KEEP and the last day of my life as a Volunteer!

Hello!!! I know its been a few weeks since posting, but I have moved from Tsavo to Wasini island, both places with absolutely NO electricity, therefore no ability for me to be able to post my wonderful thoughts on the interwebs!  I am back, for a few hours, before leaving again, so I would love to bring everyone up to do date on whats been going on for the past month, and also to announce a very exciting new venture for me!

So, Tsavo - was incredible.  We worked in two different villages in Tsavo West National Park, Kidong and Lekole Lepolosi.  Both were absolutely incredible experiences that I will never forget, and I also gained a lot of professional skills in working with CBOs (Community based organizations).  Both groups embody a joint organization called "Poachers to Protectors", and we got to hear their amazing stories about beginning alternative lifestyles to poaching bush animals in the national park.  Their lives were extremely hard before, and very dangerous.  Rangers in the parks are licensed to shoot on site if they see poachers in the parks, and they also had to fight for their lives every day with lions, elephants, hunger and the type of poverty that comes with a 'easy come, easy go' lucrative business.  They gave it all up, and with the help from organizations like GVI are working towards creating alternative, sustainable, and eco-friendly livelihoods.  They have a website going up soon, which I will be sure to post as soon as its ready.  Here is a picture of us working in Lepolosi with some Maasai community members on crafts making projects:

We also got to feast on roast goat and roast shoat!!! Which was absolutely delicious...all in all two of the best weeks of my life.

Actually, the last two weeks were equally as incredibe...I spent them on a boat doing marine research in Kisite National Park!!You can read all about that here: http://www.kws.org/parks/parks_reserves/KMNP.html

and see all the beautiful pictures of where I got to snorkel :-)  Here is a picture of my absolutely favorite fish, the Emperor Angelfish

Now onto the great news...my internship placement!!! I will be working for KEEP (Kakamega
Environmental Education Program) in Kakamega rainforest!!!  The site is here if you want to read more, please do!!  I'll be doing work with their eco-tourism program development!! It is absolutely perfect for my Capstone, and I'm so excited to be working on my own.  I cannot wait to post pictures of the site here, it looks like I"ll be headed up there in a few weeks.  For now, just peruse these random google images:

 Fluffy Colobus Monkeys!!