Pembe Abwe

Last Monday a dhow(boat) picked us up in the village of Kendwa. Kendwa is a ten minute walk along the beach from Nungwi with even clearer ocean water. We trekked our 100 lbs bags through the sand to the boat and climbed aboard. The boat i rode on was a typical sailing dhow with a sail and a motor. Half-way through our 4 hour ride to Pembe Abwe the motor ran out of fuel and we sailed the rest of the way. At around 1 pm we arrived in Pembe Abwe at our camp sight for the next week. In Pembe Abwe we conducted our Coral Reef Ecology class. There were 10 bandas, small houses made of coconut palms and wood, that we stayed in for the week. In my banda we had a small shower and a toilet one reached by walking down a few stairs. Neighter of these rooms had coverings over them, yet neither of them had coveringsover them. If someone walked into the banda and took three steps they could easily see you in doing your business in either room. If we had had things to hide before this segment of the trip they are no longer hidden, to say the least we all got pretty comfortable being partially dressed around one another.
A usual day at Pembe Abwe consisted of us waking up at 6:45 heading to the main banda for a breakfast of toast, eggs, and fresh fruit. After breakfast we all load up into three boats, the dhow i took, a smaller one, and my favorite a speed boat. Everyday my friends and I run to the speed boat with our snorkle gear in hand. The boat takes us to a reserve called Maziwe where we snorkle. In our snorkeling we look for some indicator species; lobsters, clams, snapper, butterfly fish, groupers, and parrot fish (my favorite). They are the indicator species we are studying in order to do a reef check in the area on. After snorkeling for 2 hours we head back to camp for lunch. Lunch usually consists of bread, vegetables (cucumbers, peppers tomatoes, onions and carrots), and cheese (until we ran out three days in :(. After lunch we have two and a half hours to rest, do our class work and hang out until our class at 4. I usually play soccer along the beach with a bunch of friends, i have a fatty blister on the bottom of my foot (dont worry dad i am cleaning it out every day and bandaging it, no infections!!!). At four we have a 1-1.5 hour class on the different coastal ecosystems and organisms in mainland Tanzania. After class we have from 5-5:30 to rest until dinner at 7. During this time I usually work out, lunges and abs, with two of my friends and then go up to the tree house on the property and play cards. By dinner time we are all starving and gorge ourselves of the rice, fish, salad and dessert!!! We have dessert here!! its so exciting, lol.

On Friday of our week in Pembe Abwe we conducted a transect of the reef. In our transect, I was in charge of counting the fishes i saw in 5 meter incriments. We had 1 minute per 5 meters, and the entire transect was 20 meters. I felt like a legitimate scientist! After the transect we had two hours to explore the reef on our own. It was amazing snorkeling around for hours looking at the life of underwater creatures go on before our eyes. I found myself swimming above one peice of coral for up to 20 minutes watching fish eat algae, chase one another, basically just live their lives. Some times i lucked out and an eel stuck its head out from behind some corals to check me out. My favorite moment was when some dolphins came up right near where we were snorkeling and poked around us. They are such amazing creatures!

Today is my last day in civilization, tomorrow we head out for our four week safari around Tanzania. I will post when i get back to Nairobi. Love you all! P.s i love your comments.