Marine Ecology

Our first ecology course of the semester found students and staff eagerly following our professor, Laurie Furlong of Northeastern University (Iowa), as she led the way through tidal pools and other shore habitats commenting on gastropods and cetaceans along the way. They were able to examine sea stars and traveling anemones as well as a small octopus and a host of other sea creatures. When the sun rose on Wednesday morning students and staff were already gearing up for their Dolphin Encounter” tour. Most of the students chose to swim with the dolphins (which is pretty sweet, it’s not every day that you get to swim with wild dolphins out in the middle of the ocean). The whole crew looked pretty great in their matching wetsuits and snorkel gear.

There is a deep-sea trench right off the Kaikoura coast, which means that there is TONS of sea life here including whales, dolphins, seals, and lots of sea birds. On our tour we got the chance to see Dusky dolphins, they would play in the waves at the bow of our boat and would turn summersaults and jumps out of the water. Apparently the dusky dolphin is one of the most playful dolphins in the world and only lives in the Southern hemisphere. We also saw albatrosses (14 of the 22 species in the world can be found in Kaikoura), as well as a whole flock of Huttons shearwaters, a rare sea bird that nests in high alpine environments.

You’ll all be glad to hear that everyone avoided seasickness thanks to motion sickness medication and ginger biscuits.

One evening during the week we were also able to see Little Blue Penguins, the world’s smallest penguin. Around 7-9 PM the whole group of students, professor and SLCs all went down to the Kaikoura coast guard headquarters to see the penguins that nest in the open basement of the building. According to locals the penguins can get quite noisy at times, especially during coastguard meetings.

SAMOA

We’re back from Samoa!

What a week. It’s difficult to really describe everything that we did, that we learned, what surprised us, the things we want to remember as well as the things we might like to forget. From the moment we stepped off the airplane in Apia until the time we pulled up back at the Old Convent on Saturday our time was pretty much packed with traveling, field trips, cultural experiences, home stays and eating taro.

Our plane touched down in Apia on Friday night. Sarah (Westmont ’11) enthusiastically shouted “Samoa” to the open tarmac and waiting customs officials as students and staff climbed down the steps and walked to the airport terminal. We were greeted at the airport by Chris Jackson, our host from Safua hotel before driving to Apia. The next morning students ventured out to spend some time in the various markets in Apia. They came back with many lava lavas, stories of chatting with locals over kava, and bags full of mangos and coconuts. Following the market visit we took the ferry from Upolu to Savaii and arrived at Safua hotel in time for an afternoon spent learning about Samoan culture. Students were able to try their hand at basket weaving, Tapas cloth making, and food preparation using the traditional Umu method. They also heard about the Samoan tattooing tradition and saw some authentic Samoan fire dancing.

While at Safua Hotel we also met Warren Jopling an outspoken eighty-year-old Australian geologist who has lived in Samoa for the last twenty-five years. Warren took us on several field trips to lava fields from an eruption between 1906 and 1911, as well as older lava flows, freshwater waterfalls, volcanic craters (now home to flying foxes) and other geological and cultural points of interest. Most of his phrases began with the words “Now look here...” and rumor has it that he called at least one or two students “young fools,” however as usual field trips with Warren were a highlight.

On Monday afternoon we packed our bags and headed down the road to Faga village, a small village on Savaii that CCSP has been doing home stays at for a number of years. We were welcomed into the village with a traditional Kava ceremony during which chiefs of the village gave speeches, and each person was presented with a bowl of kava to drink. Almost everyone remembered to raise the cup and shout “Manuea” which translates roughly to “It is good,” before drinking. Students were escorted shortly thereafter to the fales they would be staying at during their home stay.

The next several days looked a little like this:

5:30-7:30 Wake up in the morning (maybe in time to see the sunrise at 5:30)

6:30- 7:30 Assuming you did get up to see the sun rise, morning snorkel on the coral reef.

7:45- 8:30 Breakfast time, which might include coco rice, papaya, pancakes, taro, and coffee.

9:00 You try to overcome Samoan hospitality and get your host family to let you go with them to their plantation where they grow coconuts and taro, instead of going snorkeling again.

10:00 They agree to take you.

10:15 You realize that the plantation is a 40-minute walk away.

11:20 As you leave the plantation an old man passes you carrying a tree; you kindly offer to carry it for him. Your host tells you that the tree is to heavy for you, but you insist (Tim Molloy, Westmont ’11 and Tyler Amy, Waynesburg ’10).

11:40 You barely manage to make it back to the village carrying a tree that must weigh close to 150 lbs.

12:00 lunch time. Papaya, soup, taro, fried chicken, and sausages.

Afternoon options include playing with village kids on the beach (Kellsie Ebbeling, Messiah ‘12), reading, or perhaps going spear fishing in the lagoon. Our very own Isaac Smith (Messiah ‘12) was able to spear a fish. It was approximately the size of a credit card, which is actually quite a feat if you think about it.

5:00 CCSP meets on the beach.

7:00 Village “Sa.” Everyone in the village returns to their homes for the Samoan equivalent of family devotions.

8:00 Dinnertime. Soup, papaya, fried taro, curry chicken, breadfruit, and “Coco Samoa.”

9:00 You stay up trying to overcome cultural and language barriers while learning about Samoan folk medicine from your host family (Allie, SLC).

Our village home stays culminated in a celebration called a “FiaFia” on Wednesday night. Everyone’s home stay families decked them out in new lava lavas, leis, and pulitasis. Village teens performed traditional Samoan dances and CCSP sang songs that we had prepared in a back and forth exchange. Thankfully we have some really enthusiastic voices and foot-stompers in our group including Abe (SLC) and Josh Peterson (Westmont ’11). Everyone left the FiaFia in high spirits.

