Sorry

My apologies, internet connectivity and power have been a bit of an issue the last few weeks but iv'e got a few posts and some photo's ready to go up an i'll get them up as soon as possible!

Community

This week we started the Community section as part of the GVI Internship Program. We began with an introduction to TEFAL and went over various scenarios and teaching techniques before starting to work on teaching plans. GVI works with several schools in Shimoni but this week I'd be working with Matunda Bora and Base Academy, teaching English Classes to Standards 5 and 6. We worked with small classes with varying age groups (about 10-14 years old), Kenyan classes don't progress with age but with the completion and passing of exams. The lesson plans focusing on Present Continuous with one teacher and 2 volunteers in support.

On Tuesday I led Wildlife Club at Matunda Bora were we taught the students about the importance of Waste Management and Mike and Abdul from the Health Committee came along to talk about their roles in the community. We also got 4 kids to be members of the Green Team, who'll look after the compost heaps, monitor the burning pits and help clean up the school and surrounding area.

In the evening Bertie and I took the Adult Beginners English Class at Base Academy. There are only 3 members students and we concentrated on the Future Tense using the Present Continuous. This is turned out to be a bit of a challenge, not for the students they were great but more for me as it has been a long time since I had even thought about the concepts underpinning the English Language.

On Wednesday evening it was Adult Reading Class, Pandu one of the students in the class is slightly more advanced than the rest so we headed into the classroom next door and worked together to go through the papers. He has quite an interest in Politics and I found it quite interesting as I learnt a lot about Kenyan politics, I think I got more from the class than he did.

On Thursday morning we started filming an Infomercial on waste management in Shimoni, to be shown to the Elders and the rest of the community at a later date. I got the chance to put my Directing and Editorial skills to the test, my apologies in advance to anyone who gets to watch it.

This is my only week on community an I'll be sad to go.

My Final Week on Forest and I was Survey Leader!!!!

After I got out of the hospital I had the weekend to recover and then on Tue and Wed i was Survey Leader. This basically involves me ordering the Forest Survey Groups about for two days. I had to plan out who was doing what, where, when and with what. Not quite as complicated as it sounds but still a fair bit of work.

The first day I worked everyone pretty hard sending groups out to Shimoni Forest East and West to set Small Mammal Traps, Pitfall Traps, Butterfly Traps and do Butterfly Sweep Netting, Primate Behavior, Bird Surveys and Canopy Survey. Everyone did really well but was incredibly tiered by the time they got back. After a few tweaks an adjustments here an there, I had planned out the following days Surveys. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the second day and we manage to get loads of data.

All in all it went pretty well, a few bumps along the way but definitely a positive experience.

A Brief Stint in the Hospital

After receiving several nasty bites on my leg if became very ill and was shipped off to hospital! The bits had become infected and unfortunately for me the infection had begun to spread. I spent three days and two nights in the hospital being stabbed and injected with various needles and drugs. It was not all doom and gloom though, the staff were all really nice (although one of the nurses missed the vein a couple of times when he tried to insert the drip which was kinda painful) and the hospital was more like a hotel. I had my own private en-suite room, flat screen TV (only one watchable channel though!) and my own private chef who would just make me whatever i asked for. Not that I was really in any fit state to enjoy it though.

But all is well, I'm back on my feet and feeling better than ever! Looking forward to getting back out in the forest and community.

Butterfly Sweep-Netting

Butterflies are an important part of the ecosystem and a great identifier species. Individual species tend to favor certain flora (both in in their larval and imago stages) and can be used to help to indirectly identify plants species and their density.The number of species of butterfly and their population density helps to provide us with an indication of the state of an environment. 

We started in Shimoni Forest West along the shortcut to the Transects. We swept for a total of 1 hour, which  was divided up between 3 people, each doing 20min simultaneously.

Once caught the specimen was carefully removed from the net, being careful not to damage their fragile wings (their bodies are deceptively strong) and then logged and photographed both the top an underside of the wing in order to identify them back at base. 

Building Pitfall Traps

This week we set up 4 pitfall traps and drift nets in Shimoni Forest West. A pitfall trap is sunk into the ground and is designed to trap small animals, such as insects, amphibians and reptiles.

This takes some amount of blood, sweat and tears, well not so much the blood an tears but lots of sweat, a few cuts and bruises and a lot of blisters. This is because Shimoni Forest sits on top of Coral Rag, which is a Limestone material composed of ancient coral reefs.

The drift nets (set up in a T section) direct small animals towards the pitfall traps. The traps are set in the evening and those that fall in are unable to escape and are collected first thing in the morning.

The Species are logged, recorded and then set free.

The Mangroves

As part of the expedition it is important to gather and improve upon local knowlege and information. As there is very little information on the mangroves of Shimoni Forest East, GVI has begun a new project, logging and identify the different plants and animal species

The Mangroves are an important costal habitat and ecosystem. They provide coastal areas with protection from erosion and storm surges and the mangrove's massive root system dissipates wave energy and slows tidal waters so that sediment is deposited.

The 2010 update of the World Mangrove Atlas indicated that a fifth of the world's mangrove ecosystems have been lost since 1980 and a number of species are under threat. The ecosystem provides a home for a variety of plants and animal species.

The Project

The Program

For the first 4 weeks i'll be working on the Forestry Conservation Project in Shimoni, 1 week of Community Development in Mkwiro on Wasini Island teaching English, 1 week at the satellite camp at Savo and 4 weeks on the Marine Conservation Project working on Wasini Island and the Mkisite Marine Reserve.

The Forest Research Project, Shimoni Forest

The purpose of the Forest Research Project is to identify plant and animal species, monitor their population, density and distribution over time. The forest is divided into East and West, there are 6 transects on the East side and 3 on the West side. The transects on the West side are still to be completed. The transects are a number of parallel paths cut through the forest along a an East to West trajectory.

Shimoni Forest East

On Tuesday 05/10/10 we set off to collect and compile data on Canopy Cover and Height in Shimoni Forest East along Transect 4.



Heading into the Shimoni Forest



Luke and Ayabei



Me making some notes



A crazy tree



Inside the crazy tree



We also logged information on species we spotted along the way, such as Suni, Angolan Black and White Colobus Monkeys, Palm Nut Vultures and the Common Rock Thrush.

Ayabei on the lookout for African Fish Eagles

Me by the Coast

Shimoni Forest West

On Wednesday 06/10/10 we began cutting a new section along Transect 3 in Shimoni Forest West. We also noted an causal observation we made along the way which included;

Sykes Monkeys

Angolan Black and White Colobus Monkeys

Yellow Baboons

Palm Nut Vulutres

African Fish Eagles

Lizards

Go Away Bird

Fork Tail Drongo

Black Kite

Zanj Elephant Shrew

Tim and a Caterpillar



Can't beleive they actually let me loose with a Machete



Ayabei showing us how it's done



Faye an Tim clearing a path



Tim, Ayabei and me stop for some lunch

A Sykes Monkey

A Sykes Monkey

Faye working up a sweat