Happy Almost Halloween?

October 26, 2011

                It’s crazy but I’m almost half way through this adventure. I have lost all sense of time, yesterday feels like months ago, I am definitely on Africa time. I honestly don’t know what I last wrote about so I’m just going to blabber on for a bit, sorry if I repeat things that I’ve already said. I think that the last time I wrote was when we were finishing up work with Ehirovipuka conservancy. Since that time we have conducted research in Torra conservancy and are currently in Anabeb conservancy about half way through of time working here.

                Since there is no way that I could possibly summarize everything that I have done I will hit you up with some highlights and themes. First off, the group that I am with is incredibly active and adventurous, sometimes even putting me out of my comfort zone which is great since that was one of my big reasons for coming here. We love to climb things. Since we camp near some sort of elevated barrier when we are not camping in dry riverbeds we have been climbing a lot. While we were working with Torra we spent about three nights camping in the Huab riverbed. Along one side of the river were sand dunes which turned into rocky striated ridges. We no joke ran up the sand dunes because that was the only way to keep from sliding down with the eroding sand. Ultimate stairmaster. We then did some baby bouldering to reach the top. Our efforts were certainly rewarded as at the tops of these ridges we were able to look out over the entire river valley, no joke it took my breath away. I was speechless, we all sat on top of this ridge not talking for over half an hour just taking in the beauty of our surroundings. This is really a beautiful place. The valley was a sea foam green which ran into the golden sand dunes that extended into an almost rainbow colored rocky ridge. I wish I could do this place justice with my descriptions, even a picture doesn’t accurately capture how stunning it is here. And it may be hard to believe but I get these ‘wow’ moments multiple times a day. I’m sorry to say but we just don’t have this in the States. I think these epic experiences may also have something to do with the fact that there are so few people around. Most of the time the only people I see during the day are those who I am living with (all of whom I have grown to love dearly, I am going to have some serious separation issues leaving them all when this ends.

                So another neat thing that I have done here apart from researching and seeing beautiful places is that I am experiencing some very neat cultures and traditions. One example of this was when we visited a Himba village a few days ago as a special surprise. If you all have two minutes to spare I suggest searching google images for some photos of himba people since my description will not do them justice nor will it accurately describe the pride that these people have for their culture. As my parents will attest to I have had some issues with visiting “traditional” villages because I feel like it’s a show put on for tourists. Not only do I dislike fakeness but I also get sad thinking about how the introduction of Western culture has destroyed this culture that these ‘villages’ are trying to reenact for tourists. However, I did not feel these sentiments at all while at the Himba village. I could feel that pride that these people had for their culture as they showed us how they lived. I have also seem them dressed in their traditional attire in modern cities so I have proof that this lifestyle is not a show put on for western tourists. This attire that I am referring to is pretty neat. The women are bare chested, wear a loin cloth around their waste and have covered their bodies from head to toe in oaker(?) which colors their skin red. Cattle are very important to them and so they incorporate characteristic and part of cattle into their clothing. Before they have their first menstruation, girls braid their hair in two braid beginning at the napes of their necks and extending to over their foreheads to look like horns. Everything that they put on their bodies has some sort of meaning to it including marital status and how many children a women has. Also on a complete side note their children are super cute. It is a universal fact that children love to be thrown in the air. I definitely got an arm workout tossing these kids around. They were so cute, giggling the whole time and wearing the biggest smiles on their faces. Very cool experience. As we were leaving Vehi told us how one group of tourists that he took to this village actually stripped down and became a himba for the day, living as the himba do. I think it was a good thing that he told us about this after we left the village or he would have had eight half naked students with red bodies for the day. Now that really would have been neat.

                I do have to say that although I am constantly learning and working hard here it is not at all like doing work for Midd. I think we were all thrown off when Bekah assigned an ‘in class essay’ of sorts two days ago. I must admit that I really struggled to write it. I do not missing writing essays one bit. I am definitely going to be in for a rude awakening on that front when I get home. Plus the heat did not help at all. Trying to write an essay in over 100 degree heat is just not possible for me, my brain literally melts.

                I wish I could attach a picture of myself to this blog entry, I think you would all be surprised to see me, I know I sure was. Since we have been camping for the most part and even when we are at Wereldsend we don’t have mirrors I really don’t know what I look like. And since I wear basically the same clothes each day and shower maybe every three day I really don’t think about how I look. Therefore I was really surprised to see the reflection that greeted me when I looked in a mirror for the first time in five weeks, I literally did not recognize myself. First off I am very tan, you wouldn’t believe me when I say that I have been putting 70 spf sunscreen on every day. Also my hair has gotten very blond which makes my tan look even darker.

