Last Post from CFSIA 2009!

Dear all
Well, tomorrow the program ends and year 3 of university is finished!
We are in the final stages of completing a 3 credit research project on Wildlife Conservation Tactics in East Africa and tomorrow morning we present, sign our exit waiver forms and fly free free free. I have written 2 final exams for my last class, and handed in a tourism report... these past 2 weeks have been hellish busy and I can;t wait for the work to be over and the play to begin.
On the morning of the 30th, I leave the hotel at 4am in a cab to the Zanzibar Airport and take a flight to Nairobi at 6:10am. From Nairobi i fly to Johannesburg, then to Windhoek in Namibia. I touch down in my target town at 4:30pm local time.
I'll be there until April 16 and then i head home.
I actually have to rush off now because break time is over! The final count down has begun. Tonight we have a dinner out on the program, and tomorrow we have our last supper, so to speak, and a goodbye ceremony of sorts. Its going to be sad to say goodbye but I'm so excited to get out there on my own.

Lots of love to those at home and all those who have helped me along the way. Perhaps I will find internet in Windhoek but again I'm assuming no internet or phone access until I touch down in Vancouver.
xoxoxo
Marion

Last stop: Zanzibar!

Dear all
So I lied; I didnt write again in Nairobi... what with finals and trips to Mathare and trying to sort out a volunteer opportunity for after the program, things got busy.
From Nairobi, we drove to Tsavo National Park East. We camped there for 5 nights and never have I ever been so hot in my life. There are sooooo many elephants in that part of the park, bouncing back from being nearly wiped out during the peak of ivory poaching. The plains are packed with wildlife, and we saw more lions as well. As part of my biodiversity course for the last leg of the trip we did a census of wildlife sightings from our safari trucks. Our prof, David Green, is a herpatologist and has a crazy obsession with frogs, or reptiles and amphibians in general (but really, just frogs), and a serious lack in interest in any other sort of animal. Despite this, we wrestled to see the elephant rehabilitation program they have running Tsavo.
From Tsavo we trucked over to the coast to camp in Malindi at the KWS Marine Reserve. Oh my gosh, you should have seen us having a party when we saw the ocean. Monica and Alec had been insisting since Day 1 that due to liability issues, we had to wear life jackets in the ocean. It had been a constant battle of disbelief and arguing, but when we saw the Indian Ocean, after days of camping in intense dry heat, half of us just said to hell with it and grabbed lifejackets during the sprint to the ocean. I was on Alec's bus, and when he saw everyone bolt with lifejackets he just burst out laughing. We let them go swimming and took pictures before he finally told them it had been the longest and worst joke ever, and there was the punishment for running into the water before a safety briefing. Golden.
We camped about 50 m from the sand, under some trees in the shade (not that that helped much with the heat) and swam up to 3 times a day between trips to town, snake hunts and lectures. The temperature was hotter than Tsavo, and humid to add, making afternoon lectures a write off, so the hours around lunch were off so we could stay cool in the shade and water. One morning our bio class went off on a snake hunt with some rangers and we caught 5 or 6 snakes, ranging from non-dangerous bush snakes, to sand snakes and then we caught a spitting cobra! Yes, he spat, but his captor had wood working goggles on so he was fine.
Malindi was wonderful, but the sand was EVERYWHERE and camping in the sand for extended periods gets tedious. So, despite the love we have for the ocean, we were ready to leave the beach and its beach boys behind to trek to Mombasa.
Our hotel in Mombasa was sooo amazing. We were put into houses, 6 per house, and there was a blue blue pool and ice cream. To sleep on beds and have showers AND swim in a pool was just absolute heaven. We had only one night there, and my house (the party plane house) left the hotel the next morning at 4am. The 6 of us hadnt managed to get seats on the plane the rest of the groups was on. So instead of going direct from Mombasa to Zanzibar, we flew to Nairobi first, and then to Zanzibar. Quite the trek.
We arrived in TANZANIA!!! We stood in a huge inefficient line to get our visa. All countries must pay US$50, except the USA, who pays US$100 and Pakistan, who must pay US$200. Interesting. So now I have 3 visas in my brand new passport, and the first 10 pages are all stamped up.
It was in Mombasa that I finally got some good news about possible post-program plans. I'd been dreaming about heading over to Namibia to work on a farm, and Mum has been so amazing helping me find someone to take me. She called in Mombasa to say she found a rescued animal sanctuary near Windhoek where they needed volunteers, and after my first night in Zanzibar, I decided to do it. Its no small thing. It requires a flight from Zanzibar to nairobi, Nairobi to Joberg, Joberg to Windhoek. Return flights are the same all the way back to Nairobi, and then to Amsterdam and then Vancouver.
So I'm just waiting right now to finalise those plans and I'm really looking forward to travelling on my own.
Since our arrival in Zanzibar on the 17th we have had lots of lectures at the nearby Dar es Salaam Univesrity campus about biodiversity in Zanzibar. yesterday we went to the Zanzibar Butterfly Farm, and then to the Jozani National Park, which is one of the worlds top 20 hot spots for biodiveristy, with hundreds of endemic species, including the rare red colobus zanzibar monkey and elephant shrew. After dark we went searching for frogs but with little success.
This afternoon the bio class got onto some sketchy looking motor boats and cruised out to Prison Island and jumped off the back to go snorkelling. The coral reef here is amazing, and i really enjoyed paddling around, hoping I wasnt getting hepatitis or something from the grungy rented mask and snorkel. The water is crystal clear and bright blue, and corals come in every shape and size, bright blues and greens. I found myself a little black and white striped eel, diving down to look at it close up.
So Zanzibar is wonderful. As students we are expected to be more respectful of the culture than the tourists who come here in their short shorts and tank tops. I'm wearing ankle-length dresses and skirts and covering my head and shoulders with long scarves. The Muslim community is very obvious and there are 50 mosques in Stone Town alone (where we are staying). There is also a strong hint of Hindu, and British Colonial influences here, and the history is fascinating. I'm so glad we will be staying here for 2 weeks, until our program ends on the 29th of March.

