Allison Prokop's Blog

15 December 2009

allisonprokop — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:04:15 +0000

And we made it out of Cairo alive! We did all the tourist-y things, the museum, the Citadel, Pyramids (which are freaking huge, and people climb all over them), Kahn al-Kahlili Baazar, etc.

We managed to catch the Pyramids at sunset (we didn’t realize a Wonder of the World closed at 4pm) for just long enough to take a million pictures, get harassed by men on camels and horses trying to give us tours, and taking ridiculous tourist pictures (i.e. hugging the pyramid, holding it up, eating it, etc.) thanks to a Pyramid guard.

Just holdin' up a pyramid.

It’s hard to believe, after spending the day walking around Athens that we were in Cairo this morning. We packed up and headed to the airport (it was a miracle three people and all our luggage fit into one cab). By 1 pm local time we were in Athens, landing in what looked like a little suburb in the hills of Greece. A very expensive cab ride took us to our little hotel which is in the center of dowtown Monastiraki. After carrying all our bags up 4 flights of stairs we walked around the town, reveling in the fact that we didn’t stick out, no one stared at us, no one shouted at us, and we were considered among the more modestly dressed. The two cities are night and day. The area our hotel is in is filled with little shops, many designer shops too, and a million cafes. It’s a funny area, our hotel is on a pedestrian street, above a little cobblestone square filled with trees and a cafe across the street, there is a quiant little church adjacent to the hotel, stuffed among the citrus trees (which also line the streets and are laden with orange-like fruits). And every so often as you are walking around near the shops, you come out to a small square with a small (like 30 ft by 30ft), anchient church set down in the middle of the square, molding, but outliving he cafes it is surrounded by. And those are all over, you keep thinking you know where you are until you realize that this is ANOTHER 500 year old church.

Oh, yeah, and you can see the Acropolis from the balcony of our room.

And Christmas spirit (something we’ve been missing) is running in the streets here, with every shop window decorated for the holidays and every tree strung with lights. I’m looking forward to Christmas, but it seems likely that with the British Airways strikes (which plan to start the day we were to fly home), we might be spending Christmas here.

11 December 2009

allisonprokop — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:43:23 +0000

We made it to Egypt alive. We got to the Nairobi airport yesterday at 9:00am, said our goodbyes to everyone, and Lauren and I headed to the Ethiopian Airlines ticket counter-where we waited for 3 hours to check in (because it was closed). Finally, around 2 pm we got past security, found the imfamous Java House, had the first real food that wasn’t ugali and cabbage that we’ve had in months! It was delicious.Our flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia was delayed , making us rush to catch the connecting plane to Khartoum, Sudan that was waiting for us. From there, we flew to Cairo, arriving at about 2am this morning. A few hours sleep, we woke up and had the most delicious breakfast compliments of the hotel (which was notably NOT cooked in oil). We spent the morning in the Egyptian Museum checking out King Tut, then wandered around Downtown Cairo until we were too tired to walk anymore. That puts us here, in bed at 5:00pm, looking off our balcony 12 floors up, thinking about ordering in and watching a movie.

7 December 2009

allisonprokop — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:00:48 +0000

I know this is late, and I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted last, so sorry for that! We have been swamped with DR, but today, we finished it all! We had been writing our papers for the last 2 weeks, handing in drafts, then revised drafts, and finally our final papers, mine being 65 pages in total. Ugh. The next day, Saturday, we made powerpoint presentations in preparation for the community presentations that were today. A few practice runs on Sunday brought us to today. Community members, mamas, tribal cheifs and Group Ranch Officials filled the chumba to standing room only. The three DR Groups gave their presentations (on different topics-EP land tenure and land use change, WM-mapping of wildlife zones, WE(mine)- range condition assessment) after a few speeches. After the presentations there were more speeches, because every important person there had to say something.

But anyway- we are now completely done with academics! We pack tomorrow, get grades, do a debrief on Wednesday, drive to NPS, then head to the airport on Thursday morning! Lots of work left to do on the yearbook, will post again soon!

