So I'm back in Arusha with the rest of my program! Megan and I were sad to leave Ndarakwai...she's going back for two days with her dad in December, but I really don't know the next time I'll be able to go back. I posted quite a few pictures on my facebook for those of you wondering what Ndarakwai looks like! Two nights before we left it was a full moon and there was a picture perfect view of Kilimanjaro in the background...sadly I didn't have my camera with me but it was beautiful.
Anyways, all of us wanafunzi are back writing our papers and finishing the last portion of our program! We have two weeks in Arusha to write our papers and prepare for our final presentations on our ISPs. It was fun hearing everyones stories from ISP...we had 5 students in Lake Natron (where we did our Maasai homestay) and they sounded like they had quite the interesting time...they got chased by a buffalo, walked 30km after being stranded, and hiked Oldonyo Lengai, an active volcano. I told them I watched a lot of zebra... :)
Last night our group went out for Thanksgiving dinner at a Chinese restaurant! Some of the fancy hotels here did Thanksgiving dinner but they were all booked up so Chinese was obviously the next logical option. After dinner we went to a club called ViaVia and celebrated with all the other wazungu (white people) in Arusha. We were all dancing when all of a sudden I look over and see Sula Willson, who I went to high school with! I knew she was in Arusha and was planning on meeting her later in the week, but had NO idea she was going to be out that night! It was awesome...its SO weird seeing someone from home, and so we were kind of screaming and hugging all over the place. She was with her Lewis and Clark group so we all ended up dancing together. Good way to spend Thanksgiving. It was also funny because a year ago on Thanksgiving, I was upstate New York with Ellen Whalen and her family, and a year later we were together again in Tanzania! Kind of crazy.
So that basically sums up the last couple days in Arusha. I'm trying to get a lot of things accomplished these next two weeks....Besides my 30pg paper and presentation, I'm trying to go to all the local shops and restaurants that I've been meaning to go to for awhile. I don't wanna leave Arusha wishing I had visited more places. December 8 our program ends, and then Ellen and I and some other SIT students are off to hit up the beaches of Zanzibar on the Indian Ocean for a week!
Time to stop blogging, stop playing solitaire (its really amazing how much Solitaire you can play when you dont have internet) and write my paper!
Baadye!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
pundamilia, nyoka, na tembo!
As I sit here in my tent writing this blog, it is absolutely pouring outside. My little tent has held up well, considering it gets hammered with rain day after day! I’ve had a scorpion lurking outside my tent for the past couple days as well. I woke up the other night to a scratching sound on the side of my tent, and had no idea what it was. But sure enough, when I shined my light on the side, a scorpion was unsuccessfully trying to crawl up the side. Wtf. The scorpions here won’t kill you, but will ensure you 3 days of extreme pain on the extremity that was bitten.
Megan and I have now been at Ndarakwai for 11 days! We actually head back to Arusha in one week (at the time I wrote this entry). The last 11 days have been awesome, although Megan and I were both sick for a bit. I had the most ridiculous head cold/sinus issues, but poor Megan had food poisoning from sharing food with her askaris. Its not exactly that fun being sick while camping…you cant go anywhere and basically have to sit and be a bit miserable. We both skipped data collection for the day, but I was able to go out the next day. I was worried for a while, there were 3 days where my askari and I did SO much walking trying to find the zebra, who seemed to have just disappeared from Ndarakwai. Every morning we would set off and for 2 hours straight we would just walk, trying to find the zebra, finally finding two or three right before we had to head back for lunch. And even though they are striped, they somehow manage to blend in extremely well!
Our way was also hindered by the presence of a massive bull elephant in “musth” which is like heat for male elephants. You do NOT want to mess with an elephant in musth. They will charge you/do other unpleasant things to you. So we had to take a couple detours over the course of those couple days. However, we also did see a little baby elephant that must have just been born..it was sooo small…about the size of a very small pony! The last couple days I’ve gotten lucky though…although its been pouring on us everyday, the rain has been good because everything is turning green, and so the zebra are collecting in a small valley that has really green lush grass. This morning there were over 60 zebra, which is the most I’ve seen at once. Most days, I follow a herd of 8 or less around. They’ve also been running away from me less and less which is fantastic, because I’m able to sit on top of a termite mound for a couple hours and get quality scans done.
Yesterday was quite the exciting day for Megan and I. I had gotten back to camp earlier than her for lunch and was sitting chatting with my askari when one of the girls who lives at the house, Nuru, screams “nyoka,” which is “snake” in Kiswahili. And sure enough, in our toilet (which is a tin shack with a concrete floor and hole in the ground ) a bright green snake comes slithering out and starts to rise up like its about to strike. I’m practically peeing my pants by this point, but my askari, Meyshack, goes over and whacks it on the head with his stick a couple times and kills it. Turns out, it was a green mamba, which are super poisonous (related to the black mamba), and I was more scared than anything because I had been in the bathroom about 10 minutes prior, probably peeing on this snake who was I’m sure was not very happy. And then, I had to take a shower afterwards in the shower stall, which is right next to the bathroom (another concrete room) out of my little bucket, and of course I’m spazzing out about there being another snake in there, which of course there wasn’t, but it still wasn’t a very pleasant shower experience. I normally look forward to my little bucket of water every 3 days!