To those at McGill: course registration is looming up and I cant udnerstand why the CRNs are not up yet. Does anyone know the date they will be posted? I have limited internet access and with time ticking, and the possibility of me being on a plane on the 31st, i'm concerned about classes. Please reply if you have heard anything about when the courses will be posted for fall 2009, winter 2010. Marissa and/or Donna: My loves, I may ask you to help me out by registering me for my classes... the time change would make it really hard, and you know Minerva better than my family would. If thats OK, let me know and when I have got the CRNs I'll send you my info.

So to all those at home: it looks like I'll be heading for Vancouver some time mid April. Dates are not confirmed yet, and I'm not rushing home at any crazy pace, but thats the update!

I hope you are all doing well.
xoxoxoxo
Marion

Back in Nairobi

Hey all
So we got into Nairobi on the 2nd (HAPPY MARCH B.T.W!!) and we have been pretty much studying our butts off, in between lectures and days at the National Museum... I just got out of my final exam for Orno and gosh does it feel good to be done with another class. These 2.5 week full-course stints are super hard core and often really tough, especially when you are doing 2-3 lectures a day, squeezed in between activities and meals... they are jam-packed days and we are really exhausted after this module. Yesterday was a much- needed change of pace: Dr Bird took us t the National Museum to explore the ornithology department (so the change of pace was really just a change in location). WE were actually taken behind the scenes to the research department... its essentially a huge bird morgue. Vegetarians beware! Drawers and drawers of stuffed birds, every species of birds in Kenya and many from other parts of East Africa. WE were shown everything from baby ostriches, tiny tiny kingfishers to mamooth monkey-eating eagles with terrfiying talons. It was really cool. Gaming for birds was made illegal in the 70s, so now only about 10-20 birds are added to the collection at the museum each year, and most of these are due to road kills or migratory collisions.
To emphasis our crazy days, today we had our finals at 9-11, and after lunch we are going to Mathare slums, the largest slum in East Africa, larger than the Kibera slums we visited when we were last in Nairobi. Just to exhaust us physically, mentally AND emotionally, tonight we have the chance to go out on the town-- to a pricey dinner at SafariPark (which I'm opting out of for economic and slightly ethical reasons after seeing poverty) and then to the discotheque there.
Tomorrow, oh my I can't wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow is our first day off since the start of this trip. We have a whole day to sleep, do laundry, catch up on journals and hang out! After the last 2 weeks especially, we all really really need some R&R.
In the mean time, however, I have two assignments to finish up and a site presentation to prepare for, so I should rush off and finish those before lunch!!
I hope all is well at home! I'll write again before we leave Nairobi on Sat morning
xoxoxoxo