21 November 2009-Loitokitok and the One-legged Bostonian

allisonprokop — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:24:02 +0000

Today was a Non-program Day, and as there’s not too much going on around here, no markets or anything, and since we’re going to Amboseli next week, we went to Loitokitok to spend the day. Some of us went to hike the same ravine we hiked weeks ago, but because I spent all of yesterday and the previous night throwing up, I decided a hike was not in my best interest. I spent the few hours walking in town looking in fabric shops and trying to talk Wilson (the owner of the only small shack of a curio shop on the edge of town) down in price over a few items. We did meet Nick, though, and that was pretty interesting. Tyler and I were walking out of a small grocery store, and we hear “Hey wazungu, where ya from” in a thick, unmistakable, Boston accent. It was coming from a large, one-legged man we initially thought was Indian, but no, he just had a really good tan. We walked over to say hello, and told him that we were from Massachusetts. He was thrilled, and didn’t let go of my hand until he had clearly established that Massachusetts was the best state in America. His name was Nick, and he was from Norfolk. Now Nick, as I said, only has one leg, his large form was perched on a bucket outside of the hardware store (not a far stretch from back in MA) with a bunch of other men. He had short grey hair, and the wettest, brightest blue eyes I’ve ever seen on a human, he looked like he could have been part Husky. He asked about us, what we were doing in Kenya, in his town. We told him, and we found out he was originally from Norfolk, did something was computers but found more pleasure in the umpiring he did around the state. He’s retire now, had married a Kenyan woman, and moved to Loitokitok, where he says he’ll die, since “part of me is already buried here” motioning to what was left of his leg. He knew Sarah, our SAM, and immediately called her on the phone to call her ugly and stupid in his charmingly insulting way. We chatted for a while, talking about all the New England-y things we missed- Maine Lobster, Dunkin’ Donuts, Autumn, and the Red Sox. We bid him farewell amidst many invitations for pizza, hot showers, and a place to stay if we were in the area again. Not long after we found out how Nick lost his leg-he was a smoker, and got gangrene in his foot, and like many other stubborn Bostonians, refused to go to the hospital in Nairobi, resulting in the loss of his whole leg. Note to you stubborn smokers: you’re stupid! We were glad to have met Nick, he certainly brightened our day and made us miss home.

We haven’t been doing much to mention, working every day on Directed Research, now we are in the writing process, all the data’s been collected and analyzed. So there’s a lot of sitting in front of computers and day dreaming about GreEgypt, where Lauren and I will be in 12 days, 21 hours, 57 minutes, and 31 seconds…30..29..28..27….

19 November 2009

allisonprokop — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:52:08 +0000

It’s been raining a lot recently, at least for the past week. Now, when you cast your eyes over the landscape, you can see soft greens that have replaced the parched reddish brown of the savanna. Everywhere you look, where there was once only dust and dead grass, there are now tiny seedling pushing their way through the moist, cracked soil; so small they would be invisible if it wasn’t for their sheer numbers combining to form a still thin, but very present carpet of vegetation. Foot paths made by trampling cattle and their herders have turned into stream-beds to carry away the eroding water. And our running path has turned perilous, what appears to be solid ground slides beneath your feet and takes you with it, and you can only laugh at the foot (and hand) prints of the others who were taken down.
Today we celebrated Thanksgiving. A week early I know, but there was a scheduling error, and it was just easier to celebrate it this week than to change it. We spent about 15 hurried minutes coordinating a Turkey Trot this morning, an easy two laps on our running trail. A handful of us participated, with random numbers written on notebook paper and duct-taped to the fronts of our shirts. We ran for an array of “causes”: for Creep Anonymous, for Ants and Aunts, for Kids with Asthma Who Still Run Good, for The Hungry Boy Foundation (1 Shilling?), etc. and taped our causes to our backs. We finished just in time for brunch, then spent the day lazing around or helping with the cooking. Around 3, our local DR guides and the Mamas from our homestay arrived, we had a slideshow of pictures until dinner. We had what traditional Thanksgiving food was available, turkey (which arrived to our camp still warm…), mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, etc. I don’t think our guests were too keen on the food, but they were gracious all the same.

