Hakunamatata

February 13, 2009

SAFARI! SAFARI! SAFARI! (I hope you are all chanting as you are reading this) Today was our first….you guessed it- SAFARI! We went to Amboseli National Park after classes in order to start a few of our assignments. Amboseli National Park is about 300 square km (very small) and is owned by the Maasai Tribe. Along with 4 other students and my professor, Dr. Okello, we split from the group and enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon spotting lions, elephants, hippos, gazelles (both kinds: Thomson and Grant), hyaenas, zebra… IT WAS AWESOME! Some fun facts! The “Circle of Life” is not always a beautiful sight. We spotted some vultures going to town on a wildebeest carcass. Did you know that vultures retrieve their favorite parts of their dead by shoving their heads up their dead’s behind parts and yanking the innards out? An elephant’s udders are between the front legs…like nipples. Hyaenas will come up behind a wildebeest or a Cape Buffalo and snatch its tail off. Sometimes when you’re driving around you will notice something missing from the backside of one of these animals…if it’s the tail, my bet is the hyaena took off with it. Lots of surprises, lots of laughs, lots of sunburn (not me), lots of nature, lots of fun!

February 12, 2009

Yesterday, we had a fun-filled day of school, school, and more school. We started off the day with finishing the riveting lecture about Kenyan tribes. Contrary to popular belief, not every single Kenyan is a born phenomenon in athletics. Actually the Nandi and the Kalenjin are responsible for Kenyan’s fame in running. They all look pretty fast to me though. We also had a pretty intense volleyball tournament. My team actually ended up losing, but I did manage to get the ball over the net a few times…I even scored a point once! It was also my day to be MOD (Mwanafunzi of the day). Mwanafunzi means student in Kiswahil…so I was student of the day! My duties consisted of rotating the solar panels throughout the day, ringing the bell before classes or any other important activity (like food), and performing RAP. Each MOD is responsible for coming up with at least one RAP while they are here. The first one is light-hearted and gets people to loosen up as we continue to get to know one another. The second RAP will be a presentation relating to the objectives of the program…but this isn’t until later on in the semester. For my light-hearted RAP, I introduced people to ENERGIZERS! For those of you who do not know what energizers are, you are definitely missing out. You have not lived, if you have not let your guard down and participated in either “The Stupid Dance,” “The Camel Dance,” “Star Trekking,” or “500 Miles.” I thought “The Stupid Dance” was the way to go! I was really happy because everyone participated and seem to really have a good time going through all of the wacky moves and running around looking…well you know…STUPIDJ. I ended the evening with one of my favorite quotes, “Don’t look before you leap, it ruins the surprise!” I thought it went along with the theme pretty well.