Seven Months of Adventure

The Lizard Project

2008-12-30T02:44:00.006+03:00

Our second week at Palo Verde was independent projects, take two. This time, I worked with Becca, who is a junior at Bowdoin College in Maine. After researching and planning for a few days, we decided to study the use of color vision in the recognition of fruit ripeness by Ctenosaura similis. Ctenosaurs are a species of iguana that are abundant at Palo Verde. It has been shown that they use both color vision and scent in making foraging decisions, but the importance and interaction of these senses in recognizing fruit ripeness was unstudied.

Questions

Our initial questions were:
I: Does Ctenosaura similis use color vision to differentiate fruits based on ripeness?
II: When equal “I’m yummy” olfactory cues are present, does C. similis differentiate between ripe and non-ripe colors?
III: When color cues contradict olfactory cues, does color preference prevail?

Thus, the final paragraph of my final paper's introduction was as follows:

In this study, (1) we examine the ability of Ctenosaura similis to differentiate between ripe and unripe fruits using color vision. Here, we predict that C. similis will show preference for ripe-colored fruits in the absence of olfactory cues. (2) We then assess whether C. similis differentiates between ripe and unripe fruit colors in the presence of equally attractive olfactory cues. By comparing preferences shown in (1) and (2), we determine whether the role of color vision changes when chemosensory cues are available. Finally, (3) we examine the relationship between color cues and scent in the foraging decisions of C. similis, with the goal of assessing the relative importance of each cue and by what factors is it influenced.

Methods

To examine the first question, (I) we made fruit models by covering pebbles with colored plasticine (nontoxic clay). Sets of three ripe-colored and three green fruit models were placed in areas frequented by ctenosaurs, and the number of bites on each color was recorded after approximately eight hours.

(II) In the second phase, we presented ctenosaurs with a choice between a ripe-colored and green banana slice (dyed with food coloring) and recorded which banana was eaten first.

(III) In the third phase, we presented ctenosaurs with a choice between a red fruit model and green banana and scored which was (a) approached first and (b) bitten first.

Data collection for our project was fun, hilarious, and very successful (unlike my last project!). Setting out the plasticine fruits took forever, but we got a lot better at knowing where to put the fruits so as to get the most data. Collecting the banana data was highly entertaining - we would first find a ctenosaur, then sneak toward it and set a piece of cardboard with fruits on it as close as possible without the ctenosaur running away. We would then wait and watch from a far-away vantage point and record what the iguana did. Repeat, repeat, repeat. We often named our test subjects after the place where we found them - for instance, we had dock lizard, log lizard, dining hall lizard, gift shop lizard, library lizard, field lizard, and about twenty woodshed lizards. Data collection continued for five days, and on the sixth began data analysis, presentation-making, and paper-writing.

Results & Conclusions

Our results actually turned out to be really interesting and pretty cool.

(I) In the first phase, ctenosaurs strongly preferred red, yellow, and orange over green, but showed no preference for light green over dark green. None of our seventeen brown vs. green fruit model setups received bites. From this we concluded that lizards do, indeed, use color vision to forage selectively on ripe fruits.

(II) In the first phase, lizards strongly preferred red, yellow, orange, and brown dyed bananas over green, but showed no preference for light green over dark green. From this we concluded that because brown is a common color in the forest (rocks, dirt, feces, etc.), brown is not recognized as a ripe color unless coupled with positive olfactory cues. (We nicknamed this the "Don't Eat Poop" theory.) We also concluded that light green probably represents an unripe or ripening fruit, and thus an unprofitable or only marginally profitable food item.

(III) In the third phase, no difference was observed in whether the red clay fruit model or green banana was approached first, but lizards consistently ate the green banana before biting the red clay. We thus concluded that from a distance, olfactory cues and color vision interact to determine fruit ripeness, but that olfactory cues prevail at close range.

Palo Verde

2008-12-10T01:46:00.006+03:00

Our last field station was Palo Verde, in northwestern Costa Rica. We stayed there for three weeks, an hour's drive from civilization (most of us never left the station). The OTS-owned station is in Palo Verde National Park, and is located next to a large marsh. Palo Verde is a tropical dry forest, and we arrived about four days before the dry season started. Although hot, the weather was nice and it pretty much didn't rain after the rainy season officially ended. The first week consisted of lectures, faculty-led projects, and planning for our second independent projects, which took place during the second week (more to come on that in another post). The third week was presenting and writing up our IP's, studying for final exams, taking final exams, and finishing up loose-end assignments.

One of the highlights of our stay at Palo Verde ended up being Thanksgiving, which we all expected to be completely depressing. We had been told that nothing special would happen for Thanksgiving, since it isn't celebrated in Costa Rica. It fell during IP week, so we spent the day collecting data as planned. We had been banned from the dining hall for the day as it was being fumigated (or so we thought). Turns out the whole thing was a cover-up for an absolutely delicious turkey dinner, complete with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and the like. On a day when a lot of us were sad not to be with our families, it was exactly what we needed.

To escape all the academic craziness, a few friends and I made it a habit to play soccer before dinner every day with a few guys at the station. Although I'm absolutely terrible at soccer, it became something I looked forward to every day. Our Tico friends were also pretty amused at our attempts to yell soccer-related things in Spanish. The only downside was that the absolute worst time for mosquitoes at Palo Verde is at about 5:30, and despite my constant self-dousings with DEET, my legs were completely mutilated by the end of our stay. Oh well - it was worth it.

A few of my favorite memories from Palo Verde involve the various creatures that inhabit the area around our bunk rooms. There are men's and women's bathrooms at the station, which are next to each other. The wall between them doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling - as in, there's a space between the top of the wall and the ceiling. One night, a few girls and I were in the bathroom brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed. Suddenly, we hear one of the guys in the other bathroom telling us to back up away from the wall. "Why?!" we asked. The reply was something like, "Just do it!" (so we did) and suddenly a scorpion flew over the wall and into our bathroom. After the obligatory screaming and laughing, Becca carefully picked up the scorpion with a paper towel and attempted to throw it back over the wall. Paper towels, however, are not at all aerodynamic and the scorpion instead slammed into the wall. Attempt two, and repeat. That was the end of the scorpion, but the event has become one of our favorite jungle stories.

Another hilarious occurence occurred during the last week, right in the middle of IP and finals stress. Two of my roommates (Claire and Becca) and I were sleeping peacefully when suddenly we were awakened by our third roommate (Courtney) whispering in a very panicked voice. It was about 1:00 AM, so it took me a minute to become conscious, but when I did I realized that Courtney was informing us all that there was a rat in our room. Sure enough, we turned on our headlamps and saw a rat (probably about five inches in length without the tail) digging around in some ziploc bags in the middle of the room. Upon being spotted, it quickly ran and hid under Courtney's bed. I was exhausted, and thus decided to just go back to sleep, but it quickly became obvious that Courtney was not about to let us all sleep when there was a rat living under her bed. Thus, Plan B: I put on my shoes and ran out to the classroom to get one of the insect-catching nets. Back in the room, I crouched down and the floor and somehow (miraculously) managed to swipe the rat into the net on my first try. Laughing hysterically (although trying not to wake everyone), we put the rat outside, thinking that was the end of that.

Wrong. The next night, I was again awaked by Courtney's frantically whispering voice. This time, though, she was saying, "Hilary! Hilary!" When I woke up, she informed me not only had ANOTHER rat found its way into our room, but this time it had climbed into my bed. This, of course, set me flipping my sheets everywhere thinking the rat was going to come flying into my face at any second. Neither of us knows where this second rat went, but it didn't seem to actually be in my bed although Courtney had watched it crawl up towards me. The general consensus is that the rat (thankfully) never actually made it inside my mosquito net. I always knew that thing protected me from things besides mosquitoes; I just never knew from exactly what until then.

Luckily, the next night was our last, and we spent most of it in the classroom revising our papers - thus, no more rat incidents. Good times.

^My, Courtney's, Claire's, and Becca's room at Palo Verde. My bunk, into which the rat climbed on our second-to-last night, is on the bottom right.

^Cows and birds in the Palo Verde marsh. Cows are grazed in the marsh to control invasive cattails.

^View of the sunset over the marsh from the soccer field.

^Tarantula we found during a faculty-led project.

^Measuring scorpions during a faculty-led project.

^White-faced monkey with a baby on its back.

^View from an overlook to which we hiked during the first week.

^Sunset over the marsh - Tim is in the birdwatching stand.

^A few of us decided to dress up for dinner one night, just to be ridiculous (and to make ourselves feel a little bit less disgusting)

After finishing our final exams at Palo Verde, we spent two days essentially vacationing at a touristy place called Buena Vista Lodge. This gave our professors time to grade our exams and us time to unwind from a pretty intense week. During one of our days there, a group of us took a bus to a nearby national park and hiked almost 7 miles round-trip to a waterfall. We spent a while swimming in the water beneath it, which I found absolutely freezing but of course was the only one who thought so.

^Swimming beneath the waterfall.

^We saw lots of cactus-like bromeliads on our hike to the waterfall.

^Hanging out with three of my favorites at Buena Vista Lodge. From the left: Becca, Jess, Courtney, and me.

Nicaragua... and FIRE

2008-11-25T03:41:00.007+03:00

Upon leaving Monteverde, we set off on a seven-hour bus ride for Nicaragua. We arrived, ate lunch, cleared Costa Rican customs, and loaded our backpacks and ourselves into a strange bus-like boat on the San Juan River. From there we traveled three hours downriver to the west, stopping at one point to clear Nicaraguan customs. We arrived at our station at Refugia Bartola around 7:30, unloaded the boat, and moved into our three-person rooms. Refugia Bartola was an interesting combination between a tourist lodge and a biological station. While the rooms were rustic and bare (bunk beds with mosquito nets), the dining and common area was a beautiful paved area with hammocks, a long rectangular table with a white tablecloth, and a high thatch roof. Unlike at the other stations, the meals at Refugia Bartola were served to us, complete with different courses! Temporarily, we felt like we were living in luxury.

^The boat that took us down the San Juan River to Refugia Bartola.

^View from the boatride.

^The dining and common area at Refugia Bartola.

We spent the day after our arrival doing the usual new-station business - learning about the area and going on orientation walks. We also began preparing for the two faculty-led projects that were supposed to take place that week, which involved catching fish in the river and wandering through the woods looking for bat tents under big leaves. After dinner, we caught bats and nets and examined them in the thatch-roof common area, which was really neat. The professor that was handling the bats got bitten at one point, and we've been teasing him ever since that he now has rabies. We went to bed that night tired and happy, but were rudely awakened in the middle of the night... I'm going to just paste the story of what happened that I e-mailed to a few of my friends.

^Cool tree in the forest near the lodge.

^One of the bats we netted and examined.

First, a quick description of the place where we were staying - the main part of the building was a wide, really tall circular open area with a thatch roof that served as the dining room, common area, etc. To this was attached the kitchen, and to the kitchen a row of eight small bunk rooms with 3-4 beds in each room - I was staying in room 7.

On Tuesday night my two roommates and I went to bed at 11:11 (I know this because it was 11/11 so we decided to stay up and make a wish). We woke up sometime after midnight to our professor yelling from outside and other loud noises - a fire had started in the kitchen and the huge thatch roof was completely consumed in flames that were probably three or four stories high. I ran out my door, looked to my right, and was (seriously) temporarily frozen with fear. I remember wondering how in the world the fire had gotten so huge before anyone woke up - it was terrifying. After a second I realized that some other students were standing outside their rooms looked dazed, so (in true form) I started yelling my head off... something like, "WAKE UP EVERYONE IN YOUR ROOM! GET YOUR PASSPORT, GET A LIGHT, PUT YOUR SHOES ON, AND GET OUUUUTTTT!" My classmates later joked that for once, my painfully loud voice had come in handy. We quickly made our way out of the building for fear that the gasoline in the kitchen would explode, but it turned out that had already happened while we were still sleeping. With the help of the guys at the station, we managed to get everyone's stuff out of their rooms, because the wind was blowing away from the bunk rooms and the fire was actually moving slowly. Amazingly, the guys at the station managed to put the fire out by tearing out the roof above the first bunk room and spraying it with a hose - in the end, the fire only reached the first bunk room. The only thing I lost was my watch, and my only injury was an absolutely huge and disgusting bruise on my leg- I probably ran into something in the initial panic, but I strangely have no recollection of doing so. We left Nicaragua the next morning the same way we had come and stayed in San Jose until the following Saturday, when we traveled to Palo Verde in the northwest of Costa Rica. Thinking back to the whole thing seems pretty surreal -none of us like to think of how bad things could have been if our professor hadn't heard the fire and woken up (there were, of course, no fire alarms). We were also extremely lucky that the wind was blowing away from our rooms - we were completely in the middle of nowhere and would have been in major trouble had the fire made its way into the adjoining forest.

^Nobody really got much in the way of pictures of the fire, but here's one Becca took- the flames you can see are rising high above the bunk rooms, which are between the camera and the fire.

^The dining area the morning after the fire.

^Sorting through all of our stuff the morning after the fire was a bit of a nightmare as everything had been thrown in a giant pile in the rush to get it out of the building, but obviously we were just grateful not to have lost all of it.

Thankfully, our professors gave us a lot of free time during our couple of days in San Jose, so we were all able to calm down and chill out a little bit. We're now staying at an OTS station in Palo Verde, but more on that to come later.

^Claire and I dying Tim's hair blue on one of our free nights in San Jose... good times.

Monteverde

2008-11-25T00:52:00.007+03:00

After midterm break ended, we returned to San Jose to pack for the most rustic two weeks of the semester. We would spend one week in the Monteverde cloud forest and one in Nicaragua, and because we had to hike in to the station in Monteverde, we had to pack all our belongings for the two weeks into one backpack. On the Monday after break ended, we set off for Monteverde. On the way, we stopped to visit one of the strangest ecosystems I have seen: mangroves. For a few hours, we hiked (trudged) in our rubber boots through the most disgusting-smelling, deep, and sticky mud I have ever seen. To make things worse, a common characteristic of mangrove tree species is pneumatophores, which are roots that grow up and out of the ground to get oxygen from the air. As we walked through these upward-pointing roots, they flung mud absolutely everywhere, with the end result that we left the mangrove completely drenched in mud that smelled like sewage. Of course, after this, we had to ride in the bus for a few more hours with a stop for lunch at a restaurant before we arrived in Monteverde. Ewwwww.

^Mangroves with pneumatophores... ewwwww.

After a terrifying (for me, anyway, as I am terrified of driving anywhere near cliffs) drive through the mountains to an altitude of 1200 m in north-central Costa Rica, we left our bus and hiked to the Monteverde station with our backpacks. The first half of the hike was on a road (impassable for the bus), and the other half was through the woods. It was steeply downhill the entire way, and after about an hour we arrived at San Geraldo station in El Bosque de los Niños. The station was rustic, with generator power for only about four hours each night and no hot water (and by this I mean FREEZING cold water to go along with the cold mountain temperatures). From our rooms we had a beautiful view of Arenal Volcano, and a few nights we even saw red lava glowing as it flowed down the volcano.

