Wrapping It Up

So I think I've been putting off writing this post because I didn't want to face being home. But here's the thing I realized: even though I'm not in TZ anymore, I'm never going to lose the memories or the changes that it has made in me.

Friday we had poster presentations and an academic wrap up discussion. The most striking part of the day was when we were asked "Does Tanzanian wildlife have hope?" With all of the pressures of modernization does wildlife in TZ stand a chance of survival? I think it does. People have to make an effort to save it but I was amazed by how many Tanzanians were so passionate about their protected areas and their wildlife and I think that they will figure out a way to make peace between the needs of the people and animals of their country.

Saturday we had our second home stay. This home stay was pretty much the complete opposite of the first one I went on. Right off the bat the family put us to work helping them separate the corn cobs from the plant. Once we'd done that we took the cobs into the house and laid the rest of the plant out on the lawn. Then we got the shoats and cows, lead/dragged/chased them outside and tied them up where they could graze. After we had herded the livestock outside we started to clean up the "barn." Mama Patrice patched up a hole in the wall with some fresh manure and then we scraped out the manure in the barn, piled it outside, took some of the dried manure from the other side of the pile and spread it around the barn floor. I didn't understand it but I guess it makes a little sense. When we were done with the livestock chores the boys brought out of homemade soccer ball and we passed it around for a while. While we played soccer, Gasper translated their questions for me and my answers for them. They wanted to know how old I was and if I had kids. When I told them I didn't have any kids they asked why and thought that it was crazy that I was waiting to finish college before having kids; they told me that I would be old by the time I graduated. After soccer we made tea and lunch. The tea was ginger chai and I LOVED it. At lunch the family was proud of me because I knew how to eat oogali correctly (you take a small chunk, use your fingers to roll it in your palm, hold it in your finger tips and dip it in whatever other food you are eating with it). They told me that the last students who had stayed with them couldn't eat without silverware. When we were done eating they asked me if I wanted to take a nap and I said that I was fine but then I started drifting off so I ended up taking them up on their offer. It was really funny because when I woke up Mama Patrice kept trying to tell me to go back to sleep. I was just like "I don't want to sleep anymore!!"

Sunday was our last non-program day. Since we went to Mtu Wa Mbu I took a bunch of people to the painting place to make tinga tinga paintings. All of the guys at the painting shop recognized me and told me I was the teacher now. I negotiated the prices for all of us and we got started. I ended up staying at the painting place all day (with a brief pizza break in the middle). It was a great last free day in TZ.

Monday mostly consisted of packing and procrastinating. Just before dinner we played soccer. It was staff vs students and surprisingly we didn't get our asses beat. The students actually won and the game ended in all of us enjoying free sodas. After soccer we had a delicious last dinner. The best part, in my opinion were the kabobs: there were excellently seasoned and really tender. I was really sad that I didn't get any at the first session's last dinner but happy that I got some this time. The other best part was the cake that the cooks made. They danced into the dining hall singing goodbye and carrying a cake. Esau was at the back of the line carrying the cake and awkwardly shuffling his feet. He almost got stepped on by the women a couple of times when their dance carried them backwards. It was really funny. We all grabbed cake, passed out shirts to the staff and started a bigger dance party. Unfortunately I suddenly realized that it was my turn for cook crew so I had to stop dancing and listen from a distance. We finished dishes just in time to join in for the last song. I got Sarah to dance though so I was happy (she refused to dance until I squeezed onto the edge of her chair and started dancing so her choices were fall off or get up and dance too). After the dance party I headed back to my banda to pack more. It still hadn't hit me that I was leaving but it felt good to leave a lot of my things for the staff and locals.

Tuesday was pretty much all surreal. I couldn't believe I was really leaving. When I said goodbye to Yohanna he hugged me and told me to come back and visit and then had to excuse himself. I think he was getting overwhelmed that we were leaving. I kept expecting to start bawling but I didn't.

