One of the “perks” of doing fieldwork in a foreign country is getting to meet a lot of new people—a combination of both locals and foreigners. In the eleven months that I have been here in Tanzania, I have spoken with people from Tanzania, Burundi, Congo, England, Canada, France, Norway, Spain, Germany, Scotland, the Netherlands, South Africa, and even some fellow Americans. I have met other students (at the undergraduate and graduate level), biologists, primatologists, limnologists, conservationists, political refugees, missionaries, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, pilots, doctors, teachers, businessmen, tourists, and of course, the families and neighbors of my field assistants.

When I first arrived in Tanzania, Saidi and Abdallah (a taxi driver and former Ugalla Primate Project (UPP) field assistant, respectively) greeted me. Even though I had not known them before this encounter, I was treated as an old friend, and they were very helpful in getting me around Dar es Salaam and then on to Kigoma. In Kigoma, I was fortunate to meet Dr. Anthony Collins, who has been an invaluable source of support and guidance. Not long after, I met with other Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) employees, including John Kerkering, an American volunteer working on GIS. During that time I also met Simon Milledge (representative of the Norwegian embassy for JGI’s REDD program) and his wife Jean. We all spent a lovely weekend together at Gombe, making my first trip there that much more memorable.

From left to right: John Kerkering (JGI volunteer), me, Shedrack Lucas (UPP field assistant), Jean and Simon Milledge (he is the Environment Consultant for the Royal Norwegian Embassy and works with JGI’s REDD program)

Since that time, I have had the opportunity to return to Gombe four more times! Three times have been with Dr. Don Johanson and National Geographic Expeditions groups; each group was unique and provided the chance to speak with people outside of the anthropology world, but who nonetheless had extensive knowledge about the subject. It was extremely refreshing and informative to gain their perspectives on my work and chat with them about their work. It was also during one of these trips that I first met with the current director of chimpanzee research at Gombe, Dr. Deus Mjungu. We talked about some of the similarities and differences between Gombe and Issa (my fieldsite) and about the importance of involving the local people in conservation efforts.

National Geographic Expeditions group June 2011

National Geographic Expeditions group October 2011

Don and I with Dr. Deus Mjungu (middle, Director of chimpanzee research at Gombe) and Dr. Anthony Collins (far right, Director of Gombe Research Stream Centre)

The fourth trip to Gombe was the result of a last minute invitation to join, for the day, a group called Project Opel Earth. This group of about 25 young adults was traveling to Tanzania, Antarctica, Mexico, and Panama to visit, learn more about, and take part in conservation projects occurring in these areas. The participants were from all across Europe and were thus able to provide insight into how different European countries viewed conservation problems across the globe.

Project Opel Earth group

On the way to Gombe with some Project Opel Earth participants and their film crew (I’m on the far left)

Project Opel Earth had decided to begin their trip in Tanzania so that they could meet with Dr. Jane Goodall who was in town to premiere her new movie, “Jane’s Journey.” I had heard her speak a few times before, but hadn’t gotten to actually meet her, so when Dr. Collins said he would introduce me, I very gratefully and enthusiastically said yes. I ended up getting to spend quite a bit of time with Dr. Jane, which was a dream come true for me. She is such an inspiring person, and I consider myself very lucky for having the chance to spend time with her. We talked about researching chimpanzees, the importance of having a supportive family, some of JGI’s conservation and outreach programs, and a bit about her hectic schedule traveling over 300 days out of each year.

Dr. Jane Goodall and me in her house in Kigoma

The work that she and the other JGI staff do is incredible, and it is great to be able to see the results of their efforts firsthand. One example is a project created to encourage more sustainable use of trees for firewood by using stoves made from packed soil; these stoves require only a few small pieces of wood to maintain a hot cooking fire as compared to an open wood fire, which requires a lot of large pieces of wood. I was able to sit in on a meeting regarding the introduction of this project to the village of Uvinza. It was interesting to learn what the local people thought about the destruction of their habitat and uplifting to hear that they were very willing to take part in this project so that they could help conserve the environment. This project, and other JGI initiatives, demonstrates that it is important to work with the local people and present them with alternatives, instead of just telling them to stop living how they have been for generations.

