Week 15

Well faithful readers, this is it. My last post, coming to you from my last day in Zanzibar. Shocking right? I fly out just before 9PM (Zanzibar time) tonight and expect to step onto the MSP concourse by about 1PM central time tomorrow. The packing is done and my trinket shopping is down to just a few bits and pieces. It’s fair to say that the last four months have flown by and now most us are in a mild state of shock. The “family” is splitting up, some destined for home like myself, others lingering in Zanzibar or headed to the mainland for a final grand safari. Regardless of what’s happening next, the ultimate conflict has become which home do we miss more? I won’t  deny that I’m excited to breathe the cold Minnesotan air again, to gorge myself on red meat and fast food, and even to just sink back into that one over-used spot on the couch in front of the television. Yet I’ve hit my rhythm here. Bucket showers? The expected standard. Dysfunctional mosquito nets? A mild irritation at worst. Gastrointestinal health? Just a relative deal. As you are probably sensing, the list could go on and on. I will spare you any further exploration of my impending culture/lifestyle shock, but it’s probably the most pertinent part of this last entry. I still owe you a bit more information on the last couple of weeks, seeing that I left you with a brief update from the heart of Jozani and my ISP.

Following surveys in the groundwater forest and agricultural shrubland (my first two habitats and the sites of greatest chagrin), I set myself onto the task of surveying the most isolated patch of habitat in the entire study. This was the dry coral rag thicket, where established transect lines were a brisk 40-minute walk from where I was staying. Figure that walking time into two trips back and forth a day, plus a round trip at night by bicycle and you have a lot of exercise. The strategy was to get the hardest work out of the way in the middle of the project rather than the end, and it proved to be a good one. The transects in the coral rag thicket were really cool. They have no human activity outside of clandestine local woodcutting and give off a genuinely wild air when you're out surveying alone. Granted, the observation of a woodcutter the first morning and the isolated nature of the place prompted the park officials to supply me with an escort. While I was initially skeptical of having a (maximum) five-foot tall, rusty machete-wielding man with no ability to speak English along for surveys, it ended up making the whole experience that much more entertaining. We bonded over glucose biscuits and his eventual discovery that I was an American (Obama!!). The rag forest only yielded three lizard species, but one of them was novel to surveys of the park in 2002, so I was pleased. Also, I can tell you that there are few things more surreal than riding a rickety bicycle down the center of an empty Zanzibari road by moonlight. Incredible. Thanksgiving was a decidedly quiet affair; Ali had returned to Stone Town mid-morning to celebrate with the other students, so I was left to my own devices. Dinner was the usual white rice and gastronomically-disagreeable vegetable curry. However, I did ultimately get to celebrate with a well-rationed chocolate Powerbar and a late night phone call with the whole family having Thanksgiving dinner back home. After that, it was basically solo time in Jozani for the last five days.
The majority of this time was spent surveying transects within ten minutes of my "home" in the same patch of mahogany forest where I'd spotted the python and was hoping to see a cobra. No such luck on the latter. But saving the easiest site for last was a great call. Between being partially lame in my left foot after the hikes to the coral rag forest and the torrential rains which happened at least twice right around survey times, it was nice to have things simple. I had also managed to re-implement my traps in the groundwater forest at the start of the coral rag survey period, and had since captured another variety of snake and a frog.

A Trap-Caught Dwarf File Snake (Mehelia nyassae)

Naturally, I was pleased that they were actually producing results. The last days passed without any notable hiccups, and ultimately my departure was an unceremonious affair. I packed up all my stuff, checked out at the park office, and hopped onto the first overcrowded dala dala back to Stone Town.

