Location: Ewaso Nyiro River Camp, Mpala Wildlife Conservancy, Laikipia Valley
This morning R lectured for about 3 hours about ethnography work, specifically interviewing and interview methods. She talked a lot about Evans-Pritchard's work and appropriately titled book "The Nuer," which I am now attempting to read.
After her lecture, we broke off into groups and interviewed the graduate students C, K, and W. My group interviewed W. We broke up further and L and I interviewed him using semi-structured interview method (which involves having a few basic questions and/or points you definitely want answered). W's research involves interviewing lots of people both in and around Mpala to discover how such a unique institution affects people in all levels and occupations. He also mentioned the referendum and how he had talked to some people about how they thought it might affect conditions in the country and that no one really seemed to know, but they were hopeful. I asked him if he thought Kenya was headed in the right direction in terms of development and he said he didn't know what the right way was. W's research brought to mind the concept of building a country from the ground up as opposed to Western industrialized top-down structuralization. It's an interesting thing to consider.
R is also pushing us to choose research topics--topics we want to learn more about here at Mpala--for our final project. I feel like I'm at a crossroads. There are so many things I want to learn more about here but I worry that I lack the raw intellect to effectively express, first of all, what I want to know and, secondly, pursue an answer or several answers. I really need to talk to someone about this but I feel like the graduate students are already really hassled by having to babysit us, my fellow students are caught up in their own research woes, and the professors are too rarely with us. I guess I can just keep trying to think about it--I've got a few days before I should really have something nailed down anyway.
A few of us went to go see the water turbine that supplies power to the Ranch House. The engineer was there temporarily to help tweak the system (apparently the turbine has been in use since the 30s). It was very cool! I was also interested that the water supplied all the Ranch House's power but also that the turbine was barely running at half its full capacity.
In the afternoon, we went and played soccer in the village. The Mpala team just won a district championship or something and had won a brand new pair of goal posts. The field is set up on the plateau just above the village above the research center. The field shares the plateau with the airstrip and there are no trees so the wind just whipped across in big clouds of dust.
Most of the real Mpala team was working or out of town we heard but it seemed like there were plenty willing to take their place in the game. A few of our research assistants (like Robert and Apollo) and Julius (the head of security at Mpala) played on our team. It was about 20 min in before Mpala scored the first goal and I was surprised we hung in that long. It was amazing how easily the game went even though most of us didn't speak the same language: offsides, out-of-bounds, corner kick, goal kick--these were all things so universal and innate to the game, we didn't need words to make it work. We scored right before the end of the first half which resulted in a chant of "Hail to the Victors" that seemed quite out-of-place.
At half time, we retreated to the sidelines for water and were immediately descended upon by dozens of children. I got no rest as I discovered my potential as a human amusement park. "Cuckoo!" means "grab my hands and spin me around in a circle" and "up" means piggy-back ride, followed by more spinning.
I went back into the game, then came back so that someone else could go in. As soon as I made it to the sidelines, I was ordered by several young girls to sit on the ground. They began braiding my hair. I ended up with about 25 mismatched braids sticking out of my head. The girls tried to commandeer my bandanna and hair tie--I felt bad taking them back but I haven't really packed much and tying my hair back is kind of a necessity in this heat. The boldest girl pointed to a collection of silly bandz on her wrist and asked me to give her some and didn't believe me when I said I didn't have any. The professor J asked me to come join him and R in the car to discuss video ideas. The girl asked me when I would come back and what I would bring her. The interaction seemed odd and contrived--I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. The final score for the game was 10-2 with team Michigan on the losing end.
The professor J and R had a lot of different ideas for themes for the video--I was glad when She-J stepped in to say that they should just pick one. Lots of people don't realize how complicated it is to weave so many themes into one video. In the end, they were still pushing for more than one theme, but at least I have She-J on my side. I won't really know what's feasible until I have more of an idea of what kind of footage I'm getting.
C found a chameleon--it was so cool! When the profs kicked me out of their car, I hopped in C's car and asked what happen to the chameleon. Student he-A said, "Look at [she-A] and see if you can find it!" The chameleon had turned itself completely white and was clinging to her forehead. I got to hold it for the way home and it was really cool--it has a double-split claw on each foot. C and I put her in a box to keep overnight. We'll find and feed her grasshoppers in the morning.
"Kin-yonga" is Swahili for chameleon
Dinner was pretty small--just a stew and some rolls. For the first time since we arrived, I had to supplement a meal with a granola bar from my bag.
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