^View of Arenal Volano from the porch of the station.

^Hanging out on the porch outside our rooms at night :)

We had a pretty full week at Monteverde, which included a visit from two local biologists - one a bird specialist and the other an amphibian specialist. We spent one very early morning netting birds, which was really fun as we each got to learn how to hold, examine, and identify the birds we caught. We also went on a night hike with Mark Wainwright, the amphibian specialist. He's a pretty famous guy here, having written and illustrated about a zillion books and guides on the fauna of Costa Rica. We also had our second plant exam (ewww) and somehow found the time for some epic games of ultimate frisbee, charades, ping pong, and the like.

^One of the birds we caught in the mist nets.

^Cool herbivory we saw on the night hike - something ate part of the Heliconia leaf while it was young and still rolled up.

Towards the end of the week, we got some entertainment from the removal of a botfly from Jess's head (the fifth one she had). If you're not familiar with botflies, basically what happens is that a mosquito that has a botfly egg inside it bites you and inserts it under your skin. The egg then hatches and a larva grows under your skin - it turns into a bump that apparently gets pretty painful as the larva grows. If you leave it alone, it will eventually (after up to two months) crawl out on its own. Jess had her previous four botflies (three on her shoulder and one on her head) removed by a doctor while we were in San Jose, but as we were completely isolated in Monteverde, our professors elected to stick a small tub of Vaseline on top of the botfly to cut off its oxygen source, forcing it to crawl out. This worked pretty well, but getting the larva completely out was pretty disgusting (see photo).

^Botfly larva coming out of Jess's head... ewww.

Our last day in Monteverde was a rest day, and a bunch of us hiked out of the station to go to Selvatura, a local touristy place where we went ziplining through the forest and walked around on the canopy bridges. On the morning we left, we had to hike with our backpacks back out the way we had come - i.e., up the extremely steep hill we had mostly slid down on the way in. It took us about double the time, with everyone stopping periodically on the way to gasp for breath and gulp water. Despite the fact that we had all been convinced we would never make it back up the hill with all our stuff (we had half-jokingly discussed the possibility of throwing clothes, soap, books, etc into the road as we hiked), we eventually all made it back to the bus and were on the way to Nicaragua.

^Kiva ziplining through the Monteverde forest.

^Canopy bridges at Selvatura.

Nirvana Semana!

2008-11-02T05:36:00.004+03:00

Semana = "week" in Spanish. Nirvana = "the perfect peace of the mind." Nirvana Semana = GLORIOUS.

For our week-long midterm break, fourteen of us rented a beach house on Playa Flamingo on the Pacific coast. Including an adjoining apartment, our house sleeps 18 and has a nice kitchen, TV, big boom box, hammocks, beautiful porch, pool, etc. A flight of stairs leads down to the beach, which is mostly deserted because it's the off-season. Other than dealing with scheduling classes for next semester and registration, we spent the week chilling on the beach, going deep-sea fishing and snorkeling, kayaking, swimming in the pool, playing the guitar, watching movies, and generally enjoying ourselves to the max. Most of us bought food on a group basis and we cooked a delicious dinner in-house every single night. The sunsets over the beach were absolutely gorgeous, and one night we cooked hot dogs and roasted marshmallows out on the beach. Tomorrow, we'll take the return 6-hour bus ride back to San Jose, and on Monday morning we're off to Monteverde and then Nicaragua. We won't have internet at either site, so I'll be out of touch until about November 17. ¡Hasta luego!

^Kiva, Tim, Whitney, and a random dog watching the sun set on the beach.

^On our second-to-last night, we were visited by an unusually bold anteater.

^In honor of Halloween, Courtney carved a watermelon. Fabulous.

^Deep-sea fishing! Unfortunately, Whitney caught the only fish of the entire day.

^View of the sunset from our porch.

^Billy decided to catch a giant iguana we found. He's probably going to have scars from its claws... no, seriously.

^Campfire on the beach! Tim is for some reason eating ketchup in this picture...

^Our house, Villa Martita. Wonderful :)

Weekend Fun

2008-11-02T04:24:00.009+03:00

While living in San Pedro, we took full advantage of our weekends to enjoy ourselves and explore what Costa Rica has to offer. Here's a quick synopsis.

Whitewater Rafting

On the Saturday of our first weekend, 12 of the OTS students went on an all-day rafting trip on the Pacuare River. We left the language school a little after 6 AM and returned right before dinner, exhausted and somewhat sunburned. We were in six-person rafts with a guide in the back yelling instructions, of which my favorite was "GET DOWN!", which was when you dove to the center of the raft to avoid flipping over in a huge wave. My only previous whitewater rafting experiences had been in two-person rafts, so this was different and really fun. I was lucky enough to be in the front of the raft, too, which also meant that I got the most wet. The rapids were classes I - IV.

^Our raft - I'm in the front, on the right.

^Our raft, mostly underwater. ahhhh!

Cahuita
The second weekend, as I wrote before, began as soon as our midterm exams were over. I went with six friends straight to the bus station when we finished our exams, and about five hours later we were in the small, beautiful Caribbean beach town of Cahuita. We stayed in a cheap and sufficiently sketchy hostel and spent the weekend enjoying black sand beaches, Cahuita National Park, the small bars in town, and snorkeling on the coral reef. It was the perfect way to forget about our exams, and I was really glad that we took advantage of our only opporunity to visit the Caribbean coast.

^We decided to climb a fallen tree on the Playa Negra. (Picture by Becca)

^We met up with some friends who were also in Cahuita for the weekend - qué divertido! (Picture by Becca)

^Sunset on the beach in the National Park. (Picture by Becca)

Poas Volcano
During our last weekend in San Pedro, after our Spanish classes were finished and our midterm break was beginning, a few of us spent Saturday visiting Poas Volcano. First, we went to a viewpoint above the crater. There was steam pouring off of the hot water inside the crater, and the air smelled of sulfur. After that we hiked around to see a lagoon, and then headed to a nearby resort that had enclosures of birds, monkeys, and butterflies as well as a walkway along a series of waterfalls. We ate a delicious buffet lunch, and all in all it was a really cool day.

^The crater at Poas Volcano.

^Toucan! This was taken right after I attempted to take a picture with the bird and it attacked my head. Good times.

San Pedro & Español

2008-11-01T20:28:00.008+03:00

On October 4, we arrived in San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica. Our first stop was the language school that was to be our academic home for the next three weeks. CRLA, the Costa Rican Language Academy, is located in San Pedro, a smaller city adjoining San Jose. After a brief orientation and oral placement exams to supplement the written ones we had already completed by e-mail, we said farewell to our three biology professors and split into groups to be taken to our homestay families.

Homestay Awesomeness

My homestay "Mama Tica" ("Tico/a" = Costa Rican person) was somewhere around 75 years old (so more of an "Abuela Tica"). She lives in what came to be called "the compound" - about five houses together behind a big orange gate. Nidia, my Mama Tica, and a few of her children live with their families in the houses. During my three weeks there, there was also a German student named Stefanie living with Nidia. Even though Stefanie speaks English, we always spoke in Spanish, which gave me lots of extra practice.

Nidia is an amazing cook, and I ate huge breakfasts and dinners every day. I had my own room and bathroom, which was incredibly nice after a month and a half of bunk rooms and communal bathrooms. Between Nidia and her husband, her children, her grandchildren, and their friends, there were always a zillion people at the compound with whom I could practice my Spanish. Her grandchildren always got a kick out of this, of course, but they were really fun to hang around with. One of the uncles is the mayor of San Pedro - he is a hilarious guy who tried to convince me that I should have a Tico boyfriend at every biological station we visit... thus, seven presents throughout the semester. I had an awesome time at my homestay, and was sad to leave.

Spanish, Spanish, and more Spanish

My main worry about our intensive Spanish classes in San Pedro was that I wouldn't place into the advanced level, and thus wouldn't complete my Duke Spanish requirement like I had planned. Luckily, though, the placement seemed to be based more on the amount of grammar you knew and not your speaking ability, and thus I did place into the advanced level. The classes at CRLA are small in order to increase the amount of time each student spends speaking in class - my class was two girls from my program (Jessica and Whitney), our teacher Carla, and me. Carla is in her mid-twenties and is an extremely fun and creative person - thus, class was really enjoyable. When we weren't playing ridiculous games directed at practicing some aspect of grammar, we were gossiping continuously (in Spanish, of course). We had Spanish class Monday through Thursday from 9 to 3, with a one-hour lunch break in the middle. Most days after Spanish a few of us went to dance class from 3 to 5, which was really fun - our salsa and merengue skills improved considerably. Throughout the three weeks we had two quizzes each week and a long final exam on the last day of class - all requirements from Duke so that we would receive a full class credit. On the last day of class we had a little graduation ceremony in which we all received certificates and a hug from our professor. All in all, I was really pleased with both my experience at CRLA and the improvement in my Spanish abilities - and, as always, sad to leave.

...and a little bit of biology.

Of course, we couldn't possibly put biology completely on hold for three weeks (grrrr...). Unlike the other students at CRLA, we didn't have our Fridays completely free. On our first and third Fridays in San Pedro, we had guest lectures in the morning at the OTS offices at the University of Costa Rica. On the Friday in the middle, though, we had our midterm exams for our Introduction to Tropical Biology and Environmental Policy of the Tropics Classes. About two hours was budgeted for each exam and we were allowed to grab lunch from the lobby whenever we so desired. Both studying and taking the exams was pretty much horrible, especially when we wanted to be out enjoying the city. To make up for this, a bunch of us took off ASAP for the beach after the exams - but more on the weekend adventures later!

Some stolen photos... :)

2008-10-27T22:29:00.010+03:00

So. On the issue of pictures... starting with a little history. My camera, which I purchased new in March, took quite a beating in August in London due to an unfortunate incident involving me foolishly swinging it in circles by its strap on a concrete walkway in Kensington Park. This resulted in me having to partially disassemble the camera in order to make it work again, as it somehow managed to land on and smash the shutter button. This worked temporarily, but I eventually had to repeat the camera surgery, this time removing part of the top of the camera. Now everything was fine. However, while we were in La Selva working on independent projects, my camera inexplicably stopped working. Any time a memory card was inside the camera, it would say "the memory card is locked," even though the memory card was not locked. Long story short, I ended up buying a new point-and-shoot after a three-week-long attempt-to-fix-camera saga in San Jose. SO. To make myself feel better about a month of no pictures, I stole some pictures from my friend Becca, who has an amazing camera and photography skills to boot. Here comes a small sampling of those from Las Cruces, Cuerici, and La Selva.

^Las Cruces: A soccer game that turned into an all-out mud brawl - I'm fourth from the left, I think. I believe this was the first time in my life that I literally (and not on purpose) ate a handful of mud... I was convinced that I would contract some terrible illness afterwards, but luckily this did not occur.

^Cuerici: Action shot of me during a really fun and highly entertaining all-day hike.

^Cuerici: Hanging out after deciding to walk the 3-ish kilometers back to the station instead of riding in the car... this after the all-day hike. Notice we're right at the level of the clouds.

^Cuerici: Out in the field studying forest fragmentation.

^La Selva: Billy's encounter with a howler monkey... how awesome. Sadly, I wasn't present.

^La Selva: Porcupine on the bridge cable.

^La Selva: Slug-eating snake we found on a night hike :)

^La Selva: During a free day, a few of us decided to go out and explore the forest. While following a trail that led off one of the main trails, we first found a strange house-like building that was literally covered in bats. Afterwards, we continued following the small trail down to the river, where we found this awesome cable-car contraption and propelled ourselves across the river to continue our hike. I probably shouldn't mention that this was during a thunderstorm...

^La Selva

^La Selva: butterfly... note Becca's awesome photography skills.

^La Selva: White tent bats. They make tents out of Heliconiaceae or Marantaceae leaves and cuddle up under them. Adorable.

The Frog and Ant Project/Saga/Disaster

2008-10-26T21:33:00.000+03:00

One important component of the OTS USAP (Undergraduate Semester Abroad Program) is independent projects (IPs). Essentially, students have a full week to plan, carry out, present, and write up an entire research project. There are two IPs throughout the semester, and the first one took place during our second week at La Selva. The reasons I'm making an entire post about my IP are a) it had a pretty interesting topic and b) it was somewhat hilariously filled with complications and problems. Here goes.

Project Development
My partner for the first IP was a student from University of Washington (Seattle) named Andrés, and after lots of paper-reading and researching, we decided that we wanted to do a project on poison-dart frogs (Dendrobates pumilio). This particular species is very common at La Selva. Adults are small - about 2.5 cm in length or so - and are aposematically colored bright red and blue. Their skin is only slightly toxic (i.e., not dangerous to humans), but this toxicity renders them generally unpalatable to predators. It has been shown that the frogs sequester their skin toxins from their prey, but no research has been performed to examine how this affects their foraging decisions. One important class of skin toxins are the pumiliotoxins, which out of hundreds of ant genera examined, have only been found in the ant genera Brachymyrmex and Paratrechina. Thus, the question we asked was this:

The Plan
Our plan was simple. Trap a frog and put four pumiliotoxin-containing ants and four non pumiliotoxin-containing ants in a container with it, and return later to see which kind of ant the frog prefers to eat. We had five days to perform the experiment and one to put together a presentation... and thus the saga began.

^Me with poison-dart frog.

Day 1
Morning #1 of our IP, and I was already panicking. By then, we should have ideally located both genera of ants somewhere at La Selva, but we had found neither. Andrés and I had spent hours in front of microscopes with giant ant books trying to identify ants we'd collected around the station and in the forest, but that proved absolutely impossible. We trapped ants around the dining hall, in the lab, in the field, and in the forest, and although we obtained lots of ant samples, we couldn't definitively identify a single ant. We also tried and failed to fashion some kind of enclosure for the ants and frogs, but either the ants or frogs (or both) managed to escape from every kind of enclosure we tried. At the end of the day, essentially nothing had been accomplished besides a lot of learning what didn't work.

^Ant identification = impossible.

Day 2

I was now panicking completely, despite Andrés's efforts to convince me that it would eventually work out. On day 2, though, we got a good break. Ronald Vargas, the station's resident ant expert, returned in the morning and came to our lab to help us identify our ants. At this point we got a small miracle: our lab was literally infested with Paratrechina ants, and another ant species we trapped near the dining hall (genus Pheidole) would serve as a suitable control ant. Our first method for trapping the ants in the lab was an aspirator, but much to Andrés's dismay, the ants were sucked right through the mesh and into his mouth when he tried to use it. Soon, though, we realized that we could somewhat effectively sweep the ants from the counter if we first baited them with honey. We decided to just use plastic bags tied closed with a knot for our enclosures, and after an intense frog-catching session, we set up 30 frogs in bags with 8 ants each during the afternoon. We returned after dinner to count ants, but none had been eaten.

