Week 5 & 6

I’m back! Better late than never (even if it’s over a week). I’d like to start this post with a belated Happy Birthday shout-out to Guy (congrats on making it to adulthood) and to Helen in Spain! I’m sure both of you are throwing down appropriately; as for me, I celebrated with a decadent hamburger (!!) at a local wazungu tavern the other night. A guilty American pleasure, but I have to enjoy the rare treats every once and a while. Rashid, Hawa, and I not only enjoyed that dinner immensely, but also managed to get the waitress jumping with joy over our conversations in Kiswahili. Language win.

But that’s more recent news. The fifth week was Pemba. I can say with confidence that there isn’t a single SIT student in the group who wouldn’t go back to Pemba. Due to its separation from Unguja and the relatively expensive (and small) flights from Stonetown, it remains much like Zanzibar was before the tourist boom. The feel is rural and the people are very friendly by default; even the term “wazungu” didn’t seem to carry the same connotation that it often does on Unguja. Getting to Pemba was an adventure in itself, since the airplanes had 13-passenger galleys. In order to fit all of us into the two planes, one student had the opportunity to sit co-pilot in each plane. Rashid and Sophia (Breeanna) lucked out on the way over, but I somehow managed to end up in the cockpit on the way back! It’s definitely something else to be sitting shotgun in a propeller airplane. Once in Pemba, we spent the first couple of days as a group in the northern town of Wete. Lectures included the methodology of house-building in Pemba, the ecology of Ngezi Forest Preserve, and how to interact with interviewees and translators during the ISP period.

Free time activities consisted of the card game “Presidents” (now the default time-filler for the group) and a trip to the Wete Cinema. That was an experience. After stopping at a tiny local supermarket for candy and snacks, we watched a special English screening of “Cold Light of Day” with Bruce Willis. The folding seats were rickety, the all-male local crowd was chatty, my Mountain Dew was toxic even by Mountain Dew standards, and the movie was definitely not one of Willis’ bests. But we had a ton of fun. The following day was occupied by a trip to the Ngezi Forest Preserve in the northern tip of Pemba. As the last bastion of “undisturbed” native flora and fauna, Ngezi is home to several globally-unique species. A forest hike yielded some cool finds, ranging from frogs the size of my thumbnail to saprophytic orchids and staghorn ferns. To top it all off, our Assistant Director, Said, spotted a snake on the side of the road as we returned Wete. Our bus driver promptly pulled over and let me jump out to take a look. As it would happen, I managed to get within five feet of a spitting cobra. It was olive-colored, about five feet long, and when I tried to halt its retreat towards the ditch’s bank, it proceeded to flare a small neck hood. Fortunately, it was much more interested in escaping quickly than putting up a fight. In retrospect, I’m glad I didn’t mess with it; I had no idea that it was a spitter until I described it to Helen back on the bus. Much to my chagrin, the sole picture I managed to get is an un-focused flop (but still totally worth it).

The next day we were set up with our Pemba homestay families. I was placed with Mama Tutuu, her four sons, and two other live-in boys. The house was very nice and the family dynamic was great. I had a lot of fun interacting with the kids; the littlest one, Nadith, was affectionately referred to as “chizi” (crazy) by everyone in the house. I played backyard soccer, watched Disney & Tinga Tinga tales, and even learned how to cook several local dishes. Mkate ya mayai (the local angelfood cake), samaki changu (fried rabbitfish), and mkate ya maji (a sort of vegetable-crepe) are now all items I’m excited to try my hand at again back in the states.

When I wasn’t chilling with my family, I was on more outings with the SIT crew (an essential oil distillery trip, the Pemba Public Health Lab, etc.). One day trip took our group out to Misali Island off the west coast of Pemba. The garden reef was gorgeous (although looking closely at anything required free-diving 20-25 feet). There were Acropora tables as wide across as I am tall and pairs of huge black & yellow pufferfish. I also managed to spot the last couple of tangs on my list. There was a battered old Naso Tang, a flighty Sailfin Tang, and several groups of yellow-bellied Blue Hippo Tangs (variant Dories for all you Disney adherents). On the final night of our homestays, all of our families met up for an outdoor sharehe (party) with traditional tarab music. All of my fellow students were decked out in splendid local clothes, some even beyond the point of immediate recognition. The zenith of the night came when a young musician (who had been demonstrating traditional male dance moves) and I somehow ended up having a dance-off. I ended up jumping, twirling, and bobbing about at dizzying speed as the rest of the group looked on. Not only did I hold my own, but I was called out at the end of the night for my performance! I don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun at a dance.

