CLASSROOM EARTH


My Field Camp Experience (as an International Student)


Shirley Tsotsoo Mensah, SA-7566, Eastern Illinois University


My field camp experience was personally an amalgam of bitter-sweet moments; by Day Three of field camp I had emailed my adviser telling her I wanted to return home. Join me in this recap of my journey through field camp as I tell you my experience from a personal perspective as an international student in the USA. I hope you enjoy the ride.


I am Shirley Tsotsoo Mensah, an international student from Ghana pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Geology with a minor in Geographic Information Sciences at Eastern Illinois University. I attended field camp at Western Illinois University from May 20-June 30. Our camp was based in South Dakota, where we spent 5 of the 6 weeks mapping the Black Hills while we stayed in the dorms of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. The rest of the time was spent on field trips while camping out in the woods or lodging in hotels (my favorite part).


At the beginning of this journey, I was neutral about field camp. I was not particularly excited about it because all the stories I had heard about field camp were pretty intimidating. We left Illinois on May 20 for South Dakota and that first night with the group was actually my first time ever camping out in the woods. It was a pretty interesting experience, but I think I prefer hotels. I was doing okay at the start of the camp until our group facilitator decided to give us an overview of field work – things we will encounter out in the field every day and how to maneuver our way out there. The thought of the possibility of ticks hiding in my hair, poison ivy causing irritation to my skin, and snakes hiding in the field was not fun news to me. I freaked out (a little too much) to the extent I emailed my adviser at my school, asking to be taken back home. I was quitting and did not care. However, I knew I had to suck it up and face field camp after I had talked to my adviser. I was always on guard every second of my time in the field. DEET spray


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was my best friend. I would spray it all over me and would lit- erally spray every rock before I sat down on it. My colleagues found that funny every time, but I did not. We had the highest percentage of snakes in the field compared to other field camp groups over the years, according to our facilitator. From the start, it was always one girl who would see the snakes out in the


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field (Kelli). We decided to call her R-Kelli (Rattlesnake-Kelli). Whenever there was a caution for a sighting of a snake, I would be as far from that area as the east is from the west. I was always in a flight/fight mode - my adrenalin was high, never knowing when the next snake might pop-up or where the next tick might be hiding. I was always ready to jump at the slightest move of what might look like a critter in the field (often happened to just be a falling leaf). Obviously, I really was not used to being in the outdoors. I had to learn for the first time, how to react when there is a bee around me (after I got


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I changed the title of the program from “field camp” to “death camp” after my facilitator made us go down an extremely steep slope with schist outcrops, covered with slippery pine needles. A wrong move on that hill would send you tumbling down. We also had to go through a path she calls “tick valley” (yeah, why couldn’t it be “rainbow valley”) where I also got lost. It was a nightmare standing in a field full of ticks and not finding my way out. I almost threw a tantrum in the field that day. Aside from battling critters, I was having some trouble map- ping since I had not had much exposure to structural geology out in the field. As mapping continued, however, I started to understand a lot of things out in the field which were previ- ously abstract to me.


On the bright side of things, I enjoyed the one week of field trips where we visited places like Devils Tower, Powder River Basin, Big Horn Basin, Yellowstone National Park, and the Grand Tetons National Park. I got to see a lot of fascinating scenery. Yellowstone was exceptionally beautiful, from the hot springs to the buffalos, grizzly bears, elk, moose, and many other beautiful animals. I enjoyed this week the most because it helped us all bond together a little more as a group around the camp fires at the campgrounds. My favorite memory of


Jan.Feb.Mar 2019 • TPG 19


chased by a bumble bee at Mt. Rushmore, who was after my chips). It was quite embarrassing screaming for help in front of everybody. At this point, my colleagues started wondering why I am from Africa but could not stand the outdoors. They also wondered why I was extremely sensitive to the sun and would easily get headaches after being in the sun for at most 2 hours for someone coming from a continent which is mostly warm. I realized the numerous misconceptions they had about my home and took it upon myself to school them to the best of my knowledge about Ghana and Africa as a whole. I had to tell them, “No, I do not have a pet bear or lion.” I have in fact, never seen an elephant in my entire life, and I am from Africa. Go figure, pretty ironic right? I do not live in trees but lived in a city (with no forests) my whole life. Most of all, it is actually warmer here in the U.S. during the summer than in Ghana because it is more humid here. As such, I cannot stand excessive heat.


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