The Shwits Go to Egypt: Part 2

That’s right! As Whitney alluded to in Part 1, we are officially scuba certified! This is basically the whole reason we went to Egypt in the first place. And to make it even better, this was technically for the sake of my work and future career. A slight deviation to explain: As I have mentioned in a number of previous posts, I study fish. In fact, I have now worked in fish-related research for about 6 years.  For those of you not so familiar with fish – they live in water.  We as humans are not so good in water, especially when trying to stay under it for long periods of time.  Therefore, not being scuba certified has always been a bit of a hold up in my research (especially when working on Lake Victoria). So, following my field work last year, I decided that it was time for me to certify.  Of course when I informed Whitney, she decided that she would not be left out and would join in the fun.  Thus, we went to Egypt! Now I know what most of you are probably thinking: why go all the way to Egypt to do the open water certification course? Isn’t it much easier/safer/cheaper to do it locally? To this I simply say: Yes, you are right. But where is the fun in that? Practicing diving in a swimming pool is useful, but it’s nothing like this:

Or this:

So I think it’s safe to see why we went all the way to Egypt.

For those of you not so familiar with the PADI Open Water course, allow me to briefly explain.  The course consists of both knowledge and skill based instruction that takes you from (in our case) having never dove before to competent and able to dive freely without the aid of an instructor.  This comes in the way of video and text study, combined with quizzes and a final written exam, while also completing a series of confined and open water dives with your instructor. We completed this over the course of 4 days (would have been 3 had Whitney not gotten a little too carried away with the “all-you-can-eat” portion of the stay). Day one was pretty laid back with some videos, text study, and swim tests. Day two, however, had us literally in over our heads: we quickly went from trying out breathing with the regulator underwater to diving at depths of 8-10m (sorry, we are officially on the metric system. I’ll try to convert for those of you not as versed in metric: ~30 feet). While in hindsight, it makes sense that the course should move this quickly, it was definitely a surprise for us at the time. Nonetheless, we survived!

From here, things progressed in both complexity and duration.  I had heard about all the various skills and tests of the open water course before the trip, but I don’t think it ever really occurred to me that I would actually be doing them. The idea of removing my mask (I wear contact lens and am blind without them) or taking off my entire scuba kit at depth seems ridiculous, but there we were doing them. While there were certainly some moments of hilarity for both of us, we passed all them with relative ease. So, that was it. We had officially passed. And with that, we were set free to dive alone. Before moving on to our diving adventures, I have to first mention our instructor: Mahdi.  He was fantastic! We couldn’t have asked for a better instructor. Not only was he extremely patient in letting us figure things out, but his overall excitement and enthusiasm was unbelievable.  And he was extremely smart.  From talking with him, we learned that he is actually a lawyer and spent time as a professor of law at an Egyptian university (in his early 20’s!). He had been diving since he was a teenager and worked as an instructor for the past eight years.  You could tell he just really loved what he did. I’m sure a majority of the instructors are just a good but Mahdi definitely made it an enjoyable experience. Thanks again Mahdi! So that was it, we were free to dive.  And dive we did! Aside from the guided dives that we did as part of the course, we were able to do 3 dives on our last day (we had to stop diving on Monday since we flew on Tuesday – pressure differences between diving and flying are not kind to the body, you have to give it time).

The resort that we were at was not like your typical tropical vacation spots.  It wasn’t a place you go to lounge on the beach with a drink in your hand or party the night away at a local club or bar.  It was a diving resort and that is what everyone was there to do.  Of course you were free to drink as much as you would like or sleep the day away in the sun, but no one did that.  Everyone was there for the diving and the desert sun is really hot….

The picture above is from the ‘diving shade’ – essentially the staging area for all diving activity.  From this point, everyone prepared for their upcoming dives. Diving options consisted of the North or South Reef and you could choose whether you entered/returned from shore or by boat (as can be see below).  You would simply write your name on a whiteboard, check where you wanted to go, and then go.  If you chose to go by boat, there was always one available at anytime of day.  It was an extremely simple, yet extremely efficient system. 

