There are eleven people in each directed research group. We got to submit our first, second, and third choices for DR and they tried to put everyone on a project they were interested in. It seemed to work out pretty well although Okello's project was probably the most popular, Kiringe's the next, and Tome's the last. Okello is working on mapping wildlife in relation to human settlements in the group ranch outside of Amboseli National Park. Kiringe is looking at vegetation in the Kimana group ranch. Tome is researching community conservation initiatives in all of the group ranches in the Loitokitok division of the Kajiado district. I'm in Tome's group (along with Tommy, Izzy, Rose, Lindsey, Siena, Rocky, Liz, Kim, Mike, and Amy) and we've been conducting surveys with local guides for the last seven days. We leave around 7:30 AM and finish taking surveys at 3:00PM. Our goal for each day is about fifteen surveys each, but it depends on how long we have to drive to get to our destination and how far apart the settlements (bomas) are. We go out in pairs, so there are five survey groups and one person stays to do the data entry for the surveys collected the day before. It's been really interesting to drive all over the Loitokitok district interviewing people about wildlife conservation. The most common livelihoods around here are agriculture and pastoralism (or a combination). The farms are all cultivated entirely by hand, so they usually aren't more than an acre or two. You all can imagine what quick work an elephant herd makes out of that. The predators also eat livestock (cattle, sheep, and goats), so neither livelihood escapes unharmed. Given those things, the responses are a bit discouraging from a wildlife conservation point of view and entirely understandable from a human point of view.
Today, Izzy and I went to Mbirikani group ranch with our favorite guide Joseph. He had a lot of family around the area, so we got to go inside a lot of houses and sit down for coffee. Kenyan coffee is extremely watered down instant coffee with enough sugar in it to give an elephant a buzz. We had two cups in less than two hours because we didn't want to be rude and turn them down. Neither of us are coffee drinkers, so we were making a lot of eye contact and rueful smiles over our cups. Despite that, it was probably the best day I've had out in the field. We were welcomed into the homes and invited to play with the children and take pictures and people were asking us questions and showing us their pictures. I've only had one person turn down our survey so being welcomed isn't usually a problem, but we're often standing outside in the sun while the people work and it's easy to feel like an intrusion.
Today was our last day out interviewing group ranch members and land owners and tomorrow we start doing key informant interviews. We're going back to Amboseli to interview Kenya Wildlife Service rangers, lodge owners, group ranch officials, etc. tomorrow. After that we're starting our data analysis and writing our individual papers. Our final presentation of our results is on December 7th and we're all flying out (or moving on to our next destination) on December 10th. Hard to believe it's almost over!
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2 comments:
Your project sounded interesting! All the surveying gives you a lot of contact with people, at least more than the other groups. With the elephants and predators it was understandable that the responses were discouraging from the wildlife conservation point of view.
As I recall you don't like coffee much anyway, so I could imagine your delight over the watered-down sugary version. You were a good sport!
I enjoyed reading about your research project. I'm working on one myself, but it's not "original research". No interviews in the hot sun or special coffee for me. You're right that it's hard to believe December is coming so soon!
OXOXOOXOXXOOXXO
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