Head Ranger Kimorgo is seen here untangling a Greater Kudu calf which had lost its mother and become caught up in undergrowth yesterday, following an unlikely battle between the mother and a large Kudu bull. Happily mother and baby were united some hours later.
The Greater Kudu Bull pictured here with his magnificent horns.Some months back we watched him fighting for half a day with another bull of equal size, finally breaking one of his opponent’s horns completely off. This one horned lop sided bull stayed around for a while but has not been sighted recently. This bull has horns near the maximum recorded size of five feet - in 2 and a half spirals.
Maasai and Samburu morani use these horns as musical instrumentsprized for their deep resonant sound.
Enormous Congratulations to Race Director Solomon, and the whole Amazing Maasai Girls Project, who have just chosen the 20 girls to be sponsored this year.. with a four year secondary sponsorship. These girls, who all performed very well in their Primary examinations, underwent a rigorous interview process. Ten girls will take up places at St. Francis School and five each will go to Il Polei and Kimanjo Secondary. Congratulations to them all and we wish them every success.
Pictured here are the winning candidates from Kimanjo, Ngabolo and Naiperere Primary schools, with the selection panel- Head teacher Daniel Monto and Madam Agnes Santa, with Solomon and Francis Merinyi.
Solomon’s next task will be to start preparing local students for the 2012 Amazing Maasai Ultra - to be held on 21st July 2012 see amazing maasai ultra they can be sure of plenty more community support for this fantastic initiative...many staff at The sanctuary at Ol Lentille, as well as teachers, are promising to support with their running shoes on. So please all of you out there, you have plenty of time to start organising your running schedules and calendars to prepare for this incredibly worthwhile and very exciting race.
Another day on the road.. all in pursuit of girl's education....
It was a very sad day last week when a lone young male elephant was killed by poachers nearby.
The market price of ivory is at an all time high of over $700 per pound in China and Vietnam, the demand being fueled by the newly rich middle classes desiring ivory carvings. Kenya’s elephant population is estimated at between 32,000 and 35,000, but estimates for Africa remain vague- between 400,000- 650,000. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) considers that as many as 100 elephants a day are being slaughtered across Africa - even if this number is exaggerated the problem is still massive.
Kenya banned hunting in 1977 and banned the selling of ivory, symbolically burning all its old ivory stock in 1989 and again last year, but the problem of poaching in neighbouring Tanzania where ‘controlled’ hunting is still legal is far greater, and it is from Tanzania and Zambia that most of the illegal ivory is shipped.
Until all ivory trading, legal and illegal, is stopped, there will continue to be an incentive for the poorest Africans to risk their lives shooting elephants to fuel demand. Priority now is to convince the older Chinese that they no longer want to buy ivory. Engaging constructively with Chinese people, who currently number over a million resident in Africa, with numbers fast rising, is clearly key.
Back to the dead elephant. The tracker dogs (bloodhounds) did a first class job of tracking the Samburu poachers to a distant village, but from here they are able to melt away. Even when this investigation is concluded and if they are apprehended, so long as there is a market and an order, there will be other poverty stricken Maasai and Samburu warriors ready to take their chances for the few dollars they can receive for two tusks. This time our Rangers were able to drive off the poachers and recover the tusks. These were passed to the Kenya Wildlife Service with a good deal of formal paper-work. They are then indelibly tattooed - taking them forever out of the market place.
So the radio network gets busy as security is increased across the whole area and the location of all herds and lone individual elephants is monitored ever more closely.
Meanwhile we treated this as a learning opportunity for all the local schools: environmental clubs and teachers from Ngabolo and Kimanjo Primary plus all the Kimanjo secondary students came to look at the now putrid carcass.Vultures, tawny eagles, martial eagles and ravens are fast assisting the hyenas and jackals to dismember the carcass carcass. These Maasai kids have all been brought up to live alongside elephants. Despite their daily life being made hazardous by elephants they all value them as part of their landscape and heritage and they know that shooting elephants is not only illegal and dangerous but morally very out of kilter with their culture. They are taken back to school to consider how they can help to ensure the survival of elephants for their own children.