^The Paratrechina ants infesting our lab.

Day 3

First thing in morning, we counted the ants again. Still, not a single ant was missing, although some had drowned in the moisture in the bags. We still hadn't found Brachymyrmex ants, so we set traps throughout the forest on epiphytes and in leaf litter, where these ants are (in theory) common. We then attempted to address the problem of our frogs refusing to eat. The first step was to eliminate the plastic bags. We managed to track down a graduate student at the station who had an excess of plastic containers with lids, so we borrowed about 60 of them. The containers had small holes poked in the lids, so we put a bunch of ants in a container with a lid and put the container in a plastic bag. No ants appeared inside the bag but outside the container, and thus we concluded that the ants couldn't escape through the holes. Our new containers required us to not only move our 30 frogs, but also to replace all 240 ants in the containers, especially since many ants were dead anyway. We had plenty of Paratrechina ants infesting the lab, but our control Pheidole ants had mysteriously disappeared from the place where we had originally trapped them. Thus, Andrés and I went on a two-hour quest in the woods to find new control ants, which build their nests on Arecaceae and Cyclanthaceae leaves. Finally, we were able to set up our frogs in their new containers. Hoping a change from the indoor classroom environment would also help, we put some of the containers in the woods and some in an outdoor shadehouse. A few hours later, I went to count ants in the containers in the woods. I picked up the first container and counted 10 ants - the eight ants we had placed in the container plus two different, smaller ones. Baffled, I continued to count ants in the other containers, obtaining similar results. Slowly it dawned on me that although our ants couldn't get out of the containers, smaller ants living in the forest could get into them. Why they would do this is beyond me, but the end result was that we had to replace ants in about 15 containers yet again. Later, after dinner, we went to count ants in the shadehouse containers. Not only had no ants still been eaten, but a couple of frogs had died because we were unaware that the shadehouses can get extremely hot during the day. Discouraged and frustrated, we let the remaining shadehouse frogs free and finally went to bed around 10 PM.

^A few of our containers, complete with frog, ants, and wet cotton ball for moisture. We separated them with cardboard because the frogs are very visually sensitive.

Day 4
On the fourth day, we finally got another good break. Ronald found me after breakfast, excitedly reporting that he had finally found Brachymyrmex ants crawling around on an Inga plant outside his office. He carefully showed me which ants to look for on the plant, as there were many ants besides Brachymyrmex present. The ants in question were impossibly tiny - less than a millimeter long, black, and not terribly common on the plant. We tried to trap them, but the bigger ants on the plant quickly monopolized the honey in the trap. The only way to catch them, then, was with an aspirator. Now that we were catching miniscule ants, I added about six layers of mesh to the aspirator and went at it. For about three hours I stood in front of the Inga plant, watching carefully for Brachymyrmex to come crawling by and then quickly sucking them up. Each time I trapped four, I put them in a plastic container, to which Andrés added four control Tapinoma ants that we trapped behind the dining hall. After sucking up around 120 ants and catching 30 more frogs, we finally had 30 more frog-ant setups. Problematically, though, still not a single ant had been eaten, and thus we had zero data. At this point we were fully expecting to write a grant proposal instead of a paper, which was our professor's solution to the zero-data problem.

^The end of the aspirator (about 1 cm diameter) and a Brachymyrmex, which is barely visible as a little black dot on the leaf.

Day 5
On the morning of the fifth day, we went to the classroom to count the tiny ants in our containers. We had taped shut each tiny little hole in the lids, so there was no way the ants could escape (or enter!) this time. We could hardly believe it when we started counting ants and - low and behold - we counted less than eight in most containers! We set free the frogs that had eaten ants, and came back later to do more counting after more frogs had eaten. Finally, we had data - hallelujah!

The Ending
In the end, our data showed pretty clearly that the frogs didn't prefer either type of ant (Brachymyrmex or control Tapinoma) over the other. This was still an interesting result, and much of our presentation and papers focused on finding explanations for it. Our advising professor, Erika, was proud of us for sticking with what she said was the most interesting poison-dart frog project she had seen in 15-ish years. The second IP is scheduled for our last site, Palo Verde - hopefully that one will go at least a little more smoothly :)

La Selva: La Aventura

2008-10-03T23:40:00.007+03:00

Here comes the first set of La Selva adventures.

^Me and my mad poison-dart frog-catching skills... explanation for that to come later.

^A typical trail at La Selva, although many trails are much narrower or and/or unpaved.

^Golden orb spider. They're very common here, and their webs are stronger (can withstand more force/diameter) than steel.

Our first day at La Selva was Costa Rica's independence day, so we spent the morning in town watching a parade. It was insanely hot, especially compared to the frigidness of Cuerici from which we had come. There were lots of school bands and dance groups, and I was especially impressed with the childrens' drumlines. It was fun watching the parade alongside the residents of Puerto Viejo, as we have had little interaction with Costa Rican people thus far.

Of course, during the first couple of days, we all took advantage of the hot weather and presence of the river to go swimming. At one point a few people swim "with" a cayman, although I was working at the time and unaware of the swimming escapade. A few of the guys subsequently decided to go back down to the river, essentially to stalk the cayman. Naturally, the cayman swam swiftly away upon sighting people - this after the guys spent a good half hour trudging down the densely forested, steep riverbank. It was a pretty hilarious sight to watch from the bridge above.

^Billy, Andrés, and Tim failing miserably at stalking the cayman.

During the early part of our stay here, we took a day trip to the local Dole banana plantation. We learned a lot about the history of bananas in Costa Rica (which we had studied previously in depth), the banana industry, and the process of growing and harvesting. The most entertaining parts, however, were probably a) Tim climbing up a ladder and trying to put a bundle of bananas in a bag and b) watching the mules pull trains of bananas through the plantation.

^Tim bagging a banana bunch.

^A mule pulling the "banana train."

^Boxing up bananas to go to Norway (yay!)

One cool aspect of the OTS abroad program is faculty-led projects, or FLP's. In our second week at La Selva, we had two of them. One was a study on the correlation between rates of herbivory, elevation, and plant diversity, and the other was about apogeotropic roots (roots that come out of the ground and climb up trees). Although I was in a group in charge of presenting the results of the herbivory study, my more adventurous/hilarious experience was a result of the apogeotropic roots study. In brief, we hypothesized that roots would tend to climb up trees with "nutrients funnels" - i.e., palm trees whose leaves capture falling leaves and create a "funnel" of nutrients from their decay. Throughout the project, we would occasionally trace these roots from the tree they were climbing to the tree from which they originated. This typically entailed digging in the ground to follow the root for a few meters at most. At the end of the day when I was working on the project, four of us (Claire, Becca, Tim, and myself) stayed behind to dig one last root to its source tree. We followed the root along and under the paved trail, only to discover about 45 minutes and about 20 meters later that it simply joined into a root that another group had dug previously but had abandoned as the root dove deep into the ground. After all of our efforts, though, we weren't about to give up on finding the source of the mega-root, and by this time the visiting professor who was in charge of the project was especially curious as to the source tree species. The four of us continued digging after the root, which after delving about a foot in the ground miraculously returned to a few inches below the surface. A few hours and FIFTY meters later, we traced the root straight to a huge tree of the Moraceae family. Both the tree and multiple sections of the root had the same milky latex, so we knew we hadn't taken a wrong turn along the way. Remarkably, that one root led to and climbed four different nutrient-funnel palms. By the time we finished, it was almost dark, and we were completely covered in mud and sweat... however, we still managed to sing our newly-learned (thanks to our professor) "Tropical Biology Blues" song all the way back to the dining room for dinner.

^Tim, Becca, and I digging away. Claire was playing photographer for the moment.

^SUCCESS!

Today is our last day at La Selva - we leave at 8 AM tomorrow morning - so last night a few of us went on a night hike, mostly with the intention of finding a fer-de-lance (highly poisonous snake that inhabits La Selva). Although we failed miserably at finding a fer-de-lance, we did manage to find a small slug-eating snake and a red-eyed tree frog. The red-eyed tree frog gave giraffes a serious run for their money for the position of Hilary's favorite animal... winner as yet undecided.

^Billy with red-eyed tree frog... AWESOME.

La Selva: Flora & Fauna

2008-10-01T19:09:00.008+03:00

On September 15, we drove by bus for five hours from Cuerici (altitude 2700 m) to La Selva Biological Research Station in northeastern Costa Rica (altitude 500 m). La Selva is owned by OTS, and is a very well-known and productive research station. I've been amazed by what a large proportion of tropical biological research has been performed at La Selva as I've been searching the literature for various assignments since we've been here. Many researchers live long-term on-station, and there are even a couple of famous British photographers currently living here and working on a book.

^The bridge we cross to get to and from class and the forest. Sweet, right?

Here's a blurb about La Selva from the OTS website, since I'm too lazy to come up with one myself:

"At the confluence of two major rivers in the Caribbean lowlands of northern Costa Rica, La Selva comprises 1,600 hectares (3,900 acres) of tropical wet forests and disturbed lands. It averages 4 m (over 13 feet!) of rainfall that is spread rather evenly throughout the year.

La Selva was originally established in 1954 by Dr. Leslie Holdridge, as a farm dedicated to experimentation on mixed plantations for the improvement of natural resources management. It was purchased in 1968 by the Organization for Tropical Studies and declared a private biological reserve and station. Since then, it has become one of the most important sites in the world for research on tropical rain forest. Over 240 scientific papers are published yearly from research conducted at the site."

-http://www.ots.ac.cr/

Our accomodations at La Selva are 6-person bunk rooms, and we are lucky in that we have five of them for 22 people (yay!). There are only three showers & toilets, so every time we have an afternoon soccer game there is a mad (and hilarious) rush to get to the showers first. La Selva is definitely the most hot and humid place I have ever been - most of the time you feel like you're walking around in soup, and we all sleep with very few clothes on and usually no covers. If there was any doubt that we were in the rainforest at Las Cruces, it's certainly gone now.

Our first week at La Selva involved a lot of lectures, hikes around the forest, and general marveling at our surroundings. Since it's looking like I'm going to end up posting a mildly ridiculous number of pictures of La Selva, I'm going to keep this one to flora and fauna and save the adventures for the next few posts....

^Peccaries. They are literally everywhere, and they smell terrible.

^Leaf-cutter ants. They are also literally everywhere, and I'm convinced they're going to take over the world, one little slice of leaf at a time.

^Really awesome bug I stumbled upon (mantidae).

^Camoflauge, anyone? Pupa.

^I doubt any of you are going to believe me, but this is actually an insect we found. Species is Fulgora laternana. I think it looks like a dinosaur.

^Millipedes. Also everywhere, and about 90% of the ones I've seen have been mating. As a result, most of the guys have declared their intentions to become millipedes in their next lives (what'd you expect?)

^Howler monkey! This one was randomly climbing on the bridge cables, but we see them a lot around the forest. The most interesting thing about them is the intensely creepy howling sounds they make.

^Extremely large stick bug... the finger is the same distance from the camera as the bug.

^Leeeee-zard! (Jessie, that was for you.)

^Cayman (see it?). A few of my friends went swimming in the river with them, but unfortunately (luckily?) I was working at the time and missed out.

^Gecko!

^Stilt roots - I have no idea how some of these things remain standing.

^Strangely pretty fungus.

^Bats! Bats, also, are everywhere, and when I go running on the trails in the evening I often shield my face with my hand for fear that one will fly directly into my face. Of the 210 mammal species in Costa Rica, 110 are bats.

^Sloth! I saw it last night hanging from a bridge cable on my way back to the cabin to go to bed (at 9:30... haha.) That brings my lifetime total sloth sighting count to two - the first being last summer in Brazil.

Cuerici

2008-09-30T07:22:00.003+03:00

After spending two weeks at Las Cruces biological station, we spent the week between September 8 and 15 at a site called Cuerici. Cuerici is a farm at an altitude of about 2700 m, and the farmer, Don Carlos, raises trout as well as a few species of trees. On our second day there, we drove up another few hundred meters to a type of high-altitude forest called Páramo. The vegetation there was uniquely adapted to drastic temperature changes and high UV exposure - most plants were hairy and all were short and shrub-like. We also took an all-day hike one day to see a 2000-year-old oak tree and a really neat waterfall. During the hike, we crossed a wide-ish river on a not-quite-wide-enough tree that had fallen over it, which was slightly terrifying but really fun. Our environment classes while we were at Cuerici focused a lot on sustainable conservation, using Don Carlos's farm as an example to analyze critically.

Although it was pretty cold at Cuerici (especially at night), we were kept pretty cozy by multiple fires/stoves, hot chocolate, and lots of blankets. The 22 of us slept in one giant bunk room and shared a big bathroom, making for another fun bonding experience. We spent a lot of time hiking through the oak forest surrounding the farm, and learned a good deal about trout farming. The views were absolutely gorgeous at Cuerici, and we spent a lot of time walking around inside of clouds. At the end of our stay at Cuerici, we drove to La Selva research station (lowland tropical wet forest), which is where we've been for the past two weeks - more on that to come soon!

View from a high point in the oak forest.

Marshmallow-roasting party one night after class :)

The log bridge - I'm second from the right (and although you can't tell, I'm terrified in this picture...)

Páramo

Páramo again... there was lots of climbing involved.

Estoy en Costa Rica!

2008-09-07T20:25:00.003+03:00

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post about Costa Rica! Now that I'm back in an academic setting, it's gotten much more difficult to find time to blog.

First, some quick information. My study abroad program is the Organization for Tropical Studies undergraduate semester-long program. We will spend one to two weeks at something like six different biological research stations in different parts of Costa Rica (and one in Nicaragua). In addition, we have a three-week homestay in San Jose, during which we will take intensive Spanish classes. Besides Spanish, our courses consist of two tropical biology courses and an environmental policy course. Each day, we eat breakfast at 6:30 and usually head out into the field. We normally have about three classes per day, with everything wrapping up at about 8:30 PM. The days are extremely long but fun, since much of our learning takes place outside. There are 22 students in my program, and we travel with three professors and a TA.

For the last two weeks, we've been staying at the Las Cruces biological station (and Wilson Botanical Garden) in southern Costa Rica. Among other topics, we've studied plant and insect taxonomy, the history and economy of Costa Rica, and forest fragmentation and restoration. One of our projects consisted of finding and identifying ten insects to family, and this morning we had a test in which we identified plants while walking through the forest.

So far, I've had an amazing time here. Our days are filled with hilarious falls in the mud, random sing-a-longs, "treacherous" river crossings (not), and a group cohesiveness that can only result from spending every waking (and sleeping) moment together.