                One last neat thing on the research/Namibia oriented side of things. Since we are working with conservancies we have been allowed to attend their meetings. So far we have gone to three meetings, one which I think I already talked about in my last entry which we got politely kicked out of. Our second meeting was Torra’s Annual General Meeting which didn’t end up happening since so that was two attempts at sitting in on meetings that failed. But the Torra meeting actually turned out to be pretty interesting. The reason why it didn’t end up happening was because a previous chair person went around the morning before the meeting and told people not to attend it so that the meeting could not be held. And it worked, only 130 of the necessary 150 conservancy members were present. This means that the conservancy cannot plan for next year which is a big issue, drama. The third meeting that we attend was the quarterly meeting for Anabeb conservancy which was only partially a fail on our part since we made half of the meeting. The coolest thing in my mind about the meeting was that AID education was an issue that the conservancy was working to establish. I guess I forget that conservancy are more than conservation oriented and in fact are really more like communities with a strong environmental focus. Neat to hear that AIDs education is an important issue that they are trying to address.

                Well I could go on forever but my computer battery is dying. I hope you all are doing well and I will try not to go so long between entries next time. Happy almost Halloween!

All my love,

Jess

I'm still. alive, haven't been eaten by lions...yet.

October 12, 2011

                I wish you all could see the beautiful place that I am typing this from. It’s called palmfountein which translates to palm springs. I’m am currently looking out on a bubbling brook that pours over redish gray smooth rocks into pools. Around the water is lush green grass with the bank of the river lined with palm trees. I do not feel like I’m in arid Namibia that for sure. It feels more like the Nile River. Anyways this is the second campsite that we have stayed at since we left the Ehi-Rovipuka conservancy office. Our first camp was at a hunting lodge. We had befriended a hunter who works at this lodge while we were staying at the conservancy office. He ate dinner with us and swapped stories, wicked nice guy from the middle of South Africa. I’ve come to the conclusion from the South Africans that I have met so far this semester that they have impeccable manners, very old fashion, plus a baller accent. Because of the hospitality that we showed him we got an invite to camp at the lodge which meant running water! We stayed here for two nights while we were doing foot patrol training and game drives. On the last night that we were here, Hardus and Phillip, our hosts, drove us out to a watering hole at sunset. Not only was it a beautiful watering hole which probably is a waterfall in the wet season, but we also got to see a python. It was curled up in one of the lower pools with it’s freshly drowned hyrax kill laying feet away. Bekah tried to coax it out with a stick but we eventually gave up when the stick had broken down to about a foot long. Not good risk management. I offered to help get the snake out but was quickly told that if I moved towards the snake I would quickly be dropped off at the nearest port of departure. I figured I better let Bekah handle the snake. We decided that the snake was about three feet long, pretty neat. So the place that we are currently staying at is also a favorite hang out of elephants. We almost didn’t stay here because we were worried about elephants literally walking through camp. The first night was an experience. As I was getting ready for bed I heard a loud sound outside my tent. At first I thought that it was just Dennis, the creator of Round River who is visiting us, snoring. Then I realized that his tent is about three hundred feet away from mine. Thus it was not a human sound. Since I am in Namibia the options became elephant or lion. Ellie and I had a conversation between our tents as to what we thought it was. We decided that we’d prefer elephants so we went to bed thinking it was that. Turns out it was a lion according to Vehi when we asked him about it the next morning, cool. But have no fear there were also two herd of elephants that walked by our campsite during the night. I do love how after I heard the noise I decided to zip up my rain flap, as if another layer of plastic would protect me. If anything it would probably make my escape harder. But I am alive and well so no worries.

