Ok so Im actually writing this blog from the center (where we take Kiswahili class) in Bangata! (And I've also updated it today and during the past week, so sorry for any tense confusion, etc. ) I’m currently procrastinating from the 3 papers I have to write, but atleast there is no internet so that’s good. This week is I guess what we could call midterm week, aka hell week in our opinions. We have a 10 page paper, a 5 page paper, and another 3 page paper to write, plus a flow chart and map of Bangata to produce by Monday, when we leave for our second safari in Mazumbai forest. Needless to say, we are quite busy. Its also hard because not that many of us have electricity in our homestay, so our working hours are restricted from 1pm (when we are done with Kiswahili) until 6pm ish when we go home. Its really nice having our computers though….I stupidly forgot to bring physical pictures for my family to see but I got to show them a ton from my computer. I also played Shakira’s “Waka Waka” song for my brothers and we all danced together. Basically all my mama kept saying was how tall Taylor was in comparison to me when looking through the pictures :) And then later I watched Shrek in my room.
Oooh I forgot to blog about our last day in Arusha, this past Saturday night/Sunday. Saturday night was SO fun. A group of about 12 of us went out to a club called Maasai Camp, which is a pretty popular club in Arusha. There was a ton of white expatriates there, Europeans, and a lot of Tanzanians. They played awesome music, which mostly consisted of Tanzanian hiphop (or something like that) with some random Bob Marley and Shakira sprinkled in. It was pretty cheap too, only a 5000 Tsh cover charge, which is about 3 US dollars. We stayed out until 1:30 or so and I slept in until 9:30, which is the latest I’ve slept here! We spent the rest of the day on the internet and just hanging out at Klub Afriko, where we are staying. I did some laundry (I’m getting a lot better at handwashing! Our bathtub water was brown though after our safari in Tarangire) and read my book. Most of the things in Arusha were closed because it was Sunday so there wasn’t too much to do.
I had probably one of the most nauseating car rides of my life back to Bangata that Sunday evening. First of all we all looked like homeless people because all of us students had our huge backpacks on and we were hiking along the highway for a while until we found a van to pick us up. I had my huge backpack on my back, with my small one on the front.The dala-dala that picked us up had a big flat screen tv in it, which was about 3 inches from my face. Combined with a bass that was SO loud, plus being crammed in with 16 other people led to an interesting experience. I was VERY ready to get out by the end! I got back to my homestay and sadly found out my mama was still pretty sick with malaria….she actually seemed worse than when I saw her a week ago….and then later I found out she had typhoid too. L Again, I feel so helpless because I can’t really do much around the house, but I helped clean up after dinner and do some dishes. I was really happy to see my brothers again though; I absolutely love them. Its going to be really weird to leave them this Saturday; I’ll probably feel like I’m just going on safari for a week again. But hopefully I will get a chance to visit them again before I leave for good.
Otherwise, this semester is flying by, and its seriously starting to scare me. I remember being in Ndarakwai and thinking that homestays were so far away, and here we are, in the final 2 days of homestay. Tomorrow we have our homestay party….all of our mama’s made us dresses to wear and we made a skit for them. I’m so excited to see my dress…all of us have gotten measured by seamstresses but none of us know what the fabric looks like.
Today we also finished Kiswahili class! We had our midterm today, where we had 10 minutes of speaking alone with 2 of our teachers. It was a bit nerve-wracking but I think I did fine. We had to tell about our families in America, what they did, how old they were etc. We also role-played buying and bargaining things at the market, and buying things at the post office. I was happy though because last night my brother remarked that my Swahili was getting good! I feel like even after only been here 1.5 months, my Swahili is probably just as good as my 3 years of Spanish was.
Yesterday (Friday) we had our homestay party! All of our mamas made us dresses/skirts to wear! We had lunch with everyone and then us students put on a skit and sang some songs for everyone. My brothers and mom and I watched part of the Lion King last night, until my computer died. My brothers loved it and i felt really bad that we couldnt finish it. Today we had a tearful goodbye....I really didn't think I would get attached to my family that much in a 3-week period but I did. I definitely felt that Junior and Erick were my little brothers by the end. I told them that I'd hopefully be able to visit them in December before I leave TZ for good. We were picked up by the Land Rovers again and dropped at Klub Afriko for an entirely free weekend! We're going back to Maasai Camp tonight and otherwise just going to hang out in Arusha and explore some more. Ellen and I got a bit lost today....we were in an entirely different part of the city that we didnt even know existed!
I should also probably mentioned my internet will be basically nonexistent for the next 2 months….we leave Monday for a week of safari in Mazumbai forest, then we’re on ISP prep days, then off to the Serengeti, Ngorongore crater, Maasai homestay (all on one 15 day safari), and then 28 solo days for ISP!!!!! For ISP prep days, I’m going with 4 other students to a place called Engaruka to plan out our Independent Study Projects. We have decided to do a 110km walk (80 miles approx.) through the Great Rift Valley from Mto Wa Mbu to Lake Natron. The place we are walking through is a wildlife corridor. Although we are all traveling together, we are still doing our own Independent projects. My study will be to analyze the mammals that utilize the corridor during the dry season, which we are currently in. There was the same study done last spring, so we will be able to compare our data to theirs, although our data will probably be pretty minimal to theirs, because during the wet season more mammals utilize the corridor to reach Lake natron. Some of the other students will be doing sociology projects, water usage, bird studies, and land use. The group in the spring didn’t walk all the way to Lake Natron though which we will be doing. It’ll be a lot….we’ll be traveling every other day, with one day of data collection at each campsite. The days we are traveling we are walking 8 miles minimum, when it’ll probably be 100 degrees out (it’ll be November and middle of summer here)….so it’ll most likely be a bit brutal but I’m getting SO excited to start planning it. Our ISP prep days are basically to figure out the logistics of where we’ll be camping, collecting data etc. It’s also for figuring out where we are getting water drops. From Mtu Wa Mbo to Engaruka water shouldn’t be a problem because there are little villages/towns along the way. However, from Engaruke to Lake Natron, there is absolutely nothing for 60 miles….no villages or anything. So we have to carefully plan where we’ll get a Land Rover to drop us water and supplies. I think we’re renting donkeys as well for the first part of our journey so they can carry our first 10 days of water and supplies. Our guide is a Maasai man named Onesmo whose been with us a lot throughout this semester. He speaks Kimaa (language of the Maasai) and Kiswahili so he will probably be doing a lot of translating for us. He knows the area like the back of his hand though, which will be very needed once we pass Engaruka. Other students in my SIT group are staying in Mazumbai to study monkeys, going to Tanga to study coastal ecology, or going to Lake Natron to study how the Maasai build bomas, etc.
When we get back from Mazumbai in a week I think I’ll have one day in Arusha to update this and then I’ll be out on ISP prep, so expect a long entry next week.
Kwa herini!
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