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!