Almost Gone!

Over six months of planning have transpired and we are now less than two days from our departure. As you can see, from the previous posts below, the students have been actively planning their proposed studies (and they recognize the potential limitations). But they have also been doing their background work on Zambia - reading about its people, its history, its culture and its ecology. Likewise, they have been packing and readying for three weeks in Africa, but we (Dr. Bird and I) were not comfortable with the group convening as a camping unit for the first time only in the African countryside.

And so over the past weekend we had a pre-travel camping trip out to a campsite in the Hiawatha National Forest. Students were able to set up their tents together, figure out who "bunks" with whom and look through their gear with a different perspective. For instance, the campsite was both sunny and black fly infested - two students discovered they had forgotten suncreen and bug dope. Others decided their sleeping bags were inadequate. Better to have discovered those things here in the UP rather than out in the African bush! We also went over logistics, we reviewed safety, we discussed the nature of doing field science and I trained them on how to use some of the more sophisticated equipment we will be hauling with us - like GPS units and the parabolic audio recording equipment. (That picture is of Julian testing out the recording equipment on some UP bird songs, while fighting the black flies with his own concoction of a 't-shirt hoody.')

Perhaps most significantly we were all able to spend time getting to know one another in a setting more like the one in which we will be living for the next three weeks. We were able to all acknowledge and agree to the requirements that will be made of each of us in the field (e.g. who cooks meals? who does dishes? how fast can we break camp? etc.). I am pleased (and a bit relieved) to report that everyone is incredibly excited about this trip, and they are all taking very seriously their responsibilities to make it both safe and productive.

We leave on Thursday, and we will try to continue posting as much as we can on the travels. Please feel free to comment on these posts - the students love to see comments on their posts. Cheers~