Let the Preparation Begin

Monday we leave for Taita Hills to conduct field research. With that being said, we are currently in crunch time. Tino is in a constant work mode as he will leave on holiday for a month as soon as we get back. Therefore, this morning Sarah and I had about an hour to do something. Since I never visited the library on my tour, she decided to take me. The library tour was pretty funny. I don’t think the guy giving the tour really knew what to tell me so the tour pretty much consisted of, “Here is a book; here are the magazines; and here is a computer lab if you ever need to use a computer.” Sarah and I came out of the session laughing.

Once Tino got his projector back from whoever was using it for a meeting, we began our daily lecture. This lecture consisted of learning about Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and how we will use them next week. The tools this software provides are really handy. It can mark points, highlight areas, and even show pins to click on for pictures and videos all on an aerial view map. Although the research I conduct in Taita will not use this while I am here, Tino wants me to practice anyways as knowing how to work this software is an important skill to know for my future research endeavors. We also were shown a movie about a research method where the village creates its own aerial map from different materials. The process the village took was remarkable. Tino said he plans on having the three villages he is using for the study to do the same in the next two years before the project is over. The map making looks extremely costly and time consuming, but maybe it does have some valuable information to provide to the research.

For lunch today I tried ground maize mashed into a ball. (I can’t quite remember what it is called.) I didn’t like it, and none of the girls I sat with did either; they were wondering why I even took it. When Sarah and I returned to the office we devised the second research method we will use with the farmers next week. We chose a timeline because then we can see how climate change has impacted and changed life in the village while also causing major events such as poor harvests. Just as we were about to leave for the day the downpour began. It rained so hard, to the point we raised our voices to talk to one another. Sarah asked for me to tell her about my friends, as she told me about hers yesterday. I pulled up my Facebook and began describing each of them. She thought the customs were so different. Things such as Prom do not exist in Kenya. Football games are unheard of. They don’t even celebrate Halloween. I find it interesting how events that consume so much of our money and time are unheard of in Kenya. This makes me question what our country values. Are we wrong to spend so much on so little?