Runnin from Lions’s Weblog

So i’ve been really busy since our last post.

First of all its important that everyone realize just how dusty it is here.  If anyone went to ACL when Coldplay played its like that.  So incredibly dusty.

This is my camp

Anyways, School has started we have Swahili, Ecology, Policy and Management.  There is a huge amount of reading involved in my classes.  I have articles to read and books about wildlife to skim through.  I also go on nature walks every chance I get, which was once, but I’m going tomorrow.  My professors are awesome.  Management is taught by this wonderful teddybear of a man and Ecology and Policy are so fun because the professors love the subjects so much.  Swahili is taught by our research assistant who is so funny.

So, we’ve gone on a few day trips.  We went to a Boma (a traditional home for the Maasai) and watched some Maasai mamas dance and sing.  They gave us a tour of their village and in their houses.

We then went to Kimana on market day.  We were swarmed by mamas (the ones from the boma had told these mamas that we were coming) and I sat while my banda (house) mate Patrick tried to trade a hat for some jewelry.  It was nuts we were surrouned by around 20 mamas trying to force us to buy jewelry.  I just kept saying no thanks.

We had class outside a day later on a giant hill we had to hike up.  It was an intense hike which left most everyone panting.  We had a policy lecture on that hill.

On Saturday we had a non-program day.  We went to Loitokitok and hiked down the foothills of Kilimanjaro.  It was so beautiful I almost got my lunch stolen from by yellow baboons, I had to run away from them.  They kept creeping closer to where I was sitting, eating my carrots, cucumbers and bread.  Afterwards we went to a restaurant where I had chips and fried chicken (chips being french fries).  The chips were amazing.  We then went to a bar, where I tried 2 Tanzanian beers (Safari and Kilimanjaro) and a Kenyan beer (Tusker, it was really buttery and strange).  People got really drunk and were being hit on by the locals.  Also, the merchants were very excited to see drunk Americans.  Everyone had a lot of fun.  When I was waiting for the early leavers car to fill up I met an American man (i think he was from Boston, he had the accent) who moved to Kenya to live with his wife.  He was interesting and apparently loves meeting all the Americans in Kenya.

Today we went to another hill and had another class on ecology.  IT was fun, little kids from the village came to listen to the lecture.

And that’s that for now.

Oh and If I can ever post some pictures, I’ll try.

S- I love you and miss you tons, have fun in Paris and watch out the mademoiselle, make sure she’s having fun.

Mom, Dad, Katherine – hope homes going well, though I’m talking to you right now and know you are ok.  I love you all, say hi to the dogs for me.

Austin, Boston and Northampton crews – Have fun with school, I bet its not as cool as mine.  Or maybe it is.  Don’t party to hard without me…

Toodles everyone!