Being that Whitney and I were very new to diving, we stuck to shore entry and exit. To give you a bit of an idea of what this looked like, the following series of pictures tracks one of our dives from beginning to end.  You will see that we began at a rope that leads out past the dock for boat loading. From here, you chose either the North or South side of the reef (this dive is the North), swam out until you hit your desired time/air usage, and then swam back to same rope leading back to shore. The scenery along the way requires no explanation, the pictures speak for themselves.

I wish I could say that this was one of our better dives, that it wasn’t always this breathtakingly beautiful but I can’t.  Whether we went North or South on the reef, this is what we got.  As Whitney says: “it was real-life National Geographic; real life Finding Nemo”. As she’s right.  It was truly amazing.  I think it’s safe to say that we have found ourselves a new hobby. Future trips and adventures will most certainly be planned as diving excursions. Why did we wait so long to try this?! By the way, for those of you interested: all of these pictures, both above and below water, were taken with a Nikon Coolpix AW120. I highly recommended this camera if you are in the market for an easy to use, durable camera. We took this camera down to 18m (60ft) and it worked perfectly!

Until next time,

Shane

The Shwits Go to Egypt: Part 1

I know… its a shock. It’s been months since we’ve posted anything, but for good reason! We’ve been laying low and patiently waiting.

…for this

We went on our first vacation! To Marsa Shagra, Egypt to learn how dive to be exact. It’s beautiful right? It’s still kind of hard to believe we just spent a week there.

Marsa Shagra is a small village in the south of Egypt. It’s about four hours south of Luxor, and sits right on the coast of the Red Sea. We flew into Marsa Alam airport, and then it was about a 30 min car ride to the resort. Egypt is literally a desert. Hah, I know that sounds so ridiculous because of course its a desert, but it’s really made apparent when you’re driving on the only road through a sea of dirt and sand.

We stayed in the Marsa Shagra Village which is one of three owned by Red Sea Diving Safari. They aren’t your typical resort as they advertise themselves as “The Eco-diving Adventure”, and this ended up being exactly what we were looking for. For starters, most people stay in “tents”.

There are two types, regular and royal. We opted for the royal tent, and completely lucked out because ours was front row on the Red Sea! They did have electricity so we had 2 small lamps and a mini-fridge. Most importantly, the royal tent came with bean bag chairs.

  • The view through our tent door.

You could also opt to stay in a one room hut, or a two room chalet. The tents and huts used communal bathrooms around the property, but the chalets had their own. The communal bathrooms really weren’t an issue. Each one had 3 toilets and 3 showers, and were cleaned multiple times per day. The only downfall is having to pee in the middle of the night…

The huts.

We spent a lot of our down time sitting on our “porch” reading and watching. The great part about this place was if you were at your tent then you really felt like you were away from it all. And at night (when the moon wasn’t too bright) you could just stare at the stars. I was pretty excited by this since we don’t see many stars in the city. In my opinion, it was beach camping at it’s finest.

If you compare the two pictures below, the one on the right is the view of our resort, and the one on the left is the neighboring. We walked down the beach and through it one day. Everything becomes artificially green, and the music is going, and people are drinking and dancing. None of this is a bad thing, it just wasn’t the experience we wanted.

If we wanted to have a little social interaction then we spent time either hanging out at the Cafeteria, or at the Bawadi Bedouin Lounge. The cafeteria made for some excellent people watching. This was situated right by the diving area so and was scattered with chairs, tables, and beanbags. It was great, because you could get a little sun, sip on your beer (or all inclusive coffee/Fanta/Sprite/Coke), and watch divers come and go.

The Bawadi Bedouin Lounge was on the property but not run by the resort itself. It was run by people from the local Bedouin tribe in the area. They had beer, coffee, hookas and you could have dinner there on request. Mostly we just stopped by for a beer on our way ‘home’ for the night after a day in the sun.

