Day 1 and 2: Arriving at the Santa Rita Experimental Range

We left Tucson on Monday at around 8 am. Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) is about an hour and 15 minutes south of Tucson. When we arrived we had the opportunity to see a research group present to us how to gather data on hummingbirds. They weighed them, measured beak size, then banded them and gave the birds a little meal before sending them on their way.

After dropping our gear and seeing the hummingbirds, we sat down to hear a talk by our lead professor Lee Dyer. I think the most interesting things I learned from this talk were…

           1. That most caterpillars don’t turn into what most people would call butterflies, but instead they morph into moths. Most, nearly all members of the Lepidoptera order turn into moths, only a few of the family/groups that make up this taxonomic order becomes what the public know to be butterflies.

       2.  Parasatoids despite their name are really good for ecosystems. They are the insects that lay their eggs/larvae inside caterpillars and then just before the caterpillar begins to form a cocoon, the fly/wasp larva shoots out of it like an alien out of a human body in a sci-fi movie. The parasotoid kills the caterpillar in the process. This may seem like a bad thing but in reality, it is helpful to plants as caterpillars are pretty enthusiastic herbivores.

       3. Climate change (rises in temperature, carbon dioxide, and extreme weather) cause a decrease in parastoid/caterpillar interactions leading to an increase in caterpillar populations that means bad things for human agriculture. 

It was really fascinating. I’d never known that the world of such a small mobile larvae was so complicated.

I spent the late morning on the food crew grocery shopping for meals this week. We filled 4 carts of healthy, hearty food.When we returned from the store, I went on a 2-3 mile hike up the nearest mountain. It was incredible, what an amazing ecosystem. So dry and the vegetation so different from out East. Everything was so short and shrubby, dry, and yellow. I had some water with me and didn't run out, but I definitely want to hike further and higher next time.

In the late afternoon, Lee gave a talk on the different kinds of Caterpillars that exist and their body structures. Not only are there hundreds of different sizes, shapes, and colors caterpillars can come in, but some actually can use their butt as a catapult to shoot their poop up to 2 meters away. That’s like me tossing my excrement a distance of two football fields, pretty amazing! I will get into the different body parts and how to identify different  types of caterpillars as well as collecting techniques in a future post.

Post dinner and a talk by the man that runs SRER regarding the natural history of this place, I went up to the light/sheet that a grad student set up. There were hundreds of moths of all shapes and sizes flapping around the bulb, and clinging to the sheet. I got to hold a really large one. It was so soft, and it’s feet were kind of suctioney, so it wouldn't fall off my surface. It was beautiful. It was crazy to think that all these flying moths were thumb sized caterpillars at one point. Tomorrow I’ll see much more of that stage of life for these insects as our full morning sessions of collection will begin!

At It Again, this time with Earthwatch!

I have gotten back in the travel boat and am paddling towards Tucson Arizona this time. Why Tucson? An amazing fellowship made possible through Earthwatch Institute will allow me to spend 11 days in the warm, dry climate of the Southwest United States collecting data in the form of caterpillars and studying their behaviors in response to climate change. I leave July 28th and plan to keep all of you apprised of my experience and findings through posting to this blog, so STAY TUNED!

Now I'd call that a pretty successful trip!

So I am officially back from Africa, ok ok, well actually I arrived back safe and sound on Wednesday the 11th, but I was so jet-lagged from the 20 hour plane ride that it didn't really count. Then I spent the next few days, just lying around, going to the beach, running, etc. You know the kind of things one does to extend their vacation and avoid reality for as long as possible. But today I broke down and decided it is time to get back on the horse called Work and ride my way into the school year.

My last few days in Kenya were spent at Masai Mara. Masai Mara is a large game reserve on the western edge of Kenya right next to Tanzania. It is 1,000 square miles of land all for the wild animals of Africa. While the safari I paid for included staying in a tent at an all-you-can-eat lodge, they unfortunately didn't have any tents available so they had to put me in a luxury house instead right next to the pool. Such a tragedy that I didn't get to camp.

