Hey Yo, only 3 weeks left of our program. :( Hard to believe how fast it's been. Thanks for keeping up on my journey, enjoy!

Saturday November 15, 2008

Day 3 of DR done. The past three days I've been out in the field with my DR group talking to locals and collecting information on how they view community conservation. With the hot sun, no relief from the rain, and some long car rides it's been a long three days, but more than anything it's been rewarding. Tome's DR group is lucky to have this sort of experience to wrap up our time together in Kenya.

Thursday we drove through Loitokitok and hit the paved road, but we stayed on it for only a few kilometers before Maurius dropped Mike, me and our local guide Benson off and our first day of interviewing began. We were dropped off not far from the Tanzanian border, smack dab in the foot slopes of Kilimanjaro. Most of the inhabitants in the area practice agriculture and grow the typical Kenyan crops of Maize and beans. I didn't see any onions or tomatoes to speak of, but there's a pretty good chance that someone in there was growing them. Anyway, our task for the day was to try out the community conservation survey that our entire DR group put together and figure out what questions do and do not work.

The first boma we visited belonged to a Kikuyu woman. We were greeted by a tiny little girl, not more than 2 years old, wearing a cute navy blue velvety dress. She shook all of our hands and walked us into the boma. Another older girl pulled up three stools around her mother, our interviewee. We weren't for more than a minute before we were all handed a metal mug and poured a drinkable cornmeal mush. It was basically white cornmeal with sugar and was so hot I almost burned off all my taste buds after my first slug. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either and it took my almost the entire one hour interview to drink it all down.

Anyway, as far as the interview itself Mike and I switched off and on reading the questions in English to Benson. He then translated it to Kiswahili or in one case to Maasai (which he is) and then translated back to us the answers. It was a pretty lengthy process and in the 5 or so hours that we were out interviewing we filled out 9 surveys. In all honesty though, quantity is not our goal by any means. We are trying to get a real understanding in how people around Amboseli National Park view wildlife, what they know and think about wildlife conservation, and basically if conservation has any hope of ever involving the local communities and make the future of wildlife a little brighter. It's a tedious process and a lot gets lost in all the translation, but we are making progress and there's hope that in the future something more monumental will come out of our efforts.

For the time being I'll just enlighten you with some of the highlights of the past three days of interviewing. Thursday Mike and I had a run in with an opinionated and drunk man who also spoke English. He came into a boma as we were half way through interviewing one of the women living there. She and the other women didn't seem at all phased by his drunkenness, despite the fact that it was around 1:00 in the afternoon. Thankfully they ignored the influences he tried to have over their answers and let us continue without much interruption. We also had the pleasure of interviewing a local school teacher whose boma was pimped out, no poo hut for her! Her home was an open aired, white washed, stone-walled house and the yard was gated by plants, concrete walls and a large metal door. It was a pretty swanky boma, but then again a lot of the neighbors were too. The area in the foot slopes in general is a well off area and most of the land owners said they had lived there for 10 years or more. The area was never a part of the group ranches and has been in private ownership since independence.

Friday we drove to Loitokitok again, and got within 7 kilometers of the Tanzanian borders. We were near Olchorro town, where we planted trees at a secondary school earlier in the semester. The area is predominately Maasai, but we also talked to some Kamba and a Kikuyu. Traditional pastoralism is giving way to more and more agriculture, but most of the people we interviewed kept shoats or cattle as well. My partner Friday was Tommy and our guide was Nyini, who was absolutely wonderful.

The Olchorro area is beautiful, when the clouds clear there's a spectacular view of Kilimanjaro, but even when that's out of sight the tree lined hills offer quite a display. Plus having grown up in Wisconsin I will always find a certain element of beauty in agricultural fields and cattle grazing. There's just something about it that's so…pastoral? Cliché, I know, but true nonetheless. Anyway, the day started out not looking so good, the first Maasai mama we spoke with answered about 1/3 of the questions that got frustrated and told us to leave so she could herd her goats. Not surprisingly there have been other conservation researchers who have visited her and she has yet to see any benefit. So point well made I guess.

