On the Expedition
Experience the rich traditions of the Samburu people of Kenya as you join them to identify medicinal plants and discover ways they can help the local community.
Medicinal Plants
The Samburu people have long used plants as medicines, and maintaining this traditional knowledge is crucial. You can help Dr. Callistus Ogol, Dr. Paul Okemo, and Dr. Isaiah Ndiege work with local communities to identify medicinal plants, document their uses, and even investigate whether some could purify water for drinking, a huge need in this arid land.
You’ll interview local community members to explore their use of plants, finding out which ailments they treat, how they harvest them, and how they apply them. You’ll also help identify and collect plants in the field, determine their abundance and distribution, and process them by tagging, pressing, and drying.
You’ll help enter data from community questionnaires that seek information on species and local names of medicinal plants sold in markets, what they’re sold to treat, how often they’re for sale, and other important factors. The information you collect will build a database of knowledge which will help local resource managers plan for the sustainable use of medicinal plants.
You’ll also visit local homes to experience life in a Samburu manyatta (homestead or ranch), visit a local school, and go to the nearby Samburu National Reserve for 2 days in the middle of the expedition, staying overnight at the Samburu Serena Lodge. As many families may know, the Samburu Reserve was one of two areas in which conservationists Joy and George Adamson raised Elsa the lioness, as made famous in the best-selling book and award winning movie Born Free.
An Earthwatch Family Team Facilitator will provide additional supervision and guidance for each Family Team, from the rendezvous to the end of the expedition. Facilitators build good team dynamics and organize recreational and cultural activities designed for Family Teams. Facilitators are available throughout the expedition to troubleshoot any concerns family members may have. All Facilitators have experience teaching and leading family groups. Family Teams feature volunteer tasks slightly altered or adapted to suit all members of the group.
Meals and Accommodations
Your contribution includes a charter flight over spectacular vistas from Nairobi to the village of Wamba, where you’ll stay in shared basic rooms in the scenic foothills of the Mathews Range. The accommodations have electricity, hot showers, flush toilets, laboratories, work spaces, common areas both outside and inside for hanging out, reading books, and playing games, and a kitchen. An experienced cook will prepare meals choosing from a largely Western menu. At the Samburu Field Center, you’ll experience authentic Kenyan cultures, getting to know those working to make a difference for their communities and the environment.
About the Research Area
The vast savannahs of Kenya abound with wildlife. The traditionally nomadic Samburu people have coexisted with the rich biodiversity here for hundreds of years, but growing human populations and changing lifestyles now put both human and wildlife communities at risk.
The Samburu Field Center is in the midst of one of the highest concentrations of unique threatened savannah species in Kenya. There are semi-arid savannah mosaics of grasslands and scrublands, forests, the Ewaso Nyiro river watershed that drains from Mt. Kenya, and many elephant migration corridors.
Wamba is communally owned and the nomadic Samburu people live and tend their livestock in close proximity to it and to wild animal populations, including Grevy’s zebras, elephants, antelopes, gerenuks, cheetahs, lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, birds, and many invertebrates. There are no fences to keep wildlife out of livestock grazing areas, and human-wildlife conflicts over water and food present many challenges.
While it’s one of the larger population centers in the Samburu District, Wamba is a rural town with almost no tourism, although many visit the nearby nature reserves. Many people in and around Wamba live the traditional lifestyle of the Samburu people. While here, you’ll get to know some of the community members who are crucial partners in Earthwatch’s efforts, and will learn about Samburu culture, which shares a language and many practices with the Maasai.