18 November 2009

allisonprokop — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:09:04 +0000

So we’ve definitely been “wallowing in DR, drowning, if you will” as Kiringe puts it. I was given the Wildlife Ecology group (as opposed to Wildlife Management or Environmental Policy). We are assessing the range condition changes of the Mbirikani Group Ranch, its trends and impacts. It’s been field work all week, doing vegetation transects first-measuring herbaceous, woody, and grass species and evaluating erosion-and now household interviews, walking from boma to boma with a translator and asking a series of questions. All day, walking, in the mean equatorial sun (and today the rain). But I can’t complain, because sadly, there is little vegetation to measure, making transects quick, and we are out in the field all day, lunching with zebra, dik dik, and impala grazing nearby. And during interviews, we get to talk to community member who laugh and joke in Kiswahili, and get a total kick out of us speaking what little of their language we know. The kids always run out, offering their heads for us to touch in greeting, and often following us for several bomas, a parade that gets larger as we move along. The mamas usually offer us a seat and sometimes chai (so delicious made by the mamas), and there is always something that causes us to stifle a laugh-a little boy peeing in front of us as his mother answers our questions, goats bleating inside the boma or trying to eat our questionnaires, puppies falling over each other and following us from house to house (then heartbreakingly chasing our Land Cruiser home). Today was interesting, because it rained all last night, and the roads are downright awful when it rains for a while. Just leaving our driveway we drove through a 2ft-deep puddle that made a moat around our school, and upon reaching the road we saw almost every car, truck, and matatu stuck in the mud in the middle of the road. Molly was able to maneuver around each one (to our dismay- we were all hoping the road would be unpassable, forcing us to take the day off), even a huge matatu that was cornered between the sloping bank of the road and a small building-out of which our mysterious Professor Shem popped his head to cheer us on as we passed (he always seems to appear in the oddest places). But after much sliding, skidding, spinning of tires, and a slight rub against a matatu, we made it by and into Mbirikani to do our interviews.

13 November 2009-Letters

allisonprokop — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:53:26 +0000

I know I have to update some other things first, and I will update more about Directed Research (DR) at another time, but this deserves attention now.

We’ve had a very long day. It was the first day of DR field work. It was long, hot, sunny, rainy, dusty, dirty, and tick-filled. But once I got back, and out of a much-needed shower- I was told I had mail. I didn’t have mail-I had a PILE of mail. And today was one of the best days here because of it. I mean, I get mail from my parents, and don’t get me wrong I appreciate it so much, so thank you. I just got a lot of unexpected and birthday-themed mail today And I plan on writing you all immediately, but I just want you all to know now. Keith, your letter was so good, so informative and so long (that’s a good thing)! It was so good to hear from you, I can’t wait to hear all about your summer and semester when I get back to UVM! Marita- That card was perfect, you don’t know how awesome it was to hear your voice, and I’m so glad you sent those pictures, I don’t have any from home here! I love you so much and I can’t wait to see you! Jada and Sean, the picture of Teaghan is beautiful, I can’t wait to see how big she is when I get home! Jess and Justin, the zent was perfect, it was incredible to be able to see, touch, and smell something from home! (yes, we smelled them, and they smelled like New England Fall, I have a friend from Stow here, he smelled them too! ) We always talk about how good Mass Autumns are and how much we are missing it, so thank you for sending a bit of it here! I will tell Kenyan Customs Service to go easy on you when they catch you. And Mom and Dad, got another package full of candy, thank you!
Thank you all again, it really means a lot to know that you all were thinking of me, and took the time to send all of the things I got tonight. I can’t wait to see you all when I get home.
Love,
Allie

6-7 November 2009-Kitengela

allisonprokop — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:10:48 +0000

6 November 2009

Yesterday was packed up and headed back to NPS. Today was a Non-program day, and one of the most interesting days we’ve had here. It took us over an hour, driving on muddy, rocky, and washed-out roads, to reach Kitengela Glass. Now describing Kitengela Glass won’t even come close to giving you all an accurate mental picture of the place, but I will try, and I will put pictures up soon. Kitengela glass is about an hour from Nairobi, literally in the middle of nowhere, and past the pile of decomposing livestock. Kitengela began about 30 years ago, with one small glass blowing studio (using only recycled glass), but it’s expanded since then. As we approached the little community comprising Kitengela, we were met with artwork on both sides: an Easter Island-like head sculpture, a whole car with it’s nose in the ground and the roof torn apart, two metal worked giraffe adorning a gate, and a large sculpture of a woman pointing the way.