After the lovely green mamba experience Megan and I took the afternoon off of data collection to go visit our cook crew and all the drivers who had been with us all semester! They were cooking for another student group from Earlham College and Miami University of Ohio, and we lucked out that they were here when we were! All of them were camped at Casablanca, which is where I was for orientation when we got here in August. It was so great to see them all again, and they were so wonderful to us. They gave us chai and biscuits and Megan and I were so happy because it was like being on safari again. We chatted with them for awhile and helped chop up some onions, and then went over to visit the other wanafunzi (students). We introduced ourselves and talked about our trips a lot. Their program is essentially the same thing as ours, except they go to Kenya as well. One of the boys actually knew a girl on our trip too. We hung out there for a while drinking wine and playing dice with them, and are going back this Sunday for one of their birthdays! Megan and I were so excited because its just been the two of us for the past couple weeks and it was fun to see other students and talk with them. The cook crew wouldn’t let us leave without having a bowl of their delicious onion soup and then gave us some oranges for the road. Its weird to see “our” cook crew and drivers with another student group, but I know they are hired out a lot. As Megan and I were walking back with an askari who was escorting us back to camp, the sun was going down and it was warm and it was just one of those moments where I thought “life is fantastic right now.” :)
Will update again when I get back to Arusha in a couple days!
Megan and I have now been at Ndarakwai for 11 days! We actually head back to Arusha in one week (at the time I wrote this entry). The last 11 days have been awesome, although Megan and I were both sick for a bit. I had the most ridiculous head cold/sinus issues, but poor Megan had food poisoning from sharing food with her askaris. Its not exactly that fun being sick while camping…you cant go anywhere and basically have to sit and be a bit miserable. We both skipped data collection for the day, but I was able to go out the next day. I was worried for a while, there were 3 days where my askari and I did SO much walking trying to find the zebra, who seemed to have just disappeared from Ndarakwai. Every morning we would set off and for 2 hours straight we would just walk, trying to find the zebra, finally finding two or three right before we had to head back for lunch. And even though they are striped, they somehow manage to blend in extremely well!
Our way was also hindered by the presence of a massive bull elephant in “musth” which is like heat for male elephants. You do NOT want to mess with an elephant in musth. They will charge you/do other unpleasant things to you. So we had to take a couple detours over the course of those couple days. However, we also did see a little baby elephant that must have just been born..it was sooo small…about the size of a very small pony! The last couple days I’ve gotten lucky though…although its been pouring on us everyday, the rain has been good because everything is turning green, and so the zebra are collecting in a small valley that has really green lush grass. This morning there were over 60 zebra, which is the most I’ve seen at once. Most days, I follow a herd of 8 or less around. They’ve also been running away from me less and less which is fantastic, because I’m able to sit on top of a termite mound for a couple hours and get quality scans done.
Yesterday was quite the exciting day for Megan and I. I had gotten back to camp earlier than her for lunch and was sitting chatting with my askari when one of the girls who lives at the house, Nuru, screams “nyoka,” which is “snake” in Kiswahili. And sure enough, in our toilet (which is a tin shack with a concrete floor and hole in the ground ) a bright green snake comes slithering out and starts to rise up like its about to strike. I’m practically peeing my pants by this point, but my askari, Meyshack, goes over and whacks it on the head with his stick a couple times and kills it. Turns out, it was a green mamba, which are super poisonous (related to the black mamba), and I was more scared than anything because I had been in the bathroom about 10 minutes prior, probably peeing on this snake who was I’m sure was not very happy. And then, I had to take a shower afterwards in the shower stall, which is right next to the bathroom (another concrete room) out of my little bucket, and of course I’m spazzing out about there being another snake in there, which of course there wasn’t, but it still wasn’t a very pleasant shower experience. I normally look forward to my little bucket of water every 3 days!
After the lovely green mamba experience Megan and I took the afternoon off of data collection to go visit our cook crew and all the drivers who had been with us all semester! They were cooking for another student group from Earlham College and Miami University of Ohio, and we lucked out that they were here when we were! All of them were camped at Casablanca, which is where I was for orientation when we got here in August. It was so great to see them all again, and they were so wonderful to us. They gave us chai and biscuits and Megan and I were so happy because it was like being on safari again. We chatted with them for awhile and helped chop up some onions, and then went over to visit the other wanafunzi (students). We introduced ourselves and talked about our trips a lot. Their program is essentially the same thing as ours, except they go to Kenya as well. One of the boys actually knew a girl on our trip too. We hung out there for a while drinking wine and playing dice with them, and are going back this Sunday for one of their birthdays! Megan and I were so excited because its just been the two of us for the past couple weeks and it was fun to see other students and talk with them. The cook crew wouldn’t let us leave without having a bowl of their delicious onion soup and then gave us some oranges for the road. Its weird to see “our” cook crew and drivers with another student group, but I know they are hired out a lot. As Megan and I were walking back with an askari who was escorting us back to camp, the sun was going down and it was warm and it was just one of those moments where I thought “life is fantastic right now.” :)
Will update again when I get back to Arusha in a couple days!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
back at Ndarakwai!
Well, Megan and I arrived in Ndarakwai 2 days ago! We took a combination of buses, dala-dalas, and a taxi to get here. There were definitely times I was worried for the safety of my bag, as it was just shoved in the back of a dala-dala (van) and the back was tied down with rope. But no worries, everything made it! Which is a bit of a miracle, considering Megan and I have SO much stuff. We have all of our camping gear plus food for a couple days. My pack may have weighed 60 lbs…a bit ridiculous.
I’m writing this blog on my first day of data collection, which was today. I don’t know when I’ll be able to post this, so sorry for any tense confusion!
