6 days

only 6 days left with SFS. I can't believe how quickly the program went! It's pretty sad- I can remember the first day that we all met each other and how awkward everyone was.

but with 6 days left in the program, that means only 6 days till we head down to Moshi Town to start climbing Kilimanjaro!! So the plans to climb are finalizing-- sample of our schedule so far:


May 5th: leave Kilimanjaro Bush Camp and head to NPS, the site that we spent our first night in Africa- how appropriate.

May 6th: leave SFS, say goodbye to the non-climbers, and head into Nairobi to catch a 13 hour shuttle to Moshi Town, Tanzania.

May 7th: Rest day, gathering rental equipment, meeting the guides, and preparing for the climb!!

May 8th-May 14th: Conquering Kilimanjaro.

May 14th: Spend a night in Moshi, celebrate our victory.

May 15th: Leave for Nairobi, bright and early.

May 16th: Catch a morning flight to London! Spend a night in a real city for the first time in 4 months!!! ++ indian food.

May 17th: Wake up early for a flight back to Los Angeles!


I'm getting really anxious to come home, but I still have a lot in front of me before that happens.

So I haven't updated on what's been going on recently, so very briefly since I have to finish up my research paper:

We had a Christmas Celebration that was a hit. We had a secret santa gift exchange and everything! I"m definitely going to miss how everyone likes to participate in all of these spontaneous events.
For the gift exchange I had Sarah- since she loves elephants so much I got her a little elephant collage made out of banana leaves. I also made her one of those people paper chains but of elephants (yes I know how to make people paper chains- product of being bored and having nothing to do in Africa).

Hannah had me for secret santa and gave me a gift that was great because of its simplicity. Before dinner she had Molly come in and give me a flower arrangement that was very impressive and well arranged for the flowers that grow around camp (more like weeds). For the gift exchange she made me a puzzle box within a puzzle box, that was filled with pressed flowers that she picked up throughout our time in Kenya! Very creative and thoughtful gift!

Some other cool gifts that people got were handmade 'elementary science fair' volcanoes, hand stitched stuffed animals (a cool bird and a wildebeest), a personal letter from Lady Gaga, candy, and dishwashing services.


And right now, we're in the middle fo the Cook Crew Cook-Off 2010!!! Which is getting very intense.

So to fill you in, when we got to Africa we were put into groups of 6 groups of 5 and each group is named after a tribe found in Tanzania and Kenya. Everyday one of these cook crews has to wake up an hour before breakfast, and make the breakfast with the kitchen staff. And after dinner of the same day, they have to clean the pots, pans, and serving dishes used to prepare the meal.

A few people came up with the great idea of having a breakfast cook-off. Judging is based on 5 criteria: Quality, quantity (not too much or too little), creativity, presentation, and logistics (timeliness, dryness of plates, etc. ) Everyone votes on teh chalkboard, and the scores are averaged and totaled. So far the scores are:

Iraqw: 39.09
Sonjo: 38.80
Mang'ati: 45.55
Hazabe (MY CREW!!)
Maasai
Chagga


Tomorrow morning is our cook crew's turn!! I'm super excited, we've come up with a great idea. We're planning on a Harry Potter themed breakfast, hopefully no one here reads my blog so it'll be a surprise.

We're going to have a hat with the names of the different houses (Hufflepuff, Griffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw). People will pick from the hat and sit at their respective table, which will hopefully be decorated to match the house. We're going to change up the food serving by putting family style dishes on each table, and when the food runs low there will be a magic wand at each table that people will wave along with a magic spell (our cue to go and refill their dishes). We're trying to incorporate some kind of house point system so it's more interactive, but haven't come up with an idea yet..

hopefully it'll be great and we'll win the cook-off!! or at elast get 100% for creativity, presentation, and logistics.


And about Directed Research-- today is the last day!!! Everyone's getting pretty tired of DR and are ready for it to finally be over! I'm finishing up some editing and I'll be done soon, hopefully.
My research topic is on the current roles of tourism in the Amboseli Ecosystem and the effectiveness in meeting the expectations of the local people. My findings are that the people aren't benefiting as much as they would like to, or should. And that there needs to be changes to dissolve the barriers that prevent the local community from participating in and benefiting from tourism (financial barriers, education/skills barriers, and accessibility to the market. and how financial leakages and the limited tourism market are issues that need to be addressed. It's pretty straight forward, and a lot less focused on innovation then I planned- but this is because we couldn't collect the data that we wanted. but whatver we'll be done in a few hours!!!


Sadly tomorrow is our last non-program day. We're heading over to Mada Lodge, the lodge that Sateesh and I went to to collect data for our research! I'm not sure if I'll get the buffet, but I'm for sure going swimming. That pool is too cool to pass up.

I'll hopefully post a few more posts before I head home, but don't know what the situation will be like for the next few days.

CAN'T WAIT FOR AMERICA!