Stockholm, Sweden

2008-08-26T06:58:00.004+03:00

Well, I have now arrived in Costa Rica for my semester abroad, but somehow I have managed to not even finish my blog posts about the cruise. So, here goes the last one. Unfortunately I don't have my notes about all the places we went with me, so this is going to be painfully vague.

Our last stop on the cruise was Stockholm, Sweden. In the morning, my family took a tour of a famous park. Within the park were a few buildings with some pretty random arcitechtural influences - it was certainly interesting. After eating lunch within the park, we visited a really neat butterfly house.

After our tour of the park, our bus dropped us off in the "old town" of Stockholm. My family elected to wander about near the castle for a few minutes, during which we saw some kind of Stockholm equivalent of the changing of the guards. Afterwards, we walked down the bay back to our ship. Later that night, my sister and I went out to a local bar with some friends from the ship as well as a friend of a friend who lives in Stockholm, which was pretty fun. Main observation: Swedish people are intensely good-looking - it's pretty crazy.

The remainder of the cruise consisted of a few sea days and finally disembarking back in Harwich, England. We had an amazing time, and I was certainly sad to leave. We spent one more night in London, during which we saw Avenue Q on West End, which was of course amazing. :)

Helsinki, Finland

2008-08-20T03:59:00.005+03:00

On Monday, 11 August, we docked in Helsinki, Finland. There, my family took our only all-day tour of the trip. Our first stop was in Porvoo, which was founded in 1346 and is the second-oldest town in Finland. I somehow managed to lose my entire family when we arrived, so I spent about an hour wandering around Porvoo in the rain. It was actually really enjoyable - the town was, as one would expect, quaint and quiet with cobblestone streets and colorful buildings. The shopping part of town was pretty touristy, so after buying some uber-delicious chocolate from a shop there, I wandered into the residential section of town and up to a church at the top of a hill.

After eating lunch near Porvoo, we visited an old church on our way back to Helsinki. To me, the most striking thing about the church was the extremely well-tended WWI and WWII memorials that were outside. There were headstones for Finnish soldiers that were killed during the wars as well as a larger headstone for both wars with a list of the names.

Finally, we drove back into Helsinki. There, we visited the Church in the Rock, which is pretty much exactly what you would think - a church built into the side of a large rock face. During a bit of free time at the end, we walked down to the market near the harbor. There were stands everywhere selling all kinds of touristy-items as well as fruits, vegetables, and grilled food. At some point the rainy weather had turned into a beautiful day, and I finally got some nice pictures.

Saint Petersburg, Russia

2008-08-20T00:29:00.009+03:00

Even though I've been back in America and preparing to leave for Costa Rica since Sunday, I somehow haven't managed to get even halfway through my cruise postings. So, here goes.

On Saturday, 9 August, we docked at Saint Petersburg, Russia. Saint Petersburg was the turn-around and halfway point of our cruise, and we spent two days there instead of the usual one. Unfortunately, no one in my family realized that we would need Russian tourist visas to explore the city on our own until about a week before I left for Tanzania. Because you have to mail off your passport to get a visa, it was a no-go for me, and luckily my loving family decided not to desert me. Since we didn't have visas, we had to stay on cruise-sponsored tours/events the entire time we were there. We went on three tours the first day and two the second.

Saturday, 9 August

On Saturday morning, we took a tour of the State Hermitage Museum. The Hermitage is, according to our guide, the second-largest art museum in the world (rivaled only by the Louvre in Paris). The Hermitage collections include over three million works of art, and its six buildings include the former residence of the Russian Czars, the Winter Palace. My favorite part of our tour was the Golden Rooms, which house items, figurines, and jewelry from as early as 4000 B.C. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the Golden Rooms, which made me pretty sad. Some notable paintings we saw were Rembrandt's "The Prodigal Son" and "Old Man in Red" and El Greco's "Saint Bernard."

^The line outside of the Hermitage as we were leaving.

That afternoon, we took a tour of the Russian Museum and then the Church on Spilled Blood. The Russian Museum is essentially a large collection of Russian art, and it provided a great context for lots of history lessons from our guide. The Church on Spilled Blood was probably my favorite building of all that we visited on the cruise (!!). Its construction was completed in 1907, on the site where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. It is certainly eye-catching from the outside, but its interior is what I found most intriguing. Pretty much every inch of the interior is covered with beautiful, colorful mosaics... see the pictures.

^Church on Spilled Blood, from the outside.

^Church on Spilled Blood from the inside - everything is mosaic.

^A little piece of the interior up close.

Finally, on Saturday evening, we returned to the Hermitage for a private ballet just for our cruise tour in the Hermitage Theatre. It included excerpts from various ballets such as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, and it was an absolutely beautiful performance - especially from the second-row seats that my family managed to grab.

^Ballet at the Hermitage theatre.

Sunday, 10 August

After returning to the ship for the night, my dad and I went on a walking tour the next morning. Because of the lack-of-visas situation, this was really our only chance to walk around the city and feel like we had actually been there, so I was really glad we got to have the experience. It was a rare beautiful, sunny morning, and we walked along and near the Neva River for about three hours. Among the sights we saw were the Peter the Great monument, Senate building, Building of the Ministries, General Headquarters Building, Royal Stables, and Michael's Park.

Our last tour in Saint Petersburg was that afternoon, before the ship left at 6 PM. For this, my dad arranged a private tour for our family. First, we stopped at St. Nicholas's Church, which is a famous Russian orthodox church. It is customary for women to cover their heads when entering a Russian orthodox church, and I was glad to have grabbed one of my African scarves on the way out that morning. Our next stop was St. Isaac's Cathedral, which is the fourth largest cathedral in the world. The most striking difference between the Russian cathedrals we saw and other European cathedrals I have seen in the past was that there are no pews in the Russian ones. Worshipers - even royalty and the elderly - are expected to stand during services as a gesture of respect. After leaving St. Isaac's Cathedral, we visited Peter and Paul's Fortress. We stood at the burial sites of Peter the Great, Catherine I & II [the Great], Paul I, Elizabeth, etc etc - pretty much all the Russian czars who were buried were buried at Peter and Paul's Fortress.

^Tomb of Peter the Great. He's actually buried in the ground, underneath the empty coffin.

All in all, our visit to Saint Petersburg was a wonderful and memorable one. Although it is generally known as an unhappy place, our guide told us that the people of Saint Petersburg are currently experiencing a generally very happy time. This was evidenced by the ridiculous number of wedding couples we saw while we were there - at one point, we saw about six wedding couples and wedding parties standing on the same bridge trying to take pictures at the same time.

^How many wedding couples can you find?

Tallinn, Estonia

2008-08-15T18:23:00.004+03:00

After a relaxing day at sea, we docked in Tallinn, Estonia on Friday, 8 August. 08/08/08 was also marked by the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games, but I have unfortunately been pretty far removed from outside events save my daily dose of CNN Asia while I'm on the elliptical at the gym.

In Tallinn, my family took a walking tour called "Glory of Old Tallinn," which took us through the historical section of town. We first visited a cathedral with strongly Russian architecture, then a Lutheran church. We all found it pretty funny that the Lutheran church had a balcony for the king and queen, even though Estonia has never had a king and queen. At one point we had a short break for shopping, and then we visited one last church for a wonderful concert by a string quartet.

^View of lower Tallinn on a rainy morning.

^This cathedral was our first stop.

After the walking tour, we headed back to the town square and ate lunch at a lovely little outdoor café. While we were there, a horse-drawn carriage with a newlywed couple aboard rolled into the square. I ran out and took lots of pictures, but the most interesting picture of the carriage is one I took later, when we saw the same carriage trotting down a main traffic road in the modern part of Tallinn. All in all, Tallinn was one of my favorite places that we visited (despite the fact that it was pouring rain half the time we were there). The buildings were colorful and picturesque, and it seemed to be a peaceful and quiet location in general.

^The town square where we ate lunch.

^Horse and carriage meets the modern world.

Berlin, Germany

2008-08-10T11:15:00.004+03:00

On Wednesday, 6 August, about half of the passengers on our ship (pretty much all the Americans) took a three-hour train ride from our port on the coast of Germany to spend the day in Berlin. It was quite a long day (we departed at 6:45 AM and returned at about 9 PM), but it was definitely worth it to see the myriad of historically important sites in Berlin. After our train arrived in Berlin, we boarded a tour bus, on which was waiting for us the craziest tour guide you could ever imagine. His name was Burkhart, and he was probably the most flamboyant (yet straight) person I have ever met. My sister Jessie and a couple of our friends spent most of the tour laughing at his antics and trying to capture them on video. Seeing as we were all running on less than three hours of sleep (we’ve been having a little too much fun), Burkhart was probably the only thing keeping us awake for most of the tour.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent. After becoming acquainted with Burkhart, we were first taken to visit a surviving section of the Berlin Wall. The wall is covered with graffiti, but it is strangely beautiful. Some of it is extremely goofy – for instance, there was a picture of a dinosaur along with a hilarious quote that is unfortunately not appropriate for me to copy here. A good deal of the graffiti, though, is meaningful in some way – politically, socially, morally, or otherwise. One thing that caught my eye was the words, written in small letters, “¿Cuándo dejará Colombia de sangrar?” which means (translated from Spanish), “When will Colombia stop bleeding?” I found it quite poignant that many travelers to Berlin had found some hope for their own homelands in the fact that Berlin’s painful struggle had ended.

^Berlin Wall

Our next stop was Checkpoint Charlie, which was the portal of sorts through which diplomats, officials, etc. could pass legally between East and West Berlin. It was the third of three checkpoints in the wall – the first two were on the outer edges of the city, and were named Alpha and Bravo. Afterwards, we visited the Pergamon Museum and ate a delicious lunch at the Palace of the Princes. We drove by the Holocaust Memorial, which I found strangely overwhelming, considering it consists simply of 2,711 slabs of concrete. Next was Brandenburg Gate, which was formally located inaccessibly between the two halves of the Berlin Wall. Finally, we listened to an organ concert at the beautiful (and huge) Berlin Cathedral, which I particularly enjoyed.

^Checkpoint Charlie

^Pergamon Museum

^Holocaust Memorial

^Brandenburg Gate

^Berlin Cathedral

As you can imagine, after such a long and intriguing day, the train ride back to our port involved lots of sleeping.

Copenhagen, Denmark

2008-08-08T23:20:00.005+03:00

On a chilly Tuesday, 5 August, our ship docked in Copenhagen, Denmark. Our family took a bike tour of the city for a couple of hours, which was a great break from all the walking we had been doing. One of our first stops was the famous “Little Mermaid” statue. The statue was carved as a tribute to Hans Christian Andersen, a native of Denmark and the creator of the story that was later made into a Disney movie. Interestingly, the original story had a quite different ending than the one most of us have heard. In the original version, the mermaid also visits a “sea witch,” who agrees to turn her into a human being on the condition that she will always walk with pain and will give the witch her beautiful voice. When the mermaid arrives on the shore, though, she discovers that her prince has been fooled into believing that it was another woman who saved him from the shipwreck. The prince has married that woman and is deeply in love. Out of sorrow and heartbreak, the mermaid turns into sea foam. Interesting, huh?

The city of Copenhagen was quite picturesque, but it was interesting to see that some buildings still bore bullet holes and other scars from World War II. The city is very sea-focused, and there were canals running right through town and up to one of the main squares. We ate lunch in between a row of beautiful, colorful buildings and a canal. My mom and I shopped for a bit, and then it was back to the boat so as not to be left behind.

^Bike tour

^Little Mermaid statue

Oslo, Norway

2008-08-05T23:06:00.003+03:00

On Monday, 4 August, we docked in Oslo, Norway for about 9 hours. My family took a walking tour in the morning, during which we saw Akershus Fortress, City Hall, the residence of the royal family, etc. After the tour, we took a ferry across the bay to visit the Kon-Tiki museum, which is really more of a Thor Heyerdahl museum, as it also includes the Ra II and Tigris boats. If you have no idea what I'm writing about (I was pretty clueless before we visited), Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian who basically re-created ancient styles of boats and sailed them for long distances. The Kon-Tiki, a big raft made of balsa wood, is the most famous as a result of a bestselling book and Oscar-winning documentary. Heyerdahl and five other men sailed on the Kon-Tiki from the western coast of South America to Polynesia in order to prove that the original inhabitants of Polynesia could have come from South America. Their journey spanned 101 days and over 4300 miles, but they were successful.

^View of Oslo from Akershus Fortress

^In one part of town, there are quotes of famous Norwegians on the sidewalk.

^ Oslo City Hall

^The Kon-Tiki!

^View of Oslo as we were leaving port

All Aboard!

2008-08-05T22:44:00.002+03:00

On Saturday, 2 August, my parents, sister, and I left Canterbury early in the morning for Gatwick airport in London, where we would catch a bus service to Harwich provided by the Celebrity cruise line. I drove our rented Range Rover for most of the 1.5-hour drive to Gatwick - on the left side of the road of course. I'm pretty sure my mother and sister (and probably father too, although he hides it more effectively) were pretty terrified. Somehow, though, I managed to get us there all in one piece. Sweet.

After a two-hour wait at the airport and a two-hour bus ride to Harwich, we checked in and boarded the cruise ship. It's a Celebrity Constellation cruise, and we are essentially city-hopping from Harwich all the way to St. Petersburg and back. In the span of two weeks, we will visit Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Germany, and Russia.

So far, we have had a ton of fun. Being that this is my first cruise, I am thoroughly amazed at the amount of STUFF you can fit on one boat - beautiful restaurants, classy bars, a huge theatre, a "Fun Factory" for little kids, shops, a casino, a nightclub... the list goes on. The 20's-ish crowd on the ship is a really fun bunch of people, and I'm really enjoying getting to know lots of new people.

^The required "abandon ship" drill before we left Harwich, which as you can see my family took very seriously.

^Sunset at sea... glorious :)

Canterbury

2008-08-05T22:29:00.004+03:00

After lots of fun in London, my sister Jessie and I took a train to Canterbury and met my parents there for a short less-than-one-day stay before journeying to Harwich to begin the cruise. Canterbury is a beautiful little town famous for (of course) Canterbury Cathedral. We toured the cathedral, took a boat tour, and then explored a little on our own. The weather was particularly beautiful, and it was nice to be in such a peaceful and picturesque place.

London, Part II

2008-08-05T21:58:00.003+03:00

So, quick summary of the rest of our ultra-touristy stay in London:

Wednesday, 30 July
-Trafalgar Square - we ate lunch, wasted time, and got very slightly sunburned. It was glorious.
-BBC Proms: World Music Awards showcase show. A few days earlier, we stumbled upon a sign outside of Prince Albert Hall advertising the upcoming BBC Proms shows. Somewhat on a whim, we bought tickets to the Wednesday night show. It was essentially a showcase show of all the winners of the BBC World Music Awards. We saw performers from Cape Verde, Sevilla, China, a few different African countries, and lots of other places. The show was almost four hours long, but we thoroughly enjoyed it.

