2/4/2012 Day 5

Hello again! A lot has happened since my last post! We started classes on Thursday. It feels so weird to be taking classes here…I think I forgot I was here for school. The building where we have our lectures is the same building were we eat so it has a kitchen attached. This means that it’s usually pretty noisy during class time as the kitchen staff cleans up or prepares for another meal. Also, the building is kind of open-concept so it gets pretty hot during the afternoon lectures. Anyways my point is that this is a totally new learning environment for me and it’s gonna take some getting used to! The occasional bird or giant bug flying into the room doesn’t help either. Luckily we start outdoor lectures and field exercises soon, which will be way more fun.

My favorite class so far has been Swahili (it’s actually Kiswahili, but I guess we shortened it for convenience or whatever. Who knew?) I haven’t taken a language since highschool Spanish and I’d forgotten how much I loved learning a new language. The teacher’s name is Daniel and he’s really cool! He speaks like 6 different languages.

We’ve also taken Wildlife Management Techniques, Environmental Policy and Wildlife Ecology. Our Environmental Policy teacher looks JUST like Cee-lo Green (google him and laugh with me). His name is Ekisa. Shem teaches Wildlife Management Techniques, and Kiringe teaches Wildlife Ecology. They are all really nice and also very enthusiastic about their field. I feel so honored to have them as teachers…they are all experts in Human-wildlife conflict in East Africa and I’m really excited to learn about the science-y aspect of wildlife management as well as the social aspect. (the social aspect of wildlife management is HUGE here because the Maasai are such an ancient culture rooted in this place and the national parks and tourism and wildlife conservation in general affect them so heavily)

Yesterday (Friday) I was mwanafunzi (student) of the day! I had some responsibilities like writing our schedule up on the board, ringing the bell at mealtime (the bell can be heard from all over the compound so all the students and staff know it’s chow time), and checking that all the students were back inside the fence of our compound before dark. My biggest responsibility, though, was RAP (reflection, announcements, presentations). After dinner the mwanafunzi of the day reflects on something that happened that day, then there’s time for students or staff to make announcements, and then the mwanafunzi gives a presentation on any subject they want. It can be about themselves, their family, something they’re interested in...etc. Since it was my turn so early-on in the program, I decided to tell everyone about Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. It was pretty scary! It was the most people I’d ever told at one time before. I knew I was going to cry at some point so my strategy was to pretend like I was talking about somebody else while I told them all about CMT, and then afterwards tell them I have it. And it worked! I mean, I did cry, but not until the part where I told them how I was diagnosed. Like I said before…everyone here is so cool and after I was done some of them came up to me and said they really appreciated me telling them and they thought I was brave. I didn’t feel brave! But I did feel way better letting everyone know. They even asked me a bunch of questions afterwards and seemed genuinely interested. That speech was really difficult but I am so incredibly happy I did it.

Last night after RAP we had a bonfire. It was fun until we saw a baby black mamba (the most poisonous snake in the world in its most dangerous stage of life) slither out of the foundation of the firepit. Needless to say we decided to move our fire to the other firepit. Some of the staff members came to join us and since they are Maasai we asked them all sorts of questions about Maasai traditions and misconceptions people have about them.

Speaking of the staff, I am making friends with them! They all know my name and love talking to me because I try to teach them new words in English (which is hard because they’re already so good at speaking English)and they teach me words in Swahili. 

This afternoon we went to a Maasai Boma right next to our camp. A Boma is a word which refers to the circular “fence” that goes around the outside of their homes. Each family has a home made entirely of tree branches and manure. The houses are arranged in a circle which is surrounded by a makeshift fence made from acacia branches, the boma. Within the circle of houses there is another circular acacia fence where they keep their livestock during the night for protection. The Massai mamas did an AMAZING traditional song and dance to welcome us. Sooo cool! Then they were kind enough to let us muzugus into their homes so we could see what they looked like. It’s amazing how little they live on. The mother of the family builds the house completely by herself, a process which takes about 2 months. After that they laid out all their beautiful beadwork for us to buy. Everyone bought something because they were so kind to us. I got some amazing jewelry for myself as well as gifts for other people :).

 

Okay this has gotten kinda long…but I just wanted to tell you that today I was on cook crew! That means we get to help make breakfast and then we clean up after RAP at night. I made scrambled eggs with cheese and they were delishhhhh but I had to crack like 50 eggs.

Alright I’m gonna go! Love you all. Sorry for the lack of pictures…I’ll try again another time.

love,
Asha

Swahili phrase of the day: Jina lanko ni nani? (what is your name?)