Quick/ really long note from Laikipia

Hello all!
This trip keeps getting more and more amazing and less and less able to be described in words.
The Maasai Mara was absolutely breath taking. It is definately the africa that people fall in love with. We were camped inside the Game Reserve, near an old research centre- no one else was permitted to stay inside the reserve, and we really were living with the Hyenas and Lions. Lions roared 2 or 3 times a night, and we would wake up and listen to them, safe inside our tents. We didnt actually end up having Maasai warriors per say, as our guards, but most of the people who live around there are Maasai and the rangers who patrolled our campsite at night were locals. So, almost the same Suen.
The sun sets were absolutely stunning. We birded every morning, and went on at least 1 game drive a day. We saw lions, lionesses, lion cubs, cheetahs, elephants, hyenas, giraffes, gazelle (grants and thompsons), impala, baboons, warthogs, buffalo, ostrich, wildebeest, hartebeest, saddle billed storks, secretary birds, grey-crowned cranes... the animals were great. Probably the freakiest thing that happened to us was one afternoon our Ornithology class went on a bird walk with an armed guard. While looking at a bird in the 60x scope, Dr Bird and John yelped as two lions ran across the clearing in front of us. After that, we made a bee-line back to camp, and frightened a herd of gazelle, which looked just like a running group of lions and scared us more than anything else. We had to cross an elephant wallowing pool to get back to camp, and while some of us jumped across the puddles, others looked back to see a fast-approaching group of elephants. Meanwhile, those back at camp had spotted us below them and were sort of freaking out about the fact that there were elephants a few meters behind us.
Needless to say we got away just fine. The scariest thing though is the fact that we weren't as frightened as we should have been, and we were all much more niavely excited at our close encounter with dangerous wildlife on foot. That was the first and last bird walk in the Mara.
After 5 nights in the Mara, we packed up camp and set off on a ridiculously long drive to Elangata Wass. I think the drive took us well over 10 hours, which was really rough by the end, with the open sided trucks battering us with wind and dust the whole way. But we have become seasoned travellers over road and these drives are becoming longer but passing faster as the trip progresses.
Elangata Wass is at 1200-1400 m, very high altitude, and is suffering greatly in Kenya's time of drought. When we arrived, they had no had rain since August. We pitched our tents at Kudu Camp, a half hour drive out of Mile 46. Everything was dry and crispy, and extremely intolerably hot.
This was the place we did our Maasai home stay. We were paired off and dropped at Mile 46 with local kenyan youth guides to walk to our bomas, which ranged from 30 mins to 2 hours walk away from the town. Maya and I walked for 1.5hrs (and it was very very hot) to our boma in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There were 8 children where we stayed, and we slept on a cattle hide platform inside the tiny, low, hot, dark and smokey cow-dung home. We learned alot. The grandmother whose boma we stayed in was named Rebecca (they often have Christian names) and we were told to call her Ngoko (I think thats how Maa for grandmother is spelt). She was really very nice and talked alot to us through our youth guide, Daniel. She lives in the same acacia-bush encircled complex as her 3 sons and their families. The cattle and goats were brought in from the fields after dark. There is no water in those parts right now and many family's fathers have left with cattle for months, many all the way to Tanzania, looking for pastures for their herd. The drought's consequences stuck out when I went into the cattle yard. In one corner, with her calf standing near by, was a cow who was so hungry and dehydrated that she could not stand nor eat. The family force fed her some cabbage, then stuck a stick under her boney ribe cage, one man grabbing eat end, her tail and her horns, and the 4 men pulled her to her feet. The only way to get her to walk was by teasing her with a bucket of water held just out of reach as she stumbled towards it. The calf was in very poor shape as well, and the children kept sticking their fingers under its pelvic bone and between its ribs.
Some Maa words, for you at home:
"supa" - hello/ greetings
"ipa"- response greeting
"Ashayoling"- thank you
Also, when an elder approaches, you must bow your head and let them touch your head as they say Supa, and then you are allowed to reply Ipa and look at them.
It was a pretty intense experience. We were with the family for 24hrs, which allowed us to experience a miniscual part of their lives, but the men talked fairly good english and the children take english at school so we did manage to have some great interactions without needing a translation. The next morning we woke at dawn and helped around the boma before leaving at 8, dressed in our sunday clothes, to walk the 2hrs back to Mile 46 to meet the rest of our group at a Pentacostal church at 10.
Everyone was pretty worn out, and the rest of that day and the day after were easily the lowest point in the trip. Orno had a midterm the next morning, and everyone was tired and emotional.
On the 24th we loaded up the busses and drove for another 7 hrs to Laikipia, stopping by in Nairobi to stock up on basic supplies and snacks. We arrived at MPALA research centre at around 5:30.
This is a wonderful wonderful place. If you are not a researcher, you pay up to US$1700 per night to stay in the Dutch tents that line the river. But as we are both researchers and students, we pay nowhere near that price and still enjoy the amazing luuries of hot water in basins outside our tent in the morning and the opportunity to shower in the canvas shower stalls. Toilets with seats are also something we havent seen for a few weeks. We have real beds, on which we are absolutely passed out every night, and the mood has lifted significantly since we left E. Wass.
Orno is working on our case studies while we are here, and Jordi and I are studying the Common Drongo, a fork tailed black bird seen almost every where in Kenya. It has this cute way to hunting insects, called hawking.
We will leave here on the 3rd, and trek back to Nairobi to stay in ICIPE for 4 days.
I hope this finds everyone well at home. If anyone at McGill knows the date we are permitted to register for courses, would you please post it so I can see? MyMcGill absolutely will not load on these computers (who is surpised?!), and our profs are unaware of the deadline.
I hope midterms have passed, or nearly have, and that everyone is enjoying Reading Week!
Lots of love to all
Marion xoxoxoxo