After the last few "chill" days of research in Jozani, life became really hectic. Not surprising when a 30-page paper needs to be put together in less than six days. Rashid and I managed to secure a small apartment just outside of central Stone Town for the duration of the writing period, although our need of internet and heavenly Msumbi French press coffee meant that we spent very little time at home base. There isn’t much to report from that time period outside of our discovery of the best hole-in-the-wall place for dinner in Stone Town (thanks to three Swedish students our crew had befriended during my absence). Also, Rashid, Munira (Pearl), and I managed to escape the whole writing process for one night by semi-spontaneously catching a dala dala to Bi Aida’s compound in Mangapwani. We arrived just in time to spend two glorious hours soaking in the ocean on our favorite secluded beach, before cooking a pasta dinner and watching Major Payne in Aida’s art-filled home. She was excited to show us the latest project; slumped glass bottles of a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes which have already started to become a major decor commodity. Rashid is looking forward to his post-program stay with Aida; he’ll be working the glass kiln day and night for nearly a week. Between both the gorgeous setting and great company, the three of us managed to unwind a bit and get the rest we needed to push through our final work on the research papers.

The final presentations started on Monday, and papers were due by 4pm on Tuesday. I managed to end up with a presentation time on Tuesday morning, so the last couple of prep days were truly a scramble to get everything finished and prepared. In the end, I cranked out a 47-page epic (40 pages of text with figures and a few extra pages of appendices). Not bad, right? The presentation went well and the paper made it in on time, although printing it with color figures here in Zanzibar costs over 20 USD per copy. I had two in color and one in black in white; painful. But I’m proud of it and certainly won’t mind sharing it around a bit back home. I did spend a month of my life on it after all.

The remaining time here in Stone Town has largely been spent trinket shopping, eating my favorite foods one last time, and trying to get out a bit during the evenings (with minimal success). Yesterday was the final group day; we went on a spice tour during the morning and snorkeling in the afternoon, finishing with a massive dinner at the local Indian restaurant. While the spice tour is a traditionally touristy event, it was actually quite entertaining. Plus I ended up getting to eat four whole passion fruits fresh off the tree. And of course, snorkeling at the Pange sandbank one last time was spectacular. Besides seeing the usual panoply of fish and corals, I managed to spot a lionfish and huge cuttlefish that changed colors and shape as it moved. Just lying on the beach and staring back across the bay at Stone Town as the setting sun lit up the old buildings along the waterfront was enough to make me whether or not I'd find myself coming back to this incredible place.

I'll leave you with these last comments, and hopefully the impression that this experience has been one of a lifetime for me. Words will never truly be able to describe the people, sights, and very essence of this place once I've left it, though the stories will remain forever. I am actually planning on writing a full-length travelogue of sorts when I return to the States, with all of the nitty-gritty details which have otherwise escaped the posts in this blog. Thanks for sticking with me over the last 15 weeks, I've been happy to hear that my words have provoked some entertainment. See you all soon!

Week 12

Part 1:

Coming from deep in the heart of the wild Jozani Forest, I bring you a special bulletin. A glimpse into the dark, toil-ridden experience of two hapless students. Plagued by swarms of mosquitos, little food & water, and near-constant exposure to the intensifying elements, their grip on sanity, much less existence itself is coming into question. Cruel fate has deemed that it is only a matter of time until they are claimed by the jungle in ways of which Conrad could only have dreamt in his wildest nightmares……

              Just kidding folks. I couldn’t resist dramatizing this whole adventure a bit. As it would happen, the lodgings are quite accommodating and the food & water are not a matter of question. And I’ve seen a cumulative half-dozen or so mosquitos in nearly a week. For the sake of both keeping all of you informed and actually reminding myself of a few moments here in the future, I’ve decided to keep a rolling blog of sorts. My companion here in Jozani for the ISP time, Ali (Alec), actually brought along a wireless internet stick from Stonetown which gives us full access to the web. This means that I’m not actually cut off from the outside world; quite to the contrary in fact. The internet stick actually works faster than half the other connections I’ve had in Zanzibar. Nonetheless, in keeping with the spirit of the whole deal, this post is not going to surface until halfway through the whole period. Surprise!

             Right now, it’s been five days since we arrived. I’ve been strolling around the groundwater forest for nearly all of that time. To premise my project, I am surveying herpetofaunal communities in four habitat types in the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park. It’s basically just a survey of relative abundance and diversity, but I’m also throwing in the time card. Surveys in the morning, afternoon, and night may give me a bit more information to extrapolate on (so far things are looking good). I am also trying to implement a very DIY bottle trap system. 1.5-litre water bottles have been cut and re-assembled to make funnels, which are then placed along a plastic drift fence line to live-catch specimens. The idea is that the local fauna will encounter the fence and wander along the path of least resistance – straight into the funnels.

