School football team, Chimp and Team Meeting
School football team, Chimp and Team Meeting
Kenyan Volunteers 2009
The Kenyan expedition started on friday 19 June and ended on Thursday 16 July.
The education team comprised of Ashley Williams and Jenny Woodfine. Continue reading to hear their thoughts and feelings about the handshake and the work they were involved in.
Ashley Williams
Ashley Williams
Entry 1.
Hello my name’s Ash and I’m a member of the Kenyan 2009 Education team. In the UK I teach animation in schools as part of shoebox Cinema and thanks to FFresh “Pitch to Win” and of course Primate Handshake, I was offered the amazing opportunity of joining the Handshake volunteer crew as they make their way through Africa on the 20 ton lemon leviathan, NOX.
Since arriving in Kenya I’ve been able to experience such amazing contrasts in nature, culture, temperature and hygiene. From the westernized metropolis of Nairobi to the long drops of Nanyuki. Everything has been absolutely amazing and ultimately life changing. But the one thing that has remained constant is the kids. No matter the poverty or circumstance, the students are always pleasant and eager to learn and hopefully with the classes we teach and education video packages we create, we can ultimately change lives.
The Colobus trust was interesting. First day baboons destroyed our tent, second stole our food. My first experience of primates wasn’t great. Luckily the Sykes were insanely entertaining and the Colobus fascinating. Sleeping on dead Coral however, not so much.
Madago Primary School was great, slight mishap with the power-points but other than that was great. We lost in the football. Realized then all the volunteers are very unfit and Diani Beach kids are very fast. I think ultimately a Primate Handshake football squad will be needed.
Now at Nanyuki creating the second animation of the tour. Didn’t realize how frighteningly close to Humans Chimps are.
Entry 2.
Hello.
Another blog, another camp
Since the last blog, we have created a massive amount of media content for sweetwaters chimpanzee reservation, including, a deforestation in-class film, two animations and a pile of films produced by the DVP team. We also ended up sleeping in the conservancy itself among Africa’s big five (elephants, lions, buffalo, rhinos and leopards) and visiting the chimpanzee reservation a few more times.
This was the highlight as I was truly able to see the intelligence and individual characteristics the chimps hold. I also got to know Poco, an amazing chimp with a truly distressing history, which as part of the educational DVD produced, we where able to show in ‘Poco’s Story’, retelling it within a rotoscope noir animation.
The conservancy was amazing as was the daily commute to the work stations through the bush, where zebra and gazelle quickly become an almost mundane site (something I thought I’d never say).
The camp we made for ourselves was also a magnificent site, with a great fire pit among a semi-circle of tents, facing yellow thunder herself Nox.
At night random unknown animals would wonder among the tents, while the mornings would be filled with speculation of what it was and if it had in fact dragged away a volunteer into the bush. Luckily no volunteer was lost to a savage mauling and the only animal attacks involved termite undermining and Tick attacks, which now thanks to personal experience can only be pulled off after burning by cigarette.
We’ve now moved on and are staying at the swishest and most over blown overland vehicle stop (or ‘truck stop’) I’ve ever seen, with an underground bar that looks like a bond villains lair and a guard dog patrol of 13 hounds, who have taken residence across the bar, tables and stools.
Next stop Kakamega, where I’m sure the weather will be beautiful and pleasant.
Jenny Woodfine
Jenny Woodfine
Entry 1.
So here we are in Nanyuki camping close to Mount Kenya, hungry and cold but morale and motivation in the Education team remains high! Our success from The Colobus Trust has spurred us on with new ideas and projects.
We are now working on a 20-30 minute video for Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary, aimed at school children 13-18 years. I’ve taken on the section of Primate and Forest Conservation within the video and have story boarded and written my script so far. Now waiting on the video team for footage!