^Trafalgar Square

^BBC Proms show at Prince Albert Hall

Thursday, 31 July
-Southwark Cathedral, which was originally built sometime in the 1200s. We stumbled randomly upon it while searching for London Bridge, and it was beautiful.
-London Bridge (we were successful in our search) and Tower Bridge
-London City Hall - another random discovery. We ate lunch in a nice cafe on the bottom floor.
-Malaysia Week - random discovery number three. There were lots of tents set up selling Malaysian goods, a stage with music, and food. It made me miss a certain former roommate of mine :)
-Tower of London (we didn't actually go inside, because we're cheap)
-Tate Modern Art Museum
-Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. We were groundlings, and it was lots of fun.

^Southwark Cathedral

^Tower Bridge

^Tower of London

^A groundling's view of the Globe Theatre

^It was a beautiful night, so we took some pictures from across the river on the way back to our hotel.

A Taste of London, Part 1

2008-08-01T23:27:00.005+03:00

The days between July 26 and August 1 consisted of my younger sister Jessie, my friend Graham, and myself being straight-up tourists in London. It was strange to walk off my Virgin Air flight from Nairobi straight into the bustle and beauty of London, but we had a great time. In summary, here's a taste of what we did in the first couple of days. I'll add more about the rest of the London visit later, as well as our short trip to Canterbury (where I am now). Tomorrow evening we set off on our two-week-long cruise through Scandinavia, Estonia, Germany, and the turning-around point of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Sunday, 27 July
-Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Cathedral. We saw the graves of James Prescott Joule, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin - it was pretty exciting my chemistry-major self. We also attended the Choral Evensong service at St. Margaret's.
-St. James's Park - lots of people-watching. We also saw the biggest monster of a dog I've ever seen, which we discovered was a Newfoundland.

Big Ben

Iraq War protest, about one block from Big Ben.

St. Margaret's Cathedral

Monday, 28 July
-Kensington Park
-Princess Diana Memorial Playground
-Kensington Palace and "The Last Debutantes" Exhibit
-Serpentine Gallery (modern art gallery right in the middle of Kensington Park)
-Princess Diana Memorial Fountain
-Spam-A-Lot at the Palace Theatre (it was great!)

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

Spam-A-Lot!

Tuesday, 29 July
-Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Probably the most touristy thing ever, but great fun nonetheless. -Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum
-Buckingham Palace (from the outside, of course... we're not that special)

Jessie and I with Tom Cruise, the wax version.

I was pretty excited to see wax-Shrek.

Buckingham Palace

The Last Arusha Post

2008-07-29T23:30:00.004+03:00

At some point, I'm going to have to move on from posting about Arusha, especially considering that I've been in London for over three days now. So, here's one last post about the end of our two months in Tanzania.

Arusha School FUN DAY!

Since the first day we began working at Arusha Primary School, we heard the kids talking about the "Sports Day" that was coming up at the school in late July. About a week before the designated date, though, our students informed us that Sports Day had been cancelled for some reason unknown to them. They didn't seem at all surprised, but to us the situation was heartbreaking because we knew how much the kids had been looking forward to Sports Day. One of us - Lindsay, I believe - then had a great idea: Why not put on a field day for the kids on our own? We set the date as the last Wendesday in Arusha. Although this was a particularly hectic time - during that week we were wrapping up our teaching projects, after school programs, and preparing for the final LTP exhibition - we were determined to pull this off. We spent the vast majority of Tuesday and Wednesday preparing - buying supplies, making posters, arranging with food vendors, etc. I was highly preoccupied on Tuesday with my book-making class party, so my personal contribution on that day was blowing up 40 balloons in the evening (it works, right?) Somewhere along the line, the event acquired the name "Fun Day" (cough, Alia and Ami), which the other six of us found hilarious. In the end, the day came together amazingly. There were sack races, three-legged races, games of musical chairs, tug-of-war games, signing of banners, dance parties, an exhibit from Alia's after-school art program, football (soccer) games, and free chungwa (oranges) and peanuts. The kids had tons of fun, although I would argue that their American teachers enjoyed themselves even more. It was amazing how easily pleased the Tanzanian children are - such simple events made them happy beyond belief.

Signing the banners. There was one for us to take back to the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke, and one to leave at Arusha School.

LTP Final Exhibition

On Friday, our last day in Arusha, the LTP Final Exhibition began. We spent much of Thursday taping all of our students' LTP projects to the outside walls (in a covered area) of a local cultural cafe called Via Via (also one of our favorite dinner and music venues). The exhibition ran both Friday and Saturday. All were welcome, although all the teachers and students at the six schools at which we taught were particularly encouraged to come, and multiple education and government officials were also in attendance. The turnout on Friday was great, and it was wonderful to see all the positive reactions to the programs. I think we all have high hopes for the continuance of LTP teaching in Arusha and beyond.

In the end, we calculated that throughout our two months in Arusha, we taught over 750 students (not counting after-school programs). In the midst of lots of goodbye tears, hugs, and kisses exchanged with those who had become so special to us during our two months in Arusha, the eight of us reflected on how meaningful, life-changing, and unforgettable our time there had been. Many of us, including myself, agreed that there's no way we won't return at some point.

It's been an amazing ride so far.

Article in the Arusha Times about the LTP exhibit.

One last group picture, taken at the exhibition.

Mt. Kilimanjaro, above the clouds. I took this picture at about 6 AM on my flight from Kilimanjaro Airport to Nairobi.

The End of Book-Making

2008-07-27T13:25:00.003+03:00

I have arrived in London safely, but there is still so much to say about Arusha. On Tuesday, I wrapped up my after-school book-making class. In the end, the class ran for about two and a half weeks, and seventeen students received completed books. Each book included their final draft of the story (I corrected each student's first draft), illustrations, a title page, dedication, "About the Author" page, and cover. The cover of each book was laminated and they were spiral-bound with a sheet of plastic on the back as well. It cost about Tsh 4000, or US $3.33, for each book. This is something that the kids would normally have no opportunity to do - for one thing, structured after-school programs are nonexistent, and secondly, there is no money available. I was amazed how, day after day, my students showed up at 3:30 and stayed until 5:30 or 6 PM working on their books. My most dedicated students produced books as long as 20 pages - their dedication and desire to learn was truly remarkable.

To end the class, I threw a party for all the students who completed their books on Tuesday. I ordered a cake that said "Congratulations on your Books," brought Coke to drink, and gave each student their book as well as a certificate of completion. It took me about 20 minutes to get all the students who weren't in the class out of the room, and then we ate cake while I presented each student with his or her book and certificate. After that we went outside to take pictures (thanks, Kaitlin) and finally just spent some time hanging out instead of working. One remarkable thing that happened during the party was that all the students waited patiently, with their hands in their laps, until each and every student was served cake. It still amazed me to see that there is absolutely no sense of entitlement among these students.

To all who donated money for this trip, thank you SO much. Even after using money for the book-making class, Fun Day at Arusha School (more on that later), and incidental LTP expenses, I was able to leave about Tsh 660,000 (US $550), to pay for a central location for LTP supplies so that teachers in Arusha can continue the visual learning program we've started.

Teaching in Swalinglish

2008-07-21T13:39:00.003+03:00

On Tuesday, July 15, the LTP team began teaching at three government schools in Arusha: Themi Primary, Uhuru Primary, and Naura Primary. Whereas Arusha School, Shalom Primary, and St. Joseph's Secondary were English medium schools, the three schools at which we are now teaching are Swahili medium schools. Although the students take English classes, they speak very little functional English. As a result, my rudimentary Swahili skills have been getting an intense workout, but I've been pleasantly surprised that I really haven't had much trouble communicating with my students.

For this final stage of our LTP teaching, I am paired with Lindsay and Baldeep at Themi Primary School. From Tuesday to Friday of last week, we taught a standard 4 class (about age 10), a standard 6 class (about age 12), and a standard 7 class (about age 13). The standard 4 class was learning how to tell time (English time, because there is a different time system in Swahili), so we did a project about daily activities. The students photographed their activities at certain times of the day (for example, brushing teeth at 6:30 AM, going to school at 8:00 AM, etc.) and made posters that included the time, the accompanying picture, and a drawing of clock. Standard six photographed pictures representing English adjectives, and standard seven (which is currently learning about postcards) used their photos to create and write postcards to a "friend" in America. In the week that I'm home between the cruise and my semester abroad, I'm hoping to find an eighth-grade class to respond to the students' postcards.

Standard four students work on their time-telling posters.

Our standard four teacher at Themi helps her students with their poster.

On Thursday, Alia, Ami, Kaitlin, and I went back to our form 3 class at St. Joseph's (girls' secondary school) so that our students could present their misemo projects. We were extremely impressed with the students' final work, and their presentations were the best we've seen yet. In general, we've observed that students here are highly timid about speaking in English, especially in front of groups. It was wonderful to observe the existence of some viable leadership skills, especially among young women. When we left their class for the last time, we spent at least a half hour exchanging contact information and notes with the girls, and as we walked towards the door we were smothered in hugs and kisses.

A form 3 student presents her group's misemo project.

Part of one group's misemo project.

Our after-school projects at Arusha are coming to an end as well, and my book-making class has certainly been feeling the time crunch. My students must finish their books today, so towards the end of last week my students were staying (voluntarily, as always) for upwards of two and a half hours each afternoon working on their stories, illustrations, cover pages, dedication pages, title pages, and "About the Author" pages (each of which includes a photograph of the student author). The finished products are books with a laminated cover, spiral binding, and plastic back-cover. My students are between the ages of 10 and 13, and some of the books are twenty pages long. Although it has been exhausting to teach the class, grade the papers, and assemble the books all on my own, the book-making class has easily been one of my most fulfilling experiences here. When students are willing to stay for hours after school just to learn and be creative, how can you deprive them of resources and instruction? Even as I type, some government education officials are standing behind me, flipping through a few of the finished books and thanking me for the work I've done here. We've received an extremely warm welcome and a lot of support from the government, which has been very helpful in making our project successful and sustainable.

My book-making students working diligently.

My youngest book-making student decided to write this on the blackboard - I thought it was adorable.

Because this past weekend was our last one here, much of it was spent running around accomplishing lots of "leaving soon" tasks. We also had a batik art workshop on Saturday with Pelle and some friends of his, during which each of us spent about 7 hours completing a small piece of batik artwork. It was fun and interesting, and of course the final product makes a great souvenir. My batik was of two giraffes (because I've fallen in love with them), but the picture itself was traced from a calendar (because I completely lack artistic ability).

The batik workshop.

It's hard to believe that I have less than five days left in Tanzania. Between teaching three standard 3 classes at Themi, finishing my book-making class, preparing for the LTP Exhibition on Friday, and a whole host of other things, it's going to be an absolutely insane five days. At around 3 AM on Saturday, I'll be off to London...

Shalom Primary and St. Joseph's Secondary Schools

2008-07-14T13:54:00.003+03:00

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week, the eight Duke students taught at Shalom Primary School (ages 7 to 14) and St. Joseph's Secondary School (ages 14 to 21). Both are private, English-medium schools.

Shalom Primary School

I taught mainly at St. Joseph's, so I only taught at Shalom on Wednesday. Lindsay, Minette, Baldeep, and Michelle taught all three days at Shalom. Their class was made up of about thirty children of mixed ages, from standard three to standard seven. There, the children completed a reading photographs activity and a self-portrait project. Shalom is by far the nicest school we have encountered here - the classrooms are clean and all have electrical outlets, the teachers are well-dressed, and the children seem happy and are well-contained. This situation inspired a great deal of conversation about the sort of tug-of-war between schools where we can teach most effectively versus schools that need us the most. When we teach at schools where students come from more affluent families, the students generally can better understand when we teach in English. However, we feel drawn to helping the more economically disadvantaged sector of the population, where the communication barrier creates much more difficulty and thus we cannot use our teaching time as effectively. I don't think there is a real solution to this issue in the timeframe in which we're working, but we've resolved it mainly by teaching in schools that are all over the economic spectrum.

^A student at Shalom learns about framing.

^Shooting self-portraits at Shalom.

St. Joseph's Secondary School

I taught with Alia, Ami, and Kaitlin at St. Joseph's Secondary School on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. St. Joseph's is an all-girls' Catholic school that is run by nuns who live in a convent next to the school. One of the sisters from St. Joseph's came to the second LTP workshop, and due to her enthusiasm about the program we were able to establish connections with English teachers there. The school is very neat and well-run, and we observed an upbeat and positive atmosphere in the time we were there. We taught both form one (ages 14-15) and form three (ages 16-17) . The creativity and clarity in our students' writing in the reading photographs exercises as well as the results of the Misemo project that standard three completed were absolutely remarkable, and it was a truly enjoyable experience.

My name is Brian. I'm ten years old. I live in New York City in America. I'm the last born in our family. My parents are business people, and my brother is a policeman. I am studying at Victoria Academy School in standard three. Our family is good in life.

But one thing that I won't forget in my life is that day when my parents died in an aeroplane accident. They were traveling, going to Paris. On the way, the pilot had been confucing (sic) with the air hostess... now he couldn't manage to survive with the aeroplane and it was too cold in the sky. Now the flight fell down.

That aeroplane fell down on the big ocean of water. All the people died including my parents, but only two of them survived in the accident. The day when my parents died I was in the class. Now our class teacher Madam Ami told us that there was a very dangerous accident, happened yesterday evening of an aeorplane. All the people died but two of them survived. On my mind I think that my parents died. That day I cried very much. My brother John told me that it's true, our parents have passed away. They are not again in this world. Since that day our life with my brother was very poor.

My brother started sick, then he died. I was very lonely. Nobody could help me with anything. And nobody could pay for my school fees. And our house was cold with our relatives. My relatives abandoned me. They said that they can't stay with me again.

From that day I couldn't manage to go to school again. My education ended there. Since that day I was a street boy walking here and there borrowing some money. One day, it was a Sunday morning walking, I passed on the road and saw many children playing there. I joined with my friends and I was picking up some pieces of boxes. I was wearing a white shirt, black shorts and black shoes.

-One form one student's writing in the reading photographs exercise (edited slightly). The students were each given a photograph of a scene from a 1950's American city, which included a number of people walking and talking on the sidewalk in the background and a group of young boys playing with debris in the foreground. The students were asked to pick one person in the picture and write a creative story about that person in the first person.

^Shooting the Misemo project at St. Joseph's.

^Students at St. Joseph's admire their work.