Grace Gobo (front center, JGI) and Caspian Johnson (UPP camp manager) with Uvinza villagers participating in a sustainable cooking project with the Jane Goodall Institute

My interactions with the local people, especially my field assistants and their families, have been the most enriching and eye-opening. It really changes your perspective on things to see large families living in two-room mud and stick houses, children who are underfed or malnourished and running around in ragged clothing, boys as young as 7 or 8 peddling food to make money for their families, girls as young as 7 or 8 carrying around their younger siblings while their parents work, and those people who cannot work and have therefore resigned themselves to a life of begging. Despite these hardships, people here seem happy, and are genuinely friendly and loving towards one another, with the whole village acting as one big family. It’s a kindness that people in many other countries would do well to adopt.

Group shot at Katavi National Park. From left to right: (standing) Shedrack Lucas (UPP field asst), Betsy (UPP volunteer), me, Caspian Johnson (UPP camp manager), Busoti Juma (UPP field asst), Joffrey Lucas (UPP field asst), Ndai Samwely (UPP cook); (front row) Mlela Juma (UPP field asst), Msigwa Rajabu (UPP field asst), Fiona Stewart (UPP researcher), Alex Piel (UPP researcher)

Children from one of the villages between Kigoma and Uvinza

Children from the village of Uvinza

It is a very humbling experience to spend time in a third-world country; an experience that I feel more people (especially those from the western world) should have. Fortunately, there are many people who have already had this experience and have been motivated to help improve standards of living and take part in efforts to conserve the environment. I am very grateful for having had the chance to meet many of these people and for being able to make connections with people around the globe. I cannot wait to see who I meet the next time I travel!

Upon returning to Tanzania, I easily fell back into my routine of collecting data in the field during the day and entering data or reading a book at night before bed. Since my return in mid-May, things here at the field site have changed drastically as the wet season has given way to the dry season. Rivers are no longer raging waters, but only small trickles of water moving along rocky riverbeds; the grass has grown extremely tall and dry, ready to be burned and give way to new shoots when the natural fires come through the area, and many trees are losing their leaves to also partake in the new growth cycle.

Woodland patch during rainy season

Woodland patch during dry season

My original thinking was that all of these changes would make my fieldwork a lot easier, with no more rivers to cross or muddy slopes to slide down. Well, I was wrong. The rivers are just as hard to cross by jumping from stone to stone, but if you fall (which inevitably happens every now and then), there is no water to cushion you, and the result is getting to watch your bruises heal and change colors over the next few days. The sloping terrain is also just as difficult to maneuver; instead of slipping on mud, it is the presence of dry leaves and small loose pebbles that discourage proper traction. Thankfully, after 7 ½ months, I am getting very good at  “controlled slides” down the mountains—think surfing, but on land! Of course, sometimes I am not so “controlled” and end up adding to my collection of small bumps and bruises.

This time of year is also when there are many fires, both natural and man-made. People in the area will burn the grass now that it is dry, in order to clear the areas around their houses in hopes of improving security; tall grass makes a good hiding spot for dangers of all kinds, ranging from fellow humans to predators like leopards and lions to other hazards like snakes. Local people will also burn grass in areas where they like to hunt and set snares; burning the old, dry grass allows new grass shoots to begin growing more quickly in that area, which will then attract animals. We have already encountered many burnt areas in and around our study site that are the result of these fires. Natural fires do sweep through the area and would have likely resulted in these same areas being burned, but the effects of the man-made fires quickening this natural process are unknown.

Aftermath of manmade fire

This week I was happy to take a break from hiking, falling, sliding, and sweating to once again meet Dr. Don Johanson and a group from National Geographic in Kigoma. Much like the last time in February 2011, I met them at their hotel for dinner and began chatting with them about what I am doing here in Kigoma. Also like last time, I was extremely impressed with their questions and knowledge about human origins, primatology, paleoanthropology, and many other topics. The next day I met them in the morning, and we made our way to the hotel’s boat. The one-hour boat ride to Gombe was great; the weather and scenery were just perfect. After our arrival, and group picture, we split into groups and ventured into the forest in search of the chimpanzees.