Travel day

Dear all
Its 630 in the morning and the sun is juuuust brightening the sky a little. the busses are packed, breakfast is wrapping up and we are all sleepily getting onto our trucks. we have a 7-8 hr bus ride ahead of us to the Mara. Valentine's day party went late into the night and I didnt see the end of it, heading for bed instead at around 1130, getting up with the alarm at 545. Its been a tiring couple days with bird walks and the boat trip to bird island. we are going to be camping for the next week in Mara and Langadawas. Masaii warriors will serve as our guards against the prevelant lions and hyenas at night.
Not sure when I'll next have access to internet, some say a week, some say more. But I'll write with an update at least by March17th, which is when we will be back in Nairobi's ICIPE site.
Lots of love to all at home
xoxox
Marion

Off into the bush again!

Dear all
So the last 4 days have been spent in beautiful Mbita. We have spent most of our time here at the Suba district hospital that is a 10 minute walk from ICIPE. Our Health and Nutrition Module has been all about HIV/AIDS and malaria, and also some about tsetse fly and sleeping sickness. Kenya's HIV prevalence of HIV/AIDS is 7.4%, which is an assumed underestimation due to the stigma attached to the disease and also due to the lack of access to testing.
The kenyan government now provides ARVs (Antiretrovirals) free of charge, as well as treatment and prevention of malaria. Vaccinations and deworming of children are also done for free. Mosquito nets and condoms are also handed out for free. Consultations with a doctor at any level of medical institutues are free, but most medications (apart from those already mentioned) are to be bought from the clinic/hospital at which they are prescribed. Thus, barring the success of such a program is accessibility: for the people, reaching the clinics/hospitals is either impossible due to poor roads, or due to distance; and the trucks that bring the drugs and supplies for these places often cannot reach them. Supplies are brought once a month, but may only last 2 weeks.
While this has painted a dire picture for Kenya, the places themselves are inspiring and really remarkable. There are outreach groups for PLWH (People Living With HIV/AIDS) and volunteers are trained by the government to work within communities at the household level-- they are required to visit 20 households a month to been track of the needs of the community and gather information on the numbers of children who are immunized etc etc. This system is effective and is working. The doctors and nurses we spoke to are very educated, at least 3 or 4 years of post secondary education, and are very open to our questions.
The town of Suba is small and crowded. We were given full reign of the area, walking in group of 3 or 4 from ICIPE into town at least once a day during our free time. for 350 USh (around 4 US dollars) I had a skirt made that is longer than those that I brought, in anticipation of the Muslim community in Zanzibar. The people of the local town are very friendly and many speak exceptional english and love talking to us.
There are 3 courses in the 2nd module of this program (we wrote our final exams on Sunday for the previous module) and I'm taking Ornithology with Dr Dave Bird-- this is not a joke. None of the other 2 classes are started yet, as the Archaeology prof from UBC has yet to arrive. But my class started yesterday morning with a 7am bird walk, followed by a lecture. There is lots of work for this class, but the projects are going to be interesting and I'm definately going to know my birds by the end of it! Mum, let Grandpa know he has competition coming up! This morning we had another morning bird walk (will probably have one every day until the course ends on March4th) and tomorrow we leave at 6am for Bird Island for 3 hours, followed by another few lectures. This is proof that we are by no means on vacation!
On sunday, we leave very early on our 8-10 hours bus ride through Kenya towards the Mara. We hope to see Lions and cheetahs there. Not sure when I will have internet next, but probably in Laikipe sometime at the end of February.
I wrote to Riders for Health, looking for a volunteer position. But they employ locals which, having learned much about community sustainability, I understand completely, and they also could not recommend many people I could contact as an alternative. So I still have no set plans for my time here after the program, although I have a friend who wants to travel with me to Rwanda to stay with some friends and to see gorillas, and another wants to go to Malawi with me. So there are lots of options, depending on the amount of money I would like to spend. There is time yet
HOWEVER!! I cannot believe that today was day 27. This trip is racing by.
I hope my posts have been rewarding to my followers. Riss and Donna and Dad, thanks for your emails regarding my posts! Its really nice to get emails, but to those who havent written do not worry because the internet here is so deadly slow that I rarely check my email... the best place to write back is as a comment on my blog.