As I said, today was my first day. I met with my hired askari who was to be my guard, and off we went in search of pundamilia! I was scared we weren’t going to find any because they have all dispersed now that the short rains have come, but we were able to find some within 45 minutes. It was a small herd of 6 (one stallion, 5 females), that I proceeded to follow for the next 2.5 hours before I lost sight of them in the woodland. I think I may have walked around 7 miles today, but thankfully it was overcast and not too hot. I love it here though…its beautiful at this time of year and really quiet and peaceful. We then got caught in what they call “the short rains” on the walk back to camp, but I like to think of it more as a torrential downpour because I looked like a drowned rat when I got back. Megan and I are camping at the assistant manager’s house with our tents and thankfully everything stayed dry, because my computer was in there!
My last couple days of data collection have gone well, but its really hard to track wild zebra! I usually meet my askari at 8am and we track zebra until 1pm when we come back for lunch, and then I usually go out again from 2-4pm. I’ve been getting better at figuring out what habitat types they prefer and where they are usually hanging out. Long hot days, but its worth it…the other day I was sooo lucky and was able to sit in the treehouse and watch as 40 zebra came and drank from the watering hole! Its been hard to find them because the short rains have started, so they don’t often come to the watering hole anymore, as other water sources are now more prevalent. My askari is awesome though. His name is Masha, and he doesn’t speak any English, but we manage to actually have conversations, and he teaches me all the names of the mountains and hills nearby and then quizzes me on them. He must also have amazing eyesight because he can spot zebra from about 800m away that are tucked behind trees…don’t know how he does it, but I’m lucky to have him! He mostly naps on a rock while I take data except there have been numerous times I have had to interrupt him and say ummm…pundamilia wanakimbia!! Which means, um..the zebra are all running away! So then we proceed to run after them for the next hour until they settle down and I can start data collection again. And I really need to start asking him which zebra is the stallion BEFORE I start collecting data because today I was able to do 2 hours worth of scans on a herd I had found and then 2 hours later he says something about the stallion and points…and its definitely not the zebra that I had identified. Probably going to have some skewed data considering I completely misidentified the stallion. (in my defense, its harder than you think! I’m looking through binoculars half the time). Woops.
Anyways, that’s what Megan and I are up to! Probably should mention that she is studying 2 orphaned elephants here, named Enkarsis and Riziki. I actually got the privilege to meet both elephants today…I was walking with my askari and Enkarsis came barging over and shoved her trunk in my face! I blew air into her trunk (apparently they like that) and held her trunk for a while. It was awesome…kind of scary as well though because Enkarsis is big and her trunk was rummaging around my hair and head. Although they are orphaned elephants, they are not kept in a pen or anything like that. They have handlers, but are allowed to associate with other wild elephants when they want and such. Anyways, it was a cool experience and I really hope to get pictures with them before I leave!
I somehow also managed to get a raging head cold my second day here…not sure how that happened because im in the middle of the African bush and its 95 F out every day but of course it happened to me.
Besides data collection, Megan and I have just been hanging out and doing lots and lots of reading! I already finished one book after being here for just 4 days. I read “The Life of Pi.” For anyone who hasn’t read it, I highly recommend it…it was a fantastic book. Good thing I have a couple more books to keep me entertained for the next 2 weeks! Megan and I have been well taken care of since we have been here…the assistant manager has a maid named Bahati who is our age but takes care of us like we are her children! She makes us this delicious ginger tea about 5 times a day, cooks all of our meals, and even washes our clothes! I swear my clothes have not been that clean since I have arrived here…I don’t know how she does it because they’re just washed in a bucket! I mentioned earlier that Megan and I are allowed to use the tented camp’s electricity/internet and the staff there are so nice to us as well. A couple of them are around my age so we have lots of fun just talking with them and practicing Kiswahili. We actually met a Tanzanian and his Belgian colleague yesterday in reception who were leading a birding tour and were chatting with them and they nicely bought Megan and I cokes and beer! I swear to god every single person we meet here is so genuinely friendly and interested in what we are doing. It was also funny because they had been up in Mazumbai Forest the day before (about a 7 hr drive from Ndarakwai) and had met Ellie and Ellen, 2 other girls on my program who are up there studying monkeys! They had stayed with them at the Swiss chalet and eaten dinner together. Small world, especially since Mazumbai is not a huge tourist destination (it only attracts about 100 visitors a year) and it is not close to Ndarakwai at all.
Gotta go, huge storm coming in and when it rains here it absolutely POURS. :)
I’m writing this blog on my first day of data collection, which was today. I don’t know when I’ll be able to post this, so sorry for any tense confusion!
As I said, today was my first day. I met with my hired askari who was to be my guard, and off we went in search of pundamilia! I was scared we weren’t going to find any because they have all dispersed now that the short rains have come, but we were able to find some within 45 minutes. It was a small herd of 6 (one stallion, 5 females), that I proceeded to follow for the next 2.5 hours before I lost sight of them in the woodland. I think I may have walked around 7 miles today, but thankfully it was overcast and not too hot. I love it here though…its beautiful at this time of year and really quiet and peaceful. We then got caught in what they call “the short rains” on the walk back to camp, but I like to think of it more as a torrential downpour because I looked like a drowned rat when I got back. Megan and I are camping at the assistant manager’s house with our tents and thankfully everything stayed dry, because my computer was in there!