National Geographic tour led by Professor Don Johanson

Everyone had a great day and got a lot of time observing the chimpanzees. My group had the pleasure of watching Ferdinand, the current alpha male, along with Pax (an older male in the group) and Tarzan (a young adult male). We first came across Pax and thought that he was alone. After a minute or two, figs and leaves started to rain down from above; Ferdinand was at the top of a fig tree and was letting us know that he was there watching us. He came down when he was finished feeding and allowed Pax to groom him for a while. Tarzan showed up at this time, happily shoving fallen figs into his mouth. After a while, Ferdinand decided it was time to move on and the others followed. We stayed with the group for a little while longer before heading back to the boat for lunch. The group I was with also got to see red-tail monkeys, red colobus monkeys, and lots of olive baboons in the morning on the way to find the chimpanzees, so it was a really fantastic day.

Pax grooming Ferdinand with Tarzan in the back

Young Gombe baboons

After lunch at the Gombe Safari Lodge, we headed back to the boat and started to make our way back to Kigoma. We were delayed a bit by rough waves and heavy wind, but eventually made it to the hotel. Since we were short on time, it was decided that instead of giving my prepared powerpoint presentation, I would partake in a Q&A session along with Dr. Johanson and Dr. Anthony Collins (who had come back with us from Gombe). This session went very well and included some interesting questions about early hominin coexistence and diet, the current distribution and status of chimpanzees, and even a question about possible human-chimpanzee hybridization! (All three of us agreed that hybridization between sperm and egg has probably been tried in a lab somewhere at some time, but nothing has been officially documented or published on this issue.)

Afterwards we had a very nice barbeque dinner on the beach, where I had the chance to continue talking with some of the group members. At the end of the night, we said our goodbyes and I headed back to my hotel (unfortunately their hotel does not fit with my limited budget!). After picking up a few things here in town, I’ll be back on the road and headed to camp to once again fall back into my usual routine of fieldwork, data entry, and reading. Hopefully I’ll have some interesting stories to share next time. Until then, I hope everyone is enjoying summer and I wish you all (well, all you Americans) a Happy Fourth of July!

Sam

The second week of February 2011, I arrived in Kigoma to meet IHO’s founding director Dr. Don Johanson and the rest of his National Geographic Expeditions group (http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/expeditions/human-origins-safari/detail) so that I could give a short presentation about my research and explain why and how chimpanzees can be used as models for our early human ancestors. There was one slight problem—I knew where the group was staying, but did not know at what time they were arriving or when/where I was supposed to meet them. So, I went to their hotel, Kigoma Hilltop, and was surprised to see three zebras that are allowed to roam freely on the hotel grounds. Apparently, there are a few more zebras that stay closer to the beach, as the hotel is right on Lake Tanganyika. I left my name and number at the front desk and was promised a call when the group arrived. I got the call to come by for dinner, so I made my way back to the hotel and met Carol, the expedition manager, and some members of the group before seeing Dr. Johanson. We had a wonderful dinner (I was especially thankful to see the menu did not include rice and beans!), during which I was able to chat with many of the group. They were all extremely nice and seemed to be enjoying the trip immensely.

The National Geographic Expeditions group, led by Don Johanson.

The following day I met them at the hotel, where we all departed by boat across the lake to Gombe National Park. It was a pleasant ride and took even less time than my first trip to Gombe, as we were in a slightly newer, and therefore faster, boat.

The staff of the Jane Goodall Institute with Don Johanson and Samantha Russak.

When we arrived at Gombe, I went to find Dr. Anthony Collins (senior representative at Gombe Stream Research Center), who has been an invaluable resource about living in Tanzania. After a few minutes of catching up, he greeted the group and thanked National Geographic for all of their contributions to the Jane Goodall Institute and research at Gombe over the years. We then we split into smaller groups and headed off to find the chimpanzees.

