Jambo from Tanzania! And Happy Easter!
It was very odd experiencing a major holiday here in Africa. There were no mountains of cheap candy inside grocery stores, no people in bunny costumes standing on street corners, and no ritual purchasing of egg dying kits even though you know you’re too old for that activity and are too embarrassed to admit that you have no idea how to hard boil an egg. Some things remained the same with most people going to church and everyone dressed in their best for the ‘lord’s day’. And of course, here at Haven Nature we had our own version of an Easter egg hunt. Our ecology professor is Janette Wallis, an aging woman with no children and a life centered around scientific research and teaching. She has a very impressive academic resume, including spending an extensive amount of time working with Jane Goodall (The very famous primate lady). Needless to say, she’s the cat lady of primates (and has quite a few cats back in the states, which is appropriate) and lives for the little things few appreciate in social interactions; like watching her students run around like competition crazed psychopaths for Easter. She designed an Easter egg hunt where we found zip ties, instead of eggs, and were given coordinates with our task to find all 7 using a GPS location devise. Side tasks included finding the center of the camp and counting the suckling plants present, observing and identifying a local bird, and locating an invasive flower to Tanzania. It was incredible amounts of fun, with lots of running through underbrush and standing on what you thought was the exact coordinates and finding the zip tie about 10 feet from that area. My team was doomed from the beginning when one of our not-so-bright teammates chose green for our zip-tie color, but no one was tempted to jump off a bridge because we lost. The winning team was treated to hamburgers at the local swanky bar as a treat from Dr. Wallis. (I prefer pizza, so I shed no tears over loosing).
Speaking of the bar, its called Happy Days. It’s completely different then our very own ‘Club Kimana’ back in Kenya. In Kenya we drank cold beers in plastic chairs under a hand-made and hand-painted wood hut. Here in Tanzania someone built Happy Days, a swanky bar with country flags, rugby flags, a big screen TV, art, wooden benches under a beautiful porch, and a rather large liquor and beer selection. Last week we had a battle of the bands, which had trouble getting off the ground but turned out to be hysterically fantastic as most things are with this group. The boys played The Flight of the Condors, Cara (my enchanting roommate) and Christine played a few covers and some marvelous originals, Kate and Katie did an entire Monty Python skit, and Lia (no longer my roommate) finished up with a truly outstanding rap about everyone in our cohort using the background music of “Empire State of Mind”.
The most exciting new of the week is that I was able to earn a position on the wildlife ecology Olive baboon directed research team with Dr. Wallis! Yesterday, I turned in my scientific proposal for my future paper and today we had our first official scientific research day!
My research question is:
Is there a significant difference in frequency of Olive baboon vocalizations between baboon troops residing in the forests of Lake Manyara National Park and those residing in forests neighboring human villages? If there is a significant difference in vocalization frequency between locations, are the differences pronounced in a particular age, sex, or behavior?
Basically, all day I get to use a fancy shot-gun microphone to record and document the vocalization of baboons. I won’t go into too much detail about the types of vocalizations and the study design, because I’ll include my actual proposal in this post. I got fried today. If I didn’t have a shirt tan yet, then I defiantly have one after today, and I went ahead and made sure I added a watch tan to that mix also. I’ll make sure to drink plenty of water tomorrow to avoid the unbelievably painful headache that I currently have. We saw some interesting behavior, including a juvenile male baboon that had apparently injured both arms and was walking bipedally down the road. While watching baboons in the villages people kept asking if we were lost, over and over and over again. Apparently we look like child muzungus and not powerful scientists who are helping to save the world.
Miss EVERYONE!
Xo- Chelsea
Hey Chel,
It sounds like you have a decent balance between hard work and hard play. Very nice indeed. Calli Rose is heading to Barcalona for her Junior summer adventure/ emersion spanish language trip on 7/5/10 and is taking honors physics (OMG) in summer school prior to that. We are tentativly scheduled to go the beach in SC the last week in June to see the Parise side of your clan and 7/12 to Sandy Point for the Grennier side. Going to be a fun summer. Talked to Grandpa today who blasted me for calling Phil Mickelson a “big stiff” all the years. He just won the Masters for the third time which puts him in very selective company. So, grandpa does have a point. He is doing well and looking forward to the summer trip.
Love and miss you, Dad
Hello my firstborn. Just wanted to say goodnight. You will have to teach me how to say that in Swahili. Everything is going well here in the Valley of the Sun! Not quite as exciting as in Tanzania but still good. How exciting that you were able to secure the baboon research position. It sounds as if you worked hard for that. Your proposal was very interesting. We are anxious to hear how that goes…and to see ALL your pictures. It has been so much fun reading this blog. Enjoy the trip down the Nile and London. Remember spa day with your American mommy when you return. Love you so much. Mom