Giraffe gate

Now, Kitengela is essentially a Never-neverland mixed with Willy Wonka’s factory of ceramics, metalwork, glassworks, glass blowing, and masonry. Every building, barn, wall, or other structure (even the choo) was made with recycled glass, metal, and ceramics. A bathroom was made entirely of glass bottles, randomly placed stained glass windows are found all over the property, the rock walls hold whole coffee mugs and faces made of glass.

Bottlecap Dino

Outside one of the studios

A barn held 4 or 5 horses, and many more animals were found in different places, or just strolling around: ostrich, pigs, ducks, camels, peacocks, and dogs. The houses (that some of the workers/artists must live in) were on stilts, or connected by air bridges, fitting in perfectly with the eccentric theme. We were given a tour of the property, and brought to one of the glassblowing studios to watch a demonstration.

Finishing a bowl

We also visited the metalworking studio, and ceramics studio. We browsed the several different rooms that held glasswork for purchase, one room a mish-mash of unmatched glasses and mugs, things with insignificant defects, or random works or art that wouldn’t sell in their high-end retail shop in Nairobi or online.

Inside the store of mismatched art and glassware

(This room is open to the sky, and that is a small pond with aquatic plants)

Another room held all the perfect glassware, being packaged for shipment to complete online orders, but we could buy anything in there for 40% off the retail price-good thing too. The room adjoining the main glass-blowing studio held both perfect set of wineglasses, carafes, pitchers, and mugs, but also a large shelf holding the glasses who had no sibling, and were only 240 KSH each (about $3.00), of which I grabbed 4 beautiful, but different glasses.

Another room had glass beads, ornaments, and other small glass trinkets. At about noon, after nearly losing my mind and all my money, we left, heading to the “Maasai Ostrich Resort” just outside of Kitengela town. Despite its misleading name, it is NOT a resort for ostrich; on the contrary, it’s actually an ostrich farm, where you can ride one of the huge birds, or eat an ostrich burger-both of which some students did. I will admit I had half an ostrich burger, and it was delicious. We spent the afternoon there, not doing much of anything, until we found out that they served ice cream and an old episode of Law and Order was on the TV in the lobby. Now the trick will be getting all this glassware home in one piece. Oh, Kitengela has a website if any of you want to check it out. www.Kitengela.com

7 November 2009

I woke up early enough to catch a last sunrise at NPS and to pack up my things. We made the journey back to KBC today. It feels like we haven’t been here in months. But there’s homework to do, and DR (Directed Research) that will consume our lives for the next month. It’s hard to stay motivated for class, with finals done and almost all assignments completed-and only 30 days, 5 hours, 39 minutes, and 11 seconds left until our flight out of Nairobi (to Egypt!) or so my countdown clock says.

3-4 Novemeber 2009

allisonprokop — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:06:04 +0000

3 November 2009

An early breakfast and a guest lecture in the nearby Naivasha town led to a very muddy stroll down to the shore of Lake Naivasha, another of the lakes we are studying here. From here we traveled to Hell’s Gate National Park, an area that was made into a park because of the ecosystem’s geothermal energy and unique geology.

Hell's Gate's smoking ground

The park is home to multiple geothermal energy plants (that were actually there before the park was established). We had a traveling lecture with a representative from KenGen, the company running the plants. The rocks and the ground in Hell’s Gate smoke, you can see little white tufts of steam as you drive by. And while we saw some beautiful obsidian, the steaming landscape, and the pipes and facilities of the geothermal plant, we saw almost no wildlife at all.

Hell's Gate obsidian

4 November 2009

I woke up this morning, not feeling any older, and walked into the dinning room to find it filled with green and blue balloons, and looking quite like a little ocean right in the middle of Kenya! After a morning class, during which Shem made everyone sing a round of ‘Happy Birthday’, we game drove to Lake Nakuru Park Lodge, seeing some Black and White Colobus monkeys and a monitor lizard along the way. We spent the day at the lodge, lounging around the pool, swimming while sun was out, and relaxing by the bar (which overlooked the pool and had gorgeous views of Lake Nakuru and the landscape).

The pool, just after the sun left for the day.

