We have been through 2 of our 4 field days and so far both have proved to be two very different experiences. The group is split up into teams of two that each have a translator and we take out four different cars to split up and cover more area. The first day I was assigned to Chulu hills, which is about an hour drive from camp and in a more remote area. In the Chulu hills there is no water source and the inhabitants have to pay to have barrels of water trucked in each week. The people living there were pastoralist so they also have to purchase extra water for their livestock. Most of the bomas we had planned on surveying were abandoned, people had moved on because of the drought. We also encounter a few who refused to participate because they wanted money in exchange for their time. The people in the Chulu hills were really struggling which made it a hard day. All of the kids seemed inactive, many of them were sick. People told us that they didn’t have enough money to pay for all the water they needed and most of the people could only afford to eat once a day; their meal consisted of only porridge or ugali (corn meal and water).

The second day had a whole different tone to it and the surveying was really enjoyable. We were welcomed at all of the bomas and the people we interviewed were more lively, especially the children. During one of the interviews there were about 5 kids, all under 7 years of age, sitting around our feet. After staring at me for a good 20 minutes a couple of the little ones finally built up the courage to touch my skin. The area we are surveying in doesn’t get tourists passing through so the children have not seen many “mzungu” or white people (this word has become very familiar to me over the past couple of days). The little girl put her hand on my arm and her sister followed – then the two put their hands up to their faces and smelled. They did this a couple of times before finally grabbing my arm and taking a big whiff. This was followed by smiles and giggles from the girls and a reprimand from their mother, but I thought it was adorable.

My group has met our goal of 6 surveys both days and from what I’ve been hearing most of the groups have as well (this is about 45-50 surveys per day as a group). We will take the day off tomorrow to volunteer with a nutritionist and then complete our data collection on Sunday and Monday. Each day there are also four students that stay behind to enter survey data from the previous outing, so it is our goal to have all data collected and entered by Tuesday.

Our entire survey area is pretty remote and home to a lot of wildlife. We take “roads” which are really just paths through the brush but have also got to part-take in some off-roading experiences. We’ve had to stop a few times to let giraffes, monkeys and ostrich cross the road and have seen everything from warthogs to water buck.