Gombe 50th Celebration

So I realize that I haven't posted anything about the actual work that I've been doing. As much as you all love to hear about my troublesome commutes and eating too much chapati, being updated on my job is probably more important. Oooo an owl just landed on the roof of the house. Anyways, This past month I've been spending most of my time organizing a weekend of events for the Gombe 50th. What is Gombe 50th you ask? Well I've cheated and copied the answer below from the JGI website; but in short, Dr. Jane Goodall came to Tanzania on July 1st for a month long tour around Tanzania to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the start of her research in Gombe National Park and to promote her Roots & Shoots program. This is where I come in. Being the International Volunteer for the Roots & Shoots program, myself along with my fellow R&S members were in charge of organizing an event in Moshi. Since I haven't uploaded my pictures yet I will end it here and make a separate post about the Moshi event after I upload them. Sorry, that is kind of a tease for those anxious to hear about Jane's visit but trust me, picture are definitely needed for that post!

A Global Celebration of Jane Goodall’s
Pioneering Chimpanzee Research and
Inspiring Vision for Our Future

2010 marks a monumental milestone for the Jane Goodall Institute and Jane Goodall. Fifty years ago, Goodall, who is today a world-renowned primatologist, conservationist and UN Messenger of Peace, first set foot on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, in what is now Tanzania’s Gombe National Park. The chimpanzee behavioral research she pioneered there has produced a wealth of scientific discovery, and her vision has expanded into a global mission to empower people to make a difference for all living things.

When 26-year-old Jane Goodall arrived in Gombe on July 14, 1960, she had been instructed by famed anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey to observe the behavior of the resident chimpanzees in order to better understand humans. Her early findings—that chimpanzees make and use tools, eat meat and engage in war-like activity—profoundly altered our understanding of what it means to be human.

The culmination of the first 20 years of the Gombe research, Dr. Goodall’s book titledThe Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior, is recognized as a milestone in the understanding of wild chimpanzee behavior. As a result of her original studies, researchers in many other institutions continue to carry out path-breaking analyses related to chimpanzee behavior and make new discoveries in this field.

"So much more"
Today, the Gombe research is one of the longest running studies of animals in the wild, providing extensive insights into our closest relatives’ emotions, behaviors and social structures. But Gombe represents so much more. The ongoing research and the extensive conservation work carried on there by the Institute are helping answer such compelling questions as how certain diseases are spread, how to stop forest destruction, which contributes to climate change, and how to improve the plight of women in developing countries.

The impact of the Gombe research spans the globe and covers a wide range of scientific disciplines, including human evolution, ethology, anthropology, behavioral psychology, sociology, conservation, disease transmission (including HIV-AIDS), aging and geospatial mapping.

Dr. Goodall and the Gombe research have also inspired a generation of scientists around the world, many of them women, to work not just in chimpanzee behavior but more broadly in conservation and other related fields. In the United States alone, students trained at Gombe now occupy academic positions across the country in major universities, including Harvard University, University of Minnesota, University of Southern California, University of California at Berkeley, and Duke University.

Since 1960, Gombe has been the source of:

• More than 200 scientific papers
• 35 Ph.D. theses
• More than 30 books (including the best-sellers by Dr. Goodall In the Shadow of Man in 1971, Through a Window in 1990, Reason for Hope in 1999, and a number of books for children)
• Nine films (including those produced by the National Geographic Society and Animal Planet, and an IMAX film with Science North in 2002)
• Hundreds of popular articles, secondary writings, radio and television interviews, and
• Hundreds of lecture tours and conferences

Growing Institute
The data amassed at Gombe has informed JGI’s species and habitat conservation programs. The Institute’s community-driven conservation initiatives provide local communities the tools needed to address their basic needs and become economically stable, while managing their natural resources for the long term. JGI’s integrated approach supports projects focusing on everything from water/sanitation issues and health care to sustainable livelihoods and education—and links them to conservation objectives.

More recently, Gombe has become an example of how cutting-edge technology can enhance conservation. As part of its conservation action planning process, JGI uses state-of-the-art high-resolution satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems to map chimpanzee habitats and plan land use with local communities, including designating deforested areas for regeneration.

Finally, Gombe is where Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, JGI’s global environmental and humanitarian youth program, flourished. Now in more than 120 countries worldwide, the program inspires youth of all ages to make positive change happen for people, animals and the environment we all share. Fifty years later, Gombe is truly impacting the next generation

Just another day

How I spent my birthday:

1. Missed my daladala and had to run like a mad woman flagging it down across the whole town (lest I wait another hour and a half for the next one). Let's just say I caused quite the scene.

