So much has happened in the last week! I think one of the biggest realizations this week was how much we stand out as white people, or as the
kids love to scream at us, Mzunguli (my white person). It’s somewhat
disconcerting to be stared at like circus animals whenever we are in the
surrounding communities, but I’m starting to get used to it.
Our first trip to Amboseli was on Monday and it was amazing!
As soon as we entered the gates of the park, we saw herds of zebra, gazelle,
wildebeest and a few ostriches! This was initially very exciting but quickly
became the common sight throughout the park. On our way to a lunch spot we stopped
a few times to listen to our professor Shem, speak over the radio about some of
the species we were seeing. He also would ask us to try to identify them using
our field guides. We saw an oryx which is a pretty rare animal to see in
Amboseli and within the first 20 minutes of driving! As we approached the
observation hill where we would be eating lunch, there was a whole herd of
elephants that we drove up to right next to the road. There were even some small babies that were
super cute! I could have watched them all day! We
continued on to our lunch spot where that overlooked some of the wetland areas
in the park. We could see many elephants, hippos, and birds enjoying the water
in the heat of the day. After eating and observing we headed out to see some
more of the park. We stopped again passing the elephants and one bull elephant
started to get upset with us and challenged our car. We quickly drove away! The other exciting sites of the day were some
female lions drinking far away from the road, unfortunately they seemed to have
just eaten so we didn’t get to see any chases. Then we passed a lot of sleepy
hyenas who were surprisingly very cute! Driving out of Amboseli was beautiful,
finally a cool wind blowing through my hair and beautiful evening light shining
through the Acacia trees. I can’t wait to return, hopefully to see more
giraffes and lions closer to our car.
We had a day off the next day and it was market day in
Kimana We walked from KBC which was an hour long hot walk but really made me
feel like a Kenyan. We met many others on the way. The market was so crowded! There
were stands of foods, clothes, electronics, shoes, and lots of fabric. As we
entered the market we were immediately swarmed by Maasai mamas who wanted all
of us to buy their jewelry. The words of the day were hapana, asante (no, thank
you) which didn’t help us out too much. The best part about the market was
trying to use the little bit of conversational Swahili I have learned. I also
ended up talking to a few people in English and it was interesting to hear
about their lives. After the market we all went to a local bar to try a Tusker,
the local beer. On our way we were swarmed by little kids who were soooo cute.
They loved it when we took their pictures and I loved taking their pictures so
it worked out really well. The bar was very nice and we all got to sit around
in gazebos in the back patio, sharing our stories of the market.
The Kimana market, shoes are being made out of tires in the bottom left.
We also visited our neighboring high school a few days ago.
They were having sports competitions but we missed watching all of the races and
were just able to mingle with all of the students. The students ranged from
12-22 and it was very interesting to talk with them, luckily they all spoke
very good English. I started talking to a group of girls about the weather in
the US right now, their school schedule, what they wanted to do in the future.
Most of students seemed to want to do something with tourism. Talking to the
guys at the school revealed the biggest cultural differences. Among other
things, the most frequently asked questions were “are you married? Why not? And
can I get your number?” It was pretty funny!
In the last week we’ve had a lot of class, but many of the
classes have been field lectures. This is where we travel to a hilltop and
learn about the land use and cultural changes of the areas surrounding us.
Traditionally the Maasai are pastoralists and currently most communally own
land as group ranches. However, as the influence of agriculture has increased, the
people have begun subdividing their land to own their own farms. The biggest
issue is that agriculture isn’t a sustainable use for the climate in East
Africa. In order to grow crops, the people must irrigate their land since most
of the year there is no rain. The use of water for irrigation then creates a shortage
of water for wildlife. Also the subdivision of land makes pastoralism worse for
the environment because the livestock doesn’t have a large range and their
damage is concentrated to a small area, causing overgrazing, erosion, etc. It’s
kind of a frustrating issue, because it would be extremely difficult to
convince everyone to go back to their pastoralist ways, but it’s the only
sustainable way to use the land. I suppose we will learn about more solutions.
Hope all is well with everyone and 5th block is finishing up nicely for everyone at CC!
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