As I mentioned before, your basic drinks were all inclusive as were meals. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were included and served in the Restaurant which had an outdoor seating area overlooking the sea and the diving area. The panoramic picture in the beginning was our view from breakfast. I think one of my favorite parts of the whole trip was waking up with the sun, going to breakfast, and having coffee with that view!

The food was incredible! Breakfast was usually the same, but lunch and dinner were always changing. Each night supposedly had a nation theme, but we were never entirely sure what nation. Hah. The only one we were ever sure of was Egyptian night because they labeled the traditional Egyptian dishes as such. And the dessert table! Oh sweet glorious dessert table. So much cake! and little cookies! and one night these chocolate cookie dough type balls! We were living the desert dessert dream!

Note to self with all inclusive… you can, and I did, eat myself sick. Literally. Not sure if it was dehydration, food I wasn’t used to, or the diving, but we lost half a day about mid-week to stomach issues. You know you’ve found a keeper when he cleans up your puke in the middle of the desert. #truelove

Other than the one incident, the trip was absolutely fantastic! Shane’s boss recommended this place to us, and it certainly did not disappoint! Everyone should go to the Red Sea!

The main dock where divers would come and go by boat.

Had to have the feet pictures. Just for you, Mom. 🙂

Well, I think that’s all! Now, on to the best part and the purpose of the whole trip…

SCUBA!

Ok, so we’re snorkeling here but that’s not the point.

Check out Part 2!

Tot ziens!

Whitney

Geen fiets voor Whitney

So… remember that time someone stole my bike?

Can you tell where this is going?

…Last Monday I’m walking home from work, minding my own business, thinking about how excited I was to go to the gym. I get to the fence in front of our apartment and something is off…

THE BIKE THIEF STRUCK AGAIN!

They cleared the whole damn fence.

When I left for work that morning there were 10-15 bikes on the fence. About half of those bikes leave every day as people go to work (including Shane’s) but a good 5-6 bikes are always on the fence. Not a single one was still there. What’s even more impressive still is that it all happened during the middle of the day. Broad daylight. We are by the hospital and the fence is across from the flower shop so there is a constant string of people. Either no one noticed, or no one bothered to question what they were doing. Poor Theo, ripped from his home and resold to another shady bike shop. Sigh…

What do you do when your bike gets stolen? You buy a new bike and I paint that sh*t pink. BOOM!

Meet Helen.

Helen and I met on my lunch break on Tuesday. I tried out a few normal style women’s bikes, but I just really love the ‘omafiets’ style (aka: grandma bike. Literally, that’s the translation.) So Helen and I go back to work and all is well with the world again. Until 5pm when it’s time to go home.

Flat tire. Are we serious?!

Turns out the back inner tube had “more than 5 holes”. It’s really a wonder that I was able to bike from the shop to work without any problems. Back to the bike shop we go. New inner tube and life is good again.

Until today…

Shane and I were biking home from the grocery store just chit chatting it up when my back tire starts to feel funny as I’m riding…

I start to say “Pookieeeeee…..my tire feels” and BOOOOM!

Shane swerves. Poor guy thought he had just been shot. The back tire blew.

Needless to say, we spent today getting my bike fixed, again! Plus side. The bike shop guy totally knows me know. I walked up and I said ‘Hey! Do you remember me?’ and he replied with ‘Yeah, the American girl!’. Another plus side, he has fixed everything for free. Outside of it being inconvenient I really can’t complain.

Talk about bad bike luck though. When it rains it pours right?

I just keep telling myself it’s cheaper to fix a bike than a car.

Other than that life is normal here! Shane is coming up on week three of his Dutch class and is definitely getting more comfortable with it. He even ordered at the market this morning!

Oh, and we figured out that Meatball’s Dutch name is “Gehaktbol” (pronounced hey-haakt-bowl).

Gehaktbol says hi.

Tot Ziens!

Whitney

Can You Spot the Difference?