Anyway, we continued on and saw some of the things that accompany the rainy season here: puppies and donkeys mounting! There actually were quite a few donkeys making a ruckus. That's beside the point though. We interviewed people ranging in age from 18 to 72, so we got quite the perspective. What they all basically told us was that the community doesn't benefit from the current wildlife conservation methods in the area, and they would all love to see something get done to address it. Unfortunately we won't be accomplishing that, but we're taking a step in the right direction.

I really enjoyed walking around with Nyini because he told me all about the traveling he has done in Kenya. He has an associate's degree in tourism so he has seen many parts of Kenya. In fact he spent three months at Lake Nakuru National Park working on his tour guide skills. Tommy and I told him about the parks we went to and what we saw and enjoyed. He also happily told us about his cows and life as a Maasai. It's really fun to get to know Kenyans and it's definitely something I'm going to miss when I leave this place.

Okay, now to today. My partner in crime was Kim and we were fearlessly led by Alex, a young Maasai moran from around Kimana. The adventure began at 7:30 AM, destination: the center of Kuku Group Ranch. Sounds easy, but the road thought something else. We went to Kimana as usual, hung a left and went through the fence and entered Kuku. A little ways down the road and Maurius pulled over: flat tire. 10 minutes we were back on the road, or what was a road and is now lined by gulley erosion sites.

Eventually the gullies lining the road became the road. On top of that big piles of gravel were also in the road in preparation for the upcoming graveling. So we had to find ways to follow the road without actually driving on the road and mind you, the rainy season has begun. It wasn't raining today, but it has recently. I can't even describe it besides: picture huge gullies left and right, large pokey trees, mud, piles of gravel, rocks and you in a Land Cruiser trying to figure out how to get around.

So as figured, we had to exit the vehicle 5 or so times so Maurius could gun the Cruiser out of the mud. As we were walking along following the car we passed tons of elephant tracks, some deep in the mud and when you stood in them you were more than ankle deep in elephant tracks. In the end our one hour drive turned into a two and half hour drive, but it was the most fun I've had in the Land Cruiser yet and it only could have been better if an elephant had actually crossed our path. Plus we only had to interview for 5 hours instead of yesterday's 7. Then when we got home, after Emma and I threw spears for awhile, we had veggie balls and Kim made peanut sauce for dinner! GOOD DAY!!

There is one more thing I'd like to mention about today though. Around noon we were sitting in the boma of a young Maasai man and wife. A couple of kids toddled around us. Chickens with half their feathers missing darted between our stools. The mama scrubbed clothes in a basin of mud colored river water. Birds sang in the trees surrounding us. The sun beat down on my pale arms. I was hot, tired, and losing focus as I failed to pick up any Maasai words. Yet, despite how uncomfortable I felt, in more than one way, I couldn't help but enjoy myself. This is the sort of cultural exchange I was hoping for while in Kenya. For the first time we were hearing what people here feel and think and believe. For the first time we heard what values they do and don't have for the animals we have been drooling over all semester. These aren't the sort of interactions you're going to have sitting in the classroom, reading the news or watching the tv. This is the type of experience you can only have outside, on the ground, in person. I feel very grateful to have the experience and I hope the people I talked to will remember be for as long as I remember then. They are making my Kenyan experience one for the record.

Anyway, as Maurius put it so well this morning, "Let's keep it rolling…like a dung beetle!"

Tuesday November 18, 2008

Sadly today we had our last visit to Kimana Market day for the semester! 

Anyway, to update you on the past few days, Sunday and Monday I was out in the field with my trusty DR group mates, interviewing locals once again on community conservation in this district of Kenya. Once again we heard a lot about how the animals should be controlled with fences, how the community doesn't benefit very much from community conservation efforts, and how much room there is for something to be done.