                So I promised that I would tell you about what my project entails once I learned what it is. So here’s what I’m doing for the next eight weeks. I will be driving around five different conservancies collecting data on the species within. We will do this by game drives (aka safari’s where you count the number of animals that you see) and game walks (also counting the number of animals that we see). To determine the population size of the species, in particular large four footed animals, we will be using the ‘distance sampling’ method. Basically whenever we see an animal we stop the car and take a GPS point of where we are. We then shoot a lazar distance finder at the animal to determine how far away from the car it is. Finally we use a compass to determine the angle that the animal is off of North using the car as our main bearing. Ultimately this information is used with the help of GIS to determine the distance that the animal is away from the road. This distance is then plugged into Distance 4.0 (or something like that) which is a software (which we currently don’t have) that will calculate the density of the species based on the number of animals of a species and their distance from the road. The walking counts consist of us hiking to the top of a hill and then sitting there for two hours counting all of the animals that we see in the distance while also taking their distance and angle. Initially we tried to count animals while walking along a transect but we quickly discovered that the animals fled from us before we even knew they were there. All of the data that we collect will then be given to MET (the Ministry of Environmental Tourism) for Namibia, aka we are doing research for the government of Namibia. SO NEAT! This is the first time that I feel like my research serves a purpose which is maybe why I’m enjoying this so much so far. Previously even though I was answering a question when writing up lab reports it felt silly since my professors already new the answer to the question since they’d done the lab for years. But now this research serves an actual purpose and people are excited about our findings. Hopefully it goes well.

                Tomorrow we are heading back to home after a long time away. We will then spend a day in Wereldsend recuperating and then we are off to the Torra conservancy. Hope all is well in the states!

All my love.

               

Two weeks down and things are just getting started

October 6, 2011

                I can’t believe that I have been here for two weeks. It both feels longer and shorter. We left Wereldsend on Saturday and have kinda been living in limbo ever since. We were supposed to meet up with our research methodologist on Monday to explain when exactly we will be doing as our research project for this semester. However, she ended up having car trouble in Windtoek and still hasn’t been able to make it here. She is supposed to arrive today but it’s now 4pm and she’s still not here. Hopefully I will be able to fill you in tomorrow on what exactly I will be doing for the next ten weeks. Fingers crossed. Therefore since we don’t really have anything to officially do we have been camping at the Ehi-Rovipuka conservancy office for the last five days. This was originally only supposed to be a ten day excursion. One funny thing that we learned upon coming to Ehi-Rovipuka was that the place that we all put down on our visa applications as the research headquarters for Round River does not actually physically exist. The land has been purchased and the road has been cleared but there are no physical structures. Part of this trip to Ehi-Rovipuka is to negotiate with the conservancy about what we can build on this land. For those of you who want to follow me on a map or know that country of Namibia I am about a kilometer away from the South-west corner of Etosha national park.

                Even though we have not had anything to officially do we are indeed keeping busy. As part of our research we will be using motion activated cameras to capture animals that we wouldn’t have typically seen (ie if we were present or during the night). Thus we have been practicing using them which turns out to be a very good thing. So far we have managed to not turn on the camera after placing it, not checking to see if the batteries are charged, and not putting in a memory card. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes.

                After learning that our methodologist would be delayed we were going to move camp until we learned of a conservancy meeting that was being held yesterday. This is a very cool thing and we were told that we could attend. This meeting consists of all of the conservancy board members getting together with all of the supporting NGO’s to discuss important issues. Sadly we did not last long in the meeting since one NGO representative decided that the information that was about to be discussed was to confidential to be shared with the public. Wish they’d told us that a few days ago. I was able to get the jist of what was going to be discussed. The hot topic was regarding whether an investor should be allowed to purchase a campsite to build a five star lodge on. The key is that this lodge would want access to the western gate of Etosha which currently only grants access to researchers and those who are willing to pay a fortune for a private safari. Would have been neat to hear the discussion but we ended up having a fantastic day anyways. We ended up droving two hours along a very bumpy road to go swimming at a watering hole. We all had very low expectations for this ‘watering hole’ since Bekah wasn’t even certain that it wouldn’t be dried up because it is the dry season. I was absolutely spectacular. I felt like I had entered the secret oasis that the main character always stumbles upon in movies. The watering hole was the pool below a dried up waterfall which flows during the wet season. We found a 200 foot limestone cliff face ending in a turquoise pool of water. In the cliff were hundreds of love birds. Imagine walking into the bird section of a pet store and that was the music that filled our ears. It really felt like we were dreaming. After lunch we went swimming in the pool which was so refreshing. We would get out of the water and dry in five minutes only to jump back in. The only thing that reminded us that we were in paradise was the abundance of dead love birds that lined the rocks below the rock wall. Pretty nasty, but at least we had a lot of feathers to choose from to collect. I have to say (sorry mom) that my cleanliness standard has gone way down. I’m kinda surprised that I haven’t gotten sick yet. We drink the local water, constantly have a layer of dirt covering our hands no matter how much you scrub, and eat lunch amongst 15 rotting bird carcasses. But so far so good.