My last couple days of data collection have gone well, but its really hard to track wild zebra! I usually meet my askari at 8am and we track zebra until 1pm when we come back for lunch, and then I usually go out again from 2-4pm. I’ve been getting better at figuring out what habitat types they prefer and where they are usually hanging out. Long hot days, but its worth it…the other day I was sooo lucky and was able to sit in the treehouse and watch as 40 zebra came and drank from the watering hole! Its been hard to find them because the short rains have started, so they don’t often come to the watering hole anymore, as other water sources are now more prevalent. My askari is awesome though. His name is Masha, and he doesn’t speak any English, but we manage to actually have conversations, and he teaches me all the names of the mountains and hills nearby and then quizzes me on them. He must also have amazing eyesight because he can spot zebra from about 800m away that are tucked behind trees…don’t know how he does it, but I’m lucky to have him! He mostly naps on a rock while I take data except there have been numerous times I have had to interrupt him and say ummm…pundamilia wanakimbia!! Which means, um..the zebra are all running away! So then we proceed to run after them for the next hour until they settle down and I can start data collection again. And I really need to start asking him which zebra is the stallion BEFORE I start collecting data because today I was able to do 2 hours worth of scans on a herd I had found and then 2 hours later he says something about the stallion and points…and its definitely not the zebra that I had identified. Probably going to have some skewed data considering I completely misidentified the stallion. (in my defense, its harder than you think! I’m looking through binoculars half the time). Woops.
Anyways, that’s what Megan and I are up to! Probably should mention that she is studying 2 orphaned elephants here, named Enkarsis and Riziki. I actually got the privilege to meet both elephants today…I was walking with my askari and Enkarsis came barging over and shoved her trunk in my face! I blew air into her trunk (apparently they like that) and held her trunk for a while. It was awesome…kind of scary as well though because Enkarsis is big and her trunk was rummaging around my hair and head. Although they are orphaned elephants, they are not kept in a pen or anything like that. They have handlers, but are allowed to associate with other wild elephants when they want and such. Anyways, it was a cool experience and I really hope to get pictures with them before I leave!
I somehow also managed to get a raging head cold my second day here…not sure how that happened because im in the middle of the African bush and its 95 F out every day but of course it happened to me.
Besides data collection, Megan and I have just been hanging out and doing lots and lots of reading! I already finished one book after being here for just 4 days. I read “The Life of Pi.” For anyone who hasn’t read it, I highly recommend it…it was a fantastic book. Good thing I have a couple more books to keep me entertained for the next 2 weeks! Megan and I have been well taken care of since we have been here…the assistant manager has a maid named Bahati who is our age but takes care of us like we are her children! She makes us this delicious ginger tea about 5 times a day, cooks all of our meals, and even washes our clothes! I swear my clothes have not been that clean since I have arrived here…I don’t know how she does it because they’re just washed in a bucket! I mentioned earlier that Megan and I are allowed to use the tented camp’s electricity/internet and the staff there are so nice to us as well. A couple of them are around my age so we have lots of fun just talking with them and practicing Kiswahili. We actually met a Tanzanian and his Belgian colleague yesterday in reception who were leading a birding tour and were chatting with them and they nicely bought Megan and I cokes and beer! I swear to god every single person we meet here is so genuinely friendly and interested in what we are doing. It was also funny because they had been up in Mazumbai Forest the day before (about a 7 hr drive from Ndarakwai) and had met Ellie and Ellen, 2 other girls on my program who are up there studying monkeys! They had stayed with them at the Swiss chalet and eaten dinner together. Small world, especially since Mazumbai is not a huge tourist destination (it only attracts about 100 visitors a year) and it is not close to Ndarakwai at all.
Gotta go, huge storm coming in and when it rains here it absolutely POURS. :)
Monday, November 1, 2010
hanging in Arusha
Its nutso right now in Arusha. The elections just happened, and Chadema (the opposition party and the underdog) just won Arusha! People are rioting in the streets, but its happy rioting. We were a little worried earlier because people were burning pictures of Kikwete (the current prez, and whose party CCM will definitely win this election) and so we thought they might bring the army out but luckily that didn’t happen. Final election results will come out in the next couple days, but it’s a given that CCM will win. But given whats been happening today, I’m def just going downstairs to get some chakula cha jioni (dinner) instead of going outside.
Anyways, that’s whats been happening here in arusha right now. All of us wanafunzi (students) are busy writing our final ISP proposals and gearing up to be on our own for the next month! We also have presentations on our data we collected in Serengeti. I talked to Peter Jones, the owner of Ndarakwai Ranch, today and I’m a little worried. The short rains have just started in Tanzania, so the zebra have been dispersing away from their permanent water source now that new ones are cropping up. I’m a little worried that it’ll be hard to find the zebra but I’m keeping my hopes up! I’m hiring a guard (called an askari) that carry a giant gun to basically protect me from black mambas and giant ACBs (African Cape Buffalo!) but they’re also a really valuable resource as well because they know the land so well, so I’m banking that he can help me find myself some pundamilia (zebra). Also a good way to practice my Swahili. Black mambas will literally CHASE you out of their territory and they can run faster than a human. PLUS they’re the deadliest snake in the world. Hell no am I going to go trekking through the bush trying to find zebras by myself.
