Safari in Amboseli

So before you start.... have some great 80s music to get you in the mood to look at all my safari pictures! 

some goats in front of Mt. Kilimanjaro!! It was really clear the first day, then it hid behind clouds the rest of the week. 

an adorable baby giraffe in Amboseli

hup! two! three! four! Elephants on the march

giraffes coming to say hello because there are no trees for them to eat here... usually you don't see giraffes in the park for this reason. (elephants are overpopulating the park, and knock down trees, turning Amboseli into a grassland. aaaaand..... elephants are overpopulating the park because the government knows that tourists want to see elephants when they come to the park)

some elephants greeting each other!

hello ostriches!

some gray crowned cranes! these are some of my new favorite animals from Amboseli

a cape buffalo just chilling out with an egret

 RAWR! a hungry, hungry hippo!

 a hippo taking a stroll next to the swamp

 the view from our lunch lookout. see the contrast between the lush lake and the bare soil patches (and dry grass) around the perimeter!

 hey! it's Pumba! and Pumba junior!

so these are two lounging lions.... but it's really really hard to tell. Can you see the ears? We never got to see them standing up, they were just so sleepy :)

 Whoa! Some wild animals trapped in a safari jeep!

 mr. elephant eating anything and EVERYTHING.

we saw SO MANY ZEBRAS. here are two (and a baby, I think) out of the bazillion of them. (Zebras are overpopulated too in the park, leading to the dusty, bare patches of ground that you've seen in some of the pictures)

Animal list from Amboseli:  

Elephants

(Maasai) giraffes

oryx https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwsQIpTo6OqA-m2Vl1xVNWWVy81bJq5pD04CPnPo2S_8YX40i9M8UHfXo6RDmounaYZcFOh7bZ8S0GbbCyU5jQTBBovAcK54M5LPSVD0ukP4l5_fJOYlviTU34Yzr_a8wKyb8gbFlaYyY/s1600/20090211152759!Oryx_Gazella_Namibia(1).JPG

common zebra

Grant's Gazelle http://www.east-africa-safari.com/images/Grant%20gazelle.jpg

Wildebeest http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Blue_Wildebeest,_Ngorongoro.jpg/260px-Blue_Wildebeest,_Ngorongoro.jpg

warthog

cape buffalo http://www.hsd3.org/HighSchool/Teachers/MATTIXS/Mattix%20homepage/studentwork/Kyle%20Kohn%20web%20page/assets/africa-cape-buffalo.jpg

reed buck http://www.ccjonesphotos.com/ps/images/Male%20Reedbuck.jpg

ostriches

hart beast http://www.africaknows.com/content//user_6672/8041/thumb2.jpg

hippo

lions

vervet monkeys (the blue-balled monkeys that I saw at my urban homestay)

baboons

cat (haha)

cattle (in the park! whoa!) 

Gerenuk (so cool! we saw it along the road) http://www.jameswarwick.co.uk/resources/listimg/gallery/Samburu_2005/48-GERENUK-BROWSING@body.jpg

puff adder (roadkill, but still, we saw it!)  http://www.shahamaasi.com/resources/puff-adder.jpg

Birds: 

sacred ibis

horned hornbill

white-backed vulture

cattle egret

saddle billed stork

gray crowned crane

Egyptian goose

African jacana

Grey heron

Black headed heron

blacksmith plover

great egret

yellow-billed oxpecker

long toed plover

southern helmeted guinea fowl

Martial Eagle

white headed vulture

african spoonbill

goliath heron

secretary bird

Kori bustard

.... later we went birding near Amboseli, but not in the park and saw:

Van der decken's hornbill

hammercop stork

wattle starling

white winged bishop

african pied wagtail

Emerald spotted wood dove

hybrid lovebird

Jackson's golden back weaver

White browed sparrow weaver

some sort of sunbird

African mourning dove

Supurb starling (they are everywhere and look like iridescent robins)

splendid starling

preparing for the road again

Hello all!

I've returned from my 3 week homestay and now am on my way to Amboseli and the coast for the next two weeks!

My homestay went really well: my family was really pleasant and I had a lot of fun times with them. Last sunday, I went to an outdoors concert/festival thing with my siblings which was a nice change of pace. Overall, this week has been pretty quiet because we've had a lot of coursework... so unfortunately I  don't have too many stories. However, you may be amused to find out that I had so much free time due to sitting in traffic that I finished Harry Potter #3 and #6 (all in one week, too!). I had no idea traffic jams could be so fun! (I also had dance parties and sing-a-longs with my siblings during traffic jams. It's weird to think that some of my favorite moments are when I was trapped in a car surrounded by stinky, polluted air!)

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures in the next couple of weeks. I literally didn't take any pictures at my urban homestay (except of the monkeys and some cool iridescent clouds). 

I took this one but had a hard time capturing the color while also keeping the brightness realistic.

 I CANNOT take credit for this beautiful picture; it is by Eric, a friend of my brother. 

My family said we'd take a family picture in the next couple of weeks to ensure that I'd come back to visit! :) 

To make up for my lack of interesting pictures, take a look at my new favorite animal! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eorN0-K-UzE 

Oh, by the way, I'll be without internet during this time, so don't be surprised if I don't respond. 