Gombe chimpanzee and baby

We had to climb some steep trails, but finally came across a group of about eight chimpanzees near Jane’s Peak that included the current alpha male, Ferdinand. We spent some time watching them rest and groom each other before Ferdinand decided it was time to go; of course, when he went the group followed! We lost this big group, but came across Tarzan, and later his brother Titan. Then at some point we ended up in front of the group, because Ferdinand came charging (and displaying) down the path towards us. We quickly moved out of the way, and he continued along without even a glance back at us.

What a face!

After climbing a bit more, it soon became evident that the chimps had gone high up the mountain, where we would not be able to catch up with them, so we headed to the waterfall instead.

The old feeding house

We rested for a little while at the waterfall taking in the beautiful scenery before it started to rain, which prompted us to head towards the old feeding house (where chimps were provisioned with bananas until 2000) for some shelter. When the rain eased up we made our way back to the main entrance. There, Dr. Collins took most of the group to see Jane’s house while I stayed behind to chat with a fellow grad student researcher who had just arrived at Gombe to study the baboons there.

When the group returned, we got back onto the boat to make our way to Kigoma Hilltop Lodge in the park for lunch and then back to Kigoma. After a little downtime, it was time for me to “earn” my trip by giving my powerpoint presentation. Everyone was really enthusiastic about my research, which was a great boost in confidence about my time here in Tanzania. After my talk, it was time for another fantastic dinner and chatting with more of the group members. I got back to my hotel late that night, with a care-package of apples and cookies from some of the group, feeling lucky to have been able to meet such great people and share my research with them.

Beautiful waterfall

During my presentation, someone asked me what a typical day of fieldwork was like for me. I thought that was a good question to share here in case others were also wondering the same thing. My day usually starts between 6:00 and 6:30 am when I get up and get ready for the day. After making sure my fieldbag is packed, it’s time for breakfast—the field assistants usually eat cold rice and beans, but I cannot bring myself to do that so I usually have some bread and tea or oatmeal.  We pack food (usually rice and beans) to take with us for lunch and head off into the “bush.” Here is where there is some variation in the routine—on some days I need to “establish” a patch; this means that I go to a particular location previously determined by selecting random GPS coordinates within the study site and make a 50-meter by 50-meter (or sometimes 30-meter by 30-meter) square plot. Once the edges are marked with flagging tape, my research assistant and I begin to document and measure all of the trees within that patch. Other days involve monitoring these patches, which means sitting somewhere near the patch where I can observe what, if any, animals enter the patch and what they do while there. During the middle of each month, I also spend a few days checking the 22 digital camera traps that are located throughout the study site; this means making sure the camera is working and downloading the photos/videos onto a small laptop before redeploying the camera. Each of these tasks usually takes the full day, so that I arrive back at camp between 5:00 and 6:00 pm. Then it’s time for a nice bucket shower and then dinner, which is….rice and beans! After dinner I either read or join my field assistants in watching a movie on my computer before going to bed. Every now and then I take a “day off” from going into the field to stay at camp to wash laundry in the river and enter data into my computer. Fieldwork is certainly a full-time job!

Painstaking work (Hadar 2009)

It’s hard to describe what a good surveyor is thinking, but fossil bone is usually a different color from non-fossil rocks, and there are obviously some shapes that we look for (teeth, in particular). Some objects, especially root casts, are frustratingly disguised as bone and can really fool the hopeful hunter.

Bill Kimbel spies an item in the dirt (Hadar 2009)

Small fragment—needs more analysis (Hadar 2009)

We find all kinds of fossils at Hadar—fish and bovid are most common, but we’ve found parts of a fossilized pig, hyena, and monkey this trip, too. Once something interesting (like a hominid mandible!) is found, the team all gathers and switches to excavation mode. We collect the sediment around the original find and sift it to make sure we find even the smallest fragments. Sifting is extremely dusty work, but it’s satisfying to see the pile of searched sediment grow.