Upon returning to Stone Town, my motivation to take care of any sort of electronic business disappeared (hence the belated post). Free time was for relaxing and getting assignments organized, while academic time was spent conducting reef surveys with Dr. Matt Richmond. He is yet another example of ex-patriot success and personal fulfillment. While he has tons of academic background in marine biology, his day-to-day work involves the management of his own environmental impact assessment company based in Dar Es Salaam. He basically wrote the field guide for this corner of the Indian Ocean and has several species bearing his name. Besides having plenty of fun bouncing reef-geek questions off of him, I loved the surveys. The first day, we established quadrats for surveying invertebrates on an intertidal strip of the Pange sandbank and snorkeled just off its northern edge. The following day, we set up circular quadrats on the same reef in order to conduct fish counts and substrate mapping. Mapping out coral colonies in a 10-meter square plot, much less marking the boundaries of the plot itself while snorkeling was challenging business. But it was immensely rewarding. Discoveries those two days include a juvenile Dragon Wrasse, several Lyretail Anthias, Tubastrea sun corals, and several watchman goby-pistol shrimp burrows. Needless to say, everyone on the trip is very excited for the next two-day seminar with Dr. Richmond in a couple of weeks.

Immediately following the conclusion of our reef surveys, we packed up and traveled south to the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park for five days of terrestrial ecology methodology practice. Accommodations were very communal; almost all of us were in one building, and many of the girls were sleeping on floor beds in the main room. Rashid and I managed to score a room at the back. The close quarters ultimately led to an excess of group bonding time, although there were certainly some great moments. Meals were always a feeding frenzy and somehow we managed to watch Notting Hill and Mean Girls back-to-back the first night. In terms of practical work in Jozani, we observed Zanzibar Red Colobus monkey behavior (they’re an IUCN red-listed species), surveyed mangrove tree dynamics in transect quadrats, and walked transects to survey mammal species. The colobus monkeys were cool to see in light of their endangered status, but the troops we observed were heavily habituated from years of tourist encroachment. The mangrove surveys were something else. We spent plenty of time slogging our way through thick mud and roots to count saplings, measuring mature trees, and assessing localized anthropogenic effects. But we mainly got dirty and argued. Of the three designated research groups, mine was both the most driven and the most combative (“..too many Type A personalities in one place..”). While we managed to intimidate the other groups with our regular bickering and smack-talking, we did also manage to get decently satisfactory results out of tough conditions. And of course, there were winning moments like when Rashid was attacked by mangrove crabs or when Sophia stepped into a random knee-deep hole.

The transect walk wasn’t terribly productive, although it made for a very cool two-kilometer hike through scrub forest and wet forest zones. I took point as the group observer and managed to find several varieties of orchid, a few monkeys, and the first Sunni Antelope droppings for Munira (Pearl). She’s studying the little Sunnis for her ISP, so those poops were a big deal. Other discoveries of note throughout the five days included several blue-phase green tree snakes, another thumbnail sized frog species, and a spectacular tailless whip scorpion.

Hawa actually wins the prize for that discovery; it was the best find on our adventurous little night hike.

On the last day before we prepared our study results for presentation, we visited Zala Park just down the road from Jozani. A local man has collected a menagerie of local species, established breeding programs for some of the less common reptiles, and even opened his own school with specially designed environmental study classes. A great enterprise all around. Rashid got to see his first Tree Hyraxes (his ISP subject), Kauthar (Kathryn) found a flap-neck chameleon, and several of us had the opportunity to get a close look at a vine snake.

In spite of it all, I must admit the last week or so has been a very stressful time. Just as we prepared to leave for Jozani, I found that my intended insect study for the ISP period was likely to be unfeasible (at least within the time parameters of the program). Without a clear plan for survey methodology and a permit from the government (an unexpected bureaucratic development), it just wasn’t going to happen. So, with the portfolio project rapidly approaching after Jozani and no clean plans for my project, I was in a bit of a bind. Add to that general conflict a lack of internet and reliable cell phone service in Jozani. Fortunately, with the support of Helen and strong advice from Dr. Tim Davenport of the Wildlife Conservation Society, I’m back on track. Again (and for the last time) my focus has shifted. As of this afternoon I will be starting a series of surveys in Jozani intended to identify local species of reptiles. There will be skinks, there will be chameleons, and there will be snakes. If I can find one of the short-tailed chameleons rumored to exist in Jozani, there are serious scientific implications. Fingers crossed. The portfolio is basically a mini-ISP intended to test the functionality of planned methodologies. I’ll be spending the next three days (and partially nights) out in the forest doing my best to spot every reptile making its way through my transect. I can guarantee you that I’ll have plenty of observations to share this upcoming weekend in the next post.

In the meantime, I congratulate you for having the patience to read this far. This is why I need to avoid being lazy and skipping whole weeks at a time. There will be another post soon though, especially if I make an unexpected discovery. I hope all is well with everyone back in the States and that the Fall chill doesn’t have you hiding indoors quite yet. Inversely, the heat and rain is only likely to intensify here. Better hot than cold! Until the next time!