Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 38 through 41 – 5/3-5/6/11

5/3-5/5

These past days have been a blur.  Writing, writing, so much writing in Shem’s tiny office.  I revised everything several times, ask questions and revise again.  At our final Wachezaji meeting Shem clarified format questions and told us which maps to include as appendices.  Our papers must be handed in hard copy by 10pm on the 5^th as well as in soft copy with all of our data too.  At 9 pm I gave in and printed my paper, stapled it all together and put it in the box.  I wish I could say it lightened me but really all I felt was relief that I did not have to sit in Shem’s office any more.  Some people cheered and took pictures when they handed their DR in, all I wanted to do was get away from my computer and watch the stars until my head stopped hurting.  Sitting in the dark on the ground is really not recommended in the African bush so I made do by sitting around the impromptu fire a few students had started in the fire pit close to the chumba.  I was exhausted from writing but I did not go to bed until after 1am. 

Kilimanjaro Bush Camp – Day 41 – 5/6/11

Today did not start very well since I woke up on three different occasions with intense leg cramps. I suppose that is my punishment for not running much while writing my paper.  Well I decided to sleep in (aka read in bed) and did not actually get up until 8 am.  Our DR papers were done but we are not yet finished.  Everyone convened in the chumba and we had an hour long class talking about the community presentations that will occur tomorrow.  After this class we broke into DR groups to begin putting our slide shows together.  Wachezaji hammered out our slideshow by lunch (we included fun pictures we had taken while out in the field so it’s a fun slide show) and had a practice run through at 3 pm with Ernest who is going to serve as our translator tomorrow.  It was surprisingly difficult to adjust our presenting styles to accommodate translation.  We all have done presentations before so when we start we just want to keep talking.  Remembering to stop after every sentence was hard but we worked it out and by 4pm when we did our mock run through for Shem it was mostly smoothed out.  Of course we got comments from Shem after the mock run through which left me just enough time to shower before dinner.  After dinner Wachezaji met again to make the change Shem had recommended to be ready for tomorrow.  It is expected that 100-150 people will be here tomorrow to hear each DR group present.  Members of various government ministries, managers of lodges and sanctuaries, as well as many other local people have been invited and will come.  Each DR presentation is to take 30 minutes: 15 for the group to talk in English, and 15 for the translation to maa (language of the Maasai).  WM somehow got pushed to being the last group to present so we will be waiting around for a while.  Early morning tomorrow so I am off to bed.