2. Fell into a river.

3. Got told by three people I was getting fat...

Thank you very much. I think you can all agree with me in that the last of these was by far the most disconcerting. In their defense, they meant it as a compliment but I certainly did not take it as one. In Tanzania, being fat is a good thing and a sign of one's status in society. That's me, climbing the ladder of society one chapati at a time. Here, the larger you are the more money you have and thus the more food you can buy. I don't think there is anyone more respected than a large african mama. Quite the opposite of our lettuce-crunching-organic-everything society back in the States. This is roughly how the conversation went down.

Aneth: "How are you liking Tanzania? You are looking fat."

Me: "What?!? Did you just say I'm fat?!"

Aneth: "Yes you are looking fatter, I think this means you are getting used to TZ and feeling more comfortable. When you have less worries you get fat."

Me: "What?!? Do I really look THAT much fatter?"

I desperately turn to Godson and Mr. Sekievu hoping one of them will come to my rescue..

Godson: "Yes you do."

Sekievu: "YES it's the cheeks you can see it in your face"

It's not my fault everything here is fried! Do you think this stopped me from buying a large piece of chocolate cake today? It most certainly did not. I will eat my slice of birthday cake with pride!

Mweka

This is the beautiful village of Mweka. No matter how frustrating my morning commute is, as soon as I arrive and begin hiking up the mountain my troubles ease away. With every foot I climb I pass mamas working in the field, bubbling streams flowing from the mountains' glaciers above, and a coffee farmer harvesting his new crop of red berries. Children run barefoot down moss laden paths while...ok enough I think you get the idea. It's beautiful. I called Peter Jackson to tell him this is where he should film his next installment of The Hobbit. He put me on hold.

path up to site

fields of flowers

flowing springs

3 strikes and you're...

outlier

|ˈoutˌlīər|noun = a person or thing situated away or detached from the main body or system: • a person or thing excluded from a group; an outsider.

This is me. I'm an outlier. Coming to a foreign country with an entirely different set of cultural norms and a language I have yet to master, I can't help but be one. I'm OK with this descriptive noun for the time being, and thankful it is not used as a proper noun. Instead, I'm called Mzungu...which if you've ever travelled to Latin America is the African equivalent of la gringa. Anyways, turns out the interns before me did a good job of messing up relations with the community I'm suppose to be working with i.e. only coming for a few hours a week and then lecturing them on everything they were doing wrong. That sort of thing. So it seems a large portion of my time these first couple weeks, and possibly months, will be spent trying to patch these relations with the community. After my first week I think I'm doing pretty well...

Day 1:

I decided it would be a nice gesture to bring chai to my first Community Committee Meeting. So Alyssa (intern coordinator) and I went into town and bought a giant thermos. The next morning, we fill the giant thermos with chai, load it into my backpack, and trek up to the conservation site. 'This is such a great idea', I thought, 'how could they not love us after we bring them chai?'. Upon arrival, we excitedly inform the group that we've brought chai for everyone and proceed to unpack the thermos. As Alyssa unscrews the bottom of the thermos to use as an extra mug, CRASH the inner casing falls out and shatters sending chai and hundreds of tiny pieces of glass flying everywhere...awesome...what's worse is one of the men then felt the need to send his son all the way home to make replacement chai...stupid mzungus

Day 2:

The next morning I walk into town (30 min) and wait for a daladala (1 hour) then ride it up to Mweka (30 min) and hike the rest of the way up to the community-conservation site (another 10 min). The whole process takes roughly 2 hours and is frustrating because the place is only like 5 miles away. I should be use to it from riding the green line in Boston, but I'm not. When I get up to the site Sekievu says, "Good! I've been waiting for you. We have to go into town to visit the Forestry Office." Sigh...I turn around and proceed back DOWN the mountain into town from whence I just came.

Day 3:

Today, I've decided I'm going to help the mamas work. Two of the huts at the conservation site collapsed due to the heavy rains we've been having, so the community is busy trying to rebuild them. The men do the construction while the mamas carry over buckets of sand on their heads. That's right! Today, I too will carry a bucket on my head! I'm ready. I've even practiced how to say "Do you have a bucket? I want to help you" in swahili. When I get up to the site I whip out my bandana, tie it around my head, and deliver my line "Una ndoo? Ninataka kusaidia". Everyone laughs and one of the mamas says "tunamaliza"..."we are finished"... You've GOT to be kidding me! It's only 10:00! Don't worry I don't say this out loud I just scream it in my head. Oh well T.I.A (That Is Africa). At this point I am laughing too at all my "strikes" this week, but despite all my failed attempts...I think I'm growing on them :)