Amy Alabaster in Namibia, Southern Africa

I spent five weeks in Namibia (in southern Africa) as part of a summer session one study abroad program. We were studying conservation biology and desert ecology. The class was more of an excuse for the UA program leaders to take us to some of the more spectacular and interesting parts of the country.

We did visit some of the facilities that practice conservation biology (Namibia is the only country in the world that includes conservation in its constitution) and a desert research station. At the end of the trip we did a week long field biology project of our own. I studied invertebrate tracks along a riverbank in order to indirectly measure biodiversity.

Our accommodations were tents that folded down from the tops of our trucks, and we spent a lot of our time camping in remote parts of the country. To me it was a refreshing break from western civilization.