After-School Book-Making Class

This week, I also started teaching an after-school book-making class on my own at Arusha Primary School. I'm working with a small group of about ten standard six students (ages 11 to 13ish) for up to two hours each afternoon. The students come on a completely voluntary basis, and are writing their own stories in English (a paragraph at a time). I correct their stories for them each night, and they are making illustrations as they go along. I'm hoping that they will be able to reach their final products by the end of this week, which will be books that they make by re-writing their text neatly on white paper and placing their illustrations to go along with their text. We're hoping to have a small exhibition of all the work accomplished in the after-school programs early next week.

^Hard at work in book-making class.

The Weekend

This weekend was our second-to-last here in Arusha. We did a good deal of shopping, went out one night to a local restaurant/bar/dance club, and just generally enjoyed being here. During this week and half of next week, we are teaching in primary government schools. While students there have English classes, the schools are Swahili-medium and the students understand a minimal amount of English. More to come on that later!

^A performance by a what we called a "zebra gymnastics" group that we saw on Friday night.

^The group minus Baldeep, who was playing photographer.

The Safari

2008-07-11T10:13:00.007+03:00

Sorry it has taken me so long to update about our safari this past weekend - it has been a busy week! We left at 8 AM on Saturday and drove about two hours to our sort-of hotel. Between the six of us (Alia, Ami, Baldeep, Minette, Michelle, and I, because Lindsay and Kaitlin went to the Serengeti), we had four rooms. Each one had a small room with a queen-ish size bed and a bathroom with a small sink, "squatter" toilet, and a shower. The beds had a sheet on the mattress and we were each provided a blanket. Amazingly, there was even running hot water, and the food made for us by the chefs was delicious.

After checking in, we left for Lake Manyara National Park. We spent four or five hours standing and poking our upper bodies out of the roof of our safari car, looking at the beautiful landscape and wealth of wildlife. We saw baboons, elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, lions, impala, warthogs, elephants, wildebeast, various monkeys, dikdik, flamingos, buffalo, mongoose, toucans, some kind of huge lizard, and lots of different birds. It was TONS of fun. As we drove, we were constantly on the lookout for huge clouds of dust blowing into our faces and branches of trees with huge thorns hanging dangerously close to our faces. Our driver, Justin (he works for Pelle), did a wonderful job of finding lots of wildlife and being patient with our somewhat ridiculous excitement and need to take pictures of absolutely everything.

The next day (Sunday), we visited Ngorongoro Crater. First, we went to a gorge near the crater. We visited a Maasai village that is open to tourists (for a fee of course). The Maasai men and women performed traditional songs and dances for us, and then of course showed us to a display of traditional crafts for us to buy. Later, we visited a museum overlooking the site where the oldest human remains were found and listened to a talk about the discovery and significance of the remains. Finally, we drove out of the gorge and down into the massive crater. Ngorongoro Crater was formed from the collapse of the top of an extinct volcano. Within it we saw similar wildlife to that of Lake Manyara, plus hyenas, ostriches, and a rhinocerous (although it was too far away to us to really even tell what it was). We even saw two lions mating (through our binoculars, of course)!

Monday was Saba Saba (Seven Seven, or 7 July), which is a national holiday in Tanzania. We visited Tarangire National Park and went on yet another driving safari - seeing the landscape and wildlife never gets old. At one point, we stopped the car in a spot with a group of about fifteen baboons on one side and a herd of impala on the other. The baboons were as close as about four feet from the car, and we sat there for about twenty minutes just watching them interacting with each other (chasing each other around, babies clinging to their mothers, climbing a tree, playing, screeching, etc). It was an amazing experience.

We returned to Arusha at about 5 PM on Monday, exhausted, covered in dust, and completely content. Enjoy the pictures!

^Giraffes and zebras at Lake Manyara.

^Impala

^Look closely... lion in a tree at Lake Manyara

^Zebra, wildebeast, and a zillion flamingos (the pink line at the top) at Lake Manyara

^LTP! Although standing on the safari car probably wasn't the best idea.

^The obligatory group pic.

^Ostrich at Ngorongoro

^Our lunch spot in Ngorongoro Crater.

^Maasai men and women performing traditional songs and dances. The mp3 file I recorded with my iPod is much more impressive than this picture.

^Zebras and wildebeast at Ngorongoro. Apparently they get along well.

^The side of Ngorongoro Crater.

"Upside-down trees." Notice how it looks like the roots are in the air. The legend says that God got mad (I forget why), uprooted the tree, and threw it back to Earth upside-down.

^A common scene - cattle crossing the road on the way home.

LTP on the DukeEngage Website

2008-07-11T10:02:00.003+03:00

I was recently notified that the staff of DukeEngage (the program at Duke that is funding our LTP project here in Tanzania) selected a picture of me with children at Arusha Primary School to use as the main photo on the DukeEngage website for a few weeks. Yay for great LTP publicity! To see it, visit
http://dukeengage.duke.edu/

LTP Teacher Workshops, Round Two

2008-07-04T13:57:00.006+03:00

On Monday through Thursday of this week, we held another round of LTP teacher workshops. The difference this time, though, was that there were about forty teachers in attendance instead of eight. Katie, Elena, and Wendy ran the workshops while we students came at specific times each day to help train the teachers in planning and shooting as well as to discuss in detail their plans for using LTP in their individual classrooms. Throughout the four days, the teachers participated in various classic LTP assignments including reading photographs, the alphabet project, and the dreams project. They used digital, film, and Polaroid cameras. Like during the first workshops, we were visited by some local press. In June, a photo from the workshop was printed in a local paper (the Arusha Times) and this time, an article was printed in ThisDay. The author of the article was clearly confused about a few aspects of LTP, but it was certainly publicity in a positive light. I'll work on getting the newspaper stuff posted on here.

Despite a lot of struggles with the language barrier, the teachers were clearly excited about using LTP in their classrooms. Many of them attended LTP workshops that were held here in Arusha last year, and all of the teachers in my group had used LTP in some way in their classroom since then. I asked one of my teachers how doing an exercise with photographs in his classroom had gone, and he answered, "It was fantastic." Most of them see resources as the largest barrier to implementing LTP on a larger scale, which is certainly a valid concern considering many of the government school teachers have over 100 children in their classes at one time. At the end of the workshop, the each teacher filled out a survey to indicate how we can best help him or her make teaching LTP a reality in his or her classroom.

Also, on Wednesday through Friday of this week, we continued teaching at Arusha School but we taught new classes and switched around our teaching groups a bit. Minette and I taught a standard five class (ages 10 and 11) and did a dreams project. On Wednesday, we did a reading photographs exercise in which we handed out pictures of previous LTP students' dreams and asked our students to first list details in their picture, then write about what the photographer's dream might have been. On Thursday, they drew a picture of a dream they had had and then went out in groups of five or six students (with one of us teachers) to take pictures of their dreams using film cameras. Finally, today, we returned their photos and asked them to write about their dream, their photo, and the connection between the two.

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for a safari during which we will visit, among other things, the Ngorongoro Crater and the oldest-found human remains (did you know that was in Tanzania?). Lots of pictures to come next week!

Oh, and happy July 4. It's more than a little strange to imagine the hamburger-eating and fireworks-shooting that is going on in America as we continue our work here.

The LTP teacher workshop, taken on the final day (Thursday). On the wall behind the teachers are their alphabet project posters, which have subjects including English, Swahili, Civics, Geography, Social Studies, and Science.

One of the teachers in my group shooting a photo with a film camera.

Me with part of my group of teachers examining some photos we took on a digital camera.

Baldeep showing a group of standard six students how to use the digital camera.

One of my standard five students shooting his dream photograph.

A group of my standard five students discussing the best background, frame, and point of view for a student's dream photo.

Why Tanzanian Children Are Amazing...

2008-07-03T12:32:00.006+03:00

...a few pictures, taken while we were playing with some of the youngest children at Arusha School. The reason they're so good is because Kaitlin took them :)

Entry for the LTP Blog

2008-07-03T11:48:00.008+03:00

You might have noticed that on the right side of the screen, I put the web address of the LTP blog (www.literacythroughphotography.wordpress.com). Each one of the DukeEngage students was assigned a specific week to write an entry for the blog while we're here in Tanzania, and my week was week four (this past week). The end of last week marked the halfway point of our trip. I'm going to cheat a little bit and re-post that entry here.

Reflections on Week Four, by Hilary Robbins
The week leading up to the halfway point of our trip was somewhat complicated by midterm testing at Arusha School, but we still accomplished a great deal. Besides being our second week of teaching LTP at Arusha School, this week was also the second and final week of our homestays. It was the first week in which we held after-school activities, and it brought the arrival of Wendy, Kaitlin, and Michael. For many of us, this week was the one in which we began to feel less like we were simply visiting here and more like we were living here. As we become more comfortable communicating in this culture, our work here is becoming more efficient, productive, and meaningful.

Standard Seven (Hilary, Minette, and Michelle)
On Monday afternoon of this week, all seven DukeEngage students worked with our class of standard seven students on a project about misemo, which are Swahili proverbs. The students worked in pairs and each pair chose a misemo, then planned and shot photographs to illustrate that misemo. On Thursday and Friday, the students wrote stories from their pictures and created artistic displays of their misemo.

We were extremely pleased with the progress our class had made since their first LTP project, which was a review for their science midterm exams. The first clear sign of improvement was that unlike in the first project, the students were able to formulate a clear plan for their photographs and draw it on paper. Secondly, I noticed a marked difference in the students’ leadership skills while shooting their photos. They were much more confident in speaking up about their preferences and about making decisions concerning framing, perspective, and other aspects of their photos. Finally, the students’ post-shooting writings were much improved from the science project.

A student in standard seven shooting her picture.

A standard seven student’s misemo project. Her misemo, “Mambo mazuri, hayataki haraki,” translates roughly to “good things should not be hastened.”

Once upon a time, there was a small village. In that village there was one family which was very poor. All the people in the family were weak. On day while the father was walking to the market, he met a very rich man. The rich man asked, “How are you?” The poor man answered, “I’m fine.” Then each proceeded with the walk. When the poor man reached the market people were gossiping. One of the people told the poor man, “I can see you need help. Here is a man who is very good at helping people.” The old man ran back to look for the rich man, but the rich man was not there. The poor man went back home and told his wife, “I met a very rich man who can help us. But maybe until then I will sell my daughter.” “What?!” the mother shouted, “You can’t sell my child. Even if I die, don’t do this because you just want to be rich. I can’t accept that.” At that time, the child came and said to her mother, “Mother your love is so sweet, I can’t have enough of it.” The father was ashamed of what he did.
-Another student’s misemo story. Her misemo stated, “Penzi la mama tamu, haliishi hamu.” Roughly translated, “A mother’s love is so sweet, one cannot have enough of it.”

Standard Five (Baldeep and Lindsay)
Monday evening brought the arrival of Wendy, Kaitlin, and Michael, so we had a breakfast meeting on Tuesday to welcome them and bring them up to speed with the projects we had accomplished. That afternoon, Lindsay and Baldeep’s standard five students made presentations on their science projects from the previous week. Later in the week, all eight students (now including Kaitlin) worked with the standard five class so that those students also got a chance to do the misemo project.

Standard Three (Ami and Alia)
The original plan for standard three on Wednesday was for that class to complete the misemo project as well. However, we quickly realized (and should have predicted) that the misemo project requires a level of thinking way beyond that of most eight-year-olds. After a quick change of plans, we decided to create a photographic portrayal of one of the kids’ favorite songs. The song essentially tells the story of someone who eats a rotten peanut and has to have a surgical operation, to the tune of “Clementine.” Until completing this activity, the standard three children had really struggled with the concept of taking a picture of an idea, but doing this simple exercise seemed to be really helpful. Later in the week, the class used their photographs from the peanut song to create artistic displays of the song.

“I found a peanut, I found a peanut, I found a peanut just now
I found a peanut, I found a peanut, I found a peanut just now.
…I broke it open… just now.
…It was rotten… just now.
…I ate it anyway… just now.
…My stomach’s paining… just now.
…Call the doctor… just now.
…Doctor’s coming… just now.
…Operation… just now.
…Thank you doctor… just now.
…Bye bye doctor… just now!”
-The Peanut Song

One pair’s photograph of “Operation!”

After-School Activities
Also this week, a few of us started teaching after-school activities. Alia made posters to advertise the time and location of the activities, which consisted of the following: Alia’s art class (drawing, coloring, and painting), Michelle’s photography/art class (using photographs to make art projects), Lindsay’s dance class, Kaitlin’s school newspaper, and my singing class. Ami, Baldeep, and Minette provided much-appreciated teaching and “crowd-control” assistance where needed. Students showed up in droves, and we later came to the conclusion that it was probably because they are rarely offered the opportunity to participate in structured activities outside of the classroom.

All in all, this week was successful and encouraging. We’ve continued to observe that the children here immensely enjoy using photography as an outlet for their somewhat-neglected creativity, and we feel that our after-school activities have added a lot to the impact we’re making.

The posters Alia made to advertise our after-school activities.

Two of Alia’s art students shading with pastels. She decided to hold class outside on a particularly beautiful afternoon.

Artwork by a student in Michelle’s art class.

Teaching, Week Two

2008-06-27T13:35:00.000+03:00

This week, the LTP team collaborated as a group on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to do projects with classes 7D, 5B, and 3B, respectively. With 7D and 5B we took photographs representing Swahili proverbs called misemo. On Thursday, the 7D students wrote stories that showed the importance of the misemo they had photographed, and today in class they used their photographs and stories to create an artistic display of their misemo.

Also this week, a few of us started teaching afterschool programs. Alia and Michelle are teaching two separate art classes, Lindsay is teaching dance, and I've been teaching songs in English. The kids really enjoy having somewhat structured activities after school - it is for the most part a new concept for them.

1) One group's results of the "French Verbs" project that a few of us did with 3B last week. They learned the French words for to swim, to walk, to jump, to fly, and to dance.
2) One pair's Misemo project from 7B.
3) The poster Alia made for my singing class.
4) View of Mt. Meru from near my homestay.

The Day of Infinite Mud

2008-06-27T12:27:00.001+03:00

This past Saturday, June 21, we went on a "walking safari" around Mt. Meru. We were under the impression that we would spend just a few hours hiking through Masai villages and what not. I think I've mentioned that one common theme throughout this trip has been a constant sense of confusion - not once have we actually understood what exactly is going to happen when we head out for a day trip of any kind. So on Saturday, we met in town at 10:30 AM and set off together following our guide. Once we reached the rural areas, it became clear that we were going to spend the duration of the hike slipping and sliding in the mud due to the many rainy days in Arusha recently. We "hiked" (slid) uphill through village after village until around 1:30, at which point we stopped on the side of a large hill to eat our boxed lunches with a beautiful view of Arusha.