While I did a short safari drive in the evening on Sunday the 8th and a short drive early Tuesday morning before returning to Nairobi, the majority of my excellent animal sightings took place on Monday during the full day drive. I saw so much wildlife! Impalas, Antelopes, gazelles, zebras, wildebeests(so many wildebeest!), giraffes, jackals, lions, ostriches, cheetahs, vultures, storks, warthogs, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, wombats and the list goes on and on. You may be wondering if I went on this safari completely by myself (just me and the guide) NO! of course not, I had an interesting Spanish couple and entertaining Italian couple to keep me company and to show me how to eat passion fruit as I experienced that for the first time on my safari.
In the evening on Monday, I got to see a Masai village which despite the loads of African culture I'd experienced already, found to be fascinating. Mostly because I've heard so many rumors about the Masai, I wanted to ask and find out if these stories I'd heard were true. What rumors might you ask? Well I've heard that the Masai drink cows milk and blood mixed together. This is actually a true fact. Masai will bleed their cows from the neck to gain a form of subsistence without killing the cow. So it can continually be used for milk, or bred, or butchered for meat later...talk about sustainability. The other thing I heard is that you can always tell a real Masai because it is not just the ear piercings but he'll be carrying a stick, a stick that he knows how to use to kill a man with a single blow! This rumor, as exciting as it is, actually isn't true. They use their sticks as walking sticks and sometimes for leaning during council meetings because they don't like to sit. See, way more boring than a some unannounced death stick (and that is not a Harry potter reference).
I found out a load of other interesting facts about the Masai like the women build the houses out of cow poop, a man has many wives, and no bottom tooth in the very middle. They also have their share of initiation rites into manhood and womanhood but a lot of those rites are going starting to change because more and more of the population is going to secondary school especially since so many tourists come to visit this village and the village is making a killing so they opened a pretty dazzling school with the funds. With that said, I think the best comparison for the Masai and their traditional lifestyle is to call them the Amish of Africa. As my guide, Pere said to me, " Our culture has been the same for the past couple hundred years and in a hundred years, it will still mostly be the same." Just like the Amish, ignoring modernity with intention. I had a long bumpy ride back to Nairobi, the van I was in had no suspension system. That means every little pothole (and they are not little in Kenya) translated into me just about flying into the roof) but hey I'm here writing this in the U.S. so I got back all safe and sound, if you don't count that my brains are more rattly than they were before.

So with an excellent trip to Ghana and Kenya under my belt, what now? Well it's time to see how this "Experience of a lifetime" will translate into a better education for my students. Oh, the ingenuity!... the part of my job I love the most!
All joking aside, Thanks again to FUND FOR TEACHERS. I really can't imagine a better way to have spent my summer. I realized two very important things that I think have fundamentally changed me as a person (and therefore should make me a better, more happy, confident, teacher.) 1. I enjoy my own company and 2. I can make my own friends anywhere on the planet by just being me.
Traveling...it always inflicts so much growth, doesn't it?

Today is my last day in Gede. Tomorrow morning I'll take the 10 hour bus back to Nairobi. Then from Sunday to Tuesday,I'll go to Masai Mara for a Safari! On Wednesday I fly back home via Amsterdam. It will be a 20 hour journey.

Before I leave Gede, the place where I have spent so much of my time in Kenya, I want to recap what I've done while here. On Tuesday, I went to the forestry institute (KEFRI) and again since my advisor wasn't there, they didn't have much for me to do. I did get to take a tour through the forest and I saw a buffalo rinosorous spider, beautiful painted Eucalyptus trees (They look painted but that is how they are naturally), and monkeys. They just ran wild across the treetops like squirrels, while I trudged through the rain that poured down on the tree cover of the bush we were hiking through. After my forest hike, i spent the rest of the morning doing some physical labor in the tree nursery, moving seedlings around. I moved some 600-700 seedlings during the hour and a half that I worked.