…Um…what else…me and another student Megan will be camping at the assistant managers house for the 20 days we’re out there. We hired a cook for our stay…otherwise we’re on our own for data collection and running statistical tests and all that! Oh and megan and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving out in the bush, which is sad, because I would kill for a turkey sandwich right about now. Preferably on a bagel. With veggies. And herb cream cheese…
On a sadder note, this semester has been flying by….I’m sad to leave the group for a month! It is crazy to think we JUST have ISP yet…I remember being at Ndarakwai for Orientation and talking about ISP…I guess I’m coming full circle because I’m headed back there! I’m currently attempting to buy myself a ticket to Spain with Ellen after the program but we’ll see if that works out….otherwise I’ll be hitting up Zanzibar (island off of Tanzania on the Indian Ocean!) for 6 days after the program for some quality beach time with Ellen and Sula. There is another girl from Bucknell on the SIT Zanzibar program so we’re hoping to meet up there as well. And then its either off to Amsterdam or Alicante, Spain for a couple days before heading back to the snowy valley for Christmas!
Probably getting a little ahead of myself right now….Baadye!
Anyways, that’s whats been happening here in arusha right now. All of us wanafunzi (students) are busy writing our final ISP proposals and gearing up to be on our own for the next month! We also have presentations on our data we collected in Serengeti. I talked to Peter Jones, the owner of Ndarakwai Ranch, today and I’m a little worried. The short rains have just started in Tanzania, so the zebra have been dispersing away from their permanent water source now that new ones are cropping up. I’m a little worried that it’ll be hard to find the zebra but I’m keeping my hopes up! I’m hiring a guard (called an askari) that carry a giant gun to basically protect me from black mambas and giant ACBs (African Cape Buffalo!) but they’re also a really valuable resource as well because they know the land so well, so I’m banking that he can help me find myself some pundamilia (zebra). Also a good way to practice my Swahili. Black mambas will literally CHASE you out of their territory and they can run faster than a human. PLUS they’re the deadliest snake in the world. Hell no am I going to go trekking through the bush trying to find zebras by myself.
…Um…what else…me and another student Megan will be camping at the assistant managers house for the 20 days we’re out there. We hired a cook for our stay…otherwise we’re on our own for data collection and running statistical tests and all that! Oh and megan and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving out in the bush, which is sad, because I would kill for a turkey sandwich right about now. Preferably on a bagel. With veggies. And herb cream cheese…
On a sadder note, this semester has been flying by….I’m sad to leave the group for a month! It is crazy to think we JUST have ISP yet…I remember being at Ndarakwai for Orientation and talking about ISP…I guess I’m coming full circle because I’m headed back there! I’m currently attempting to buy myself a ticket to Spain with Ellen after the program but we’ll see if that works out….otherwise I’ll be hitting up Zanzibar (island off of Tanzania on the Indian Ocean!) for 6 days after the program for some quality beach time with Ellen and Sula. There is another girl from Bucknell on the SIT Zanzibar program so we’re hoping to meet up there as well. And then its either off to Amsterdam or Alicante, Spain for a couple days before heading back to the snowy valley for Christmas!
Probably getting a little ahead of myself right now….Baadye!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, and Maasai Homestay!
Just got back into Arusha today! The past 2 weeks have flown by...they were absolutely amazing but its sad to say goodbye to our last safari together. We had lots of goodbyes...to our wonderful Tanzanian colleagues, as well as our amazing camp/cook crew that made sure we all gained a couple pounds from the delicious food they cooked. We also finished our wildlife ecology part of the program, because for the next month we are scattered around Tanzania by ourselves doing our Independent Study Projects.
Ok, so I'll start with Ngorongoro Crater, which was our first stop!!! The crater was absolutely breathtaking. We were at a public campsite right on the edge of the crater and it had stunning views of the lake below. Because it is such a popular tourist spot, cars are limited to a maximum of 6 hours in the crater per day. We dropped in at about 9am and spent the day looking at wildlife, and especially hunting for the black rhino! There are only 24 left in Tanzania right now, and they only exist in the crater. Amazingly, we ended up seeing 5 of the 24 which is pretty cool! That day was also the first time I saw a male lion! All I can say is holy crap, because seeing a male lion for the first time literally took my breath away. We happened to get extremely lucky because the male (and another female) walked right in front of our Land Rover, so we were about 10 feet away! We were told they were courting, so they quickly disappeared over the hill, but I managed to snap a couple good pictures! The crater also has the highest density of predators in the world so we saw about 20 or so lions that day, along with a ton of hyenas, including one cute little guy who was napping in a pipe bed! It was extremely hot during the day down in the crater but absolutely freezing up on top...I barely slept the first night, not because I was freezing my butt off, but there are huge forest hogs that come root around our tents at night! The campsite was not fenced and the forest hogs are 3 feet high at the shoulder so they are huge! We had some zebra visitors at night as well, and I got to brush my teeth next to them while they were grazing :)
After Ngorongoro we headed to Oldupai Gorge for a stop and then off to the Serengeti!!! We had a lecture at Oldupai (commonly misspelled as OlduVai) Gorge and got to see where the first hominid fossils were found..they also had the first footprints ever found of Homo erectus. They had a cool little museum to look around as well. After Oldupai, we stopped at the Shifting Sands for a quick visit. The sands were weird....we were driving through Maasai land, where its sandy and dry and flat, and all of a sudden we come upon this enormous pile of jet black sand, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. The Maasai believe it has magic in it because over the past 20 years or so, the pile has moved in a straight line about 400 m. Even scientists can't really explain it; the winds obviously blow in all directions, yet the pile only moves in one. It was weird.