Yuuuppp. Someone stole my bike. Luckily, I took the cat inside first.

2 weeks. It took 2 weeks for me to be one of the 450,000 bikes stolen each year. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. They were kind enough to take 2 sets of bungee cords and my lock as well. I mean if I’m going to have to replace a bike I might as well throw in new accessories too, right? The only thing we can figure is that my bike was a little too flashy. White with a pink lock, hand breaks (which aren’t as common), and brand new lights made it stick out compared to the others.

So Shane and I went out today and bought our third bike in three weeks, and I think I like this one better. Elenore (my old bike) was just too big. Even though the seat was as low as it would go I could barely touch the ground, and Shane always said I looked “determined” when I was riding. aka: like a loser who can’t ride a bike. Theodore (Theo for short) seems to be a much better fit. So while I’m not crazy about having to shell out for a new one, I’m happy with the purchase. And yes, I did make Shane stand on the side of the road so I could ride by for an action shot. I know what you all are thinking…. I’m pretty impressed with my one-handed riding too!

What a handsome fellow. You’ll notice I now have two locks. One on the tire, and a chain for the fence.

On an unrelated note, cat is doing just fine. She’s back to sleeping on all of Shane’s hoodies, people watching, and begging for canned food (Thanks Mom & Marsha!). 🙂

Tot Ziens!

Whitney

Super Bowl Sun…..Monday?

So it’s officially Super Bowl Sunday!

That means most of you back home are gearing up to watch the game, preparing various goodies and treats for the night ahead. To be honest, I’m jealous. Because of the time difference, the Super Bowl doesn’t start here until 12:30. That means if we were to stay up and watch the whole thing, we wouldn’t be going to bed until 4:00 or 5:00. Despite the fact that work on the Monday following the Super Bowl is always a bit rough, it would be especially tough for us only getting a few hours of sleep. Add to that the fact that we would be one of the only ones who actually watched the game and it equals out to a bad idea. For such reasons, we will be watching a replay of the game on Monday night. Talk about feeling Un-American….

At least I have “BBQ-Curry Style American Fries” to get by

On a related note, this has been my one complaint about moving to The Netherlands, my lack of ability to watch sports! Just about all American television channels and networks are blocked in Europe. Therefore, it makes watching anything, particularly sports, very difficult. When I am able to watch a game (I’ve found ways around the whole blocking issue), then the time difference almost always works against me. Noon and early afternoon games are ideal, but if it’s after 6:00, then its just too late here, especially when we have to work the next day. Of course, this was all to be expected but that doesn’t make it any easier. Sometimes you just want to watch an episode of Sportscenter!

Not much has been going on since Whitney’s last post, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For the most part, it’s been normal life, with work and school going well. I had my first taste of Dutch coursework, as I was required to take an 80-hour course on Laboratory Animal Science. This meant I spent two weeks, sitting in class from 9-5 everyday, listening to lectures on the ethics and principles of studying animals in science, while also having to complete two presentations, write a four page ethics paper, and then take a three hour long exam. Fun times. Next week, I start my next course, which is a Dutch language course. The hope is that after completing this course, I’ll be close to Whitney’s level of Dutch speaking (she’s way ahead of me) so that we can continue and take higher level courses. We are going to live here four years; we are going to learn this language!

Aside from work and school, we had a bit of excitement in the city in the form of Eurosonic 2015. In short (and to quote from Wikipedia):

“Eurosonic is Europe’s largest showcase festival and takes place on a yearly basis on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday previous to Noorderslag festival in the Dutch city Groningen. Eurosonic is part of The European Music Conference and Showcase Festival Eurosonice Noorderslag. During the festival 300 bands and acts perform on 36 stages in the city center of Groningen.”

Basically what this means is that there are bands playing in every available space throughout the city for four days. They even build a large number of temporary stages and venues to host everyone. Because of it size and popularity, tickets for the festival sell out in a number of hours so we missed out this year. However, there were some free, open-air concerts, which we were able to check out. One band of interest; Kensington. I’m not sure if they are popular in the US yet (we are so out of touch with current movies and music back home), but if not, I suggest checking them out. They are a very popular Dutch band, but all of their songs are in English. Definitely worth a listen.

