Yesterday we turned in our final DR papers and gave presentations of our findings to the faculty. It felt great to finish and I finally slept in past 6 am this morning! Here is a brief recap of my DR experience, done with numbers just like what we’ve been obsessing about for much of the last month:
days of field data collection: 7
sanctuaries surveyed: 5
kilometers walked: over 40!
elephants seen along our transects: 29
times our car got stuck in mud: 1
dreams I've had about DR: 4
cups of coffee I've drunk (my first ones ever): 4
pages of final paper: 28
Now we are preparing for the community presentations that we will give to the community tomorrow. We’ll present to the people who we interviewed and worked with, as well as to community leaders, sanctuary funding agents, Kenya Wildlife Service officials, and anyone else who is interested. Everything we say will be translated into Maasai. It should be a crazy day – about 90 people should be here! After our presentation we are on the home stretch – we leave for Nairobi on Saturday and all go our separate ways on Sunday morning. It has been a crazy last month in Africa. These last days are sure to be the same! I can’t really place what my feelings are right now about everything, but I know that I am looking forward to a huge salad and clean clothes when I get home.
Great work, Catherine! It will be nice to have you home -- I look forward to hearing more about your experience after you get some sleep and catch up on your salad :)
ReplyDeleteZeben and Nate will be home on the 18th.
-- Cate