We got to Serengeti that evening and set up camp (no fences!) and set off to do reconnaissance for our study groups. My group (the non-ruminants) were going to study predator-prey dynamics of predators, mostly lions. Sure enough, within about 15 minutes, we found 6 lionesses snoozing in the grass. AND, lucky us, there happened to be a crocodile chowing down on a zebra in the river right across from the lions! Pretty damn cool to see within our first hour at Serengeti! The next 3 days we spent there collecting data. From 6am until 11am our group went lion hunting. THe first day of actual data collection we found 8 baby lions in a tree! I didn't know that much cuteness could exist...2 of the cubs were pretty tiny! The moms were nowhere in sight, because they were probably off hunting.
The afternoons we spent having student presentations and then the evenings were reserved for pure wildlife viewing! We saw tons of cheetah, leopards (which are super sneaky and like to hide in trees), lots of Thompson's gazelle, and hyenas. We were also lucky enough to see 6 lionesses that we found the first day eating a freshly killed zebra! THey had just killed it and it was so cool to be able to watch them eat. You could hear the flesh being ripped off and bones being cracked.
It was really sad to leave Serengeti after only 4 days but we were all getting excited for Maasai homestay.
We left Serengeti and stopped at the hippo pool on our way out which was awesome, but really smelly. There were about 50 hippos in a pool, basically lying in their own poop. There were also a couple crocs as well! The hippos are MASSIVE. You wouldnt think it looking at them, but they can run faster than humans on land, and they weigh as much as a Land Rover. Don't mess with the hippos.
We drove through Northern Serengeti and were lucky enough to see the tip of the wildebeest migration coming down from the north and moving into the southern plains. The drive was only 100km or so but it took a while because it was pouring rain and all of the Land Rovers got completely stuck in the mud and we all had to get out and push a couple times. We spent the night at a town called Wasso that night at a guesthouse and relaxed for the evening (took my second of what would be three showers the entire 2 weeks). The next morning we headed to Lake Natron and went to the COOLEST waterfall I've ever been to. The water was really warm and out entire group ended up going skinny dipping in the falls for 2 hours.
THe next morning was the start of homestay and the begining of one of probably the hardest yet most rewarding experiences I've had thus far in TZ. We met our mamas and were taken back to the boma where we'd be living. I was fortunate enough to be randomly placed with another SIT student who was in the same boma as me, which I was INSANELY grateful for over the next couple days. We walked about 2 miles to our boma and were quickly dressed up in traditional Maasai wear. Neither of our mamas spoke any Kiswahili, only Kimaasai, so we relied a lot on other Maasai to translate for us. My Swahili actually got a lot better during homestay because I only spoke Swahili, although Sam and I spoke English to each other. I put pictures up on Facebook, but I was wearing about 3 layers of clothing and about 14 necklackes, 8 or so bracelets, a little hat thing, and some earrings. I can't even BEGIN to tell you what I smelled like after 4 days in those clothes. I never took them off...I slept in them, walked in them, and most of all, sweated in them. No joke, it was probably 100 F every day and we living in mud huts called enkaji that are made of cow dung and sticks. They are really solid though and don't have any sort of ventilation. To add to that, they always have a fire going inside to cook with, and they would feed Sam and I mugs of chai the size of my head. I'm actually surprised I didn't pass out. They also fed Sam and I the biggest bowl of rice I have ever seen. It was literally the amount you would make for a 6 person family...and they were actually shocked when I didn't finish it. The houses are really small, and they basicallly consist of 2 beds (which are sticks covered in a cowhide), some small shelves, and a fire pit. I slept inside the boma the first night and well, didn't really sleep. It was sooooo hot and I was sleeping with 4 other people on a cowhide and there was some little kid snoring up a storm, so I mostly just lied there waiting until 6am. THe next 2 nights I ended up sleeping outside with 4 other people on a cowhide on the ground. We would literally get back from the esoto and just crash. The esoto was realllyyyy cool to watch. At 10pm our sisters would take Sam and I about a mile away to a big cow pen and we would watch the warriors dance. I wish I could have taken a video but they all do this grunting sound like a lion that sounds SO COOL. THey compete to see who can jump the highest. We were watching practice esotos, but in the real deal the girls watching pick the warriors that can jump the highest, and they become lovers (I guess that is what you'd call it?). All of the girls (including me) had these MASSIVE necklaces on. It looked like I had a giant dog collar on. We were supposed to dance so they made all of your other necklaces jingle up and down but I completely failed to get mine to do that because I could barely hold my head up with all the jewelry on! Anyways, it was really fun to watch and be a part of; the singing was amazing to hear.
Physically, the work I did at homestay wasn't too hard, except for collecting firewood. Each day Sam and I went to fetch water which wasn't that far away, but it definitely took a while to get used to carrying the water...they strap it to your forehead! I probably had 20 lbs of water on my back strapped on with a giant cloth that was then tied around my forehead...quite interesting. Firewood was another story...we hiked for about 45 minutes across the river and up the escarpment (Rift Valley Wall) and chopped down wood and then again strapped it on my forehead. I was pretty proud of myself though because I had this massive bundle on my back and we had to hike down the escarpement, which was pretty steep. Except then while crossing the river I tripped on my robe and fell over into the river with my firewood still all strapped on. Giant fail.