In other exciting news, we had our first real snow fall last weekend! In total, we got about 5-6 cm (yep, metric system, you have to convert), which is a big deal here. It certainly made our ‘commuting’ to the grocery store interesting. Whereas this time last year, we had an all-wheel drive SUV to deal with snowy conditions, presently we have only our bicycles. Ironically, biking in the snow is a lot like driving in the snow: slow down, increase following distance, pump the brakes, and don’t fight against a skid on ice. This is something I’ve been dealing with a fair amount on my ride to work each morning. We may not get much snow, but we do get a fair amount of ice. Scraping ice off my bike and dealing with frozen roads is becoming fairly routine. So far, I’ve managed to avoid any major wrecks or mishaps, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time (knock on wood).

Typical American

Well that about sums things up for us here lately. As I said previously, not much is going on at the moment. As it begins to warm up and the time/darkness works more in our favor (for a few months, it was only daylight from 9:00-4:30), we will hopefully have more news and adventures to share. For now, it’s just peddling ever so slowly on ice-covered roads.

Until next time,

Shane

Happy New Year !

  We Went to Amsterdam!

The view from central station.

Well, not for New Year’s Eve. We stayed here in Groningen for that which was an experience in itself. Fireworks are legal here for only three days (Dec 30 – Jan 1) and during that time you can expect to hear them non-stop. The legal fireworks aren’t so huge but they make a lot of noise. To top that off you can easily drive over the boarder to Germany and buy the giant ones we are accustomed to. The difference is they aren’t set off in a controlled situation. They are set off in the middle of the streets and in between buildings resulting in the city sounding like its being bombed. Granted, I’ve (fortunately) never been in an actual bombing so I realize it’s not the same, but the point is it’s non stop fireworks for 24 hours. Enough to scare the sh*t out of the cat and make her needier than usual. Top that off with bonfires (that included bikes) in the streets and ya got yourself a Dutch New Year’s Eve party!

Cat’s opinion on the fireworks… Not. Cool.

Anyway, back to Amsterdam!

For my birthday Shane surprised me with an overnight trip to….. somewhere! All he told me was to pack a bookbag because on Saturday we were catching a train at 10am. We had to change trains about 30 min away, but until then I had no idea where we were going. We arrived around noon, and started walking to find our hotel.

Unbeknownst to him, the hotel Shane booked is a historic landmark!

We stayed in the Hotel Amstelzicht, on the Amstel Canal, and is one of the “Dancing Houses”. Apparently, when it was built in 1659 (whoa) it was built on wooden stilts. It’s location next to the canal and the sandy/swampy land caused the houses to shift and “dance”. They have been fully restored so you don’t feel it, but you can see the obvious tilt in the house!

After checking in and dropping our stuff we headed out to wander. First stop was Dam Square, which is the historic center of the city. On one side of the square is the Royal Palace which was first constructed as the City Hall during the 17th century. Later it became the Royal Palace, home to King Louis Napoleon, and now is used for Royal events amongst other things. Across from the Royal Palace is the National Monument dedicated to World War II. Dam Square is also home to the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) which we forgot to get a picture of.

From Dam Square you could wander straight into the Red Light District. We sort of knew what to expect since Groningen also has a Red Light District, but Amsterdam’s was much larger, and looked to be… aahem… of higher quality. If you catch my drift. One thing we didn’t anticipate was the number of families walking through with their children. I mean, I realize that we as Americans are very conservative as compared to Eurpoeans with this stuff, but I just can’t ever picture saying ‘Hey! Family stroll through the Red Light District?…. Sure!’.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Rembrandt Square people watching and playing around.  Oh, and we found a hole in the wall (yes, sounds sketchy) sushi place which ended up not only being delicious, but our table overlooked the canal.

