Bwanji!

In May and June of 2007, 13 undergraduate students from Northern Michigan University are taking a field course in Zambia. Most of the students are majors in the Biology department, and all of them will be doing short field studies of their own design while on the ground in Zambia. The group will be making a stop in London on the way, spending four days seeing Zambia/Africa-related British sites (Burton's tomb, Livingstone's artefacts at the Royal Geographic Society, the British Museum of Natural History, etc.) and adjusting to the time change. The course is being led by me, Dr. Alec Lindsay, a professor in the Department of Biology at NMU, and Dr. Jackie Bird - a parasitologist in our department. We have made this blog so students can hopefully post notes thoughts, pictures and discoveries to the world. This should allow classmates, teachers, family and friends to share in their insights and keep track of their travels. Not only that, but viewers of the blog can add comments to posts - please do! We would love to hear your thoughts. Zikomo!

24 May 2007

ZAMBIA!

Bwanji!
Well we're in Zambia! It's quite an experience, traveling and such with 15 people, but it's been fun. London was excellent, although expensive. Saw some great sites at the museums, and had some fun at the pubs.
But zambia, now this has been awesome. The whole experience has been mind blowing, and although I had quite a bit of culture shock for about 24 hours, it wore off and now I'm having a blast with the locals. The markets/curious shops are interesting. The merchants at Victoria falls are extremely intense and will not back down. But I've learned some tricks for getting around with merchants, and have found some cool souvenirs.
Today it was hot, hot, hot. But still fun. We all started some projects at the falls, and although personally I didn't find to many insects, many of my peers got a great start. I found a few species of tree crickets, a few interesting beetles, one cool scorpion and a few other interesting specimens. We found a caterpillar that looks exactly a piece of Lichen! The forests are full of life, and it's incredible to see what we find.
Well, soon I may be able to post some pictures of the bugs we've been finding, but until then, I'll say pitani bwino, and zikomo!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

SWEET! Let me see the sweet bugs! MQT is good, we miss you! Bring back the armor!


- Brittany

Anonymous said...

What's up with the scorpion? I've got to see this caterpillar! Post those pics~ and it seems your shopping skills/luck aren't restricted to the states.
*Please send more post cards,
nicole