                Since today we weren’t allowed to go far from camp our big event has consisted of checking out the remains of a donkey that was killed last night by hyenas. It was pretty bloody and all of the donkey’s intestines have been eaten. But in the name of science we won’t let a perfectly good donkey carcass go to waste. It did not die in vain. In making lemonade out of lemons we set a camera trap by the carcass to capture all of the cool animals that come to feed on it. As we were setting up the camera we counted 25 vultures circling over head. Hopefully we get so pretty cool pictures (and yes we checked that we had a memory card in the camera this time).

                All in all life is good. I have become accustomed to living in my camping tent on a yoga mat, half in inflatable mattress and sleeping bag. Probably the hardest thing about living like we are in getting up in the middle of the night to go pee (which happens to me about twice a night since I drink a ton of tea right before bed, really smart right?). It’s a huge endeavor for me and I am certain that I wake everyone up around me as I struggle to get out of my tent. The food is still good, it hasn’t gotten old yet. It’s always a special day when we have something sweet to eat, which means apples, beets and yams. Sugar is just not really a part of our diet. I have been exposed to a whole new world of meat. After the trophy hunters kill and animal they have to give the meat to the conservancy which is put in a meat cooler right next to our campsite. This cooler doesn’t really cool and after a few days with meat sitting in the sun it develops a not so pleasant aroma. We were given Oryx and Eland steaks as thanks for helping around the conservancy and conducting research for them, but we haven’t cooked them yet. I think we’re saving that meat for the bush.

                This is an incredible experience that I am having. I know that everyone told me it would be, but to be honest I didn’t completely believe them. But you all were correct, sorry I ever doubted you. I hope to report back tomorrow about what my research project entails.

All my love.

PS: looking through my pictures I forgot that we also went to the local school and taught a lesson to the kids and played some games. I enjoyed the game playing a lot more than the lesson, the whole missionary feel to the teaching aspect makes me uncomfortable.

September is over!

September 30, 2011

September is over, time has really flown. I can’t believe that I have been in Namibia for over a week and a half. From Windtoek we drove for 10 hours to get to our basecamp in the Palmwag Concession called Wereldsend or “World’s End” in English. The drive here was uneventful until the last half hour of our trip. In the pitch black and on a desolate dirt road in Damaraland the car that I was in, Pewa, got a flat tire. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if we could find a flashlight. Apparently flat tire’s are a common occurrence, supposedly one per car ride, great. I’ll be an expert tire changer by the time that I get home. The other car, Luna, suffered a casualty as well, the lights didn’t work so they drove the last hour in the dark guided by Pewa’s headlights. The first night we made spaghetti with sautéed onions and peppers for dinner and then went to bed.

                I have to say Wereldsend feels like home. ‘Home’ consists of six 10 x 10 canvas tents lining a pathway that leads to our common area which is a roof covered cement floor with a folding table in the middle. Along one wall is our kitchen station which is a portable gas two burner stove top. On either side of this area are two ‘rooms,’ one of which is our pantry which holds all of our food (primarily canned goods), and one which is our ‘library’ which holds all of our educational literature and our two portable fridges. We do have ‘electricity’ if you can call it that which is provided by four solar panels. This powers our two fridges and one light. At night we get light from three oil lamps. Our water source consists of two green jugs full of water which we pump from a well nearby. We live simply but it’s comfy. We rotate cooking, so far I have cooked once. My cooking partner was Ellie, who is also my tent mate. For breakfast we made oatmeal which I thought I knew how to cook, nope. Correction I know how to make some mean oatmeal in a microwave, unfortunately Wereldsend does not have one of those. Lunch consisted of leftover rice from the night before mixed with three cans of beans, pepper, onion, tomato, cucumber and parsley. Nothing here is wasted, we eat what we’ve cooked until it’s gone. We also made hard boiled eggs. Unlike eggs in the states eggs here have very thin shells. Lets just say we had many exploded eggs. But we still ate them and they tasted damn good. Dinner was a bit of a struggle, mostly because we couldn’t get the rice to cook. When cooking in the open air make sure that a gust of wind hasn’t come by and blown out the burner that you are cooking on. For fifteen minutes we thought that we were cooking rice when really it was just sitting in water, cool. What we cook usually is dictated by what is starting to go bad in the fridge mixed in with four cans of something. We made a curry bean thing with spinach, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. I will be a much better cook when I come home for sure. It’s weird not relying on a recipe. One cool thing that we do here is bake our own bread over the fire. We are pretty far from civilization so if we want bread we have to make it ourselves. It’s pretty tasty but always such a tease since we bake it at night while we eat dinner around the fire but cannot eat it until lunch the next day.