While none of this sounds terribly difficult, I would definitely describe the start as rocky. Between on the ground conflicts with methodology, personal indecisiveness, and general Murphy’s Law moments, I’ve had the perpetual feeling that karma is not with me for the last few days. The bottle traps in particular have been creating problems (largely in regards to setup time) and I’m seriously reconsidering how they will be implemented for the remainder of the study. Since the protocols I follow these first days affect the rest of the trip, the importance/stress has been the most intense it likely will be. However, it seems as though I’m over the hill and a routine has been established (finally). And there have already been some great moments. Take for example two days ago when I encountered the back half of a rock python crossing my trail. The snake had to have been at least three meters in length and had gorgeous coloration. See:

 Rock Python, Python sebae

I’ve also managed to catch a White-Lipped Snake in one of my dysfunctional bottle traps, spot a gorgeous golden tree frog (unidentified as of yet), and observe a flighty Zenj Squirrel at very close range. 

 Unidentified Tree Frog, Leptopelis sp.

I should also note that there are a ton of elephant shrews here. They’re black with red heads and about the size of a rabbit (they pretty much fill that local niche). They’re in every habitat and have no economic/dietary importance, but remain quite flighty, so my personal challenge is now to photograph one.

 

Part 2:

                Well, the whole rolling blog thing failed about as miserably as my attempts to keep a written journal at the beginning of the whole trip. However, I can certainly give you a second update within this single post (seeing as I’m halfway through the trip now). Things have still been tough. Misinformation, time crunches, and stress have continued to create problems since the last update. Due to a number of circumstances, the second half of my study is going to be much more compressed than the first half (I’ve already used up all but one of my buffer days). Also, the effective implementation of traps in each habitat type has also been forcibly abandoned due to time constraints (although I plan to set them back up in the groundwater forest to keep testing efficiency). The good news is that this leaves me more time to actually focus on the transects and crank out the 30-page epic that's due by the start of December.

                Along these lines, the visual surveys along transects are giving me the results I was hoping for! My current survey habitat is a mixed scrub/agricultural zone located just across the road from the main body of the park. This little sliver of Jozani is quite popular with the tourists owing its habitation by a large number of Red Colobus and Sykes monkeys. They’re interesting, but if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. I enjoy listening to the foreign languages floating around that area, particularly the French, but don’t appreciate the wazungu in my transects (although it’s inevitably unavoidable). I've actually started thinking in a mix of broken French and Kiswahili. Hooray for immersion?

                Right now, my count for herpetofauna throughout Jozani is up to four frog species, eight lizard species, and five snake species. There are certainly differences in sightings amongst habitats; which is great news for the project. However, much to my chagrin, not all of the sightings have occurred during survey times and are thereby not directly applicable. Nonetheless, my two new favorites are the Flap-Necked Chameleons and miniscule Worm Snakes which I’ve been spotting periodically.

 Flap-Necked Chameleon, Chamaeleo dilepis

                Outside of the regimented surveys, trap checks, and meals, I can’t say that I have much to report. The food remains dependable, albeit predictable, with alternating days of rice and beans or rice and vegetable curry for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is bread and bananas (the latter have been excellent lately). Ali and I have agreed to attempt No-Shave-November, although the results thus far are pretty patchy and grody. I’ve been burning through a biography of “Cape-to-Coast” Ewart Grogan, yet another pioneer of British Imperialism and East African colonial development around the turn of the Twentieth Century. The feats of adventure which men like Grogan accomplished during the Victorian Era are incredible, and I’m certainly hooked on imperial history for life. An unplanned free night two days ago also allowed me to indulge in a Miyazaki film (courtesy of Ali), which was an immensely satisfying use of free time. If the weather yesterday was of any indication, the short rains period may be commencing and I’m hoping that it doesn’t put a dampener on my study. I’d hate to have the data watered down…..