Some drinks and several card games later, we game drove back to camp, seeing 13 Rhinos and 2 male lions along the way.
That evening,we had an early dinner, then sat around the fire to have an expedition de-brief. At the end of the meeting, the cooks and SAMs brought out a birthday cake! And a real birthday cake, too, one from a bakery! Not the dense sugar topped traditional one that we’ve had so far. It was the best thing I’ve tasted in a long time, and even had a Caribbean ocean scene in icing, fish and all! (due to the wonderful suggestion of a friend)

My 22nd birthday cake <3

I was also given a card signed by my classmates and a mola mola-topped crown on which was written “Crow’s Feet and Wrinkles” . Thanks a lot for bringing back all those traumatizing memories, Tyler. And thanks for originating them Greg and Vermont Tyler.

No comment. Ahem.

1-2 November 2009

allisonprokop — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:00:16 +0000

1 November 2009
Its hard to believe it’s November already. I was up early to pack and clean up from the night before, we head out for expedition today-to Lake Nakuru National Park. It was a long, cold, and rainy drive overlooking the Rift Valley to the National Park, but it was broken up by a few stops, one having ice cream. We arrived at the Lake Nakuru National Park gate, and as we waited for the SAMs to arrange our admission, we watched a troop of Baboons playing amongst themselves and a troop of Vervets harassing tourists. The Vervets are always interesting to watch, one will sit on the top of a car, and lunge at anyone who tries to get in or scare it off. And if there is any food visible, they have it- we learned as we were about to pull into the park. We were eating our pack-lunches in the Land Cruiser, and Pallavi had her window open. We didn’t know what was going on until we heard Kiringe over the radio shouting “596! There is a monkey in your car, monkey in your car!” Our driver, Harrison, calmly says “We are 596…” And the girls in the back start shouting and laughing. I turned around to see little monkey butt exciting the back window. Apparently, the Vervet climbed from the roof of the Cruiser, into the back window where Pallavi was sitting, climbed forward to reach from behind and take two cookies from Kelly (who was sitting directly in front of Pallavi), all without anyone noticing until it was making it’s escape. And just to taunt us, it sat 3 feet from the Land Cruiser with cookie crumbs all over it’s face.
We got the camp/hostel in the National Park that we are to stay at for the next four nights, set up our mosquito nets, beds, and unpacked. There is a resident baboon troop that lives on the edge of the camp fence by the compost pit, we had another run-in with the primates when a large male baboon charged the camp to steal a piece of bread from our cook Judy. After making an unsuccessful attempt at the bread, it ran into the kitchen. After about 5 second’s ruckus of banging pots and pans, the baboon emerge, running. closely pursued by Arthur, Daniel, and Tome, who chased it over the fence on the other side of camp.
A quick game drive that evening acquainted us with our part of the Park, even though we only saw a fraction of it in the couple hours we were out.

One of the smaller baboons living in camp. It's incredible how alike they are to humans

2 November 2009

It rained nearly all day today, a definite change from the parched Amboseli region. We had class in the morning, then an extended game drive in the afternoon. It started pouring when we got in the Land Cruisers, so we made our way up to Baboon Hill with the hatches closed. Once at the look out point, that has views of the entirety of Lake Naivasha, we got out for a quick talk from Shem. One student made the mistake of putting something down on a bench, forgetting the place was called “Baboon Hill”. Within seconds, a male ran up, grabbed the purple water bottle, ran off and perched on the edge of the cliff just out of reach-but perfectly within site. A minute later, he was scared by Daniel ad let go of the water bottle, which fell about 100 feet down the rock face, and out of sight. Further on in the game drive, we saw a bunch of Rhino, one with a small baby, and a pair of black-backed jackals, among other things.

A pair of Black-backed Jackals

But best of all, today was saw a leopard. Daniel, who was driving, spoke quickly with a passing tour vehicle, and that driver must have given him the scoop because Daniel immediately sped off telling us to get the hatched up and cameras ready. We pulled up among a few other cars, but we were the first from our group to get there. And there she was! A gorgeous leopard, completely relaxed, sitting upright in a tree about 30 feet off the ground. She stretched, jumped down to a lower limb, looked around for a minute, laid down and went to sleep. We watched her for a while even though she didn’t move an inch after laying down. We drove back to camp, the rain picked up, and carried on all night.

Leopard high up before strolling down, and before I calmed down enough to switch the aperture on my camera

Coming down

Thinking about it...

Jumping to a lower branch