First stop: London -> Second Stop: Everything I've Ever Wanted

 The past two days have been exactly like opening Sundays at camp. However, today was Tuesday dance night where the awkward attempts to make conversation, the laughing at things that you think are actually stupid not funny, the calling people by the wrong name, and the hesitance in every move have suddenly disappeared and the sarcasm, crazy pictures, and embarrassing facts about our lives have definitely appeared.  I am excited to say that I have two fabulous banda-mates, more on them later.  And that our banda name is the bush babies so I’m pretty stoked about that and a team handshake is definitely on its way.  But…lets rewind a bit.

London!  I actually slept on the plane for a couple of hours because I had three whole seats to myself but I was still exhausted and didn’t really feel like going out into the city during our twelve hour layover.  However, I knew I would be disappointed in myself if I didn’t so I took my 50 pound backpack into the city of London with about 15 other people.  For having no itinerary I would say we did pretty well.  We went to lunch, saw Big Ben, the London Eye, and an art museum (which as all of you know I could have done without…except for the fact that they stored our bags for free to give my shoulders a break).  We then took the metro back and chilled at the airport to prepare for our flight to Nairobi which was a little more crowded and hence less pleasant but I still managed to get a few hours in.  It was exhausting, but beautiful and a great chance to see somewhere I’d never been before.

Kenya!  Absolutely breathtaking.  Only a couple minutes into the 5 hour drive from the airport (aka civilization) to our camp…BAM! GIRAFFES!  Followed by cattle, goats, ostriches, zebras, and dogs.  But in case that wasn’t exciting enough I leave our dining area (also known as a chumba) and look to my right and what do I see? Yup, a baboon…no big deal.  Only my favorite things in the entire world hanging out in my backyard. 

I’m still very overwhelmed but extremely happy to have this incredible opportunity and also very sleepy.  But tomorrow we are going into town to go to the market and somehow I agreed to go running at 6:15 tomorrow morning.  And to leave you with one statement that our student affairs manager will tell us more about tomorrow supposedly… “Just stay in your bandas and in the chumba at night because we have had a lot of elephant break-ins recently and you don’t want to see that.”  

Write Me

Arianna Jesanis

Center for Wildlife Management Studies 

P.O. Box 27743 (Nyayo Stadium) 

00506 – NAIROBI, KENYA 

East Africa 

Arianna Jesanis

SFS Center for Wildlife Management Studies,  

P.O. Box 304 

KARATU, TANZANIA 

East Africa 

I will love you forever and I will of course write you back!!!

What if?

Thursday is officially over and so far I have packed my carry on.  Well, most of it.  I'm going to try and pull it off as a carry on and then use a normal backpack as a "purse", but time will tell how that goes.  With an absurdly long packing list from SFS I'm pretty sure my bags are going to be ridiculously large and there will be at least 2, possibly three thanks to the whole diabetes thing.

Speaking of diabetes.  I give large amounts of credit to anyone who has ever gone outside of the U.S. for more than a month and managed to be able to carry all of their stuff.  I just got my new silver Animas pump named Sylvia Jane and she will be happily accompanying me along with Simon the purple Deltec.  In order to make certain that I will not be returning to the U.S. halfway through the program because I cannot receive packages and most diabetes supplies won't fit in a regular envelope I am forced to bring an enormous amount of supplies... enough to last me 6 months for Sylvia, Simon, and good old lantus in case Sylvia and Simon decide to go to pump heaven together.  I really hope they don't.  Here is everything diabetes related that I am bringing, and of course it has to fit in my carry on incase the airline loses the bag.

 
Even with enough supplies to probably allow me to stay 3 years in Africa I still have many "what if?"'s going through my head.  For the first time I am actually getting a little nervous and finding it hard to just throw diabetes in with the rest of my luggage and call it a day.  Here are a collection of my "What if?" thoughts, some of which are sensible, most of which are not, about my upcoming trip to Africa.  And by upcoming I mean less than 48 hours away.  I need to pack.