In the evening we headed back towards Central Station for Shane’s surprise birthday activity. A canal tour! Amsterdam is currently holding it’s third annual Light Festival, and Shane booked a tour specifically to see the various art displays. Needless to say, I was excited!

It was hard to get good pictures in the dark on a boat….but it was fun! Each piece of art was representative of the city in some way, and a lot of them were interactive with the public. For example, the tulips are originally under the water, but as pedestrians pass by they can pedal certain bike pedals on the bridge. This causes the flowers to rise up out of the water and light up. They stopped pedaling, and the flower went back into the water. We both agree we would like to do another canal tour, but one that is more focused on sightseeing or history of the city.

Day 2: Woke up to SUNSHINE!

This is kind of rare this time of year so we were up early to take advantage of it!

First stop, the I amsterdam sign at the Rijksmuseum! We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to go in this museum because we THOUGHT we were going to see the Anne Frank house (more on that soon), but its a must see when we come back.

Next stop, Anne Frank House!

Just Kidding! Yeah, if you look closely across the canal you will notice the line to get in. It turns the corner and goes all the way to the next block. We heard it was this crazy during peak season, but we thought we would be ok this time of year. Didn’t take into consideration it was a holiday weekend. Oh well. Note to self: buy tickets ahead of time. I guess technically we did seeeeeeeee the Anne Frank house. (1st house on the left in the picture above).

Since that was a fail, we decided to get breakfast then check out the Amsterdam Museum. This was nice since we were both wanting a little history after the canal cruise the night before. Wrap your mind around this: Amsterdam was an established city 789 years before the United States had it’s first president. It’s crazy to think about it like that!

After that, we headed home. For only 28 hours I think we really packed in a lot. We certainly walked a ton, and we didn’t even get close to seeing everything there is. Hurry and come visit so we have an excuse to go back!

Tot Ziens!

Whitney

Merry (Almost) Christmas !

I would just like to start out by saying that the city right now is just beautiful. So many lights everywhere! Each street has its own unique set. There are candles, twinkling diamonds, icicle lights, you name it. It actually makes it easier for giving directions… “Meet me on the street with the sparkling holly!” It’s also incredibly hard to get pictures that do it justice, but here are a few.

I would just like to make note that I took some of these WHILE BIKING. Considering that when we first moved here it was “white knuckle” biking everywhere we went I (despite the obvious safety risk) count this as huge progress in my skill level.

We got a baby Christmas tree from the market which Shane brought home on his bike…so I suppose that his biking skills are still ahead of mine.

And cat is obviously thrilled that it’s Christmas time again.

Now for the real deal. A Christmas miracle has occurred!

I got out of Groningen!

Seriously, I haven’t left the city since we moved here except to pick up the cat from the airport.

Yesterday we rented a car and drove to Münster, Germany for their Christmas Market!

We both agree that if you take away the windmills, driving through the middle of nowhere Germany looks very similar to driving through the middle of nowhere North Carolina/Virginia/Pennsylvania.

About 2 hours later we arrived to Christmas Extravaganza! First stop, Glühwein! It’s a mulled red wine that’s served warm. It’s basically Christmas in a mug, and I’ve been pretty obsessed with the ‘warm wine’ since it first showed up in the grocery store a few weeks ago.  Every Glühwein stand was packed with people, and it came with a cute souvenir mug!

Last year we went to a ‘German Style’ Christmas market in Pittsburgh, and I must say, now that I’ve seen a real one,  Pittsburgh’s was quite authentic. Lots of gifts, ornaments, and food.

Curryworst, pretzels, chocolate covered bananas & freshly smoked salmon!

We didn’t see much of Münster itself, but what we did see was very pretty. It’s definitely somewhere that could use a little more exploring.

The spoils of our market trip… sshhh don’t tell Meatball. The bowl is her Christmas present.

This will probably be the last post of the year, so until then Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Tot ziens,

Whitney

Lake Victoria..the follow-up!