Secondary Students on Safari
Only by stopping the market will these tusks be totally saved
I remember breathing a heavy sigh in our first year here when I realised the community wanted a new school... and I had thought we had our hands full supporting the existing government Primaries to improve their standards. Did they really NEED a new school? In the first year of opening 180 pupils had registered in the new Ngabolo Primary and 5 years on there are 400 pupils. Presumably Ngabolo has met a need for those 400 kids. Certainly some of these pupils have transferred from other schools, but the numbers in those schools have remained fairly constant with a slight growth. Fair to say that the majority of pupils would not have been accessing education without Ngabolo Primary. Last year we realised we had to begin again - by registering Nkiloriti Primary, for pupils unable to travel the distance to Ngabolo. Thankfully (for our budget at least) this will be a less meteoric rise in pupil numbers as the community there is smaller. At the same time we realised that we had now to build and finance the beginning of a cheap Day Secondary School...or else many of the Primary graduates would be left hanging: in the first year Kimanjo Secondary took in 29 of the poorest students... but this year it is prepared for 50...It is fair to say that NONE of these students would have gone on to secondary education without this new school.
2012 begins with our campaign to get more bottoms on seats; particularly in the samburu communities who currently do not access education as well as the Laikipiak Maasai. We have monitored the dropout in the Samburu nurseries, affecting the girls primarily, who do not proceed to Class One in equal numbers to boys. We are assisted in this campaign by the education department’s new and sensible 2012 campaign to stop children being held back to repeat classes to raise their tests scores, as has traditionally been the case, . That policy inevitably led to a high drop- out rate, especially for adolescent girls found to be in classes with much younger pupils. Crunch time: This focus on more kids starting school and on preventing drop-outs along the way will inevitably put more pressure on school quality.
What to do? Of necessity to continue to take a holistic approach to education. In order to get bottoms on seats the usual ‘incentives’ are offered.. uniforms is a major incentive here- as are footballs ! But the main way is (of course?!) education... educating families to see the value of education through the local Chiefs and Head-teachers, and through our Liaison Officers and Health Workers (for education means better healthcare access) visiting each manyatta in turn. And this intervention is virtually free (... can breathe a sigh of relief on that one then)... but how to keep up the quality of this education when government funds remain so small?No magic solutions. Every community across the developing world is different, there is no one size fits all approach. Even here we have to monitor the differences carefully between the Maasai and Samburu ranches and we must continue to rigorously collate data. The solution paying the greatest dividends so far, is to identify our strongest and most dedicated Teaching Assistants to send for Teacher Training, is paying dividends. Whilst the training itself is affordable, we do, then have to pay larger salaries for them on their return, making a hefty increase to our ongoing teacher salary budget. A constant classroom building programme is also essential, and very expensive. Quality education needs classrooms of a reasonable standard. A water programme is also essential. School feeding is an important human right but our (admittedly very patchy) data does not show us that it adds significantly to attendance or test scores. Textbooks, electricity, computers, desks, and resources are also important but not as significant as other interventions.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the most significant factor for improving schools, after improving teacher numbers and teacher training is to have good Head teachers. The best of the Head teachers that we work with would compete very well with the best Head teachers anywhere in the Developed world- and what Head teachers in the developed world would work so enthusiastically for a 14 week term, beginning at 7.30am, with no mid-term break living in remote and very basic conditions where you are lucky to get one bucket of water per day? They have a huge management role, with no secretarial or bursary assistance, in addition to a heavy teaching commitment, and they work on a daily basis with illiterate parents to encourage, reassure, and assist them in getting their children to perform well. Kenya, taking too much from its former Colonial Master , the UK, is assessment driven -still valuing test scores above all. But all the great Head teacher that we have the privilege to work with put as much focus on school ethos, pupils with Special Needs, individual student counselling, sport, school feeding, dance and drama and after school activities as they do on academic work. We are very privileged to work with them. It is these dedicated Head teachers who will have a bigger impact on raising quality in Kenyan education than any other single intervention we can make.
Its never to young for a school uniform.. or a school book... the simpler interventions! Christmas Day Party for Nkiloriti Nursery children!