After lunch, our guide headed not back downhill as we expected but continued up the incline. Soon we were hiking through dense jungle-like foliage up a very steep incline, mostly staying in a kind of two-feet-deep mud-ditch that appeared to run the length of the mountain. Every two minutes or so someone would slip and go flying down into the mud, and as fits of laughter ensued most of us were soon covered in mud. Eventually, we all started wondering exactly why we were still heading uphill, and someone near the front questioned our guide. Word was passed through the line that we were heading to some kind of forest where we might see monkeys, which we would reach in 30-45 more minutes (we decided that this would probably translate into at least two or three hours). About five minutes later, though, word was passed down the line that we were turning around because we had come upon an impassable area full of killer ants. Make no mistake - the ants here are no ordinary ants. Any object or body part that disturbs them will be viciously attacked, and it is no easy task to remove even one of the little devils.

So, we turned around. Seeing as it was almost impossible to go uphill in the mud, you can imagine what it was like going down. The mud-ditch became a sort of slide, down which half of the group was sliding on their rear ends in a kind of train. We were laughing hysterically until we all unknowingly charged through a patch of stinging nettles, which resulted in a chorus of "OWW!"'s as our line moved through. After eventually reaching the bottom of the hill, we continued (seemingly aimlessly) on uphill terrain similar to that on which we had originally set out. At some point we deduced that we were heading toward a waterfall, and after a few hours we reached it. The hill going down to the base of the falls was the steepest we had encountered yet, but seeing as we were already covered in mud it really made no difference. With the help of giant walking sticks we slid down the incline and hung out at the bottom of the falls for a while.

On the way home, we (understandably, I think) elected to take a town bus back to Pelle's store as soon as we reached civilization. This cut out a good chunk of the hike home, and we arrived around 6 PM - covered in mud, exhausted, but definitely smiling. It sure is a good thing that everyone in our group has a sense of adventure.

1) A Masai hut with some kids (they were yelling "wazungu!") in one of the Masai villages we passed.
2) The view of Arusha and its surroundings from our lunch spot.
3) Minette and Shah sliding down the mud-ditch... hilarious.
4) Me at the base of the waterfall. Somehow, I was one of the two cleanest people at the end of the day... probably because I was avoiding getting one of my only three pairs of pants dirty at all costs.
5) Most of the group at the base of the waterfall.

Mimi ni mwalimu!

2008-06-19T14:30:00.000+03:00

(I'm a teacher!)

Finally, on Monday, we started what we came here to do: teaching. Michelle, Minette, and I are working with a math & science class of thirty-two students in standard 7 (about 12-13 years old). On Monday, we entered our class at 8 AM and introduced ourselves and our program ("Literacy Through Photography" has somehow become called "Learning Through Photography" as we've been working with the Tanzanian teachers, but it works). We began, as is usual in LTP, with a "reading pictures" exercise. We asked the students to get into groups and gave them each a picture to examine. They first listed details that they saw and then wrote a story in first person, pretending that they were a person or object in the picture. All of this proved to be somewhat of a challenge - as the week progressed, we slowly realized that students here are rarely asked to be creative at all. They mainly learn what the teacher asks them to or what is in the book. Eventually, though, most of them managed to complete a short writing about the picture.

On Tuesday, we did a 80-minute special project with a standard 3 (around age 9) French class. There are 35 high-energy students in this class, and we really weren't sure what we were going to do with them. Luckily their regular French teacher showed up to help us (that has been rare) and told us that she had planned to teach a few French verbs that day: walk, jump, swim, fly, and dance. We then divided the class into four groups and used Polaroid cameras to take pictures to illustrate the five verbs. It was really cool - by the end of class, all the students seemed to have the verbs down pat.

On Wednesday, we had a total of four forty-minute periods to work with our standard seven class. During the first two, we divided the class into five groups and asked each group to come up with a list of six important concepts under their blanket topic (the five topics were circulatory system, endocrine system, skeletal system, first aid, and family planning + HIV/AIDS). Most groups went straight to their books and copied "important" sentences, so we spent quite a while helping the kids try to think of their topics more holistically so that they could think of six very important things on their own. After that, we asked them to think of a way to represent their concepts with a photo and to draw a sketch. This also proved to be a huge challenge, and in the end we found that we would be better off just going out to shoot and brainstorming along with the kids.

During the second two periods on Wednesday, our standard 7 class did all of their photo shooting. Most of our LTP DukeEngage group came to help us that day, so small groups of 2 or 3 students worked with one LTP teacher at a time. We've realized that this is the best way to do shooting - the kids can work together but they receive personalized instruction on the technical aspects of setting up pictures and using the camera. Finally, we were able to get most of the kids to think more creatively about how to represent their concepts, although with some groups we had to make a lot of suggestions during brainstorming. The kids seemed to have a great time directing their friends while setting up their pictures as well as learning how to use the cameras (framing, zoom, etc).

On Thursday morning, we gave the five groups in standard 7 the pictures they had taken. After allowing them to spend some obligatory time laughing at the pictures, we asked them to take one picture (each student had a picture they did not take) and write a story that showed the important of the concept that that picture illustrated. Then, later that afternoon, we gave the students time to make posters using their photos.

On Friday (today), the each group in standard 7 made a presentation in which each student was required to talk about at least one photo on the poster. Afterwards we had them do a writing describing something they learned from another group's presentation, and we were happy to observe that it seemed like they had actually learned a lot.

Walking into my first class on Monday morning, I was more than a little terrified. For one thing, teachers here for some reason are often not where they are supposed to be. They seem to have a lot going on outside of teaching, and a lot of the time a teacher won't show up for a class that he or she is supposed to teach and the students just kind of sit there... it's pretty much the opposite of America, where the teachers are always there and the kids skip class. The teacher of our standard 7 class was nowhere to be found throughout the days we were teaching, but we found out in the middle of the week that it was because he feared that his presence would hinder the students' creativity (which is a very valid concern). The result, though, was of course that we were on our own with thirty-two 12- and 13-year-olds.

Very quickly, however, I realized that I had little to worry about. From the beginning, the kids respected us a lot. They were very quiet during our first class, and I was a bit worried that they didn't like us at all. As soon as I said "class dismissed," however, they all came running up to the front of the room to ask us questions about ourselves and America and to get our contact information. In a way, the students are "trained" to do very specific things during class time - when we enter the room, they all stand up and simultaneously recite, "Good morning, teachers." Throughout the week, however, we succeeded in getting them to open up and become more creative while working with them. After our presentations today, the entire class decided to stay in the classroom and play "Heads Up, 7-Up" with us during their 30-minute tea break.

The enthusiasm I have observed in the students at Arusha School - kindergarten all the way up to standard seven - is remarkable. I was afraid that, because I am working mainly with 12- and 13-year-olds, my students would act like they were too "cool" for us or something to that effect. I've observed the exact opposite, though. They respected our instructions during class but also love spending time talking and playing with us - many wrote little notes to us on their writings about how they love us and are excited to be our friends. They show so much potential, and I only wish that they all had the same opportunities that I had as a child.

1) Me with some kids I worked with in standard 3. I helped Alia and Ami with a project they did on the five senses - we were the "taste" group, so we're pretending to be eating.
2) Two of my standard 7 students shooting a photo. They were in the "First Aid" group.
3 and 4) Standard 7 students putting together their final posters.
5) The finished product of the family planning & HIV/AIDS group. Each group did a short presentation during which each student had to explain one of the pictures on the poster.

The Hair Transformation and Homestay

2008-06-19T12:51:00.000+03:00

So, I'm majorly behind on my blog posts (for various reasons). Sorry about that.

First off, it is COLD here! It's been cloudy, rainy, and cold, which is definitely not the picture I had in my head of equatorial Africa. My warmer clothes have definitely gotten a workout lately. We have to handwash and line-dry everything, which has been interesting when I'm constantly trying to wear the same clothes.

On Sunday (June 15), Alia, Michelle and I got our hair braided into a million tiny little braids at a hair salon in Arusha. Despite the fact that we had three women working on us (one working on each of us), it took from 9 AM to 1:30 PM (with no breaks) for them to finish. They tried to singe the ends of the braids to close them, but it didn't work on our hair. Then they tried tape, but that didn't work either. So in the end, all of us ended up with a million tiny little colorful rubber bands holding our braids. We look pretty ridiculous. It's been really nice not to have to wash my hair though, because later on Sunday evening we moved in with our homestay families.

My homestay mom is named Mama Mgaya, and I just call her "Mama" (as is custom here). She is probably the sweetest person I have ever met, and an amazing cook to boot. She runs a little restaurant under a tarp right outside her house. Each morning when I come downstairs around 7:15, breakfast (usually some combination of eggs, crepes, doughnuts, and bananas) and coffee are waiting for me on the table. When I return in the evening around 6, she makes me dinner and forces me to keep eating until my stomach is about to explode. I told her that everyone in America is going to be shocked when I return from Africa fatter than when I left (but seriously, it's going to happen). Her youngest son, who is 19, is in secondary school and still lives with her, and her sister arrived from Zanzibar last night. At the end of dinner last night I attemped to exclaim, "I'm full!" in Swahili ("Nimeshiba!"), but I managed to pick the wrong verb and instead exclaimed, "Nimechoka!" (I'm tired!). Mama and her sister were pretty amused by that. She keeps telling me, "I'm your mama now! You're my daughter! This is your home!" It's so sweet, and I really do feel at home and comfortable. There is running water but it's freezing cold, so I bathe at night with a bucket of hot water - that's why it's been nice to have my hair in braids, because obviously inside the house is just as cold as outside.

Here are the long-awaited (by some at least) pictures of the hair transformation:

"GIRAFFE!!!!!!"

2008-06-16T15:09:00.000+03:00

On Saturday, our LTP group plus a couple of our Tanzanian friends went on a day trip to Arusha National Park, which is less than a half-hour drive from our apartments. We weren't really sure what we were going to do, what we were going to see, what to bring, or what to wear (that's been a reoccuring theme throughout this trip in general.) We took two cars that have tops that can open up so that they become safari cars. About three minutes after we drove through the entrance of the park, I was digging through my bag but looked up when I felt our car slowing down. I looked out the window right beside me and found myself staring a mid-sized giraffe (about 10 feet away from the car) in the face. It was at this point that I had my first very obvious stupid-American moment of the trip - before I could stop it, I yelled very excitedly, "GIRAFFE!!!!" Of course, I was immediately shushed by everyone in my car. Luckily, the windows and top of our car were still closed so the unsuspecting giraffe wasn't subject to my outburst. It simply looked at us calmly, crossed the road in front of us, and went on its way.

Over the course of the next 2-3 hours, we drove through a mountainous, green, lush area in our safari cars. We saw more giraffes as well as zebras, water buffalo, warthogs, water bucks, baboons, Colobus monkeys, and the like. We stopped to eat a boxed lunch overlooking a lake, and also at a lookout point where we could see a large crater below us. After the driving tour, we parked the cars and went on a walking tour. A guide joined us for this part of the trip, and he carried a very large gun with which to protect us from any unruly wildlife (at least I assume this was its purpose). We hiked around for another two and a half hours or so, during which we saw two herds of water buffalo, a few warthogs, and a group of 14 giraffes (mostly from afar). We also stopped at the bottom of a really neat waterfall, and I illegally stole a small volcanic rock from the river below it. The walking tour was in a flat, field-like area (as opposed to the forested mountains we explored during the driving tour). We all agreed that we felt like we had walked right into a scene from the Lion King, and as a result I was singing the entire Lion King soundtrack to myself for most of the hike. I'm pretty sure the guide thought I was crazy.

As we were driving out of the park, we were lucky to come upon a group of baboons, a group of giraffes, and a group of zebras all near each other. Each group then proceeded to cross the road in front of us, and our driver let us get out and stand right next to the car (which, of course, isn't allowed). One of the giraffes started running after it crossed the road - the thundering sound of a cantering giraffe is without a doubt the most awesome thing I've ever heard.

SO COOL. Giraffes are my new favorite animal, and if I didn't feel like I was in Africa before, I definitely do now.

1) The giraffe that inspired my outburst. SO AWESOME.

2) Colobus monkeys in a tree right above our safari car.

3) Me with my roommates sitting above the Ngordoto crater. What looks like the sky in the picture is actually fog.
4) Water buffalo, taken during the walking tour.

LTP Teacher Workshops

2008-06-13T14:57:00.000+03:00

This week, we held LTP teacher workshops on Wednesday, Thursday, and today (Friday). On Wednesday, we did a "reading pictures" and writing exercise. We started with a photograph of an African tribal scene and made a list of all the details we could see in the picture. Then, we did a short writing in which each person pretended to be a person in a picture - essentially, everyone made up a story of the person based on the details in the picture. Then, we did our first LTP-themed activity, which was dreams. We used digital cameras for this exercise, and I was surprised at how difficult it was to teach the teachers to use the digital cameras - it was a pretty new thing for them. First, we a drew a picture of a scene from a dream we remembered, then we went out in groups of four (two teachers and two DukeEngage students in each group) to shoot pictures of everyone's dreams. This was pretty fun and allowed the teachers and students to be creative together. That night, Katie and Elena made prints of the dream pictures using digital camera printers that we brought.

On Thursday (yesterday) morning, we received the prints of our dream pictures and did a writing exercise with them. We then introduced the LTP alphabet theme. My group elected to do a science/math themed alphabet, since both of the teachers I was working with teach math and science. For each letter, A through Z, we came up with a science or math word that was appropriate for the grade levels that they teach (standards 5, 6, and 7). Then, we took a few hours to shoot the 26 photos illustrating different math and science concepts. For this, we used simple 35 mm film cameras. These cameras posed much less of a struggle, and the teachers did well with them. Katie and Elena took the four rolls of film from the four groups to be developed that evening.

Finally, today, we learned about the LTP self-portrait theme. We began by each drawing a simple picture of ourself, and labeling different parts of ourselves that for some reason define who we are. For instance, I labeled my mouth as a part of myself that I use for talking, laughing, and singing - three things that are very important to me. Then, we used this to plan self-portraits that highlighted certain parts of our bodies. One of the teachers I was working with wanted to focus on his legs, so he stood on a huge stump outside the school and we took the picture from below - this perspective made his legs look huge in comparison to the rest of his body. We shot these pictures with Polaroid cameras - by now, the teachers had become much more familiar with framing, shooting, etc. Finally, we received the prints of our alphabet pictures and made posters with captions describing each picture. At the very end of the workshop, we discussed with the teachers a plan for making LTP work in their individual classrooms over the next few weeks.

The most difficult thing about the LTP teacher workshops was probably communication, because there was a wide range of mastery of English among the teachers. All in all, though, they went well. Apart from having the workshops from 8:30 AM to 3 PM every day, we've still been having Swahili lessons from 4-5:30. We usually spend a couple of minutes playing with kids that are outside for recess before the workshops, and they are adorable. I can't wait to start actually teaching in a classroom.