Lots of love to home, not sure if I'll get another chance to write again before we leave Mbita. Tonight is movie night, and tomorrow is our PA, Monica,'s birthday/ pre-trip party night so we are sure to be sleeping a little on the busses on Sunday.

xoxoxox
Marion
PS: false alarm on Malaria-student. We all knew that wasnt what it was, he just really liked the drama created by saying it. He has had tests, and does not have malaria or typhoid. We are all well and healthy and happy.
PPS: Dad, the story I was given for the meaning behind "Abwooli" is that it is a nickname for a young person, or young looking person, or young boy. Though, your definition as a young person being seperated from his/her money is also very accurate in my case!

Back in Kenya!!

Dear all!
Two days of travelling later and we have finally made it back to an ICIPE site in Mbita, Kenya. We drove for two days in intense heat. We spent some time visiting first a Millenium Village and the next day a Millenium City in Kisumu district. These projects are involved in the implication of the MDGs (Millenium Development Goals). These places stirred up alot of mixed feelings and quite the contraversy between those who support bringing developing countries up to par, and those who resent the "westernized swoop" and experiments with groups of people. I have written extensively about these visitations and my feelings about what we saw and learned and I'll talk more about them when I get home.
Having driven for hours across fairly arid and very very windy and questionable roads, we came suddenly to a port on the edge of Lake Victoria. The shore was littered with beautifully painted fishing boats, daws, with a single sail. Absolutely stunning, a photographers dream.
We somehow got onto this sketchy looking ferry. What an exercise that was! The program produced BRIGHT ORANGE lifejackets and insisted we wear them. As if we werent already getting enough attention. So onto this flatbed ferry we loaded two HUGE trucks (one of ours, another a frieght truck) and several cars, when it had looked like the ferry was only big enough for one truck only. Oh Africa! We crammed onto the boat in between all the cars.
What a beautiful ferry ride, from one peninsula to another, it took around an hour, maybe more. The wind and the view was stunning.
Mbita is right on the shore of Lake Victoria, and the ICIPE site we are staying in is right on the water. We have started our Health Module with our docotor, Dr John Geddes. Its been a very interesting morning discussing HIV/AIDS prevelence in Africa and specifically Kenya.
There is a long line up for this very very slow internet access so I will leave this short and try to write again later. We leave for Masaii Mara on Sunday morning, another long drive, and then we gradually make our way back to Nairobi for the beginning of March. Our trip may have its first case of malaria, but we are hoping its just a fever. I'm healthy and well and happy.
I hope this finds everyone well.
Lots of love
Marion xoxoxox

Oliota from Jinja!!

