Thursday, March 12, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section B·Page 3
University student travels to Africa to study abroad
Continued from page 1B
Kansas rower Erin Dean (center) poses with two friends in front of Mt. Longonot in Kenya. Dean took a break from the women's rowing team last spring to spend five months traveling and working in East Africa. Contributed Photo
performed the normal daily tasks of goat herding, cooking and walking long distances for water.
“Most of the day we spent cooking. That’s when I learned the intricacies of slaughtering chickens,” she said. “Each day, they tried to get me to do it as a joke, but I couldn’t bring myself to slaughter the chicken.”
Dean also stayed in the Samburu region of Kenya, where she lived with a host family in a dung hut for three days.
"It was small, dark and smoky, and everyone in the family had to sleep there, as well as their goats and cattle," she said. "I would wake up sometimes at night and right next to me would be a goat."
As a rower, Dean spends much of her time surrounded by water. In Samburu, water was scarce and was a luxury.
"We would play baseball and constantly have to move the goats off the field," she said. "When we played football, the only thing we could use as a ball was elephant dung. Every time, when someone dropped the 'ball,' it would break and we would have to find a new one."
Around her, people were dying because of a drought. Dean also became sick because of a lack of water.
Still, the 30 or so students in the program found time to have fun.
Then came the drinking of the goat's blood. When the Samburu kill a goat, they hold a ceremony, she said.
Andrew Rohrback / KANSAN
After suffocating the goat, they make a special bed of sticks and then cut its throat to make a pouch. After puncturing the jugular, blood spills into the pouch.
it was an honor for them to let us drink the blood because usually only the warriors and sometimes mothers that just gave birth get to drink it," she said. "Those of us that did it were covered with blood. But it was special."
Out of respect, the members of the Samburu offered the students a chance to partake in ceremony. Dean decided that because she already was sick, the blood could not do any damage.
Dean returned to the United States last May.
Dean was one of the few students who drank the blood.
"I was prepared to go over there," she said. "Coming back was more of a culture shock for me.
"Every day, it was something new. Every day, something exciting happened," she said.
"Returning to KU after such an incredible experience has been its own adventure."
Dean was nervous at first about
approaching coach Rob Cattoth with the idea of studying abroad
"When I told him what I wanted to do, he said he wanted everyone on his team to have the same opportunities as the other students on campus," she said.
Dean said the entire coaching staff had been helpful in getting her back with team. Catloth has helped her re-adopt to the life of an athlete, she said.
"It's a huge culture shock coming back to Lawrence, Kansas, after living in a third world society with a nomadic tribe and speaking very little English," Catloth said. "I think it's great that she had this opportunity and took advantage of it."
Dean has made her experiences the basis of her senior thesis. But getting back into the life of a student-athlete is an ongoing task.
"Six a.m. practices and multiple term papers have replaced intestinal disorders and prowling lions in my daily thoughts," she wrote recently in the rowing team's newsletter. "Routine tasks have a new value when viewed with the awareness of my good fortune and the memories of an unbelievable semester."
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At 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 13. highly-accomplished rock climber Todd Skinner will present Beyond the Summit. detailing his spectacular first ascent of the East Face of Trango Tower in Pakistan's Kakaroram range.
On Saturday, March 14, as part of Backwoods '25th Anniversary celebration in Lawrence, there will be a full display of Mountain Hardwear and Sierra Design tents, and special giveaways of a Mountain Hardware tent. Patagonia and Gramicci clothing, hiking boots, t-shirts, and coffee mugs. All at the new Backwoods store in Lawrence, 916 Mass. St.
In celebration of our 25th year in business and in honor of our newest location, we've invited two of today's most celebrated climbers to our Lawrence store, 916 Mass. On Thursday, March 12, at 8:00 p.m.. 30-year climbing veteran Jim Donini will present Alpinism in the 90s – the Hard Summits, sharing many of his recent first ascents, including ones in Alaska & Patagonia.