Hello all. Influenced by truly weird circumstances, I made it so that the blog that Bennett and I publish can now only be viewed if you are invited to do so. If you know of anyone out there who enjoys reading it (but who I do not have contact info for) please send me an email with their email enclosed, and I will send them an "official" invite. Any of your family, friends, colleagues is welcome! Upon further reflection, I think this is the best mode of ensuring the privacy of those featured in pictures/those whose names are mentioned etc.
Maria
mariakellyinkenya@gmail.com
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Chololo
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| This has nothing to do with baboons - I just like this and the subsequent photo (taken by a Daraja Media Club member). Here is Elizabeth about to score a goal at our first football game of the year... |
During my family's visit I was called away on duty to take part in some ecological monitoring at baboon-ologist Shirley Strum's research site Chololo. Dr. Strum successfully relocated three troops of baboons in 1984 to their current location (Laikipia Plateau just 20 km to the NE of Daraja), and she has been monitoring their behavior and their environment ever since. Her project is entitled the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project. Its focus being not only baboon research but also community-based conservation projects - they have implemented several education, employment, and enterprise activities. Their eco-tourism endeavor, the Baboon Walk, is a very popular outing for Daraja volunteers. I met with Dr. Strum in December, and she suggested I pay a visit so that we my brainstorm ideas for my proposal and future research, as well as gain some insight into their methodology which has been evolving since Dr. Strum came to Kenya in 1972.
Our friend Charles gave me a ride up to the research site and dropped me at their simple bush home (similar to our simple bush home), only theirs had a panoramic view of giraffe and Grevy's zebra. I awoke before sunrise the next morning to join one of the researchers in his daily activities. We hopped aboard a piki piki (motorbike) and tore off in the direction of the large outcroppings the baboons prefer to sleep atop (for predator-protection purposes). What a great way to start the morning, the icy wind stung my face as we zigzagged amongst giant African mammals - we flew past elephant and giraffe, so close that I could have extended my arm and touched them.
Twenty minutes later on a piki piki we reached the sleeping site the baboons had utilized the night previous. We hiked up the steep rock face, a small mountain comprised entirely of boulder, en route passing baboon after baboon squabbling and appeasing, infants clinging desperately both ventrally and dorsally to their mothers, males chasing females and females protesting. On the highest peak sat a burly male, perhaps the alpha of this troop, serenely staring off into the horizon as the sun rose in the distance, not pausing in his mediation to acknowledge our presence. He found as much peace in that morning as I.
We rapidly descended the other side to catch up with the troop we were scheduled to observe (the troop currently occupying the rock face was a neighboring troop which was attempting to shoo their resource-rivals away). When we joined our target troop, we watched as they made their daily rounds exploiting the ripest Opuntia cactus fruit (a prickly pear species that was introduced and subsequently took over the area, much to the chagrin of the native grasses) mouths smeared in its blood-red juice, watched as they relaxed in the minimal shade provided by the Acacia trees and enjoyed bouts of grooming, and watched as they ran wildly from the local children attempting to scare them away from their property and hence their food. These baboons are so familiar with a consistent and harmless human-researcher presence that they stroll alongside you. On a couple of occasions I nearly trampled on one as I became lost in the enchantment of the situation.
As the sun nestled into its favorite position directly above our heads, we took off to conduct some ecological monitoring of the local grasses (whose presence was little more than a fleeting memory). For the next five hours we jotted around on the piki piki, stopping every twenty minutes to count blades of grass and determine if they were brown or green (which there really was no need to question), as well as to count the presence of wildlife - and in this dust bowl we only had the pleasure of meeting the lawnmower goat and sheep. Although counting grass can be quite exhilarating, I think I preferred my time mingling with the baboons :)
Eight hours in the equatorial sun proved to be quite an exercise and by the end I was bit delirious. But wow what a day! I nodded in an out of consciousness the remainder of the day, and then awoke before sunrise again the next morning to make the journey back to Daraja. I was piki-piki-ed to the gate where I was assured a public matatu would round the corner at any moment and scoop me up. But why lull around when you can walk (and daybreak is the best time to spot wildlife!) - so I started in the direction of home. Luckily on either side, the property is conserved and therefore fenced, because I trudged right through herds of elephants and cackling hyena. Two hours into my trek and halfway to Daraja (walking), I was offered a ride by a Toyota Hylux which flew down those primitive roads and dropped me off 20 minutes later. I almost regret not opting to walk the duration, but the rising equatorial sun warned me that I best choose door number two.
Hope all is well with everyone out there. The new class of girls arrive tomorrow at Daraja from all over Kenya! It should be an exciting weekend. Maria
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| And here is Elizabeth in the middle of scoring that goal! (We are training future photo journalists here!) |
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Time Flies...
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| Mercy |
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| Some of the Media Club |
Maria News: Exactly ten girls have volunteered to take part in my thesis research (which is exactly the number of girls I outlined to have as participants). Observations have begun but interviews must wait until USD’s Institutional Review Board gives the final ok on my proposal – which essentially means that they deem my proposed work to be ethically sound. Each girl will be engaged in a series of interviews and reflection pieces which will ask them to explore their self-efficacy beliefs concerning their goals post-graduation, self-regulatory behaviors, control beliefs, and the etiology of their goals. My aim is to gather data purely concerning behavior as the student perceives it.
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| The Media Club loves to document themselves |
Lauren’s trip was very eventful. A few days after her arrival a bunch of us caravanned into the bush to our temporary residence on conservancy land. Five of us piled into an ancient vehicle and two followed from behind on motor bikes (a real daring adventure considering the ever present force of elephants, who do not hesitate to charge if they feel their peace is disturbed. In fact, a local Kenya told us that when he encounters elephant on his motorbike, he leaps from the bike and runs instead of attempting to escape on his vehicle. Apparently, it is easier to avoid being stampeded if you run/move in a zigzag pattern – something that cannot be easily accomplished on a bike). We had a smooth (not literal) ride to the bush, making out with only one flat tire.
