|
Name: |
Jamie |
|
Subject:
|
Important facts |
Date:
|
April
12, 2005 -- Tuesday |
| Tomorrow
is our last day in the field so today I took another chance to
go out and capture lambs. We didn’t use the project van
as usual because it was needed for other projects. I walked, instead,
with Tyler and our two guides. It’s nice to not use the
van because we can start working directly from camp.
We left just after 9am and walked for about 20 minutes when we
spotted the first group of argali. They were drinking water from
the stream that runs into camp. Amgah, our guide, said that they
drink about this time everyday from the stream. Two of the argali
in the group we saw were collared, so we just sat high in the
rocks and watched them interact with each other. Once we were
done watching them, we started trekking in a southwestern direction
from camp. The SW side of the park is where the mountains meet
the flat desert. So this meant that we were walking up and down
a lot of mountains. Despite the fact that it was very chilly outside,
Tyler and I were getting really hot from all of the hiking up
and down!
We
stopped for lunch around 12:30 and right before we were getting
up to start walking again, a group of about 8 argali came prancing
just over the hill. This was so exciting because they had NO idea
we were so close to them. We observed the group for about 25 minutes
until they ran off.
Later on, we found some lambs in the mid-afternoon. One lamb got
separated from its mother and was seeking shelter in a huge rocky
area. We approached it from the rocks above it, and once it noticed
us it laid down. It didn’t run away because I guess it realized
it was out numbered, so it just surrendered right away. We collected
the data in about 17 minutes and released it back to where it
was found. This particular lamb was very feisty and kicked a lot
while we were measuring it. Its funny, some lambs do nothing when
we measure, weigh, and tag them, but then some lambs kick violently
making the job that much harder!
The second lamb, which was the last of the day, was found on our
walk back to camp. It was climbing a rock we were walking right
near. So, we tagged, collared, and released it back into the wild
without any hitches!
Back at camp everyone was starting to pack up their things. I
didn’t have too much to pack because I’ve been wearing
a lot of the same clothes since I have been here! Uggi, the young
girl who is a community fellow came hobbling into the ger as I
was packing. She apparently twisted her ankle while doing field
work. Luckily we are all going into Ulaanbaatar tomorrow night.
She seems to be doing fine, she’s taking it like a champ,
but I imagine that it hurts a lot.
Ganna, one of the scientists gave a presentation after dinner
was over, and it was very interesting. She was giving everyone
an idea of what she’s studying, which is (in a nutshell)
the eating habits of argali. In her presentation, she also gave
a lot of very interesting information about Mongolia. Some of
the things she told us were:
-argali
are the largest mountain sheep in the world
-argali are listed as endangered in the Mongolian Redbook
-96% of the Mongolian population is Tibetan Buddhism Lamanism
-Mongolia is 1.565 million square kilometers
-the population of the whole country is 2.6 million people
-Mongolia was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as
the least densely populated country in the World.
-The nature reserve is 43,740 hectares and that’s shared
by over 9,000 individual livestock
Bedtime
is quickly approaching and getting up at 5:10 a.m. for the Teach
Live call with Cerritos, California means that I need to get to
bed as quickly as possible!
Peace,
Jamie |
|
Name: |
Jamie |
|
Subject:
|
Last Day in Mongolia |
Date:
|
April
13, 2005 -- Wednesday |
| Our
last day of camp was so exciting. We all went out on our final
observations and it was a beautiful sunny day. My group was led
by Ahmga, the best guide for finding argali. I was out with Forrest
and Laurie and we were armed with our binoculars and cameras,
in hopes of catching our last photos of argali and other wonderful
things.
We were all out for about 45 minutes and then the wind started
to really pick up. We were afraid there was going to be another
dust storm so we had to run to the car for cover, and head back
to camp. Once we were at camp, I interviewed Auggie and Uggie.
The interview went really well, I asked them about what their
aspirations are, and how they were chosen to be community fellows.
They both have large interests in nature and the environment.
Auggie said he wants to be a biologist and Uggie said she wants
to be a park ranger or even an astronomer. I also found out that
they were chosen to be community fellows because they both have
been to the park we were at, and they had strong interests in
helping the argali. In addition their strong interests in biology
and argali, they both felt it was so incredibly important to let
their fellow Mongolians know that the argali are special animals
and should be respected.
After the interview we all loaded our bags onto a cargo van that
was driving straight to UlaanBaatar. Once we loaded all the bags,
everyone lounged in the main ger and did a little cleaning to
tidy up. It was pretty dirty so we swept, and brought over all
of the cookware that we had on the food table. We were leaving
after dinner so when dinner was served, everyone was a little
bummed because we all realized our time at camp was coming to
an end. These expeditions always go by so quickly and it felt
as if this was over right after it’s begun. After dinner,
we all loaded into the van we headed to a town about an hour away
called Shiive Gobi. While at Shiive Gobi, we bought some candy
and went off to the train station.
At the train station, we waited for about 4 hours until the overnight
sleeper train came. The train came 15 minutes earlier than was
scheduled which was nice because we all had been waiting so long!