In the afternoon on Tuesday, Mercy (my host mother) took me to the butterfly garden and Gede Ruins. I got to hold a butterfly! Don't worry I took pictures. Gede Ruins was fascinating. It is a historical site that holds the remains of a medieval Arabic town. Most of the walls have crumbled due to the humongous bulba trees that have rooted up the city and left it in crumbling pieces. Again the monkeys laughed and swung on nearby trees.

Wednesday was the day of the referendum (A holiday where Kenyan's vote to pass the constitution.) Because it was a holiday, I decided to take 3 of my host brothers, Sidney (13) and the twins (10) to the beach in Watamu. We had a really enjoyable day. We made sand castles, coconut boats, and I tried to teach Sidney to swim all while avoiding lots of seaweed. The Indian ocean is beautiful, tealish blue. I want to come back and snorkel some day. (I also want to swim in the Arctic ocean with a wet suit of course, it is the only one I haven't swam in yet.) Mercy brought fried chicken and chips (fries0 for lunch. We had such a spectacular time that Mercy kept saying that the boys will never forget this day.

On Thursday, I actually got to do some work at the forestry station. Bernard, my advisor (and a scientist) decided that it would be best to utilize my teaching skills by having me compile/synthesize a training guide for starting a tree nursery. While my morning on both Thursday and Friday was less than exciting spent at a computer designing this guide/pamphlet, it was nice to be able to contribute my skill set and produce something useful for the Kenya Forestry Institute.

In the afternoon on Thursday, Mercy took me to the Sea Turtle watch in Watamu. I've never seen a sea turtle so close up. One was huge and weighed close to 100lbs. Most of the others were very sickly. The turtles at the center usually are recovering from injury or sickness. (They get sick because they eat plastic bags in the water thinking they are jellyfish...very sad and disgusting!)One of my favorite parts of going to the turtle watch was getting to ride a motorbike. They serve as a common taxi form here on the coast of Kenya.

I made guacamole for dinner last night. It was quite a hit. Tonight I'm making ground-nut soup (a Ghanaian dish). My family loves it when I cook. I figured I'd appease them one last time before leaving tomorrow morning. While I will miss Mercy, Tsofa (my host father), my host brothers, and all their kindness...I will not miss the cold showers, everyone thinking I'm italian and having unlimited amounts of money, the huge massive black wood spider that sit in the corner of my guesthouse, or having to hand wash my clothes every other day. Africa has been fun, and adventure to say the least, and the Safari on Monday and Tuesday should be amazing, but I think I'm ready to return to good old Brooklyn... 4 more days and counting.

Jambo!

Jambo is how you say "Hi" in Swahili. Before church on Sunday, my host father Tsofa taught me some basic Swahili. Now don't get too excited about church. Forget everything you know and think of when you think of church in Africa (dancing, singing, music). This place was none of those just a basic Anglican service with hymns and recitations. The most exciting thing that happened while at church was I got to pee in my first hole, (since that was what the public church bathrooms were comprised of, a hole in a small cement room with two blocks surrounding it)! I stepped up on the wobbly blocks and started to go really slow as to make sure I made it in the hole. but suddenly a huge black beetle the size of my thumb with something red coming out of it's backside scurried out of nowhere frightening me, causing my stream to flow, and sure enough I sprayed all over my ankles. Well it wasn't the first time I'd peed on my ankles and it probably won't be the last.

In the afternoon on Sunday, Mercy (my host mom) took me to Midi-creek. This was an Eco-tourist site that involved a guided tour through a mangrove forest on the coast and a walk on a suspended walkway (Indiana Jones style) for about 300m.The walkway usually hangs above a few feet of water and is surrounded between mangrove trees, but because it was low tide it there was only a few inches of water below. i got to see snails, skinks (a type of lizzard), crabs, and Sandplovers ( a type of bird). I learned a lot of interesting things about this particular coastal region that I will be able to share with my students.