We all spent a lovely evening dining under the stars. For the special occasion we transported two frozen chickens with us and I cooked, with the help of our Danish friend and meat connoisseur Martin, roast chicken over onions and potatoes. Bennett and I enjoyed having a group to entertain (the magnificent sky aided our cause), but we increasingly became aware that the smell of those slow roasted chickens had attracted a host of nighttime predators. You could feel their hovering presence, anxiously awaiting a free meal. The grumbling digestive noises of the nearby elephants sent everybody wheeling, not wanting to wait to discover what else was monitoring us. Besides having to remove a poisonous scorpion from the inside of our guests’ mosquito net, the night proceeded peacefully.
The following afternoon we all gathered again and headed back to the school. Minutes from our bush doorstep elephants on either side of the vehicle trumpeted in irritation, luckily our motor-biking friends trailing us did not hesitate in fear. Half way into our trip an ominous clunking noise sounded repeatedly, until finally the vehicle collapsed. We jumped out to discover that the propeller shaft had dropped from the car. Bennett strolled around searching for service in hopes of reaching Charles our friend/property manager/mechanic. Meanwhile, some rangers from the neighboring conservancy out on patrol stopped to confirm that we were ok, simultaneously alerting us the presence of lion tracks that had been made earlier that day. Not to worry they exclaimed, lions will only attack when provoked, unlike those volatile elephant and buffalo. Martin jumped in the back of the vehicle and slammed the door, fearing that it was not lions but rather the more ferocious liger (the mythical hybrid of the lion and tiger which couldn’t possibly inhabit the Laikipia Plateau) :) Luckily, all we needed was four bolts – an hour and a half later we resumed our journey.
Later in the week we traveled to Mombassa (photos pending) to relax on the beach and pay a visit to our new friends Max and Sima, parents of one of our CCC parents and dear San Diego friend, Moji. We swam in the ocean and even a pool (the first pool we have swam in since arriving in Kenya), and Sima prepared the most wonderful Indian and Persian food. On the first evening we arrived, Max and Sima hosted a dinner party. We dined on her gourmet spread and sipped on champagne (complements of Peter, a true English gentleman), while enjoying the view and breeze emanating from the Indian Ocean. I now have a great recipe for vegetable curry and Persian rice, which I will be attempting to prepare with equal skill tonight in the bush. We explored Old Town Mombassa and what we refer to as “New Town”, enjoying the architecture and shopping for spices (while of course being unable to avoid being offered only wazungu (white-people) prices. I have yet to master the art of bargaining, despite Bennett’s insistence (he does not enjoy being scammed) :)
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| Shamsia volunteering at the local orphanage |
The oppressive drought continues to assert its dominance. Even the elephants have migrated farther south than usual, encroaching into farmed areas adjacent to the Daraja Academy in search of edible delights and water. One of our neighbors lost 3,000 heads of cabbage. The town was subsequently surrounded by a ring of fire to ward of these masterminds of devastation. Imagine the amount of crop needed to satisfy a 10,000 lb. creature.
Random side note: On the way back to the school form Nanyuki town we drove by a crowd of people surrounding an over-turned motorbike, so we pulled over to inquire. A man who just that day purchased this vehicle, subsequently lost control of it and both he and his passenger were thrown. His passenger, more severely wounded, was attempting to stand up and we intervened as blood began to pour from his ravaged face. It took about 15 minutes to convince a matatu to back up and allow some of the crowd to load him into the vehicle to be brought to the town hospital. We asked our friend Leonard if there was an ambulance we could call to retrieve him, Leonard laughed and said yes of course but there is no way they would make the trip for just two people – there had to be at least 7-8. Oh Africa! :)
Bennett News: Bennett has begun his work with autistic children. Last week he made his first visit to Nanyuki’s only special education school that is located in the slum area of Likii (such a poor population exists because many people displaced from the 2007 post-election violence migrated there in hopes of finding peace and work (Nanyuki is one of the Kenyan towns that was not witness to the violence)). He had a successful and rewarding visit – the principal invited him to come as often as he likes and all the staff announced their eagerness to learn from him. There are 98 kids in the school – ranging from toddlers to teenagers. Very little English is spoken, so Bennett will have to communicate primarily in Swahili. The kids of course all immediately fell in love with him. He will also be conducting one-on-one behavioral therapy both in-home and in-school with 15-year-old “Sang” (Sangria means Happy Boy in Maasai).
Speaking of Likii… Our friend Matt, who additionally volunteers his time at the Daraja Academy, does a lot of work with the street kids of Nanyuki (70% of which come from Likii). He is in the midst of forming a foundation that finds job placement for these kids and helps some gain entrance into school (despite the supposed existence of free primary education, kids are required to purchase their uniforms and supplies (and those hailing from the poorest sectors cannot even afford these costs)), and if they show up to class with a hole in their sweater or with lack of pencil, they are sent home and ordered not to return until they have fixed the problem. Education therefore is designated for those who can afford it. Secondary school is not free. Matt has already raised money to sponsor 8 kids’ education. His first sponsor recipient Alfred is a success story – at the end of his first year his scores ranked him the highest in the district! Check out his blog: http://www.intheshadowofmtkenya.blogspot.com/
This February my Aunt Mo and Uncle Alan are making the trip from Colorado, I will be paying a visit to primatologist Shirley Strum’s research site to take part in some ecological monitoring, and the new freshman class of girls arrives on 25 February. This should be an exciting month!
Maria
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| Tina volunteering |
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