Our journey home was long but thankfully mostly uneventful. Seasickness, long airport waits, rushing to catch flights, and car rides all passed as those things do. And we found ourselves back at the Old Convent recovering before diving into Marine ecology on Monday.

We Leave for Samoa Tomorrow!

It’s rainy and a cool 12 degrees C (54 F) here in Kaikoura. That means it’s a good day for coffee, wool socks, and a fire in the wood stove. For those of us who have been missing flip flops, shorts and warm weather, the good news is that around 8 PM on Friday Oct 16^th we will be landing at the airport in Apia, Samoa and stepping off of the airplane into the 22C (71F) Samoan night. Clearly the wool socks will be staying at home.

You may be wondering how it is that we’ll be arriving in Samoa five hours from now when we are all still at the Old Convent, and most of us haven’t even packed yet. This is the beauty of the International Date Line, Samoa and New Zealand share the same time, only they are one day apart. So, when it is 8 PM on Friday in Samoa, it will be 8 PM on Saturday in New Zealand. The only drawback to this is that we lose an entire day on our trip back from Samoa and will arrive back at the Old Convent around lunch time on October 24th.

This week Mick Duncan returned to Kaikoura to teach the second week of Sustainable Community Development. Students were able to hear Mick tell about the years he and his family spent living in a slum in the Philippines and also to learn a little about what empowerment and coming alongside the marginalized might look like once they return to their homes in the States.

On Wednesday Rich Pennisi (Messiah ‘12) celebrated his 20^th birthday. In recognition of this exciting event the Old Convent hosted the 1^st Annual Richard Pennisi Classic, a decathlon in Rich’s honor. The events included, leg wrestling, arm wrestling, Marmite eating, Frisbee throwing, thumb wrestling, a Dutch Blitz Off (doubles style) contest, paper airplane throwing, handstand contest, rock-paper-scissors, and a terrestrial synchronized swimming contest. There was a lot of sacrificial marmite eating, some fantastic Frisbee throws, and an epic arm wrestling match between Stephen Dickson (Westmont ‘10) and Rich.

A Typical Sunday Afternoon

It’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon here in Kaikoura. On returning from a post-church coffee stop, Josh, Tim, Sarah and Allie found the new waste-water sprinkler system up and running. Marcel Visser, one of our fantastic SLCs, has spent some of his free time over the past eight months building a bicycle-powered pump to water our gardens with grey water from our laundry station.

Some of the stars of this video include;

On the bike: Kelley Salem, (Northwestern (Iowa) ’10)

Clothes washer: Kayti Christianson (Westmont ’11)

Guy with one trouser leg rolled up: Marcel Visser (SLC)

Red shirt w/ huge beard: Abe Weiner (SLC)

Julia's Andy Goldsworthy Inspired Birthday Party

Julia Johnson (Westmont ’11) celebrated her 21^st birthday on Monday. Julia enjoys hugs, ultimate Frisbee, art and biology, so what better way to celebrate her birthday than to give her lots of hugs, play a game ultimate in the cold New Zealand rain, and then have an Andy Goldsworthy inspired art show?Little did we know when groups and individuals scattered throughout the yard, but on reconvening an hour later we discovered that there are some fairly talented artists among us! Some of the art pieces included a nearly life-sized sculpture of Julia herself, a work incorporating hundreds if not thousands of tiny daisies that were growing in our yard, and a beautiful tree created by Issac (Messiah ’12) right next to our recycling bin. There was also a tunnel of New Zealand flax plants and a willow tree branches, made by our very own Student Life Coordinators, affectionately known as SLCs, they’re quiet a resourceful bunch.

Environmental Literature

During Environmental Literature, the elective course of the semester, 14 of the 24 students spent their days reading works by Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost, Jack London, William Blake, Thoreau, Wendell Berry, Francis Collins, Lynn White, Annie Dillard, and Aldo Leopold to name a few. Our excellent professor, Pauline Stevick shared her love of poetry, her thoughts on the Land Ethic, and a video presentation of To Build a Fire, a short story by Jack London.

While some students watched the movie, four students who had decided not to take the elective course were actually out in the wilderness battling the elements. Although the temperature never got to 75 bellow zero, and they did not have any issues with frostbite, Lizzy, Sarah, Julia, and Meaghan did return with stories of river crossings, some rain, and post-holing in 2 feet of snow on top of Mt Fyffe.

Those students who weren’t hiking, or taking Environmental Literature spent the week reading Samoan Planters by O-Meara, baking cookies for their friends in class, and playing Bananagrams.

We woke up on Wednesday to the news that a tsunami had hit Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga. This was pretty difficult to hear, especially for those staff members who had been to Samoa on numerous occasions in the past. The village of Lalomanu, the former location of the marine ecology course, is on the side of Upolu that was most affected by the tsunami. Although the island of Savaii, our intended destination, was far less affected (there was little damage and only one death from a heart attack) the travel warning issued by the New Zealand travel authority caused us to postpone our departure which had originally been planned for Saturday. Students and staff spent time praying for the country of Samoa on Friday. On one level most of us are disappointed not to be in Samoa, but at the same time our disappointment is a small thing compared to the tragedy going on in that country right now.

We’re thankful that Rich Stevick, a professor from Messiah College could be with us this week and, although we are not in Samoa, we will still have the opportunity to reflect on cross cultural learning under his guidance.