When we returned to the house, Mercy and I cooked together in her kitchen. We used the ingredients bought yesterday in the market to make speghetti sauce, my own homemade recipe. I boiled some pasta too. The meal was a big hit with the family. The 3 older boys came back not only for seconds but for thirds. I'm going to cook again on Thursday.

I ran this morning for my first time in Kenya. It was harder running here than in Ghana. I think there are 2 reasons for the increase in difficulty. 1. I am much more out of shape since I haven't run in two weeks. 2. I have eaten so many starchy foods since being in Africa and I take 3 meals a day, and well...I've probably put on some weight. So as much as I'd like to blame it on the change in elevation. It's my own laziness and gluttony which will make getting back into marathon shape more difficult when I return to New york.
One other big difference between my run in Kenya vs. Ghana. No one really notices me. In Ghana everyone would yell and wave and laugh and say "Blrafono" (white man, white man!) Here few people pay me any mind and if they do they are small children who say Ciao. (They think I am Italian since a large Italian population lives in Malindi.)

This morning I went to KEFRI (Kenya Forest Institute)and took a tour of the tree nursrey. Tomorrow I'll go on a taxonomy tour for trees and birds in the bush. Wednesday is the referendum (voting day)so the office won't be open, and Thursday I start my volunteer activities at KEFRI.
In the meantime, I'm continuing to love my family, my place, my new friends, and my time here in Kenya!

Nairobi, Kenya and my quaint place in Malindi

I arrived in Kenya before the sun rose on Thursday morning. When I stepped off the plane, I noticed two things. 1. The air was cold 55 degrees! And 2. it smelled crisp and clean. Right off the bat, I found Nairobi to be much more modern than the cities in Ghana. Some parts of Kenya look just like Manhattan.
The TouchAfrica (organization that arranged my volunteer time) penthouse was a nice little place in a middle class neighborhood. The breakfast I had there was a pancake with honey and tea with sugar and milk. I spent the morning going around Nairobi and visiting the elephant sanctuary for orphan baby elephants. (They get separated from their mothers because of poaching and other forms of human interference.) The second place that Joel (the TouchAfrica rep.) took me was the Giraffe center. I got to feed a giraffe. It was amazing to be so close up to these animals in their natural location. Often you only see them in zoo's and you certainly don't get to touch them. So it was a fun experience.

In the afternoon on Thursday, I took a nap because I was extremely jet-lagged. After a rice with lentil stew dinner, I took a taxi to the westlands where I met up with some friends from college. The night life in Nairobi is fantastic the places I went Havannahs and Black Diamond are two restaurant/bar/lounges that had either a DJ mixing or live music and dancing and felt much like an afro caribian club you'd find on the lower east side or in Williamsburg.

On Friday, I took the 8am bus to Malindi stopping in Voi and Mombosa. It was an 11 hour bus ride most of which I slept. I also made friends with a pakistanian man named Iqbal who adopted me as one of his daughters for the day and made sure I ate and drank enough on the bus. If there family ate apples, I ate apples. If they had fanta for lunch, I had fanta. He was very kind.

I arrived in Gede (the area right outside of Malindi where my host family lives) at about 7:30. It was dark and I was phoneless but my host father Tsofa, found me right away. We walked the 20 minutes to his country home by starlight talking about my plans for the week.
After walking up the sandy lane to his house, I met Tsofa's wife Masali. She seems kind has a warm smile and I think likes the idea of having another woman around the house. The family has 4 boys! Sidney a 13 year old. Two ten year old twins, (fanuka and hari) and a 3 year old who loves to push around cars, prince.
The boys were quiet when I met them they were watching TV. We had potatos in sauce and a vegetable medly with rice for dinner.

My favorite part of my stay in Gede so far is my guesthouse! The family has a smal 3 room house that is all my own for the week. It has a bed, a small kitchen and a bathroom with a working shower and flush toilet! It is quaint, lovely, perfect.