Students and field assistant using the Total Station (Hadar 2009)

Erella’s team drives out to AL 666, a site in the most recent sediments at Hadar, to excavate each day. This excavation is very regulated, unlike the random walking required for survey. Each excavator is assigned a square, one meter on a side, and levels it approximately 10 cm at a time. All the removed dirt is sifted and searched for stone tools and small pebbles that might indicate the presence of hominins on the ancient landscape. The position and orientation of each artifact can be recorded using a Total Station, a very useful machine that determines 3D coordinates of the objects using lasers. The coordinates of the lithics are then mapped in programs like ArcGIS to examine density and depositional patterns. Erella is also collecting soil samples from the site to take back to Israel, which will be analyzed to determine their chemical makeup. Such information is useful for reconstructing environmental and depositional change over time at the site.

Erella Hovers with Kimbel, Kaye Reed, Afar field assistants and students (Hadar 2009)

Despite being a short field season with only a small group of workers, it has been a productive and successful trip! We will pack up to head back to Addis in a few days, drop off the new specimens at the museum in Addis Ababa, and head home. Plans are already well underway for the next trip back to Hadar, scheduled for the spring of 2012.

Lynn

Editor’s note: Thank you to Benjamin Reed for these images from the Hadar field season 2009.

Languages—There are many languages being spoken in camp this year. The Afar speak Afar and many of them also speak Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. Bill, Erella, and the kitchen staff are also Amharic speakers. Mohamed Amadine serves as the official translator because he’s fluent in Afar, Amharic, and English. Erella and her graduate student Yoni seem to seamlessly switch between Hebrew and English. The Afar are teaching Alex and me as many Afar words and phrases as we can remember, so it’s been fun listening in when they talk to each other and picking up small bits of conversation. So far, I’ve at least learned to ask someone to pass a bucket (goma) and point out a camel (gala) without mixing the two words up!

Food—We eat very well at Hadar—the kitchen staff works magic with just two gas burners and a charcoal fire! We’ve had, on various occasions, donuts, flan, pumpkin soup, pancakes, french fries, and pizza (with sardines). I’m not sure how many jars of Nutella we’ve already gone through, but it’s in the double digits. The Afar are goat herders, so we’ve had goat on several occasions, and there’s homemade bread baked daily. The staff estimated that every week they go through 500 eggs to feed everyone in camp.

Hadar field season 2009: Kitchen

Games—Every night, several of the Afar join Alex (and sometimes Jenn or me if we’re not too tired!) for a long and very loud game of Spoons, with rocks standing in for spoons. Cheating is expected and encouraged! Uno has also been popular. During breaks when we’re out at survey, we’ve all learned to play Gaba Da, a game played with small rocks that resembles jacks. Noho, our youngest Afar worker, is the undisputed champion and doesn’t quite understand why we can’t toss, catch, and pick up rocks as adroitly as he can!

Animals—While the most common animal sightings are the Afar’s goats, camels, cattle, and donkeys, there are plenty of other charismatic megafauna living in and around camp. We’ve heard hippos and lions and seen large felid prints in the sand but haven’t spotted either species. There are vervet monkeys and baboons, warthogs and jackals, ostrich and hyena, along with dozens of bird species and more large insects than I care to think about!

Technology—We rely on a large solar panel and a generator to provide lights at night and charge for our computers. The Afar almost all have cell phones, so they need charging, too. During breaks, it’s common to see the men head for the highest hill in the area to search for reception! But the end of the evening, when the lights all get turned off, is my favorite time of day. Staring at the brightest stars I’ve ever seen makes me think about all of the people and our ancestors who’ve looked at these same stars from this same place over the past three million years—I feel privileged to join their ranks.

Hadar field season 2009: The evening comes; time for rest

Lynn

Editor’s note: Thank you to Benjamin Reed for these amazing images from the Hadar field season 2009.

Don Johanson and Samantha with the National Georgraphic travelers in Gombe

Gombe staff member (unfortunately, Samantha didn't remember his name, but he was 7 years old when Jane first arrived and has been at Gombe ever since), Don Johanson, Deus Cyprian Mjungu (current director of chimpanzee research at Gombe), me, and Dr. Anthony Collins. Dr. Collins studies the baboons at Gombe and is a part of JGI (his official title is "senior representative at Gombe Stream Research Center); he also was a big help in getting me acquainted with Kigoma and helping me find a ride to my field site when I first arrived in Tanzania.

