The four of us sit in the program office, satiated on popcorn and Tang, relaxing as the sun goes down. Summer camp kids played lots of games today that involved running around and tagging each other, and then went out with APW’s village game scouts to see how game counts work. Our guests went off with Laly and Buddy to walk with the Hadzabe, and ( Read more... )

The sun is setting in its usual glories, and we have several large slabs of honeycomb sitting on the table in the classroom. Today the Hadza led all of the summer camp attendees to the tree where bees had made their hive. They cut a big hole with a hatchet and then reached up (no doubt being stung viciously the whole time) to pull out the combs. ( Read more... )

My early morning is spent furiously binding the workbooks for summer camp and performing a last-minute cleaning of the office. We stayed up late last night, plagued by printer snafus, and all of us are underslept. The children - 20 of them, plus 4 scholars - arrive promptly at 8:30am, dressed to impress in their school uniforms. The kids are all in ( Read more... )

I start reading Les Miserables, having finally finished Mattheissen’s book. I’m afraid it isn’t nearly as entertaining as the musical, but I will persist…for a while anyway ( Read more... )

When 7pm rolls around, we are gathered in the classroom, listening to the best of Andrew’s playlist and singing along. It has been a long week, next week is summer camp, and all afternoon Kelly and Andrew have been preparing supplies for the environmental learning games. Laly and I submitted the initial application for what will hopefully turn into ( Read more... )

Whole flocks of birds come to visit the patio ponds that have remained faithfully filled by Tobiko. One particularly gregarious group of grey-colored starlings crowds wing-to-wing around the edge, watching one another plunk down with a hollow “plop!”, before shouting loudly across the dish and pushing for their own turn. They retire to a nearby ( Read more... )

This morning, a lioness killed two cattle at pasture in Emboret. The Maasai warriors went after her, and in the end, she did not survive. Elvis, our Community Program Officer, comes back with one of the game scouts and shows us photographs of her. The warrior who held the first spear to stab her had taken her right front paw, the warrior of the ( Read more... )

If you ask, you shall receive. At lunch today Laly reveals that there is a special surprise on its way to us from Arusha… brownies and…ice cream! I can hardly believe how delighted I am. I feel like I am 7 years old and my mother is handing me a long-coveted dessert ( Read more... )

Clear, clean light all day. It sparkles in the tree branches, and sets our windows aglow with the criss-crossed lace of cobwebs and water spots. At 2pm, a bird slams into one of our windows. We wrap him in a towel and hope for recovery, but he does not wake, only stiffens in death. I lay him under an acacia tree, knowing the ants will find him soon ( Read more... )

I found myself famished yesterday evening; I believe this means I am fully recovered. The days are passing swiftly now, and I hardly have time to wake up before the sun has walked its path across the sky and I am back in darkness again ( Read more... )