Random Swahili words you will all recognize and enjoy:

simba - lion

rafiki - friend

hakuna matata - There are no worries. The people here like to say this in the street to foreigners, because they know we'll recognize it.

1) Hard at work in the LTP teacher workshops (Alia, Ami, Dija, and two teachers).

2) Shooting Lloyd's self-portrait (his legs looked HUGE!)

3) Two of the teachers admiring the results of one group's alphabet project.

4) Me with a bunch of kids at Arusha School before Swahili class. Lindsay is in there somewhere too, if you look carefully.

Getting Oriented: The First Weekend

2008-06-10T11:26:00.000+03:00

This weekend was mostly free, which was really nice because it gave us a chance to explore and get oriented in a more relaxed setting. On Saturday night we actually went to a restaurant and dance club called Masai Camp with Pele's son Shah and his friend Hillary (they're both 19). That was definitely an interesting and at times hilarious experience. Despite our vast cultural differences and partial language barrier (Shah and Hillary both speak English quite well), we have managed to become good friends with them and have had the kind of conversations that I would have with my friends back at home.

On Sunday, Ami, Alia and I went to the Mt. Meru crafts market, which is between our apartments and town. We had a lot of fun and bought a few things of course - I bought a pretty scarf, two necklaces, a banana-plant art thing, and a tote bag. Everything is really cheap of course, although the vendors usually give us ridiculous initial prices from which to bargain because they assume we're ignorant "wazungu" (foreigners).

We've also had multiple long meetings with Katie and Elena (the LTP faculty members) to discuss our experiences, plan our projects, etc. Yesterday (Monday), we visited Arusha School for the first time. Arusha School is a private school in which all seven students will work for our first two-week-long LTP project. It's an English medium school, so most of the kids there speak at least some English. It will be a good way to ease into teaching before we teach in the government schools, where fewer students will speak English. There are about 700 students in the primary school at Arusha school (grades 1 to 7), and I was pleased to learn that at least in this case the school has reached an almost 50/50 mix of boys and girls. The kids were adorable and were very excited to meet us. They seemed to be amazed by my hair and kept trying to touch it, which was pretty funny with the younger ones.

Later last night, after our Swahili lesson, we tried to cook dinner in one of our apartments. We've been eating out for almost every meal and thought we should learn to be more self-sufficient. Luckily, one of our Tanzanian friends (Dija) was there to help us - unlike most of us, she is a really good cook. We made a vegetable-medley-thing to eat with spaghetti, but the spaghetti mostly turned out to be mush because we tried to make way too much in a not-big-enough pot. Overall, though, it was fun and at least edible. Tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, we'll be holding our first LTP workshops with the teachers with whom we'll be working. Our hope is that the teachers will see LTP as something that will be helpful and can be easily integrated into existing curriculum. More to come!

The pictures:

1 and 2: Our apartment - a few people asked to see pictures of it. The second picture is our sort-of-kitchen.

3: Part of the "alphabet" project that our group worked on to get better acquainted with how LTP works. It's taped to the wall in Katie and Elena's apartment.

4: Some of the group in the classroom at Arusha School where we're having our Swahili lessons.

The First Week

2008-06-07T17:16:00.001+03:00

Hi, everyone! I'm sorry I've been so bad about getting posts up - it's a little difficult. The internet cafe is a little far away from our apartments and we've been pretty busy. We haven't started much of the LTP stuff this week - it's just been a lot of adjusting and getting oriented. We have a 1.5-hour Swahili lesson each day, which I am enjoying a lot. Being able to speak some Swahili is definitely essential to functioning independently here, although most people speak at least a little English. We have someone here in Arusha who has been our main contact and organizer - his name is Pele. We've made some friends through two of Pele's sons (they're 15 year old or so). One of our friends is named Hillary, except he is a guy - we all found that pretty funny. Having Tanzanian friends has been essential as far as our safety and getting oriented to the culture here.

This week, we visited the Arusha Declaration Museum, which is a very simple display of some text, pictures, and items that helped us learn about the basic history of Tanzania. Yesterday, we drove two hours and spent the day at Mt. Kilimanjaro. We drove to the place where people who are going to climb Mt. Kili start hiking, and then we hiked back down to the town where we had met our guide. The hike was about three hours long, and it was really neat. The area is mountainous, green, and lush but the people living there are extremely poor. We visited a couple of waterfalls during the hike, ate lunch, visited a coffee "plantation" (basically a shack and some coffee plants in the woods), and returned to Arusha around 7:30 PM.

We're all slowly adjusting to life in Arusha, but we're having a great time. I'm really looking forward to getting to know some kids when we start teaching - the kids here are really cute. Next week we start LTP workshops with the teachers with whom we'll be working. By the way, if any of you have any questions, feel free to post them on here as comments! I hope you're all doing well.

The group outside of the Arusha Declaration Museum, from left to right: Pele (our contact here in Arusha), Alia, me, Michelle, Baldeep, Lindsay, Minette, Ami, and Pele's son Shahfi. The mural we're standing under was painted by Pele!

Some kids across the street from our apartment -so cute!

Here's a picture I took during our hike around Mt. Kilimanjaro.

We're Here!

2008-06-07T16:39:00.000+03:00

Note - If I write a post on my laptop and post it later, I'll note when I wrote it.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 – 1:00 AM

We’re here! Most of our group arrived in Arusha, Tanzania around 9 PM on Sunday night, with one more student arriving from Bangladesh this morning. Arusha is seven hours ahead of EST, so we’re all still a little jetlagged. The LTP group is made up of seven students and two faculty members for now - another student and the founder of LTP, Wendy Ewald, arrive later.

Our apartments are somewhat rustic, but comfortable. We’re all pretty excited to have both electricity and running water, although the electrical outlets are extremely finicky – some work inconsistently and the others don’t work at all. Today was a pretty relaxed day – we slept in until around 10 and then went out into the town to get some organizational stuff done. We e-mailed our parents at an internet café, withdrew cash from an ATM, bought phones, etc. The internet is reaaaally slow, but I’m really happy that it’s even available.

Our apartments are located on the outskirts of the main town, which seems to be a much poorer area than the town center. Michelle, Alia, and I went for a walk before dinner in the area around our apartments and managed to make a few friends using our very rudimentary Swahili (and only because most of the people we’ve met speak at least a little English). Tomorrow, we will start our Swahili lessons and visit the Arusha Declaration Museum. The following two pictures are two of my favorites that I took today.

The view from our apartment window.

Just a random picture I took a little ways down the street from our apartments.

T minus 20 hours!

2008-06-01T00:00:00.000+03:00

Tomorrow, I’m off to

Tanzania

! I’m flying from Charlotte to Detroit, then to Amsterdam, then to Mt. Kilimanjaro. I depart from Charlotte at 12:40 on Sunday and, if all goes well, I’ll arrive around 11 PM Monday night in

Tanzania

. Most of our group is meeting in Amsterdam, so at least I won’t be alone for two 7-8 hour flights in a row. Packing has been interesting. In the end, I ended up having to bring two suitcases – one full of supplies (I'll try to find some worthy cause to which to donate the suitcase after we get there) and one full of my own stuff.

< The supply suitcase, although unfortunately I can't put any of the film in my checked baggage because the X-ray machines will damage it. Thus, I get to carry all the film in my backpack... woohoo.

Once we get there, we’ll be staying in small apartments except for a two-week homestay with a Tanzanian family. I should have regular internet access in an internet café, which will allow me to update my blog and add pictures (barring any technological difficulties.) I’ll leave you with the following exchange that occurred between my mother and me today – if you know her, it probably won’t surprise you too much.

Mom: Are you excited to leave? Do you want us to play the Lion King or something?
Me: Do you know what "simba" means in Swahili?
Mom: Tiger?
Me: (blank stare)
Mom: Lion? What's the difference, anyway? Oh, tigers have stripes.

Wanawake wamepanda pikipiki kuukuu la pinki.

2008-05-18T21:01:00.000+03:00

(Translation: The women ride the old pink motorcycle. Or something like that.)

Two weeks until I leave for Tanzania! Everything is coming together slowly, and I’m doing a lot to prepare in many ways. For one, I cut off about five inches of my hair last week. By the end of the spring semester it had grown to be pretty long, and long hair is definitely not something I want to deal with in Tanzania and especially not in Costa Rica, where I’ll be doing a lot of hiking, camping, and field research. Right now I’m in Dallas visiting my grandparents and I’ll spend most of next week in Virginia Beach, coming back home for my younger sister’s high school graduation on Friday, May 23. Before I left for Dallas I ordered a whole bunch of stuff online that I couldn’t seem to find in stores near Concord – for example, hydration tablets, water treatment tablets, and an iPod voice recorder.

As many of you know, I sent out an e-mail last week asking for donations from friends and family to buy supplies for the LTP project in Tanzania. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring of good-luck wishes and money that I received from my grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, professors, and others. I can’t even begin to express my gratitude for the fact that I was able to raise $985, which will go an incredibly long way toward making our project more effective and sustainable. I’ll be teaching up to 100 students at a time, and having enough supplies such that they can all take part individually in the process of learning photography and writing is vital. We are also hoping to leave behind supplies and money so that the teachers can continue the program after our two-month stay, and it looks like this is going to be very feasible thanks to you all. I’ve already ordered some extra Polaroid film and will soon order some Kodak photo paper using this money. To everyone who donated, it means the world to me and I love you all. I’ll do my best to post regularly (with pictures) so that you can all see the difference you’re making.

I’ve been trying to spend more time each day (maybe three-ish hours per day) working on learning Swahili with the Rosetta Stone software, and I feel like I’m making some decent progress. Besides learning some basic nouns and verbs, I’ve learned some colors, numbers, and a bit about sentence structure in the present tense (although it’s pretty confusing in general). Some of my favorite words so far? Pikipiki (motorcycle), wanawake (women), buluu (blue), pinki (pink), kuukuu (old, in the sense of an old car), ndizi (banana), and zabibu (grape) are a few. The word for table is meza, which all you Spanish speakers will appreciate, and the word for strawberry is strouberi. In my personal opinion, Swahili is generally much cooler than English. I think I’m going to start giving my pets names in Swahili (watch out, Wentworth [the giant Maine Coon cat]…)

One last thing I’ve been doing to prepare is reading Wendy Ewald’s book, I Wanna Take Me A Picture. Dr. Ewald works at Duke in both the Franklin Center and the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) and will be traveling to work with us in Arusha. She started the Literacy Through Photography program over twenty years ago, and has traveled around the world teaching photography and writing to children. Her book outlines the tenets of the LTP program and has given me a lot of insight not only about strategies for teaching, but also as to how I should think about the process in general. If you’re really interested in learning more about how this all works, I recommend reading this book – it’s very accessible and an enjoyable read as it includes various anecdotes.

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginnings of summer! Maybe next time I’ll be able to write my post in Swahili… (not).

Blogging, Buying, and Learning Swahili

2008-05-13T08:03:00.000+03:00

So, I'm new to this whole blogging thing. I haven't kept a journal or a diary since elementary school, which as some of you know ended in disaster and thus I don't intend on ever doing so again. However, this blog is going to be my way of keeping in touch with family in friends while I travel the world for the next seven months, so I'm going to try to resurrect my diary-writing skills while keeping in mind the important difference that the whole world (or at least that portion of it with internet access) can read what I'm writing.

Today, I sent out an e-mail to a somewhat random selection of my family and friends soliciting donations for the Literacy Through Photography (LTP) project that I'll be working on this summer in Arusha, Tanzania. Once again I have been reminded that my friends and family are absolutely amazing, and it's looking like I'll be able to buy a lot of extra film, cameras, markers, etc etc to take to Arusha. That will make a huge difference, as we already know that some of our main limitations are going to be resources-based. If anyone didn't get that e-mail and would like to make a contribution, feel free to get in touch with me.

Also today, I went on what was probably the most expensive but necessary shopping spree of my entire life. I bought a few things for Tanzania, but mostly stuff for Costa Rica - hiking backpack, ultra-compressible sleeping bag, headlamp, Swiss army knife, dry-fit clothing... you get the idea. Despite the fact that I spent a painful amount of money, I'm not done yet. Preparing for seven months of travel is intense and expensive, but so far I'm having a lot of fun. In my experience, the fact that you're about to embark on some amazing trip doesn't sink in until you start buying and packing. My main worry right now is wondering how I'm going to fit everything into one suitcase for Tanzania. I'm carrying two large-ish laptops to Arusha to help with a project completely unrelated to my own as well as a good deal of supplies for LTP... thus, I've already resigned myself to paying the overweight baggage fee. Life goes on.

The other preparation activity that's occupying my time is my somewhat pathetic attempt to learn Swahili. I purchased the Rosetta Stone software for Swahili, and my plan is to spend a good chunk of time on it every day before I leave. I'm definitely learning a lot, but I'm also pretty confused. There is a disproportionate amount of m's and w's in Swahili (at least in my English-minded opinion), and from what I've gathered you can make at least some verbs plural by sticking a "w" at the beginning of them. Msichana anaruka. The girl jumps. Wasichana wanaruka. The girls jump. Or something like that.

I'm going to close this by tacking on a few paragraphs of a letter that one of the girls on the LTP project wrote for our fundraising letter, so that any of you who want to can get a better idea of what LTP is. Kwaheri! (I think that means goodbye... maybe.)

A little bit about LTP, courtesy of Kaitlin:

LTP is an innovative arts and education program that artist Wendy Ewald developed in 1989 in collaboration with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and the Durham Public Schools. LTP challenges children to explore their world as they photograph scenes from their lives and use their images as catalysts for verbal and written expression. This program has been hugely successful. LTP promotes an expansive use of photography across different curricula and disciplines, building on the information that children naturally possess and connecting them with broader perspectives and ways of communicating. Students furthermore gain new ways of viewing themselves and their communities.

Since 1992, LTP has offered workshops in Durham, attended by artists, photographers, and educators from across the United States and abroad. In 2004, as part of their cultural and educational exchange program, Sister Cities of Durham sponsored the participation of two Tanzanian teachers in a Durham LTP workshop. After returning to Tanzania and creating preliminary LTP projects in their schools, these teachers, along with the NGO Friends of Arusha (the Tanzanian counterpart to Sister Cities of Durham) and the Ministry of Education, invited LTP to provide training in Arusha for 40 elementary school teachers—one teacher from each school in the district. Wendy Ewald and Katie Hyde of Duke University successfully directed this workshop last summer. Teachers recognized the link between LTP and comprehension, composition writing, and improving students’ awareness and ability to explain the world around them.

This summer we will collaborate with teachers in Arusha as we continue to build a local LTP program. In addition to assisting teachers in their classrooms, our group will develop a teacher resource center to provide teachers with supplies such as cameras, film, sample photographs, and books.