Mambo. Tanzania is beautiful, as always. We’re slowly moving into more of a ‘winter’/long rain season. That all sounds much more dramatic than it actually is. Usually it’s cloudy and chilly in the early morning, pleasantly warm during the day, and if you stay up late enough – surprisingly bitter cold. Every once in a while there are showers and sometimes it downpours, but there are no major complaints from me.
Papers are due today.
My topic morphed into a nicely written 15 page research paper with significant findings. Yesterday I presented my material in a professional styled mock-presentation to my professor. I’m happy to say that the words she used to describe me were “unbelievably professional and well spoken”. Nothing to brag about, since she immediately told me that before the presentation she didn’t think I had any type of speaking skill and that I should start speaking that way in my daily life.
My professor is a crass middle to late aged woman who has spent a significant amount of her life doing research in Africa. She lacks basic social skills and tends to remind everyone of a bit of a crazy cat lady. I was slightly worried about working with her in the beginning but found her ‘rough-around-the-edges’ personality surprisingly charming. I never would have thought that she would have grown so attached to us. Within the first couple of days of research she was beginning to apologies the instant after she had verbally lashed out at one of us. Within the week she was calling us ‘team papio’ (after the baboon’s scientific name) and bragging about how we had the most interesting research proposal. At this point she is layering the praise onto each one of us, saying that she never thought that we would be able to do so much valid science in such a short time and that we have impressed her more than she ever thought we could. Today she took us out to lunch at a beautiful café and treated us all to a delicious lunch. I am really glad that we could make this project fun for her, as overall she was very tolerant of our naivety and a really great mentor.
There were only a few meltdowns on other DR groups. One girl found that her information just did not meet her hypothesis topic and had to find another issue to work with. This was really not a very big deal, but we were all freaked out and very edgy the first couple days because we had been told that DR was impossible. Another boy’s computer crashed the other day, and he had to pay $50 and the computer man had to slave over his hard drive to get it to work again. Those were the biggest upsets, and they were minor.
As we dealt with 7 days of concentrated work we got a little bit stir crazy. One particular thing we found humorous was the continuation and elaboration of an idea that was introduced on April Fool’s day. On April 1st Clinton “proposed” to Amanda and the “engagement” has been a topic of conversation ever since. Somehow it was decided that we should have a wedding, and once that was suggested, plans had to be concreted with the intentions of making it as ridiculous as possible.
Today was the big day and it was so much fun! We had the mock wedding down by a beautiful overlook and everyone got to play their own ‘role’. I was crazy ex-girlfriend, Professor Wallis was Clinton’s mother, Ryan was Amanda’s father, Kate was bridesmaid, Hass was best man, Lia was flower girl while Ian was the ring bearer, Max was the priest, and Jiyong was photographer. Even the local stray, Chelsea Cat, showed up and enjoyed the proceedings. Max read out absolutely hilarious vows, Clinton stole a kiss from Amanda, and I got to make an incredible outburst of objection. It was an excellent way to spend time together and relieve the stress from DR.
Of course every wedding has a reception and we rented out the local bar to down bottles of Champaign and eat fantastic food. It really was such a blast. It was our last time to drink together and spend quality time before we leave. We only have 4 days left here and in that small amount of time we have to fit in community presentations, driving to the Nairobi camp, and finally leaving.
Everyone’s trying to keep their emotions under control but it’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster as we leave people who will be our friends for the rest of our lives. About 11 of the 23 are going to be spending a few more days together when we go to Uganda to white water raft. Then Clinton, Kate, and I are spending 2 days in Nairobi before I fly to London to spend 3 days with Katherine. It is going to be so much fun and I will do my best to keep everyone updated!
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