Sorry, couldn’t resist the puns. I’ll leave you with these tidbits for now and the expectation that I shall again return to the blogosphere following the 27^th of November. Best wishes to my Carleton comrades in the grips of finals, and to everyone celebrating a bounteous Thanksgiving back home (I know I’ll be drooling into my pillow with dreams of gravy missed). Cheers!

Belated Photos!

Here are a few shots from the last month or so of the program which I have neglected to upload to this blog or facebook. Some regular exclusivity for readers here. The latest written update follows these photos!

Mama Mtondoo

Red Colobus nap time.

 Leaf-litter Preying Mantis

 Jozani Scrub

 Mikumi sunset.

Safari romance.

Buffaloes at the Hippo Pond.

 Leonine love.

The stare-down.

Six little piggies went on safari.....

Weeks 9 & 10

Well faithful readers, this belated post may be my last (for the next three weeks at least). In a couple of hours I will be headed to Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park for twenty-one days of reptile surveys, carbohydrate-dominated meals, and perpetual sweat. The last week and a half has blown by as I've rushed about trying to get all of my affairs in order before the final push. The directly academic portion of my program concluded last Friday with a written exam and reef survey presentations, so all we have left now is the ISP. But before I get into all of this recent Stonetown business, I should probably say more about our ten days in Dar es Salaam.
I seem to have left off the last time with Maryam's birthday, which happened to be just the beginning of a series of entertaining escapades in the city. While most days were occupied by private lectures on various environmental and ecological subjects, we had plenty of evening time to get out and explore or get to know the resident foreigners. Living with the international guys was certainly entertaining. In lieu of being at the University for at least a semester with less work than they had expected, the guys would entertain themselves late into the night with games and pestering the international girls in the dorm across the courtyard. There were also a number of American students spread around, although we saw much less of them during our stay.
One night, a number of us attempted to visit an environmental photography exhibit and film screening at the French consulate-operated Alliance Francais. We were quickly disappointed to find that the Alliance was actually closed for the night due to the Eid al-Hajj holiday (despite advertisements for the exhibition that very night). So we went to the circus. After finding a seedy little back alley food shop and eating what was actually the best chipsi ya mayai (french fries cooked into an omelet) we've had so far on the trip, we met our program director Helen and a couple of her friends at the show. It was awesome. The circus was a small operation with a mixed variety of acrobatic and contortion acts, each more impressive than the last. The contortionists were literally able to bend their backs in three places at once! They'd make a table top out of their torsos by bending over backwards (picture an inverted u-shape with a flattened bottom) and then stand on each other. One particularly stretchy guy even squeezed himself through a tennis racket from several different directions. The acrobats were equally impressive, if nothing else because they were insanely ripped. On top of it all, since the tent was small and there weren't a lot of other visitors we ended up with practically rink-side seats.
The next night, Rashid, Hawa, Munira, and I decided to try and visit an event put on by a Dutch artist acquainted with our program director. She sent us the directions and time and promised she'd meet us there, so we set out without trepidation. It all sounded pretty easy to follow, but we soon found ourselves wandering down back streets lined with industrial buildings and rather excitable young workers whose shift had just ended. It was dark, we seemed to be lost, and we really didn't want to walk back the same way we'd just come from (we were conspicuous enough as it was). But just as we were planning our exit strategy, the painted walls of the art gallery came into view along the dark road. The event itself turned out to be great. While the crowd was fairly small and we didn't know anyone, the music and dancers were quite enjoyable. Helen arrived some time after we did and then proceeded to befriend the Irish ambassador to Tanzania! According to Rashid, it doesn't take much to get involved in the expat/foreign crowd of Dar es Salaam (they're few and the turnover is high).
Outside of these couple of evening events, I should definitely make note of our last two days spent conducting reef surveys  with Matt Richmond. The first day on Mbudya Island involved transect surveys across the breadth of an entire lagoon, from beach to reef crest. While the surveying itself yielded a lot of cool finds, our group managed to get a bit testy as usual (again, too many Type-A personalities in one place). Things were primarily complicated by the fact that the water was higher than expected and some individuals were forced to tread water while holding a tape measure for the better part of two hours. Following the surveys, we had a chance to eat our very fishy lunch (whole rabbitfish), swim, and identify various survey sightings before our later presentations. The setting was gorgeous, albeit touristy, and we were all quite content by the end of the day.
