writing papers

the work load is starting to build up! and classes are starting to look a lot better. the teachers are starting to organize their lectures and reading so everything's starting to fall into place.

our first assignment so far: come up a research topic and create a research proposal.

this research topic is based on our second trip to lake manyara. while we were there we took notes on any animal behavior that we observed in giraffe, elephant, warthog, or zebra. we came up with our research question and hypothesis depending on what we observed and found the most interesting. I was going to write about elephants because I thought they were the most active and compelling animals that we saw in the park, but so did everyone else. sooo I decided to research giraffe, even though they were extremely boring and inactive.

I kind of used this to my advantage by discussing the effects of tourism on wild giraffe. I figured all wild giraffe can't be THAT boring.. and that there must be a reason that they just stand around and stare at tourists that drive by.

it's starting to come together on paper.. but very slowly. it's just such a boring topic to be researching that I have no motivation.



our second assignment is a lot more interesting. before our trip to the maasai manyatta we were given the assignment of writing about the effects of tourism on maasai sociocultural and economic values. this'll be a much more interesting paper to write. I got a lot of information from the interview with Esther, the maasai woman we questioned, so it'll be a pretty easy paper to write.


besides the work load things are going great in tanzania! today, after lunch, we went to a local lutheran church for some community service. we paired up with a secondary school student (us high school equivalent) to plant trees with. Sateeth, a student in sfs, and I paired with a 4th year student named Alphan.. I think.. it was kind of hard to understand what he said his name was.

we dug 4 holes and planted 4 tree saplings. it was a lot of fun and my first time tree planting!

the church we planted the trees for was a tiny little church in a small town 5 minutes from camp. it was decorated with white and purple drapery with random plants everywhere. there was also this cool guy in the corner that played an electric keyboard while the secondary students sang and danced.

when we got back from the church, the highly anticipated group of students finally arrived to camp. (we were told a few days ago that a group of 30 something students were coming to stay at the campsite for a night.) they ended up being from england.
we played a few games of volleyball with them, we won the first lost the second. but probably would've beat them twice if we had played to 25 the second game.



tomorrow we're going to another village! we're gunna do some PRA (participatory rural appraisal) research. I'm still not entirely sure what that means. something along the lines of doing community projects while working directly with the community and their needs. it'll be fun to do more interviewing and research.

and sunday is finally our day off!! which we only get once a week..

I think we're going on a morning hike and then heading back to happy days!!! woooo

missin everyone! hope life is good in the usa