Today, I am in Malindi, the beach town near Gede. I went and bought cloth Leso and Koi (both so beautiful), picked up a cell phone (now I have one for all my international travels) and went to the supermarket with my Masali. She loves to shop and have girls day out. I've had to go to the bank twice, I've spent so much money and Kenya is much more expensive than Ghana...the shilling is up compared to the dollar. The only thing that is cheap here is the transport only 50 shillings (75 cents) to go anywhere in Malindi) and the food. Masali and I each got a quarter fried chicken and a plate or rice and fries for 440 shillings or about 6 dollars). The goods on the otherhand, that is where my money has disappeared to. Thank goodness I have Masali, otherwise I'd pay double for most items due to my color. Although white people are not uncommon. I have seen a considerable number of White people in Malindi, even one of the girls I went to college with in Ohio lives here. They say there is a large italian influence here. I noticed the big pasta section in the grocery store. I bought a lot so I can make dinner for my host family later this week.
Before we return home for the day, Masali said she'll show me the beach. My favorite part of Malindi is how it is a mix of African and middle eastern styles. You see so many differnt shades of people. So many different curvy shapes in the artiecture, and there are different types of available cusines. It even has the little two seater taxi mopeds just like in parts of Asia.
It seems I am falling in love with Africa all over again only this time East Africa.

Wrapping up in Ghana

I am currently at the Katoka Airport in Ghana waiting to check-in to my flight to Kenya. I'll briefly walk you through my last two days in Ghana.

I arrived safely in Accra via tro tro and a friendly girl from the Odumase area helped me get a tro tro to Lepaz and then a taxi to Dakuman where the hotel was that I was supposed to stay in. I say supposed to because when I arrived at the hotel and ask for the price, they tried to charge me 7 cedis more per night then they originally said they charged (probably because I am white and in Ghana most people associate white skin color with money, little do they know I am a teacher on a budget.) So the girl, Mavis stayed with me, helped me hail more taxis, and check-in to a hotel that was within my price range. I tried to pay her for all her help and she refused to take anything. She is a tribute to the kindness and friendliness of the Ghanaian people.

I went to the University of Ghana in Legon to see if anyone was at the SIT office (the group I came to Ghana with 4 years ago). No one was there so I decided to eat at the university. A very kind, friendly, talkative, intellectual Nigerian man accompanied me to my Jolof rice dinner. This man (David) fascinated me because 1. He was from Nigeria and friendly (All Nigerians I've met in Ghana have detested white people). 2. He knew so much history and geography and information about Europe and the U.S. but had never been there, he knows so much about these places because of reading about them. 3. He has no desire to go to the West. He wants to travel and see all of Africa. Fascinating. David and I had great conversations and he showed me around campus as I may need accommodations on campus for when I bring my own students. We walked a few miles to get to the bus stop just chatting like we'd been friends for a long time. It was easy to relate to David being that we're both foreigners in Ghana.

When I finally got back to Dakuman, I went to my friend Barbra's. Her family kindly prepared fu fu and lye soup for me. Barbra came to my hotel and stayed with me both Monday and Tuesday night. On Tuesday morning, I went back to Barbra's house for breakfast, her sisters can cook! I had a fried egg sandwich, sweet milk tea, and wachi(rice and beans) with noodles, gari, and peppe (hot pepper sauce). After breakfast I was sitting with Barbra who was washing her clothes (by hand) and I was holding her little baby niece (3 weeks old), Vida. Vida was almost sleeping in my arms and suddenly I felt warm and wet. She urinated on me. Barbra and her family were apologizing. I was giggling. Barbra gave me a change of clothes, washed mine by hand, hung them to dry and her and I went to the market to get the rest of the gifts and souvenirs I wanted to buy. I was glad to have Barbra with me, she helped to haggle down the prices. When I returned to her house 5 hours later, I was pleased with my bounty. Again Barbra's family prepared dinner and breakfast for me. They so kindly made sure I was well fed while I stayed in Accra.

I fly to Kenya in a few hours. I am excited to experience a country I've never been to before. Ghana feels comfortable, like I've known it forever. I think that is because of my hospitable friends here. I hope in a year I'll return to Ghana, only next time, my students will be with me!