“Trap” cameras capture animals as they travel through the forest.
Click on the images below to see larger images in a slide show.
Do not repost, copy, or distribute these photos.

Everyone is truly interested in how everyone else is doing; no conversation can start without first going through a series of questions about how you are doing, how your family is doing, how your journey was, if everything is going well at home and at work, etc. You can spend five minutes easily going through the many various greetings that can be found in the Swahili language. There are so many that even after three months I am still hearing new questions and answers when I travel to town! And it’s not like the “How are you?/Fine” exchange that occurs in the States; they really want to know how you and your family are doing. I think this is because everyone, including strangers, is treated like they are family. You often hear people referring to women as “dada” (sister) and men as “kaka” (brother). And children seem to be easily passed from one person to the next when they need to be taken care of; the last time I traveled back to camp from Kigoma, a woman who got on the bus with her two small children handed one of them over to my field assistant for the whole six hour bus ride.

My field assistant (FA) seemed fine with having this small boy ride on his lap the whole way; that is, until we were about an hour from our destination. At that point in time, the boy started vomiting all over (my apologies to my readers if you have a weak stomach!). Thanks to the lovely plastic covering, the vomit was moving across the whole seat and quickly started to go everywhere. So my FA, the guy sitting next to him, and I quickly stood up; thankfully I was sitting by the window so my next move was to keep my head close to it for some fresh air. The mother calmly came from two rows back to collect her child and hand over a piece of cloth to mop up everything. Needless to say the next hour of the trip was very uncomfortable!

In addition to vomiting children, it is also not uncommon to see children peeing on the bus (I’ve already seen it twice) amongst the bags and packages that people cram between and under the seats. I have also had the pleasure of sharing a dala-dala (i.e., mini-bus) ride with a live chicken that was not at all happy about being inside a moving bus.

Transportation, in general, is VERY different here as compared to the US. There are only a few main roads and most of them are dirt, which get muddy and filled with holes, especially during the rainy season.

Main road between Uvinza and Mpanda

It is not unusual to see a car, truck, or bus that has been stuck for days on the side of the road with a flat tire, a broken axle, or some other kind of problem. If you are trying to get from one place to another, you must plan on spending at least one whole day traveling because even though there are “bus stops” in various places along the roads, the buses do not run on any kind of schedule.

People here don’t seem to be worried about schedules or timing at all; “things will happen when they happen” or “things will happen if and when god wants them to happen” are common phrases one hears (in Swahili of course!). There is absolutely no rushing to get things done in a timely manner, so you must expect to spend a lot time doing anything, whether that’s grocery shopping, getting photocopies, getting food at a restaurant, etc. This has been one of the hardest adjustments for me to make, but the longer I’ve been here, the easier it gets to forget about being “on time” (you can’t be late or on time if there’s no scheduled time to be somewhere!) and sticking to a set schedule.

Samantha

Happy New Year (Karibu Mwaka Mapya)!

It is hard to believe that I have already been in Tanzania now for two months (one and a half at the field site), and that in just a few days it will be 2011.  The new year looks like it will be an interesting and exciting one, hopefully filled with lots of data.

Butterfly

Progress with my research started slowly, but things have been turning around lately, and I now already have some really good data in addition to some amazing photos from the camera traps. (I wish I could share some with you here, but they are the property of many people, not just myself, so publishing them on a blog at this point is not possible). I have encountered many kinds of animals here: bush duikers, bushbuck, bushpigs, mongooses, hornbills, turacos, baboons . . .  I have even had some glimpses of the chimpanzees, although they like to make a habit of not staying around for very long. My most exciting “animal story” is actually not mine but that of one of my field assistants. We were observing one of my patches when we heard the babboons alarm calling and barking from a few hundred meters away. After one hour, they were still at it, so my field assistant went to go check it out. He came back very quickly announcing that he had seen a leopard! Apparently it was looking to make a snack out of one of the baboons but ran away when it saw my field assistant approaching. He saw the leopard and high-tailed it out of there. Now we are always on the lookout for the leopard when passing that spot, but as of yet there have been no further sightings.