We’ve been staying at this campsite since Sunday night… interesting first night… myself and Harriet ventured out into the bush to find the ‘toilet’ when we heard a beastly noise, we turned and saw a dark silhouette approaching us… Convinced it was a killer bear (yes, that’s right, a killer bear in kenya) we pretty much burst into terrified tears and clung onto each other for dear life! After what seemed like forever Harri summoned the courage to raise the torch in the beasts’ direction… to our relief it was a man with a spear (our camp security guy!) and the beastly noise was actually from one of the friendly guard dogs. Terrified tears were followed by relieved tears which this lovely security man found hilarious. We rushed back to the others to tell them of our near death experience.
My experience with the Great Primate Handshake so far has been amazing. Discovered a few skills that I didn’t know I had – turns out I’m quite the artist (or so Kirsty keeps telling me!) and have learnt a few new ones as well, such as how to use iMovie and photoshop; check out ‘Colin The Colobus’ for my skills 
I’ve also learnt a lot about myself and seeing the way of life that many people have here is a real eye-opener. There are so many things I hope I never take for granted – I’m ending on a quote which I’ve always loved that I learnt from my friend Laura back home; I bear this quote in mind when things are getting me down and the world feels like a pretty miserable place… ‘life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we should dance.’
Entry 2.
What an amazing place Ol Pejeta and Sweetwaters sanctuary is! We haven’t been lucky enough to see any lions yet, despite several day and night game-drives… but we have seen plenty of giraffes, elephants, rhinos, water buffalos, many different primates, some colourful and impressively large birds, wild dogs… and rabbits.
As if this wasn’t amazing enough, Ol Pejeta Conservancy kindly opened up their buffet lunch to us. Oh, my, goodness! For weeks we have been living off a strictly vegetarian diet, so for the meat eaters of our group this was bliss! Though we were kindly asked by our magnificent driver Steve beforehand not to all go crashing in at once and devour everything in sight! After two platefuls of meat (I accidentally completely bypassed the salad and vegetables both times!) and several desserts, I was more than satisfied and ready for the showcase this afternoon.
Our teams – education, video, web, research and anthropology, presented our work to each other and to several workers at Ol Pejeta and Sweetwaters sanctuary. I have to admit, I’m really proud of what I have achieved! I have converted a Powerpoint presentation about deforestation into an interactive short video for use in classrooms and at the sanctuary during school visits. My first attempt was using iMovie which was successful until halfway through when I asked others for help – I discovered that no one else knew how to use iMovie! So for the next 2 and a half days I had to learn how to use the computer program Final Cut Pro. With the help of the lovely Laura from the video team I put the final touches onto the video and presented – Primate and Forest Conservation.
I never thought I’d be able to do it, bearing in mind how useless I thought I was on computers. Turns out, I’m not too bad when I try! It’s even inspired me to buy my own Mac computer when I get home and use Final Cut Pro. At The Colobus Trust I found out that I really enjoy photography and would love to take this up back home. Sounds expensive, but fun!
Entry 3.
On Wednesday night after a day at traveling we spent the night at an Overland stop. Wow, none of us could believe our luck! Hot showers and a nice clean comfy bed for the night… then we discovered what only can be described as ‘paradise!’ A beautiful spacious cave with so many plants, beautiful lighting, running water and animal statues… not to mention amazing food, a pool table and plenty of beers! I finally got to order my favourite Chinese dish – sweet and sour chicken – I think my tent buddy Harriet is relieved as this is the one thing that I have really missed and wouldn’t stop going on about!
We spent the night celebrating Kirsty and Steve’s birthday. After too much cake and far too many beers by the roaring fire, I made my way to bed sometime around late Thursday morning, and of course woke up the next day fresh as a daisy and eager to continue on to our next destination…
This morning to my tent buddy’s horror, I broke the zip on our tent… we are now camping in Kakamega forest, where when it rains, it really rains! Hopefully our tent won’t be flooded too much today…
After the massive amounts of meat the other day, I’m still not feeling too brilliant! So I missed out on a walk through the forest today with a visiting school. The others tell me how interesting it was though, there are 7 different species of primates, and this forest is the only rainforest of its kind in Kenya.
I can’t believe this is our last stop before the end of the Kenya expedition – I don’t want it to end! Already I have learnt so much, not only new skills, but a lot about myself.