The next morning we were up against the crack of dawn for a second reef survey, this time on Sinda Island, located to the south-east of Dar. To get there we had to take a bus to a ferry, the ferry to another bus, the second bus to a dhow (Arab sailing boat), and finally the dhow out to Sinda. It was entirely worth the transportation gauntlet. The island is picturesque and un-inhabitated, with a tidal flat separating it from a second island just to the east. We arrived intentionally at low tide so that we could quadrat-survey sea urchins on the reef flat before the water came back in. The surveys went well and produced results that will actually build towards anthropogenic urchin controls on the island in future studies. Probably the coolest moment was actually when the tide came back in; a solid line of water a couple inches deep visibly rolled across the tidal flat from one end to the other in a matter of minutes. After eating a spectacular lunch, we took our final reef ecology quiz right on Sinda's beach and then spent the rest of the afternoon frolicking and snorkeling in the shallows nearby. That was without a doubt the best beach we have visited the entire program. Even better, Matt took us out one by one to try manta-boarding over the reef. Manta-boarding is an aquatic survey method where a boat slow-tows a length of rope attached to a flat board, onto which the researcher clings. By tilting the front of the board down, it's possible to actually dive below the surface for an extended period of time. By taking a huge gulp of air and diving, I could fly through the water just inches above the reef and sea grass, some fifteen feet below the surface. The feeling was unbelievable. I managed to strafe a couple of flounders and even get close to the outcrop where I'd seen an octopus while snorkeling earlier (he changed colors and shape at least four times!). On top of it all, we sailed the dhow back at the end of the day and I actually got to steer it for half the trip. And while I did get sunburned those two days, it did nothing but transform into the deepest tan I've had in years.
After all of this fun, the rest of our stay in Dar flew by. Classes wrapped up with two field trips around town to an alternative energy site and several places where the local environment was being impacted by poor planning (the kilometer-long pipe which carries Dar's raw sewage out into the sea was particularly shocking). Rashid and I better acquainted ourselves with the cafeteria food and cheap meat samosas (practically eaten four times a day), while the others sampled various Lebanese and "Mexican" restaurants. A fair portion of two days was spent trinket shopping in a nearby market, and I can say with confidence that I am all shopped out. While there was another partial group attempt at clubbing, it ended similarly to the first night. I did also have the opportunity to meet with my project advisor, Dr. Kim Howell, one afternoon in the local mall. Kim's a Cornell alum with an incredibly diverse array of zoological interests, including reptiles and amphibians (he was actually one of the contributing authors to the Reptiles of East Africa guide book which I have been using). The day after our meeting, he was actually headed towards Arusha to re-introduce a species of endemic toad that had been wiped out of its natural habitat by the installation of a dam. Super cool. Finally, on our last night at the University, the international guys mustered an even larger crowd than usual for a final celebration of sorts. All in all, Dar was pretty great.
Since we returned last Wednesday, it's been a race to the finish (at least for this portion of the program). Our exam and reef presentations were on Friday and we had to have all of our ISP contact information sorted out by roughly the same time. Despite an unexpected bit of trouble in all of the planning, everything has come together nicely. The written exam was thorough but not overly taxing and I delivered a well-reviewed ad-lib narration of a puppet show demonstrating our reef survey results. I've been "trick-or-treating" for plastic water bottles to use as funnel traps during the project and re-packing everything I own so the next month is comfortably efficient. While there's been very little R&R, I have managed to go out a couple of nights with several members of our group and the SIT Mombasa crowd who were in town for the weekend. It was pretty surreal hanging out with a fellow Carl here in Stonetown (shout-out to Carson!). My group also organized a sunset dhow cruise along the Stonetown coast as a last hurrah before the ISPs start (also in part to celebrate Sabrina's birthday today before everyone leaves).
It's at this point where I'd probably better wrap this up and get back to finalizing the last details of my project before I depart. I'll be without internet or reliable cell service for the next three weeks, so any further updates will have to come when I return to Stonetown to write up the project. I hope that all is well back States-side and that the end of term at Carleton and Thanksgiving finds you all healthy and happy. Wish me luck!