And…..I’m back (only a month late)! I know, I know, I should have done this post a long time ago. However, things have been very crazy as of late. For starters, my 4-week trip to Tanzania ended up being extended twice, for a total of 6 weeks. Then, after finally making it home, I had exactly 6 six days before I left once again to drive to Switzerland (10+ hour drive) for 4 days, then to a conference for 3 days in the southern part of The Netherlands, which was then followed up by a 2 day “retreat” with my research group. All and all, things have FINALLY settled down which means time for a blog post. So, with that, let’s talk Africa!

Warning: this may not go as you would have expected. In previous posts, I told about my project and what we were doing daily on the lake. For the most part, this didn’t change. So, instead of saying the same thing again, I’ll deviate a bit and focus on a completely unexpected part of the trip. I’ll throw in a lot of pictures along the way.

Have you ever stopped to think about how amazing the world is? Seriously, have you ever really thought about it? I know it’s a pretty generic question. In fact, it’s probably just as easy to argue the opposite – just watch the news. The world is full of some pretty nasty people and places at the moment. However, after spending six weeks living and working in Tanzania, I have to argue the opposite – the world is an amazing place. I had the opportunity to work on the largest tropical lake in the world, day after day, for a month and half. I went days without electricity or running water (on multiple occasions), slept only a few hours a night, burned most days under the African sun, and on the  others got so sea-sick and cold from some of the strongest, nastiest storms I’ve even seen. Every plant, fish, bug, or rock that I touched had some sort of spine, edge, or chemical that resulted in a cut, burn, or rash. If I wasn’t being eaten alive by mosquitoes (with a risk of malaria) then I was being attacked by some of the most ferocious ants I’ve ever encountered. Retreating to the “safety” of the lake (away from most insects) just meant you had to watch the water (where I’m trying to catch the fish I study) for the ever-present threat of crocodiles. Basically, what I’m trying to say is, I spent six weeks in Africa and it is something I will never forget. In fact, I can’t wait to go back!

Now I know what most of you are thinking – what’s wrong with me? To be honest, had I not experienced it myself, I would be thinking the same thing. None of the things I listed above sound fun, nor where they fun when they were happening. However, I think it is more about perspective than it is actual inconvenience. Despite all of the hardships and difficulties that I list, I was never in any danger. Never did I feel unsafe, or did I go hungry or thirsty. I simply had to do without most of the modern conveniences that I (and most of you reading this) am accustomed to. For everyday day that I went without Internet access, TV, or a hot shower (or without a shower at all), I was continually rewarded by the opportunity to live and work in a place we only see on the Discovery Channel. It’s Africa, it’s the where we all come from (aka the origin of the human race), and it’s a completely different way of life. Things I would never even think about in ‘normal’ life became commonplace. For an example, let me share a quick story:

Some days we would not go out on the boat and would instead sample at a near-by stream. This stream was only a few minutes walk from our rest house and was off of a fairly busy road. As such, we would often draw a lot of attention to ourselves by simply fishing in this small stream. On one particular day, I was alone fishing and soon had a group of 6-8 children (probably 8-12 years old) watching me very closely. Being that I had a lot of supplies that these kids did not have, I gave each of them some hooks and worms so that they could catch fish as well (they were there to fish for themselves and their families so that they could eat). I couldn’t help but notice that one of the kids kept hanging quietly around me and did not join his friends to use their new angling supplies. Not only did he watch me very closely, but he also was very intent on checking out all of my belongings (not uncommon, we “scientist” had a lot of strange things). It was only after a while did I realize that of particular interest to him was my unopened, 1.5 liter bottle of water. When I opened the bottle and offered it to him, he quickly drank ~1/4 of the bottle, before turning to share it with some of the other kids as well. It was only at this point did it occur to me that we did not have running water at the moment and that it had been out for a day or two. Whereas we had cases of drinking water in our rest house, there was a good chance that these kids were not as fortunate. For me, a lack of running water just meant I couldn’t shower and had to risk smelling for a few days. For these kids, it may have meant little, if any, drinking water. Before leaving for the day, I gave the boy all the bottled water we had with us.

