Packed week

It’s been quite a busy week! I already forget what order everything happened in and which day, so I will just list them:

-We had a “community service” day, and went to a local elementary/middle school to help plant trees for shade. I feel like it was more of an opportunity for all of us to interact, since there were only a few shovels and the rest of us ended up digging holes with rocks in the dirt while the kids fondled our long hair and laughed. It was a really fun day. One of my banda mates had brought a portable set of ipod speakers, and we played music and danced with the kids. There were about 700 kids at the school, so the whole day was mayhem but it was wonderful. We all played soccer and volleyball at the end of the day and went home exhausted.

-Another day we went to Amboseli for the REAL last time (we didn’t realize we were going to go back again, so this was a nice surprise) for a field lecture. We drove along through the park and stopped periodically to listen to our Wildlife Management professor, Shem, lecture on the things surrounding us. This is the best way to learn. We went to an old lodge where the baboons were insaaane, and the drivers had to get out and guard the cars with sticks so they wouldn’t jump into the open hatches we were standing out of to listen to the lecture and try to steal food. They are so scary! The baby ones make up for it though… they are really cute. The lecture at that stop was very interesting, and focused on the issues with bringing people into the park and what can happen to animals that become dependent on humans for food, like these baboons were.

After the lecture we all went to Serena Lodge to swim in the pool and drink piña coladas. This is the life. Unfortunately, just as I was about to finish mine, a mother vervet monkey snuck over while I wasn’t looking, grabbed the straw and licked it clean. Never mind…

After the monkey drink-stealing incident, a few of us left to explore Amboseli a little more, and drove to the base of a hill that overlooks the entire park, including a green swamp right below it. We ran to the top, and reached the top panting and happy. As we reached the peak and began to see the view, I literally got goosebumps. The view was GORGEOUS.  The vast expanse of land was dotted with elephants, and a mix of the greens and reds of the swamp, the yellow of the grassland, and the blue of the sky reflected in pools of water. It made me wish I could fly. I just wanted to dive into all that color and expansiveness and take it all in.

-In contrast, the next few days were extremely busy and centered around the camp. We spent long days in classes, and long nights writing two research papers, one extensive, 5-tab excel spreadsheets of data from Amboseli, and one detailed research poster on this data. I finally slept a little yesterday after the last assignment was turned in, and then after a three hour nap we all went to the local high school to play our traditional soccer game. We lost by 2, but we’re slowly getting better- those guys are fassst!

I had an interesting talk with the guys afterwards…  within our conversation, I was asked if I was married (this is typical) then if I was a spinster (not so typical) then if I had AIDS, (even less typical) then if I would like to brand my cheeks and legs with the typical Maasai circular symbols so that I could be one of their girlfriends (not so typical either.) I naturally answered “no” to all of these questions. I told them I would be their sister, and they said they were Christians, and that I could be their sister under God but that this didn’t make dating wrong, and I told them I wouldn’t date a brother and they told me they thought they might decide to be Pagans after all. They have now all asked whether my sister would like to have a Kenyan boyfriend, and whether they could write to her even though she’s in Japan. What do you think, Bee? Want 20 new pen pals? :P

Well that’s the report. On to my next post, because this one is getting really long and the next story needs a whole post to itself!