Although Maasai homestay was one of the coolest things I've done, all of us were VERY ready to get back to camp. It doesn't seem like much, but when you havent showered in a week and its 100F out every day and you never take your clothes off it gets a bit irritating. Also Sam and were probably asked Umechoka? literally 90 times a day, which means are you tired? A nice gesture but a lot of little things added up after 4 days. Also, I woke up every morning next to the morani (the warriors) petting my hair. No joke, they liked to pet my hair all the time. A little creepy after a while...
We all had these dazed looks on our faces after we got back to camp, and everyone was so exhausted. Actually pretty entertaining looking back on it, but a lot of us were pretty cranky at the time. It was cool to see everyone else dressed up though. That evening we slaughtered a goat as a celebration. I didn't know if I would be able to watch but it wasn't actually that bad. They strangle the goat so that all the blood stays in. And then (and I still can't believe I did this), once the goat was skinned and cut open, we all drank some of the blood straight out of the body cavity. It really wasn't as bad as you would think. Then we also all ate part of its kidney raw, right after they cut it out. This sounds absolutely disgusting as I'm writing this now but it was super cool and I was proud of myself that I did it!
We had a free day in Lake Natron the day after homestay to hike to more waterfalls or just hang out at camp by the river. There were seven of us however, that decided to try a "Maasai cleansing tea," which pretty much cleanses your body of everything. The entire camp crew and our academic directors had done it when we were at homestay, and you basically rid your body of everything in it. It sounded kind of cool so we gave it a try. The tea tasted absolutely horrible and we had to chug it. Within 15 minutes though all of us were basically doubled over in pain...and i won't go into too much detail here, but lets just say i've never thrown up that much in my entire life. It takes about 6 hours to pass so by that afternoon I was good to go and ate a nice lunch and took a nap.
So that basically sums up my past 2 weeks here in Tanzania...sorry for the novel I just wrote, but a lot has happened! We're all back in Arusha now for a week, having finals week. We have our final ISP proposals due, and set off for ISP this friday! I'm going with one other student to Ndarakwai, but its going to be weird to not be with the group for a month. The 24 of us have all gotten so close.
And for all you valley people who know Sula Willson, we're meeting up at the end of November as well! She's going to be in Arusha for 3 weeks. She's actually currently in Serengeti and is on her way to Lake Natron for her Maasai homestay! We just missed each other by a couple days.
Alright, time to stop procrastinating and start my papers....
Saturday, October 16, 2010
SERENGETI TIME!
I've realized this is the most I've blogged the entire time I've been in this beautiful country, but its ok because for the next 2 weeks I'll be off the grid completely! No internet or cell service for 2 weeks! I'm so freaking excited I could pee my pants though...this safari is what I basically came to Tanzania for. Its definitely going to be bittersweet though; it's our last safari as a group and with all the wonderful Tanzanian teachers we have gotten to know.
Over the next 15 days we will be in 3 different places. The first stop is Ngorongoro Crater, which is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. I highly recommend googling it. It also has the highest density of predators in the entire world! We are camping right on the rim of the crater, which I'm sure will have spectacular views. Ngorongoro also contains the only rhinos that Tanzania has, and there are only 24 of them....we only spend 1.5 days in the crater so our goal is to find a rhino!
From the crater we travel to the SERENGETI!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll be there for 4 days and we pick back up with out study groups from Tarangire (I'm in the non-ruminant group, which includes lions). We formulated study questions and will carry out our mini-research projects here in the morning, and spend the afternoons being tourists and taking pictures of the lions. OH, they also have crocodiles there, which i'm super stoked about because I'm obsessed with them.
Most people think of Serengeti as mostly grassland, but our AD told us today that in reality only 20% of the total area is grassland; the rest is a woodland. So once we leave Serengeti we drive up north through Serengeti (basically coming up on the border of Kenya at one point) , stay one night at a guesthouse in a town called Wasso, and through the woodland down into Maasai land!
The final part of our safari is a 4-day homestay with the Maasai! I dont even know what to expect for this...it's going to be crazy. Our AD basically told us to see and explore as much as we can! He pretty much told us, if a goat is being slaughtered, go watch it. If theres a circumcision ceremony happening, celebrate with everyone (circumcision, both male and female, is a HUGE part of life in the Maasai and is the reason for many celebrations).
I'm a little jealous of the boys in our group though...they get to spend the time with the warriors and herd goats all day!
We are only allowed to bring a toothbrush and headlamp because apparently we dont really wear clothes either...our mamas will dress us in full maasai clothing that we'll wear for the entirety of our stay.
Oh, I definitely think the most interesting part of our homestay will be WHERE we stay. The Maasai live in bomas (which we've been in before) that are about the size of an average bedroom, but they're completely circular. And there is ONE bed. So yup, we'll all be sleeping with our mamas and siblings in one cowhide bed in a boma. I'm just honestly praying that I dont get crapped on by a baby in the middle of the night because apparently that has been known to happen... :)
They also slaughter a goat for us at the end of homestay, and then we are all apparently supposed to drink some weird goat soup with some herbs and then they pass around the liver and kidneys and then they drink the blood......I could have some issues with this part....
So thats basically what I'll be up to for the next 2 weeks...stalking some rhino, collecting data on lions, pretending I'm Maasai, and eating goat soup (maybe)!
I spent the majority of yesterday and today planning out my new ISP...the ecological walk actually completely fell apart because of budget issues and logistics, so we all had to come up with new ideas. I am now going back to Ndarakwai Ranch (where I was for orientation) to study the social behavior of a group of resident zebra. I'm really excited for this, and I definitely feel like I made the right choice switching my study.
