had coconut water in young coconuts while wearing hats and frog necklaces made out of palm leaves. OVERALL: good times being a tourist in Zanzibar. We deserved it after so much academic engagement hahah.

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)