Hello all!!
WOW I can't think of where to begin. We spent a GLORIOUS week in Kibale NP near Fort Portal... I love it there. Baboons and colobus monkeys every where, days spent in the jungle collecting data about water temp, O2 levels, swamp invertebrate species, idenifying butterflies. There is so much life there. The field guides are an absolute wealth of knowledge. Emanuel and Peter stuck with Lauren Chapman's group-our "ecoteam" in conservation ecology. I have so much to tell about this wonderful place, and so many pictures. They fed us very very well, and the bunk bed dorms were wonderful. Too cold for mozzies, and glorious rainstorms every day, following a hot morning.
We next moved to Lake Nabugabo, a satellite lake of Lake Victoria, seperated from Victoria 5000 years ago by a sand bar. The campsite there was something from heaven: right on the lake, with a wonderful cool breeze. We stayed at one of only 3 places on that lake, as most of its perimeter is protected wetlands, where the ecoteam spent their days. Lauren took us to set and collect traps for cichlid fish, as well as the regular water quality checks, and also to do a spectoscopy test on the water, which we found to be in the 500-600 nm wavelength... explains the hybridization of cichlid fish species in the wetlands b/c they cannot follow proper sexual selection and species selection when mating.
It was hard to leave both of these places, and they 7 hr bus ride to Jinja today was long and hot. We will be here in Jinja, staying at a very nice hotel ( WITH HOT SHOWERS!!!) for about 3 days. Then, back to Kenya and to Mbita.
Not sure when I will have internet next, and I'm currently paying for internet at a cafe (500 shilling for 20 mins... 1800 shilling/1US)
Africa is beautiful. The sky is huge and I am collecting photos of clous, sun sets and too many sun rises to be comfortable with. I haven't got a single mozzie bite, and I'm not sunburnt but working on a healthy tan. I remain one of maybe 5 people (out of 40) who havent had any stomach or gastro problems. So, its a great success story on my behalf.
I'll write again as soon as I can

Mom: Please would you send the link for my blog to Marty and Darren from Belize? I forgot to invite them I would really like them to be able to read this!
The Quad+ Nunnie: been thinking of you alot while I've been here... I'll be home at the end of April unless soemthing big keeps me here and I'm excited to see you!
My McGill Mates: hope the snow is stopping and the temp is coming up now that it is February! I have a final exam on Sunday so dont hate me from over there... I feel your midterm sorrows!!

Lots of love
Abwooli (Marion)

Off to the Boonies!

Well its 5am... we are just about loaded up on the trucks and I'm going to rush off for breakfast. We are heading to the airport for a flight to Kampala, Uganda. From there we will take a 7hr drive along reputably bad roads to Kibale National Park, where we will stay for 9 days. The Chapmans have a research centre there and we will start our first real field courses.
The next time we will have internet access is in Jinja, 2 weeks from now.
So this is goodbye for now!
xoxoxo
Marion

A day on water and sanitation

Just a brief note to let you all know that I have survive another information-loaded day in East Africa. Today's activities revolved around the themes of water coverage, waste management and sanitation in the city of Nairobi. This meant visits to the Univeristy of Nairobi to hear from an organisation called Majina Ufanisi. This group is all about water and developement, especially in the poor communities of rural and urban areas of Nairobi. Their approach to solving these issues are very interesting and involve placing the communities in a position of partners, as opposing to simply receivers, and transferring responsibility for the building and maintenance of facilities such as latrines and santiation points within their community. Within the training of the people that this involves lies an opportunity for gender equity and empowerment, meaning that women who are trained in the same skills as men receive the same pay as these men, something that is not traditional nor common in these cultures and communities.
We were also entertained by the CEO of Athi Water Services Board- the company that provides water coverage and waste management services for the Nairobi city region. He presented us with many maps of treatment plant locations and pipelines that transport water 40 to 60km from its source to Nairobi. The gist of his story is that Nairobi, and Kenya as a whole, is 10 years behind in terms of water coverage. With an economic growth rate of around 4.6%, but a population growth rate closer to 10%, Nairobi's water coverage is a mere 40%, excluding the slums areas. To this company, it is not even practical to install a water system to slum areas due to so called historical reasons. Out of the 40% of water that goes unaccounted for, 10% is stolen and 30% is lost through leakages. It speaks that the company was much more interested in gaining the income from this 10% stolen water (which is being taken from illegal taps in the slum areas) as opposed to the other 30% which is lost due to poor maintenance of pipelines in the city.
Our day wrapped up with a talk with the Nairobi city council... an interesting insight into the actions of the council and how they make important decisions. The most pressing project currently under way is a river clean up as well as the developement of a recycling station to reduce the amount of waste in the landfills. 2,400 tonnes of waste are generated by the city per day, and of that, 53% is organic waste, 17% paper and 12% plastic. Currently, "scavengers" live in the dump sites, collecting and sorting the garbage and selling what they find to companies that recycle the materials. A composting program is being developed, and a recycling centre is being built. I asked what would happen to the scavengers who depend on the unsorted garbage for income and the city implied that there would be employment options for these people at the recycling location... would be interesting to see how that turns out

