Elephant Raids

Today was just a preview of how difficult it’ll be to communicate with our host families tomorrow. We went out in small groups with a local guide to interview locals. My group interviewed eight different families and it was really interesting to hear their thoughts about the local wildlife and conservation. All the families we interviewed lived in Rhotia valley so their biggest problem was elephants destroying their crops. Many of them used fires to try and keep them out, but one admitted he tries to shoot them! Since there are two local national parks, government officials have put beehives around some of the villages because elephants are afraid of bees and the locals also get to harvest honey from them. Most the farmers thought conservation was important, but didn’t like the damage to their crops they had to deal with because of the parks. Many of them were also confused as to why conservation is important but just thought it was because that’s what they’d been told their whole lives. Since we finished our interviews early, we visited a brickyard and saw how they make non-sustainable bricks. We all thought it looked like a difficult job but our guide said it’s an easy job in Africa. After lunch, we had a lab so we could compile the data from our wildlife counts yesterday. We eventually have to pick a species and make a poster about our findings. After dinner we were briefed on what to expect for our homestays tomorrow. It sounds like it’ll be an eye opening experience, but I’m still pretty nervous about it. Hopefully it goes well!