Honestly, after 6 or more hours of interviews in the day, the answers aren't what stick with me the most. Instead it's the people and the everyday happenings that we witness that I'll remember. For instance, on Sunday Mary and I went to Isinet and conducted interviews with Nyini. We've traveled through Isinet several times this semester, so the bomas/homes we stopped at weren't new on their own, but the people were. The first boma we stopped at ended up being the home of one of the primary school teachers from the school we played volleyball and soccer at back in September. Mary and I were actually able to carry out the interview on our own, without Nyini translating. That was great and you could definitely tell that as an educated man, our interviewee was well aware of the definition of conservation and ways that it is and is not effective. His perspective definitely stood out amongst the piles and piles of interviews with locals with no formal education. He also had 2 week old baby goats that sat beside me and slept sweetly during the whole interview!

Just a little ways from the first home we stopped at another with a Mama and her older daughter and a half dozen little ones. The mama we interviewed there seemed to have little hope in community conservation and as we've heard before holds no value for wildlife. I'm not sure how one of her little sons feels about conservation, but he did feel pretty comfortable with wazungu around, he took a pee right beside us! He actually nearly peed on us, for a little guy he sure could get some distance! Plus he was conveniently not wearing any pants.

That little guy and several others followed us to our next destination, a home right around the corner from theirs. There I saw a little boy who had tied a large dung beetle to a string. He led the beetle around like a dog on a leash. Then another little girl found another dung beetle and tied it to the other end of the string. Laughs were shared as the beetles played tug-of-war with one another. One girl got the idea in her head to swing the beetles above her head, around and around. Well after seeing how fun that was her brother begged for the string to take his chance. Too bad for him, she wasn't having it. Instead she took the string, and slammed the beetles on the ground, killing them. Then, nonchalantly, the girl handed the string back to her brother. It was hilarious, but also sad because now he had nothing to play with. Nothing like an older sister to ruin your fun!

Over the rest of the course of Sunday we were inside 2 homes to give our interview, crossed paths with many kuku (chicken), had "Mzungu ly" yelled us by dozens of children, saw an old Mama chasing kids away from us with a stick, dodged goats, and did our best to not get sun burned. It was another rewarding day.

Monday Liz and I were dropped off in the vicinity of the cultural manyatta that we visited earlier this semester outside Amboseli National Park, in Olguilui Group Ranch. We interviewed two mamas and two older men. A characteristic difference between this boma and the average boma you come across in the bush is that the men are hanging around, waiting for tourists to come. There was actually one group of young men playing cards and another group of older men playing Mancala in the shade. All our interviewees at the manyatta said they were all for wildlife conservation since it brings tourists to the park and then to their manyatta. However, I'm not sure I would go so far to say that their manyatta actually supports or is involved in conservation to the extent that they could.

Anyway, after lunch we ran into a cousin of Nyini's along our walk to the next cultural manyatta. He too was educated, spoke English and was happy to speak with us. Turns out he is also a preacher. He came straight out and asked us if we believed in Jesus. I copped out of a real answer by saying I was raise Catholic. I have yet to really figure out what I believe, but I thought that answer was better than saying, "I don't know".

At the next manyatta we interviewed 3 mamas. We heard more about how wildlife brings tourists and tourists bring money. Again though, active conservation isn't really in the vocabulary of the people we spoke with. Its future looks bleak, but every sign also points to the fact that it could happen, people are willing to take part in conservation if they can see tangible benefits. Wildlife managers in Kenya have a difficult task ahead of them, but I truly think something can be done.

Now to today, this morning we visited the boma we went to back during our first week here. The mamas joined us and taught us how to do simple beadwork. So I know am the proud owner of Maasai anklet, with a tradition Maasai pattern on it.

After lunch we went to Kimana and I did some wheeling and dealing at the market. I think I've finally mastered the art of bargaining, and made some great deals. It's sad to think that it was the first of our lasts, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was a relaxing day, but tomorrow it's back to the field.