Anyways, my friends, it is late here and its finally friday night, with a prospect of a much needed sleep in tomorrow so I'll turn in now
Hope all is smooth sailing at home
lots of love
Marion

some pictures to relieve your thirst?

hello all
not much time to write today, but i'm going to try to post a few pics of the past few days.
today we had some lectures from some men who work at ICIPE to hear about their studies on malaria and also introducing training for beekeeping and silk moths for rural farmers to help decrease the number of trees cut down
we also went to the Canadian high commission in kenya to hear from a man from CIDA and a political- economic officer. very interesting. the high commission is amazing... tax dollars at work to support a tennis court, two pools and gorgeous grounds. but nowhere near as ridiculous, ugly and unnnecessary as the USA embassy near the UN site.... ridiculous.
It's Laura's 21st birthday, though, so I will post these quickly and then rejoin the group for beers, Uno, and journal writing.
lots of love to all
xoxoxo

B&H- sorry i didnt say hi earlier! thanks for following my blog, hope all is well at home!!





one of the crazy matatus that are driven here as a means of large taxis... they are all totally bling-ed up with celebrity posters stuck on them and hilarious gangster things written on them. this one is my favourite so far







Some children who live in the Kibera slums. Most of them only know how to say "how are you?" in english, and all really want their pictures taken so they can see themselves in the digital screen. real heartbreakers.












The Kibera slums. This picture doesn't nearly capture the whole of it. I have more that show more of the place and the amazing community. But this is a pretty good representation of the amount of garbage there is (flying toilets) and the corregated tin houses that fuction as homes and/or stores for millions of people.

A Day Of Contrast

This morning we got in our huge trucks and made our way past beautiful and impressive embassies towards the UN headquarters in Nairobi-- the second largest headquarters in the world after that in Washinton. We were given several lecture presentations regarding the land use and city planning in Kenya and other parts of urbanizing africa, and the use and distribution of water to the rural areas and also about the levels of safety vs crime in the major cities of Africa and the world. The statistics were staggering, and it was also good to have a presentor that recognised that many stats we (and even the important contributors to this part of the world) are presented with are very biased, incorrect and poorly measured. He showed us the different levels and factors that are considered in his projects regarding water coverage and it was a relief to see that at least someone was aware of poor statistics, even if the ones he presented may have also been inaccurate for our benefit. All the presentors were from the UN-Habitat project and it was all very interesting. In 2008, a partnership between the worlds universities and UN-habitat was begun, and McGill is one of 25 universities world wide to be a partner.
A tour of the grounds soured our opinion of the UN. Outrageous use of water, and land seemed disgusting after our talks about intense population denisities (200 all the way to 90,000 persons per square km in Nairobi, for example) and lack of water for the people of this country. While it is understandable that places like this are needed to attract the trained and experience people who work for the UN, as well as for diplomatic reasons, we all felt strongly that the grounds were incomprehensibly affluent against the backdrop of its setting.
Lunch in the UN- subsidized cafeteria and then back into the trucks to head for the much-anticipated Kibera slums-- the largest slum in Africa. UN-habitat has been very active in building some low income housing and important sanitation/hygiene stations to replace the abundant "flying toilet" problem in Kibera, where 65% of Nairobi's population lives on less than 10% of the land. The place was stunning--- corregated tin roofs stretching from horizon to horizon, with the train track running through the centre. 3ftx3ft shacks are home to large families, some times 2, and they sleep and work in shifts. While the UN protrayed the slums as a dormatory living place (a place where people came only to sleep while they were not working in the city) the place was very much a city in itself, and was teeming with children, adults, stores, pharmacies, hair salons, shoe makers... it was ultimately self contained. There is no way for me to describe fully this place, so you will have to wait for me to come home and tell you about it. There are the good, impressive and inspiring sides, and also the extremely depressing and appalling sides to the place and I could talk forever about what I saw and learned from the Kibera-community committee members who showed us around and introduced us to the very proactive youth group that is growing in the slums, which are actually made up of 12 villages and several different tribes.