Talk about putting things into perspective….

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t say these things or share that story to make myself seem all knowing or above anyone. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I share that story to highlight what I experienced from the people of Tanzania. Despite all of these hardships and inconveniences that would have most of us running away (believe me, I was ready to be back!), the people that I interacted with daily where some of the nicest, happiest people I’ve ever met. A lack of running water or the absence of electricity wasn’t a reason to panic and be angry, it was just a fact of life and life went on. One other thing that really stuck out to me was the theme of various conversations that I had with any number of individuals who wanted to talk (and everyone wanted to talk to the American!). The common theme of just about all of these conversations? Race…but not in the way that you’d think. To summarize what I was told on no less than 5 separate occasions, usually while having my white arm directly compared to their black arm: we all need to realize that, regardless of color, we are all human. Black, white, yellow, or brown, it doesn’t matter, we are all human. I being from America and they being Tanzania meant very little. I was simply a friend that did weird things with small fish.

Again, it’s all about perspective. So, in case you haven’t been able to tell, my time working on Lake Victoria was nothing short of amazing! For this biology nerd, it was truly a once in a lifetime trip and I’d go back tomorrow if I could. It sounds a bit cheesy to say, but I couldn’t help telling myself that this is what I want from life. I mean I spent six weeks in Tanzania, “working” on Lake Victoria. How cool is that?! And the fact that I did this for my PhD thesis makes it even cooler. It’s crazy to think that fish, by working with them and knowing a bit about them, have taken me all over the world. How is this even fair? As I said before, I think the world is and is full of amazing places. For a biologist, the wildlife and scenery that I was able to see in Africa was absolutely incredible, but then again, watch the Discovery Channel can see you that. For me, the unexpected surprise was the people. And to be honest, it was sad to leave. I spent nearly everyday working hand and hand with two local Tanzanian men, our boat drivers Mhoja and Muhammad. Mhoja and Muhammad have been working with cichlid biologists for over 20 years (30+ for Mhoja). For this reason, they are an invaluable resource when trying to complete our research. Not only are they the steady hand driving the boats in rough water, but also their knowledge of the fish is second to none. Their know-how and skill is impossible to replace.

We also had a TAFIRI scientist, Godfrey, joining on most days to learn more about the cichlids of Lake Victoria. Godfrey, being very well spoken in English, was a key resource for our work, both on the lake and beyond (ever tried to speak Swahili?). Outside of the boat team, there were countless people at TAFIRI who made our job much easier (and many of which we made their jobs extremely difficult – with no complaints at all). Individuals such as Makoja, our driver picking up things in the city while we were out sampling and Leticia, our house “mom” who kept food on the table and our rest house clean, made it possible to complete the amount of work we were able to do (and believe me, there was a lot). Even if we were not working directly with them, you were never offered anything less than bright smile and an extended greeting to see how your day and work was going. All and all, the people* are what made things bearable and kept you going day after day.

On the science side of things (aka the whole reason for going), I was able to collect all of the fish and samples that I need for my PhD project. In fact, I got more than I had planned and will basically spend the next three and a half years trying to analyze all the data – yay science. I also collected ~100 live fish and, despite being shipped all over the world (Tanzania – Switzerland – The Netherlands) they are now in our aquarium and doing well. If all goes as planned, these fish will establish lab populations that will can be used for years to come.

So now that life is more or less back to normal, it seems I can get back to work on this whole PhD thing. Granted all of this fieldwork was directly related to my project, it didn’t feel like it. I got to spend 6 weeks in Africa, “working” on the largest tropical lake in the world, interacting with amazing people, and having the time of my life! If this is what ‘work’ will be for the rest of my life, I think I made a wise career choice…we’ll just overlook the whole ‘hard to find a job in academia thing’.

Until next time!

Shane