Will report back in 2 weeks about the safari!
woops...editing this post about an hour later...also forgot..we're going to Olduvai Gorge as well! Its in the east Serengeti plains. I dont really know that much about it but apparently some really old humans were found there by the Leakys....i think. it apparently established the african origin of humankind. idk im sure I'll know more in 2 weeks!
Over the next 15 days we will be in 3 different places. The first stop is Ngorongoro Crater, which is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. I highly recommend googling it. It also has the highest density of predators in the entire world! We are camping right on the rim of the crater, which I'm sure will have spectacular views. Ngorongoro also contains the only rhinos that Tanzania has, and there are only 24 of them....we only spend 1.5 days in the crater so our goal is to find a rhino!
From the crater we travel to the SERENGETI!!!!!!!!!!!! We'll be there for 4 days and we pick back up with out study groups from Tarangire (I'm in the non-ruminant group, which includes lions). We formulated study questions and will carry out our mini-research projects here in the morning, and spend the afternoons being tourists and taking pictures of the lions. OH, they also have crocodiles there, which i'm super stoked about because I'm obsessed with them.
Most people think of Serengeti as mostly grassland, but our AD told us today that in reality only 20% of the total area is grassland; the rest is a woodland. So once we leave Serengeti we drive up north through Serengeti (basically coming up on the border of Kenya at one point) , stay one night at a guesthouse in a town called Wasso, and through the woodland down into Maasai land!
The final part of our safari is a 4-day homestay with the Maasai! I dont even know what to expect for this...it's going to be crazy. Our AD basically told us to see and explore as much as we can! He pretty much told us, if a goat is being slaughtered, go watch it. If theres a circumcision ceremony happening, celebrate with everyone (circumcision, both male and female, is a HUGE part of life in the Maasai and is the reason for many celebrations).
I'm a little jealous of the boys in our group though...they get to spend the time with the warriors and herd goats all day!
We are only allowed to bring a toothbrush and headlamp because apparently we dont really wear clothes either...our mamas will dress us in full maasai clothing that we'll wear for the entirety of our stay.
Oh, I definitely think the most interesting part of our homestay will be WHERE we stay. The Maasai live in bomas (which we've been in before) that are about the size of an average bedroom, but they're completely circular. And there is ONE bed. So yup, we'll all be sleeping with our mamas and siblings in one cowhide bed in a boma. I'm just honestly praying that I dont get crapped on by a baby in the middle of the night because apparently that has been known to happen... :)
They also slaughter a goat for us at the end of homestay, and then we are all apparently supposed to drink some weird goat soup with some herbs and then they pass around the liver and kidneys and then they drink the blood......I could have some issues with this part....
So thats basically what I'll be up to for the next 2 weeks...stalking some rhino, collecting data on lions, pretending I'm Maasai, and eating goat soup (maybe)!
I spent the majority of yesterday and today planning out my new ISP...the ecological walk actually completely fell apart because of budget issues and logistics, so we all had to come up with new ideas. I am now going back to Ndarakwai Ranch (where I was for orientation) to study the social behavior of a group of resident zebra. I'm really excited for this, and I definitely feel like I made the right choice switching my study.
Will report back in 2 weeks about the safari!
woops...editing this post about an hour later...also forgot..we're going to Olduvai Gorge as well! Its in the east Serengeti plains. I dont really know that much about it but apparently some really old humans were found there by the Leakys....i think. it apparently established the african origin of humankind. idk im sure I'll know more in 2 weeks!
Friday, October 15, 2010
just a minor ISP crisis....
ok short post here but basically i have completely decided to change my ISP...even after all my posts about the great ecological walk I was going to do (Molly if you are reading this I;m so sorry Im not doing it anymore! :( but I've been doing a lot of thinking and realized that I had jumped into the 60km walk because it seemed "easy" in a way, it was already pretty planned out and seemed like a good idea. In theory, the walk seemed amazing. however, after ISP prep days I wasnt so sure anymore. I obviously had a blast in engaruka hanging out with my fellow students and chatting it up with Elvis and Onesmo, but I wasnt really being honest with myself in what I wanted out of my study project here in Tanzania. I know myself well enough that when I struggle with a decision back and forth for a while, deep down I already know the answer. The heat was a big factor too....I knew that being miserable and most likely getting sunstroke would not make me a very happy camper in collecting my data...it was already over 100 in engaruka over prep days and it would just get hotter until we start actual data collection. And the student who did the same study last spring saw a lot more mammals than I would see, because they collected data in the wet season, where we would be collecting it in the dry. I just couldnt justify collecting data on spores and tracks when I knew that physically I would be run down every day. I really struggled this morning after meeting with my AD..I had to go take a little walk to calm down, mostly because I felt like I was going to let my group down. I also had to completely restart and develop a brand new ISP. luckily I have some ideas that I'm trying to develop with my Academic Director tomorrow, but its stressful. Anyways, just wanted to do a short blog about that. I feel better now that I've made a decision that I've been struggling with the past couple weeks. Definitely feel like a weight is lifted off of me. I'm currently looking into some zebra projects back at Ndarakwai Ranch (where we first went when we got to TZ for orientation) which makes me pretty excited. I came to TZ to do some sort of mammal study in the first place, and I feel like I'm more on track doing a behavioral ecology study. Anyways, gotta run, internet time is almost up. Our group is going to go blow off some steam tonight at a club :) Serengeti on Sunday!
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