I haven’t updated this for a little while... it seems like our last few weeks here are just flying by, and it’s hard to sit down and write a blog when it seems like there is so much to do! That is, a personal blog. I’ve been doing a lot of blogging for A Rocha lately, so I’ll just redirect you to those to see what we’ve been doing!
(not to disappoint, but this beard actually bit the dust a few days ago)
Last weekend, Mwamba and A Rocha Kenya hosted ASSETS camps. This camp was really amazing for the students who came, and it was a real privilege to be involved. I wrote blog entries about the camp as we went along, so to save rewriting them and see the pictures, check out the ASSETS blog! assets.wildlifedirect.org
Earlier in the week, all of the A Rocha staff and volunteers went on a team outing, a great chance to hang out and get to know each other better. (I made a post about this too! It’s at arochakenya.wildlifedirect.org, a few posts ago). It was a lot of fun, and we got to see some cool stuff that we hadn’t been able to see yet here in coastal Kenya. It’s also nice hanging out with people more, and seeing them “out of work”.
(Just so you don't forget what I look like, this is at Mambrui)
Thursday, Dave and I went on a guided tour of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest with Jon and Rachel (2 other volunteers here) and Albert, the A Rocha Kenya staff member who took us on our safari in June. It was an early start, we left Mwamba at 6! We went on a 5 mile hike that took us through all the different vegetation types that exist in the forest (mixed forest, brachystegia forest, and cyanometra forest in case you’re interested!) and saw lots of pretty birds. The forest itself is just gorgeous, full of beautiful vegetation and humongous old trees. Unfortunately, there is a lot of poaching of animals and trees that goes on, so we got to see why A Rocha Kenya has to work so hard to conserve it. We also saw a lot of interesting tracks from the previous night’s activity, of elephants, golden-rumped elephant-shrews, hyenas and aardvarks. There were also many butterflies, so many different kinds, and so many more than we see at home! Later that day, we went to a swampy area that the forest elephants often come out to to drink at, to see if we could see them while they were drinking. We weren’t so lucky that night (though we saw a nice sunset), or the next! Not sure if we’re going to try again...
I’ve been doing a lot more GIS work lately, as my tree project at Gede has reached a bit of a standstill. It’s been interesting, though challenging, as the software I’m using is different than what I’ve used previously and there’s no one else around with much experience. Lucky for me, I’ve got a lot of help via email, but as my cousin is 8 hours behind and the last volunteer here is 8 hours ahead, there are no quick fixes. I’ve been working on a lot of maps of forested areas around here and including these different vegetation zones, so it was cool to see all of the different vegetation types for real when we visited the forest on Thursday!
Dave’s been busy here, with bird-feeding, tree-monitoring, a bit of farming, and doing an analysis of income-generating projects that have been tried in the area surrounding Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. Feeding the bird is an everyday task that seems to always suck up a bit of time, though it has gotten much easier since Oscar was released! It seems that the 5th time was the charm, and he has been (hopefully) flying free since last Friday. Now it is just Bella, who’s now got a very large cage to herelf!
The national director is coming to visit next week, so I’m giving a talk on blogging, facebook, and general computer usage... should be interesting! Communication to donors and other interested people is a big challenge here, as the internet is sketchy and the computer literacy amongst the staff is fairly low, so getting information out there is tough. I’ve been working a lot on keeping the blogs more up to date since I got here, as well as teaching the staff how the blogs work and how to post what they’ve been working on. I’ve also been putting some pictures on the facebook, here and there... but I’m leaving in less than 2 weeks, I all of a sudden realized I have to “hand over” these things soon if I don’t want to see them languish when I go! Often these tasks are seen as “volunteer tasks”, but it is a challenge when someone leaves, as it seems that things often get neglected for a month or two while someone new gets up to speed, so I’ve been working with the staff to get these tasks more into their domain. We’ll see what happens.
Today we went to Kilifi and visited the home of one of the staff members that we’ve gotten to know quite well during our time here. Dave and I felt really privileged to be let into such a wonderful community, everyone was so welcoming, and the kids were really sweet. Though it was a long day with some crowded matatu rides, it was really worth it. Meeting the children in the family was a real contrast from my usual experiences with kids here, where the kids usually yell “ciaooooo” at you from the side of the road because they think that you’re an Italian tourist who’ll give them candy.
So our next two weeks are going to be busy, and I am both excited to be coming home soon and sad to be leaving a place that I’ve really gotten to like. It’s hard to believe that classes start in 3 weeks! So I’ll try to make another post or two before we go and let ya’ll know what’s happening.
Take care!
We have had a good couple of weeks, with lots of guests and volunteers coming and going. Because of this we’ve been shuffled around rooms-wise a little bit, which makes me glad we have so little stuff here! It’s a lot easier to move two backpacks and a suitcase than it is to pack up an apartment!
I’ve been finding it weird how tired I can get of saying hello and goodbye! I’ve always kind of thought of myself as someone who likes getting to know new people, but lately I find I’ve been craving the company of old friends who know a bit more about my life. That’s not to say that we haven’t met a lot of great people! There is currently a group here from a Church in England who are eager to help out with A Rocha Kenya stuff. They arrived yesterday, and I’m sure we’ll all enjoy working together.
The rehabilitating birds have been keeping Dave busy, as he’s mainly in charge of feeding them. As they need food three times a day and sometimes exercise too, this can eat up a big chunk of the day! The bigger one has been released 4 times now, but just keeps coming back. Hopefully soon he will be gone for real! Here is an action shot of feeding time:
I’ve been at Gede a fair bit inventorying the trees, and am up to almost 500 now. It’s definitely a whole different ball game than when I was working for the city and all the trees were on nicely defined boulevards! The area around the ruins has some really amazing old trees. I am especially amazed by the huge baobabs; here is a picture of Dave looking tiny next to one of them!
Dave and I also went snorkeling last weekend, which was quite lovely. It’s going to be hard going home and not having the ocean a five minute walk away anymore! As far as places to volunteer go, we are quite spoiled here!
There’s a lot more I could say, but it’s getting close to tea time so I should probably get going!