Baby baboon

What is he thinking about?

I am slowly getting used to the daily treks up and down the mountainous terrain to and from my patches but am still going to bed each night completely exhausted and sore from head to toe. One thing is for sure, I will be in very good physical shape by the time I leave here! Climbing up and down mountains each day has also made me come to the conclusion that bipeds are not meant to live in such an environment—whether going up or down, you are often forced to lower your center of mass (i.e., get on your hands and knees) to fight the pull of gravity. I can offer up the many (small) bruises, scratches, and bumps that I have as evidence for this conclusion!

I’m afraid that this entry will have to be a short one, as I am running out of time (and therefore Internet usage) here in town. I will leave you with some photos of animals that I took with my own camera.

Lizard

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and that you all have a happy and healthy New Year!!

Samantha

January 9, 2011

Since my first day in the graduate program, I’ve heard Hadar lore from those who have been here before. It’s a little intimidating to be asked to write about this year’s field season at Hadar, Ethiopia. IHO has been working here for so many years, and so many professors, students, and friends have worked here. I hope one or two of my stories will still be interesting! Coming here myself has allowed me to put faces to the famous names I’ve heard—Mesfin, Omar, Mohamed Amadine—and experience the heat and dust and camaraderie everyone has told me about.

The IHO Land Rover

The trip to Hadar from Addis Ababa is long and hot, but thanks to all of the stories I’ve heard from my peers, it felt like a rite of passage that all IHO students must endure! The road is paved for almost the entire way north, but we saw eight or nine trucks tipped over on the sides of the road from people going too fast and trying to bend the laws of physics with the amount of stuff tied to their roofs. Once we got outside of Addis, the landscape started to look a lot like Arizona desert, so I felt right at home! We stopped along the way to get charcoal and mats in Gabanya, and in Mill‚ for gas. The road from Mill to Elowah, where we spent the night, was not paved and bouncing around in the back of a Land Cruiser felt exactly like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, except even bumpier!

On the road to Hadar

Elowah is a truck stop, so it’s quite a big town, given its location in the middle of an unpaved road, 50 km from the nearest gas station. The houses are all mud huts with thatched roofs. There is a restaurant there run by a woman named Setayu, but it doesn’t look like any kind of restaurant you’ve ever seen—while eating, two baby goats ran in, chased by a big sheep! There is a big sign out front that says “Hadar Field School—Home Away from Home” in Afar, which made me smile. Four of us went for a walk down the main road before dinner and collected quite the mob of kids—I think we each had six or seven hanging off us, asking questions. We ate traditional injera bread with lentils pureed into a hummus-like dip and goat meat for dinner. We spent the night at Omar’s and all headed for Hadar the next day

Hadar Research Camp Site

This year’s field season is short and camp is small. The past two trips here have been as part of the Hadar Field School in 2007 and 2009, involving 20+ undergraduates along with professors and teaching assistants. This year, thanks to a grant from the National Geographic Society, four Americans and two Israelis are joining with the Afar for a 26-day excavation at Hadar. We are focusing on two of the most famous localities at Hadar—the 333 and 666 sites. Since 1975, over 250 hominin fossils, representing a minimum of 17 individuals, all Australopithecus afarensis, have been found at 333. We are planning to finish a large sieving job at the site to search the last parts of an unexplored gulley for hominins. In the mid-1990s, the first (and so far, only) hominin from the genus Homo was found in the younger deposits at 666, a site that also has many stone tools. Archaeologist Erella Hovers and her graduate student will be further exploring the 666 locality with the hope that further early Homo fossils have eroded out of the sediments in the past decade.

