The Final Hours

We are leaving Kenya and Africa tomorrow. Today there was all the closing activities, and people are all crying. We are also packing, and I got to sit on my suitcase to make it all fit. Now I just have to worry about the weight. There is a donation pile, and people have so much extra things that the pile is very huge.

Some of us at a hippo pool

 

We are having last volleyball and soccor games soon, and we hope it does not rain. But we plan on staying up very late tonight, and we will be in the airport for 8 hours tomorrow white we wait for the plane. There will be much bonding and card games. But we will have to day good bye at 4 different locations. The camp, Nairobi, London, and Chicago, and we have been saying good bye for the whole week.

Kylie

Directed Research Fieldwork

Directed Research Fieldwork

                For eight of the past nine days, we have been out in the field collecting data. I am in the Wildlife Ecology DR, and we are assessing the vegetation cover and water quality of the Noolturesh River in the Amboseli Ecosystem. For four days, I walked along the river assessing the canopy cover of the riverine vegetation. In some places, there was a path, but in many places not. We crawled under bushes and over fallen trees. We had to climb some cliffs and use logs to cross the river. On three of the other days, I assessed erosion. We had to go up to 200 meters from the river, and there were no trails. We ran into a lot of Acacia malifera, which have tiny thorns that take hold of your skin and when you pull away, the thorn stays under your skin. There is also an irritant, so the skin hurts more than it should and swells. There is a section of the river that goes through what looks like a rain forest. It really neat and I got to go through it four times. If anyone wants to hike the Noolturesh, I am an expert in certain areas.

My DR group. ED, me, Haley, Laura, BG, Julia, Cam, Tally, (Front) D and Kjersten

                During the one day that we were not in the field, we celebrated Thanksgiving. We had a turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and candied yams. I helped decorate the area, and made many hand turkeys. We also had apple crisp and pumpkin pie. It was very good. There was also a no-talent talent show, and some people performed. That was interesting.

But that is now over, and we are analyzing the data. We start writing our papers in two days, so that will be exciting. At the end we give a presentation, and then we leave for home. Many people do not want to leave and join the real world again. People are worried about jobs and having actual classes again, and we are trying to make the most of our free time here.

Kylie