Baby Ng'obme (Cow)

This morning we went around to local farms and talked to the people who lived on them to ask them about where they get their resources such as water and wood, how they use them, how they deal with wildlife that comes to their farms and homes, and how they feel about wildlife. We talked to four different households and it was interesting because they all had slightly different opinions and practices. Most have a negative view of wildlife though because they constantly have to fight to keep themselves and their food safe.

It is sad because the government here puts laws into place to keep the wildlife from being harmed but they don't do very much to help the people or give the people the resources to protect themselves and their food. People must use traditional methods (spears, arrows, fire and fences made of bushes) to keep animals away. These methods are not usually very effective.. The people can call in wildlife conservation officers if they want to use more force to scare the animals away but they are forbidden from harming/killing the wildlife in almost all cases. This is unfortunate because it often means that the wildlife will return and do more damage later. All of the people that we talked to said they wished that the conservation officers would keep the animals from coming onto their land in the first place or at least compensate them if their crops were destroyed by wildlife.

The other major thing that struck me is how limited their water supply is here. In this area the main water source are taps that the government has installed. The people have to go there and pay for the water they need. It is $6-7 for 20 liters of water. Also, during the dry season the water supply is even more limited so their are certain times of day designated for people to get water for themselves and other times when they can get water for their livestock. They don't have to get water for their crops because they rely on rainfall for their crops here.

The scariest thing we heard about were the hyenas. The people told us that the hyenas are getting more and more fearless around here. And, because most of the houses are made of sticks and a dirt mixture, the hyenas can dig through the walls to get at livestock and people. Some people use dogs to alert them when hyenas are in the area and scare them away but many people just stay in their houses after dark and hope they aren't bothered.

To counter the hyena stories there was plenty of entertainment at the last house we stopped at. There was a calf there that kept running through the yard, chasing the chickens (kuku) and puppies (umbwa). It would just randomly go gallivanting by and it made it very difficult to pay attention to the people we were talking to. It would get bored of standing, run through the yard, run back when its mom called it and then the process would start all over again. There were also two kids there and they were showing off their puppies to us which was really cute.

Our translator for this whole experience was great. He was from Rhotia (the village here) and had a degree in forestry and beekeeping. He was telling me about his education and his occupation. He said that currently he doesn't have a job (he farms) but the government is meeting to redistribute funds so he expects to have a job again in the next few months. When he works for the government his job is to educate people on how to live sustainably. One way that he will do this is to travel around the area, gather people, and give talks to educate them about what is happening in the world (global warming, etc) and what they can do to help fix and/or prevent environmental problems.

After lunch I picked up my pants from the tailor. After about 45 minutes of adjusting the pants to try to make them fit I just gave up. They were better than at first but they still don't fit right. Also, she ripped a hole in them when she was adjusting the seems. I'm going to try to sell these pants to someone else in camp and I won't go to her again. There is also a man who is a tailor and he's more expensive and slower but it's worth it because he makes his clothes way better.

When we were in class this afternoon I grabbed the front of my computer (the headphone jacks) and it shocked me. It was NOT cool. I was freaked out for about an hour after that.

At dinner I gave Molly, our student affairs manager, the tshirt design I made and found out that I messed up a couple of words. Everyone was laughing at me because apparently one of the staff members misspelled the word for butchered when I asked them. He even spelled it out for me but apparently he just made up one of the words. It is not punda paili. It's punda milia. No one had any idea what paili was. Also, I spilled water all over myself, my chair and the floor so I was just the entertainment for the night :]

Tomorrow we are staying with local people all day. Just me and one other student in a house with a family that doesn't speak english... I'm sure I'll have some great stories tomorrow!