Week 8

Well it's technically the middle of Week 9 and I am trying to wrap my mind around the idea that I've been here for two months already. And there's still a month and a bit to go! As I mentioned in the last post, the program schedule has taken me and the rest of the crew to the mainland for the remainder of October.
The timing actually couldn't have been better since some serious unrest kicked up in Stonetown a couple of days before our departure. For reasons unknown, the police decided to detain the leader of UAMSHO, a local Islamic NGO which has taken a strong stance on the matter of Zanzibar's potential separation from the Union with mainland Tanzania. Since the group operates outside of the two existing political parties (CUF and CCM), they're a matter of some concern to the current leading powers. Last week, UAMSHO's foremost sheikh, Farid, disappeared without a trace from a car outside his home just after returning from vacation in Oman. Naturally, his followers did not appreciate this turn of events and began to instigate unrest in several parts of town. As is customary with public unrest, many other young people took the opportunity to make chaos in the streets (tire-burning, looting, etc.). The police responded with riot enforcers and tear gas. While we were never directly in sight of the riots, the boom of gas bombs and the accompanying flashes at night were easily observed from our usual haunts. We weren't in actual danger at any point, although we obviously didn't stray far from Mauwani and the classroom. In the end, we made it out of Stonetown without incidence and Sheikh Farid was returned within a day of our departure, thereby pacifying street demonstrators before things got worse. Hopefully that will be the last of the trouble for at least the remainder of our trip.
On the mainland, our first few days were spent on safari in Mikumi National Park. Of course getting there turned into a regular epic; we took a very early ferry ride to the mainland and then loaded into safari vehicles for the overland trek. Of course, the expected four hour road trip actually lasted from about 9:30am until 4pm. My particular car was outfitted with astro-turf flooring and a driver who liked Tupac enough to play the same album about three or four times through on the way. As you might imagine, we were all pretty stir-crazy by the end of the ride. However, the excitement level was at fever-pitch when we reached the park boundary. The main road which we followed actually cuts directly through the middle of the park, so even before actually going on safari it's possible to see a number of the local inhabitants. Giraffes, impala, baboons, and even elephants were spotted before we even reached park headquarters. The lodge where we stayed was actually located even further into the park, making it common for animals to wander right through the living space (we were accompanied to and from the bungalows at night by a Masai ascari for this exact reason). The general idea was to have as much immersion in the surroundings as possible during our three-day visit.
So, despite being hot, tired, and mildly grouchy, everyone piled right back into the cars on the first afternoon for a late trip to the hippo pool and surrounding grassland. Just as the sun set over the distant mountains, we encountered a pair of lions resting by the road. Since it's the mating season, it's not uncommon to come across a pair who have separated from the main pride for a few days of privacy (which is immediately lost when the tourists show up). It was an unexpected treat, followed the next morning by the discovery of a second pair very near to the first two. I have now sat in a car approximately ten feet from copulating lions. Not one of the experiences you expect to have on safari. Beyond the happy feline couples, there were also plenty of elephants, giraffes, buffalo, warthogs, and other fauna to be seen. My favorites were definitely the two huge Elan Antelope seen near a watering hole the first morning.
Much to my chagrin and extreme personal discomfort, I actually contracted a nasty stomach bug the second day (likely due to having a dung fly land on my breakfast fruit). I have never been so miserably ill in my life. Once the dehydration set in, even moving from one place to another was impossibly exhausting. Fortunately, the worst of it only lasted a few hours and I managed to tough it out without medication or serious assistance. Just plenty of tonic (now firmly my favorite carbonated drink) and water. As a result, I had to skip the last evening and morning safaris.
We returned to Dar es Salaam under similar circumstances as our trip to Mikumi, arriving are the University of Dar es Salaam in the late afternoon. The girls have been housed together in a highrise dorm, while each of the guys have been divided amongst rooms on one floor of the male international student dorm. We each ended up in a double with another student who was already attending the University; I'm living with a very reasonable German student by the name of Yves. The dorms aren't half bad, although running water and electricity are unpredictable at times. The campus is huge here (14,000 undergrads), so there's no lack of new faces or places to visit.
Outside of morning and afternoon lectures, we've been testing out the food at various cafeterias and getting to know the international guys. While security is a bit of a concern (especially at night), we haven't had any scary experiences thus far (besides being briefly pursued by a pack of dogs while returning from dinner the first night). I've also made it into downtown Dar three times now; once for pizza dinner, once to visit the botannical gardens and shopping mall, and then for Maryam's (Mary) 21st birthday dinner last night.
Getting around Dar can be done in a variety of ways at varying levels of cost and personal safety, but my favorite is definitely the little bajaj "cars" which have literally no respect for traffic (or safety). They're basically like an enclosed, high-powered golf cart with a driver in front and three-person seat right behind him. For about 8,000Tsh they'll speed you almost anywhere in town, slipping between other cars in traffic, practically running pedestrians off the sidewalks, and racing each other to the final destination. Near-side swipes and stalls in the middle of the road are not uncommon. While they're obviously not the safest deal, they're super efficient and a total thrill to ride in.
However, for the full group outing last night in celebration of Maryam's big birthday, we rented a whole dala dala bus for ourselves and rolled downtown for Thai dinner in a highrise hotel. To our shock (and mild embarrassment), the restaurant was much classier than we'd expected. Not a t-shirt and shorts kind of place. Regardless, the food was great and the night view of the bay was spectacular. The clubs we planned to visit afterwards were all closed (it was Tuesday night after all), so we were forced to return to campus without further entertainment. Luckily, our dorm roof provided the perfect space for hanging out late into the night.
That about covers it for this week's installment, although I obviously owe you all pictures from the safari. I'll edit them in tomorrow once I've had a chance to get the latest set off my camera, so check back in again soon! In the next week I'll be out for a couple more Matt Richmond reef surveys, further exploring the night life of Dar, and hopefully attending a big national soccer match. We're all really excited for the last one. Keep on reading! Cheers!