                So far I love everyone who I am living with. Everyone is super quirky, easy going and fun to be around. We all get along really well which sometimes makes doing our readings for discussion a bit of a struggle but the work always seems to get done. It’s weird to think that I am in school. This is very different from Midd but still a lot of work. Everyday we are assigned readings which we then discuss as a group. This is what I’d call our formal in class time. But in reality we do the majority of our learning in the field. We will go on “nature walks’ where Vehi will stop every few steps and point out a plant, track or scat and give us detailed information about what it is, how it can be used, and any special characteristics about it. We have over six pages of species to cover for our final exam. We also go on game drives which consist of riding on top of the Land Rover and looking for animals. On our first game drive we counted 123 zebras, 15 oryx, and 25 springbok. So far we’ve seen zebras, oryx, springbok, kudu, giraffe, blacked back jackal, Rupple’s Koran, Ostrich, and Baboons to name a few more well known animals.

                There have been a few things that I was not expecting. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this but since we are in the great outdoors all of God’s special creepy crawlies come with it. I honestly think that all of the animals of the earth are very special and important but that doesn’t mean that some don’t freak me out. This animals is snakes, I really don’t like snakes. I don’t mind large, slow moving, non poisonous ones. It’s the fast moving deadly ones that I worry about. Here in Namibia we have two poisonous snakes the can be found in Wereldsend. It is because of these snakes that we are not allowed to go to the bathroom alone at night. The one that I have encountered so far is called a Puff adder. This snake is slow and fat but packs a seriously harmful bite which slowly destroys muscle as it kills you. One night as we were walking to the bathrooms as a group to avoid a possible run in with one we actually came across one crossing the path right outside the toilets. The funny thing is that the first two members of our group actually completely missed the snake and walked right over it. Freaked me out but it does show you that unless really provoked a snake isn’t going to attack. My other snake story so far is one time when I was walking down the path from the office to our living area a gecko ran out in front of me. About a foot behind it was a snake chasing it. At this I let out a very girly scream and jumped up in the air, pulling myself up the solar panel pole that I was standing next to. Luckily the gecko got away, maybe my scream helped. I can be a complete whoosie sometimes. The other creepy crawly that we have here is scorpions. On the first day we were warned to shake out our sleeping bags and shoes before we put them on. Needless to say I have been doing that religiously. However, I’ve been looking for relatively large black scorpions in my stuff. One night Bekah came out with a black light and showed us scorpions on trees. They were tiny compared to my mental image. Guess I need to start looking harder. The only good news is that they can’t kill me, just hurt like hell. I don’t know why this third thing came as such a surprise to me but the point has been made very clear after only a week and a half of living in Namibia. Dust and dirt get onto everything, including your body. Although we have showers we are only supposed to use them every three or so days in order to conserve water. So far I went five days without a shower. Pretty gross but I think that by the time I come home I’ll be pretty accustomed to being dirty. This has also made me really appreciate taking a shower. Along the same lines of dirtiness, we do all of our laundry by hand. Standards for cleanliness of laundry have been severely lowered. Now instead of trying to get all of the dirt out (just not possible) my goal has become making them smell nice.

                So far we have left Wereldsend once to go practice bush camping. This entailed driving down a dry riverbed for about three hours until we decided we wanted to stop. This drive felt like a Disney ride. The Land Rover was bumping along through thick brush and reeds with dust flying in through the windows, pretty fun. We set up camp which included me pitching a tent on my own for the first time. I managed but it took me a long time. In the late afternoon we hiked up a near by hill to watch the baboon troop that hung out on top. As I was walking along the ridge of the hill, looking out over the valley and across the hills and plains of Namibia as the sun slowly set I was over come with the realization of what an absolutely incredible and special experience I am having. I am so spoiled to wake up and do what I am doing for the next three months. This place is literally breathtaking. I am so fortunate to have this opportunity.

                I miss you all, I still can’t believe that its nearing October. Hope all is well.

All my love.