We do have limited access to satellite internet, so I’ll send another update once work starts in earnest. We’ve been out surveying a few times and come across lots of fossil bovids, pigs, fish, and even some giraffe teeth, but no hominids. My particular area of interest is cranial vault morphology, so I was extremely excited to see what was clearly primate vault bone—a flat cortical shell surrounding trabecular bone (called diploe in the skull)! It took Bill all of two seconds to declare it turtle shell and tell me I’d been staring at diploe for too long. Obviously, we’re all excited to find hominins, and I’ll be sure to let you know first thing when we do.

The unforgiving landscape

Sifting through the rocks and dirt

January 14, 2011

I promised we’d let you know as soon as we found something exciting, and this afternoon, we did! All week we’ve been sieving at 333 and finished clearing out the last unexplored gulley this morning. We have pulled out a few interesting fragments, but they all need further processing before we can tell what they are. Since we didn’t have much more work to do at 333, this afternoon, 15 of us piled in a Land Cruiser and went to survey at the top of the Denen Dora Member, which was deposited just over 3.2 million years ago. We all spread out and began searching the ground for fossils. Amid plenty of fish and pig fossils, Omar Abdullah picked up a weathered fragment of a mandible. The broken molar roots told him it was from a hominin. He called others over, and they all started searching the surrounding area. Only minutes later, Omar picked up the beautifully preserved left half of the same mandible! We’ll return there tomorrow to sift through the sediments to try to recover more of the mandible. Everyone is in high spirits tonight!

Lynn Copes
Learn more about Lynn and her research interests here.

After dinner, I found out that not only would I be spending my two nights at Gombe in Dr. Goodall’s house, but that I would be sleeping in her room! This was an unbelievable experience, as I have admired Dr. Goodall and her work since I was a young child. And the next day was just as unbelievable and exciting . . .

Jane Goodall's house in Gombe

We found a group of chimpanzees within the first hour of our hike into the forest and stayed to watch them for a while. There were two little juveniles playing and wrestling with each other, while their moms and the other adults ate or rested nearby. While we were watching, there were a few small spats accompanied by very loud pant-hooting, which is always amazing to hear (click here to hear what that sounds like: chimpanzee-pant-hoot). After some time, we decided to continue on to see if we could find other chimpanzees. We soon came across another small group of chimpanzees, including Gremlin (who is one of the more publicized chimpanzees, known for successfully raising twins) and her newest offspring, Gizmo. They disappeared soon after we saw them, so we decided to continue on our way. We came across a termite mound and stopped to have a closer look. This was very fortunate, because not too long after, Gremlin (with Gizmo) and two of her older children approached the mound and began to fish for termites! We stayed and watched in awe as they searched for the perfect fishing tool, carefully placed it into the termite mound and then pulled it out, bringing the termite-covered tool up to their mouths for a tasty treat. When the chimpanzees were finished termite fishing, we decided to end our day with that fantastic experience and made our way back to Dr. Goodall’s house for a late lunch. I went to sleep that night still in disbelief of how amazing the past few days had been.

Samantha with Gimley termite fishing in the background

Termite fishing

After the boat ride back to Kigoma, it was time to pack-up and make my way to the field site. The Jane Goodall Institute was generous enough to let me hire one of their drivers and cars to make this first trip out to the field site with all of my equipment as hassle-free as possible. We loaded up the car and started driving to Uvinza, where we would buy food supplies for the next few weeks. After stopping in Uvinza, we continued on to Issa and slowly made our way up steep slopes and across dry riverbeds to the campsite. There was just enough time for me to set up my tent before it got dark. I decided that I would unpack everything else the next day.

These first two weeks at camp have gone by extremely quickly. I have been walking up and down steep slopes almost every day with the field assistants getting to know the area a bit better and have slowly started my own research project. I have been going to bed each night extremely exhausted and hoping that my body will get “into shape” soon. But hearing the chimpanzees during the day and seeing lots of other animals (a bushpig, rock hyraxes, bushbuck, duikers, birds, lizards…) while out walking are all the motivation I need to get up the next morning and do it all again.

I wish that I had the time to share more, but my time in Kigoma is limited. While this trip to Kigoma was a welcomed break, the next trip will not be for another whole month. At that time, I should have much more progress to report and more exciting stories to share!

In the meantime, I wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season!

Samantha