Week 7

Hey y'all, it's been another week and I have another chapter for you. I'd like to start this post with a shout out to Bwana Dale Swanson, who's celebrating his birthday today. Dale, your wilderness survival coaching has certainly come in handy here in Zanzibar during the last week, although I haven't gotten around to testing the local spoor yet..... I've heard there's going to be a men's hunting trip this weekend and I wish you all the best luck with landing the big bucks! I'll be on safari myself, but I don't think they'll let me land an elephant.
All in all, I can't say that I have a ton of variety in the report for this week. Since we're about halfway through the program we've been working through what essentially amounts to a midterm project. For those of you who are not familiar with the structure of my program, the first ten weeks are group-oriented lectures, field studies, and trips. However, the final five weeks are comprised of an Independent Study Project during which students are expected to conduct research, procure lodgings, and essenentially operate entirely on their own. We pick the subjects and figure out most of the logistics for travel and housing. The midterm which we've all just finished was a sort of dry run in preparation for the bigger study. The "Portfolio" essentially amounts to three days of research and then two days for writing an 8-page scientific-style report.
As I mentioned in my last post, my area of study has finally settled in herpetology. For my portfolio period, I ended up in the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park surveying reptiles in a section of groundwater forest. Groundwater forest is characterized by a high water table and lush floral assemblage; the year-round availability of water keeps the local ecosystem pretty vibrant and species abundance higher than in some other areas. An ISP conducted by a student during Spring 2011 also sampled reptiles in Jozani, although his project examined them across a wide array of habitats. I took his abundance results from the groundwater region to heart and decided to set up there for the short-run.
For the study itself, I set up two 150-meter transects along a section of established nature trails. Transects are lines (straight or not) of a set distance which are walked for visual examination surveys. I walked each transect for an hour and a half, three times a day. Morning, afternoon, and night. Daytime surveys were pretty easy; all the equipment I needed was a camera, notebook, and binoculars. I'd roll out of bed, pull on my gear, and hike out into the jungle by myself for the better part of the day. Mornings were always steamy as the morning dew evaporated and the afternoons were hot. I was drenched in sweat from dawn to dusk, the surveys were long, and admittedly they were fairly boring after a few repetitions. But the effort was totally worth the solo exploration time and the results! I'd try and write you a full description of the place, but as they say a picture says a thousand words:

 Transect 2

Night surveys were a totally different deal. I'd go out after sunset outfitted with a bright handheld torch, a headlamp, and park guide. The guide was only necessary for security and assistance if I ran into trouble (venomous snakes etc.). As it would happen, I really appreciated his help the second night when I had to run through a 15-meter patch full of soldier ants. Those ants were something right out of one of those "Nature's Horrors" documentaries. While I encountered them basically every time I was out surveying, I managed to avoid them most of the time. However, when they're in the middle of your transect, there's no escaping an encounter. That particular night, on my guide's suggestion, I ran as quickly as I could through the seething mass of ants spread across the trail (sometime they were confined to small, orderly lines; other times the forest floor was essentially blanketed). While I did manage to get past them, I also liberally coated my pants and shoes with some very angry critters. Ten minutes of swatting, scratching, and hopping up and down barely seemed to stem the tide of maddening bites all over my body. Fortunately I managed to eventually get them all cleared off (with my guide's help) and continue my survey. Since then, I've devised better strategies for dealing with them. Lesson learned.
Outside of the ants, the three days went almost entirely without notable incident. I managed to observe about half a dozen different varieties of reptile (five lizard varieties and one snake), as well as a bunch of other interesting groundwater forest denizens including leaf-litter preying mantids and sunbirds. Skinks and geckos were predictably the most common across survey periods.

 A juvenile Speckle-Lipped Skink (Mabuya maculilabris)

When I wasn't out surveying for nine hours of the day, I was eating or sleeping. There were several other SIT students in Jozani for the Portfolio study period, but we were all kept pretty busy with different research so mealtimes were the only serious common time for interaction.
Upon our return to Stone Town for the writing days, I stayed in a pleasant little guesthouse just a stone's throw from the SIT classroom with Rashid and Munira. Two days of serious writing, source hunting (tough stuff with limited internet and resources), and recuperation culminated in both a 19-page report (including annotated sources and appendices; Helen would not have been happy if the text was that long) and a powerpoint presentation which was given yesterday morning. All in all, I'm happy with the portfolio and increasingly ready for the upcoming ISP. I'm writing my final proposal tonight as it happens.
The only other adventures of note have happened in the last couple of days as Hawa and I endeavored to get haircuts in Stone Town. The first day, we only succeeded in finding a curio shop filled with the kind of knick-knacks which entertain me for hours on end. I history-nerded out and ended up buying several more coins, the oldest being a British East India Company Anna from 1835. Yes, 1835. Also an Anna from 1862 with Queen Vistoria's image stamped on one side. I can tell you with certainty that I will be headed back to that shop for more. But back to the haircuts. Yesterday, Hawa and I succeeded in finding a local establishment which offered a cut for 5,000Tsh (less than $5 US). I don't think I've actually ever had such a thorough haircut. I initially pointed to another customer to indicate that I wanted a buzz, and ended up with the exact haircut he was getting (which is quite good). The best part of the whole experience was that the barber gave Hawa the exact same haircut as me. Down to the straight-razored back and edges. She had wanted a buzz of sorts, but not the one she got. We now are unintentionally rocking the twin look (there will be a picture at some point) and I am thoroughly entertained by the whole doubles thing. We are of the opinion that they pretty much give everyone the same cut at that place, unless your mastery of Kiswahili is good enough to seriously ask for something else.
That's about it for now. I'll be submitting my ISP proposal tomorrow and then heading for the mainland very early Friday morning. We'll be on safari in Mikumi National Park through Sunday, and then staying at the University of Dar es Salaam until Halloween. Dar promises to be an ......interesting...... experience. Fortunately, Rashid has two months of experience there under his belt and will be acting as the unofficial group leader for any outings. The expectation is that we'll all make it out in one piece with plenty of stories. The next post may not be until after that trip (so the 31st), but I'll do my best to update you while I'm there.
I hope all is well and that the rest of October finds you all comfortable and happy. Cheers!