Hope you all have a lovely 2 weeks!

the urban life

here's a photograph that I just snapped of my urban host family. Sorry about the quality... man, I thought I had a better camera than this! (haha) 

Hello all!

This update is a bit later than I anticipated. Our internet connection here was jeopardized when a ship’s anchor ripped up 2 important cables…

Anyhow, here I am! I’ve been staying in Nairobi with a host family. My family is very hospitable and I find it to be pretty easy to integrate into their lifestyle because it’s really quite similar to life in the US. My siblings are all older than I am, though two of them are home for the occasion and my other sister has just arrived today to visit. The biggest adjustment? Leaving the house at 6:30 so I can get through the traffic in time for my 8:30 class. Traffic is a bit rough because development hasn’t kept up with the population growth/immigration.

All is well here:  classes are normal and tomorrow we’re visiting the city market and going to the Karua forest. Last week we went to Kibera which is the one of the largest slums in Africa, if not the largest. It was a powerful experience but after watching the movie “Slum Dwellers” (which is a documentary on Kibera …actually I can’t be sure that that is the name), I was even more blown away. I’m not doing a very good job explaining but this could be because it is late at night. (And yet, I am determined to get this email out!) I guess all I can say is I’ve never been so thankful for clean water and our sanitation systems/waste disposal systems.

SO anyways, one more week in our homestays before life starts getting crazy again… next time I talk to you all, I’ll be in Amboseli!

Hope you all are doing well!

Love,
Em

monkey business

I thought that being in the city would mean that I wouldn't get to see any animals... well, I was wrong!

We had a troop of monkeys that visited us just the other day :)

a little monkey scurrying across our neighbor's gate

 the little imp contemplating what he'll do next

this guy had just been lying down on top of the roof keeping watch or something. There were at least 5 monkeys total hanging around our houses!

Visiting the Hadza!

This week we went to visit the Hadza, a hunter-gatherer community in Tanzania through Dorobo. I had a really great time and enjoy getting to know some of the people living there. We were able to do all sorts of amazing things with them. They taught us how to make arrows, how to shoot, and also took us hunting. We also taught each other dances and songs at night and were able to have a long conversation with them as a group. 

These people were so inspiring and interesting to meet. They believe in only taking what they need from the land at that moment in time and do not fret about the future. (So this means in the morning, they only gather food for the meal they are going to eat right then and there, and later they will gather food again when they are hungry.) They are very happy, proud people and get enough food and water to satisfy themselves despite living in a region that only gets about 400 milliliters of water per year. Incredible. 

Dorobo (and other NGOs) are working with the Hadza at the moment because there is a major land crunch in Tanzania. Much of their land has been encroached on by other ethnic groups (because there are simply too many people) and as a hunter-gatherer community, their land is absolutely necessary for their survival. So they are currently working to establish a Hadza Conservation Area to ensure that their land does not get any smaller. I was really impressed with how culturally respectful Dorobo's tourism program was and how they really work to satisfy the desires of the community. I would highly recommend this opportunity to anyone, if anyone's headed to Tanzania :)

 making arrowheads using a cold nail and a hammer! 

teaching us how to shoot! I managed to shoot an arrow pretty far and just missed the target. yahoo!

 a typical acacia landscape

almost done with our hike across the Yaeda Valley! Unfortunately, we had yet to climb up the side of the valley (on the right) and it was starting to get really hot!

 putting pegs in the side of the baobab so we could climb it! 

 Looking over the Yaeda Valley

sunset after climbing the baobab

 some old Bushmen/Hadza cave paintings in a baboon's home

me climbing the humongous  baobab! I was so nervous! 

Look mom! I made it! 

Mt. Longonot

 The landscape approaching Mt. Longonot (the volcano is on the right)

 on top of THE VOLCANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooo!

see the path (on the right) going around the rim? you could walk all the way around... 

but we didn't because of the fire (see the cloud on the far side of the rim)

it was certainly a dusty hike!

A nice picture of us on the rim of Mt. Longonot.

the city life and some excursions

Hello friends!

This week was the first week of classes in Nairobi and I was able to choose two electives. I decided on a Biodiversity course on the Conservation practices in East Africa and a gender course. I was planning on taking a History course but ended up finding the gender course to be interesting and low key so that’s that!

This weekend, we cast off our student persona and became full-blown tourists! We climbed Mt. Longonot (a volcano) in the Rift Valley! Either I’m in terrible shape (which is a total possibility; I eat so much here!) or else it was the elevation because I was EXHAUSTED going up the volcano and usually I’m okay with that sort of thing. But anyhow, I made it! And along the way, we saw a handful of zebras in the distance and one giraffe standing all by himself on the rim of a smaller, nearby crater.

This morning a group of us went to the Giraffe center in Karen (where we’re staying). So we spent the morning feeding and mooning after giraffes. THEY’RE SO COOL.

This week has been a bit stressful and it will only get worse because all of our assignments are due soon because (dunn dunn dunn DUUUUUUNNNNNNN!) we’re leaving for TANZANIA in a week! Tra lala!

At the moment, I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do for my 4-week IDS (independent study) at the end of the semester. I was thinking of doing Organic Farming stuff or something with A Rocha but am still undecided.  


That's all for now! Kwaheri!