I shared a cabin with Auggie, Tyler, and Arsen. The cabin was
really small and hot but none of cared because it was about 1:30
in the morning and we were all so tired.
Before I knew it, we had all fallen asleep and arrived in UB about
7 and a half hours later. It was early in the morning there but
the train station was busy with tons of people! The project vans
were there to pick us up but we underestimated the amount of baggage
we had so I caught a taxi with a few other people. Our flights
didn’t leave for another 18 hours so everyone checked into
the Urge Hotel to shower and relax. I walked around town with
Tyler and Arsen for a little bit and we all bought a few things
to take back home with us.
The whole expedition group was meeting for dinner that night and
we were all so famished by the time 6:30 came. Dinner was at a
Chinese restaurant. The food was delicious and they brought out
dozens of different dishes. During dinner, Ganna, and all of the
scientists who worked at the camp presented us with little tokens
of appreciation. The gifts were beautiful blue scarves and a leather
pouch filled with animal knucklebones. The bones are a traditional
Mongolian game, that I am still a little unsure how to play! The
general idea is that you roll the knuckles and the results tell
your fortune.
After dinner, I went back to the hotel and gathered my few things
I had. Once my room was tidied up, Arsen, Tyler, Auggie and myself
went to play snooker. Snooker is sort of like pool, and I am terrible
at it! Our game was very short because we had to get to the hotel
in order to leave for the airport. As we got to the hotel, we
saw the luggage vans had arrived. So, we all grabbed our bags
and headed over to the airport. At the airport, we said our goodbyes
to everyone who worked at the camp. It was so sad to say goodbye
because I had so much fun and I was really going to miss everyone.
Auggie was one of the coolest community fellows we’ve encountered
on this journey.
Now I am on the plane and we are headed to Seoul, I still can’t
believe it’s already over. The overhead lights have now
been turned off in the plane so that everyone can sleep. I think
I might do the same! It was so nice to communicate with all of
you. I hope you were just as excited as I was during the calls.
I thank all of you and wish you the best of luck in whatever you
all do!
Peace,
Jamie |
|
Name: |
Mrs.
Coleman |
|
Subject:
|
Third
and Final Call |
Date:
|
April
12, 2005 -- Tuesday |
|
Today
in class we gave a simple overview for the last class that would
participate in the conference call. This class had a lot more questions
and many of them wanted to talk to Jamie themselves. We explained
the importance of leaving no down time while they are on the call,
so students needed to pay attention to the next question in the
queue. We also explained some of the difficulties of communicating
while in such a remote area.
We
had a LOT of extra students today; Mr. Scholte decided to bring
some of his students in to observe, and many of them wanted to ask
questions. Since our students had been well prepared about Mongolia
they were much more comfortable with the types of questions to ask.
Mr. Scholte's students were shocked when they would ask a question
about the country or the project and one of Ms. VZ's students would
answer. I think most of Ms. VZ's students did not realize what they
knew until they were able to give answers to peers about the project.
Once
the call came in it was pretty clear. Jamie had learned yesterday
that standing outside gave a much more clear connection so even
though it was cold she began that way. It was Tuesday for us, but
Wednesday morning at 5:30 am for Jamie, but she sounded perky and
excited to talk to us. The call only dropped one time, and garbled
slightly only twice, which was a great improvement over the first
two days.
One
thing I was very sad about when I was reviewing the audio, I had
not realized that we never really thanked or said goodbye to Auggie
(at the time, we were more concerned with students getting to their
next classes on time since we had taken an entire period for the
call). We had a lovely farewell
from Jamie but we did not take the time to do the same with Auggie.
I felt bad about this, he was so kind to talk with us and we sounded
as if we didn't care at all by cutting him off so quickly. |
|
Name: |
Mrs.
Coleman |
|
Subject:
|
Follow
up and completion |
Date:
|
April
26, 2005 -- Tuesday |
|
It
has been two full weeks since we last talked with the EB3 team.
We had other agendas to follow so we had to do our last follow-up
this far out, but that was OK: we had planned on taking a look at
the current project in Malaysia but were disappointed to find that
there was (apparently) no host school, and so we could not find
out where they were or what they were studying.
The
student reflection pages are all turned in now and we are still
reading over them. I am pleased with all the responses and the overall
attitude concerning the the TeachLive project; I think this really
helped the students become involved with the actual place, giving
them a connection to someone on the other end. They were motivated
(not just because it was a class project and had worksheets) to
dig deeper and find out some of the facts concerning the EB 3 research,
the location and the people involved. Having a live person on the
other end, expecting to hear from them, was huge. It seems they
got more out of this than from hearing the experience of teachers
who had visited other research locations because they were involved
themselves, even in just a small way.
I still
have much information to finish up for the website. I will be placing
the interviews on the Questions pages (in audio format) where the
sound quality is bearable. I will also be taking short comments
from the student papers -- as well as scanning a few of them for
example student work, for other teachers to review when they decide
to do a project. It has been a rewarding experience to work in this
project, however short; both Ms. VZ and myself hope to have the
opportunity to do this again, perhaps with a future EB Team. |
|
