Goats on a bus and goats in the hotelini!

oh my. ISP prep days to Engaruka was QUITE the adventure! Last time I blogged I was sitting in Mto Wa Mbu, which was our halfway point to Engaruka from Arusha. We were supposed to be waiting for one of our guides Elvis, who we thought was right behind us, but he called and there was a mixup and he was still in Arusha. We had a couple hours to kill so we went back to the campsite we were at a couple weeks earlier (the one with the pool) and took a nap for a bit. We finally met up with Elvis and then found out the bus we had reserved seats for to Engaruka wasnt actually going to Engaruka. We did find the right bus eventually...it was bright blue and covered in dolphins...and about 20 people over capacity. We managed to get seats somehow and then set off for Engaruka. I was squished in next to one of the girls on my trip, and some random dude was sitting on my headrest with his legs completely over me...he also was eating a banana that kept dropping on my neck. So my head was essentially in his crotch for the good 3 hours it took to get to Engaruka..not too fun. And I have realized after being squished on dala-dalas and buses here that nothing pushes my buttons more than being hot and crowded. There was a small moment where i almost had a panic attack because I wanted nothing more than to get off the damn dolphin bus! There were some pretty rank smells too, not gunna lie. We made it though. However, we were told that there were guest houses in Engaruka....no such things exist. Engaruka is in the middle of Maasai land, so it only consists of bomas (maasai houses) and some small dukas (shops). There was one campsite however, which is where we ended up staying. None of us had anything for camping with us though (I only had my small daypack for the week) so we rented some wall tent (a bit smelly) and they put some random sleeping pads in there and we all crashed. I used my kangas (large pieces of cloth we use as skirts) as a pillow and blanket and then fell asleep :)
The next morning I woke up to the death scream of a cow, and sure enough when we went for breakfast (fresh chapati and chai with milk!) there was a cow being hacked apart with an ax. After brekky, we went for a 4 hour walk and our guides Elvis and Onesmo gave us the history of Engaruka etc. Onesmo is Maasai and lives in Engaruka and Elvis is Chagga (one of the many ethnic groups in TZ). Both of them we know really well because they've come on safari with us. By 11am it was probably 100 degrees out so we had a little siesta in our tent and then spent the afternoon planning the logistics for our 20 day walk in November. We also got to visit Onesmo's boma which was cool because he had like 40 goats so of course I was super happy and was playing with all the little babies...they were super small, about the size of a cat! I have pictures that I can put up later.
Honestly, I'm a little worried that physically I wont be able to handle the heat. It only got hotter as the day went on, and during ISP we'd be walking atleast 5 miles a day in that sort of heat doing transects, plus we'd be camping so theres not really a way to escape it either. So i'm having second thoughts about my choice but I'm going to talk to my academic director and just see what he thinks.
Anyways, on Wednesday we took the same dolphin bus (not as crowded this time) to Solela, which was about 30km away. Along the way we picked up a lot of Maasai and their goats, which were then loaded into the metal luggage compartment beneath us :) Solela is another stopping point on our walk so we decided to check out the landscape there as well. We had breakfast there in a little hotelini (restaurant) that served chai and chapati and while we were eating a little baby goat about 1 week old just wanders in the hotelini and starts eating off the floor. Cutest thing ever. We took a walk after breakfast for a couple hours, walking through the shambas (farms) and down to the forest where the water supply was. Some Maasai women were loading up their donkeys with water and lots of kids were herding sheep and goats and cattle. Surprisingly, there were a fair amount of Maasai walking around with brightly colored umbrellas which was quite entertaining.
We left Solela that afternoon and caught a dala dala back to Mto Wa Mbu where we met up with some of our SIT grop. Team Engaruka (there are 4 of us including me) all basically had heatstroke (so nauseous) and were exhausted so I watched some Lord of the Rings on my friends computer and crashed at 9pm.
Right now I'm back in Arusha. We woke up and caught a dala-dala back this morning. There was a nice Maasai man in our dala-dala who offered to give Elvis 10 cows if he could marry me..I politely declined. It was awkward. I did wave goodbye to my husband once we were dropped off though :)
So we have 2 days here in Arusha until we leave for SERENGETI!!!!!!!!!! Its our final 15 day safari. We go to Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, and a 4 day homestay with the Maasai! I'm so excited. Will report back in about 2 weeks!!!!! Baadaye!