At this moment, that is enough. We all need some time to internalize today's places and information. But all is well here and things are running smoothly.
Mum- yes I did know about the location of Nairobi... we are 140km south of the equator, in fact!
Rissa- thanks for your email, it was great to hear from you! Glad you are enjoying the snow as much as possible. Its hard to remember that things are still happening at home in Montreal while I'm here so its great to hear about things!!
Nick- hope the soccer is going well, give my wishes to Eric and say hi to the fam in Toronto for me. I'll ask Laura about what Adam's mum did with CIDA... Adam's family still lives in Rwanda, and Laura intends to go there for a bit after the trip ends and has asked if I would be interested in going with her and staying with the family. Will see out things pan out.
Alix- miss you too! hope you and Dan are holding the fort without me and you have met Jordan by now!

lots of love to all
Marion xoxo

JAMBO!

Hello all!
Just a quick note in the morning before breakfast, taking advantage of the internet provided at ICIPE. Yesterday we drove through Nairobi, past the Mathare slums and through the metropolis centre, and out the other side to Nairobi National Park. Considering the jetleg, our profs had kindly granted us a day for easy discovery, and we set out on a driving safari through the park. We saw much much more game than expected: buffalo, ostriches, girraffes :)!!, zebras, hartebeast, eland, huge black kites, white backed vultures, common spotted eagles, and the ubiquitous LBJs. I'm sure I'll be reeling off all the bird names by the end of the 2nd module since I'll be taking Ornithology.
Associated with the park is the Nairobi Safari Walk: sort of like a zoo but no where near as well- developed as the Belize National Zoo. It had cost 140 million shilling (around 2 million US) to build and houses mostly animals that are indigenous to Kenya, with the exception of the white rhino and the pygmy hippo, which are native to south africa. Walking around with our guide, we saw both of the above, ostriches, hyena, black and white colobus monkeys, white zebra (albino, with brown stripes instead of black), hammerkop birds, saik (blue) monkeys, hadada ibis, a bongo, a unicorned oryx, and a sick and whithered looking cheetah. As well, 3 spectacular and huge black-and-white-casque hornbills (in the wild, from a boardwalk). There were also lions in the safari captivity, but we didnt see them. Hopefully in the Masaii Mara...
For Dad: I was on the look out for and was rewarded with several signs you would find amusing: "Kenya Flying School: for those who defy gravity safely", "drive it like you stole it" (on the back of one of the many hilarious matatas), "warthogs and children have right of way"... there are many and I'll keep recording them.
It was a hot day but the trucks that drive us around are open air, with massive open sides
that put all us white people on display. But its a much better way of getting around than being inside AC-ed busses.
Today, we will hit the town, heading over to the Nairobi University to have a few lectures, and walk around the city with Kenyan students in the Geography program. It will allow us to approach the city on foot, exchange some money, pick up books and extra supplies and check out the places the students here hang out. It will also be a big day here in Nairobi as the inaugoration of President Obama, a Kenyan, has been all the talk in this city. It will be interesting to watch the dynamics and ask about the event in town. In 5 days or so, we leave for Kibale National Park and will not return to Nairobi for a month.

I hope all at home and school is well! This may be the most extensive blog I can afford, but I will do my best!
Lots of love and wishes to all.
xoxox
PS: Mum, I'm wearing my money belt and I remembered to take my Larium! I think of you when I see the umbrella trees.
PPS: Glen: I forgot to wish you luck in the last term of grade 12!! You dont need luck, but I can't wait to see you graduate!!

In Nairobi!!

Successful arrival at ICIPE in Nairobi... huge converted army trucks picked us up from the airport after we collected all of our boxes of clothes and books and only had one broken-in bag for the whole group!
5.5 hr flight to Amsterdam, 8 hr flight to Nairobi... KLM is great and looked after us well

ICIPE is great... staying in dorms in 2 person rooms
Looking forward to exploring Nairobi tomorrow morning in the daylight

Lots of love from AFFRRRIIICAAAA
xoxoxo

With 2 Days left

Hi Everyone!
This is a bit of a test to see if this will get to all of you. I have 2 days until departure and I think this might be a cool way to keep in touch with you while I'm away! Check here for updates!!