1) What if Sylvia and/or Simon break?
2) What if my insulin goes bad with the heat?
3) What if I run out of low treatment?
4) What if I go into DKA?
5) What if I run out of syringes/pen needles?
6) What if I forget to pack crucial things when we go on expeditions?
7) What if nobody is interested in my diabetes?
8) What if I have a seizure?
9) What if I go low and nobody knows how to help?
10) What if my supplies are stolen?
11) What if I go through diabetes burnout while there?
12) What if I get frustrated that nobody understands it?
13) What if something happens that I know I could have prevented?

There are many more, even some non-diabetes related, but I didn't want to overwhelm you.  Any input from those who have been abroad before would be super greatly appreciated.  And on a completely different note, for all of you San Diego kids, welcome to New England's very own winter wonderland.  It's getting ridiculous, seriously.  We got another 20 inches last night.  Here are a couple pictures to make you so very happy to be where you are in nice sunny California.

Next time you hear from me I will probably be in Africa so I have no idea when that will be but I know it will definitely be between 7-11 pm because thats the only time the generator is on!  And as always thanks for all of your love and support on this incredible journey!

My Goals for the Experience

I don't normally set goals in life, I just kinda roll with it usually.  But I feel like this is a time where for the good of human kind I should set some goals.  It feels pretty weird to be doing this, but it couldn't hurt considering if I don't meet them I can simply just delete this post down the line and pretend it never happened :-).  So here they are...

1) Ride an elephant.  Ostriches are also acceptable.

That's enough for now. Just kidding.

2) Say hakuna matata atleast once a day.
3) Figure out whether atleast (at least) is one word or two.
4) Learn to run really fast like the Kenyans.
5) Name every elephant I see with a name that starts with J.
6) Be able to translate the swahili part of circle of life.
7) Hold a conversation with a native in Swahili.
8) Learn to not be so stubborn.
9) Dance in the rain (of course an African dance).
10) Actually keep in touch, not just say I will.
11) Become a professional photographer (aka take more than 25 pictures while I'm there).
12) Focus on the positives.
13) Call every baboon Rafiki until it starts talking back.
14) Don't be afraid to try new things.
15) Become pen pals with a native.
16) Learn more than just the material given in class from my professors.
17) Explore.
18) Be on top of the whole diabetes thing.
19) Let go of the American culture and embrace the new way of life.
20) Bring Wyatt Beard with me at all times.
21) And for the cheese factor...Make every day the best it can be and have the experience of a lifetime!

We'll see how these goals work out. It's gonna be trial and error or more like guess and check.  But my goal for tonight is to start packing for Africa.  After I go to the movies of course... eh, actually that goal can wait until tomorrow. 

Do Re Mi

Let's start at the very beginning.  A very good place to start.  I'm going to Africa (for those of you who didn't know or gather that from the title).  I'm doing a study abroad program through the School for Field Studies in Kenya and Tanzania (Details n' such).  The classes I am taking are (sad that I had to look these up): Techniques of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Ecology, Environmental Policy and Socioeconomic Values, and Introduction to Swahili Language and East African Tribal Communities.  Since that is a lot to handle I will be referring to these in later posts as follows: Zookeeping 101, Elephant Relationships, Man vs Wild, and Intro to Hakuna Matata.  I'm also doing a directed research program at the end which is probably going to be along the lines of me counting elephants, but more details on that later.  Okay, for those of you asking yourselves "isn't she majoring in marine science"?  Well, yes, indeed I am.  However, I'm taking a little break and adding an environmental studies minor in the mix so worry no more, everything is just swell.

As for the living arrangements I only have details about the Kenya site but apparently the Tanzania site is much classier and newer aka not as fun to look at.  I'm going to Kenya first by the way and then switching to Tanzania halfway through.  Take a look at these to see my home sweet home for the next couple of months :-)

Classroom/dining area

View of Mt. Kilimanjaro

Dining area

My banda!

Inside my hut

Study space

Another view

Pretty exciting!!!  I leave on Saturday night from Newark, NJ and apparently I just found out we have a 12 hour layover in London so I'm hoping to   explore although there aren't any certain plans.  Packing extravaganzas and goals for the experience are coming soon!