I was in Ninah's car on the way to the airport. It was nice closure because I'd been in his car on the first drive into camp from the airport. Ninah told us that he had a quiz for us and so we all said okay. Then he told us we had to count to ten. It turned out it wasn't a quiz it was more of a game. Well kinda... He said that we had to count off and whoever got the number ten would get to come back to Tanzania soon. We all wanted to say ten so we just started randomly yelling it out and Ninah started getting mad at us and yelling "NO NO NO!!!" It was really funny. Once we'd all yelled ten Ninah told us about how he's going to visit the US in 2014. He told us that he wants to visit during the winter and go to a northern state because he wants to experience the cold. We were like "but Ninah, you'll freeze!" but he insisted he was an experienced traveler and could handle it.

When we got to the airport I was leaning on the car window watching staring at Paskal to see what he would do if he noticed me. He waved at me and told me to get in the car. I got in and we started driving away. I was like "Yes! I'm escaping! I'm staying in Tanzania!" Unfortunately I only made it across the parking lot before I had to head back to the group...

The whole time we were sitting in the airport I was just waiting for the staff to come in and join us. When we left the ground in Tanzania I was really tempted to start screaming and make them put me back. But I didn't. I dealt.

Now I'm home. It's weird because it's not home the way it was before Tanzania. I'll adjust though. Tanzania definitely taught me patience so I can handle it :]

Pictures!

So here are some pictures that summarize my trip. I'll update you on the last few days and post more pictures when I get home.

 

Leslie the Great and the Rain

I just went to the tailor to get the sweatshirt he made me altered a little. On the way I saw a woman with a baby at Yohanna’s house so I decided to stop by and see Leslie. Christina invited me into her room and invited me to pick up Leslie. Leslie was sleeping but Christina woke her up to say hi. She was still really sleepy though so I put her back down on the bed to sleep. Of course when I put her back down she woke up and was wriggling around so I picked her up again. It turned out she was restless cause she needed to go potty. I thought she had just farted until I felt a wet spot spreading on my leg… Then I quickly excused myself to go change my pants because there was pee running down my leg.

When I got back to camp I told Yohanna that his baby had peed on me. He thought that that was hilarious and told me that that was good luck. He said that he used to hold babies all of the time and thought it was great when they peed on him. Apparently I’m going to have a baby girl now because Leslie peed on me.

After taking a shower I was cold so I tried to shut the window. The handle broke off and flew into my face. I don't think I have a bruise though... I hope not. I don't need to look like I was beaten.

Once I realized my face was okay I went down the road to join the soccer game. It was wet and muddy and awesome. So much for it being the dry season. It had just finished pouring when I left camp and the field was a bit of a mud pit. I had a solid quarter inch of mud permanently affixed to the bottom of my shoe. Andrew tried to head the ball and it just slid off his head so half his face was covered in mud. Everyone was sliding everywhere and running really awkwardly because they had no traction. Vidasto said we looked like a bunch of buffalo. Apparently buffalo can't turn very well? Marissa started drawing pictures in the mud with a piece of corn stalk and yelling at us all to not step on them. Then she ended up stepping on the main one. It was great. Soon after the pictures got ruined we called it a game and headed back for dinner. We got back to camp too late to shower so we all went to dinner covered in mud. Everyone else was shocked at how messy we were. It was awesome :D

Every Day is the Best Day Ever!

Day One

First thing we saw when we entered the Serengeti flatland was lions. I was looking all over for them but it turned out I couldn't find them because they were right next to the road, laying under a tree. They just kept sleeping as all our cars plus a few more paraded past and oohed and ahhed at them.

Next we came upon a male lion sleeping in the sun. A female started walking up and the male sat straight up after what appeared to be a dead sleep. He laid back down for a second, as if to gather himself, and then jumped up and ran after her. She wasn't happy about that so he followed a distance until we couldn't see them any more.

Not more than five minutes later we saw a group of about 6 lions. There were females and cubs. Lions keep loose prides that often change configuration so it is quite possible that the male and female that we had just seen were part of the same pride as the group.

We saw a group of giraffes and Anna was teasing Danson saying "there's your family, Danson." His response was "That's Kennith! Kennith come with us. Get in the car!" Then he looked at another one and said "There's my youngest brother David!" He was so excited and certain about each of the giraffes names. It was great and we were all doubled over with laughter but he kept his straight face.

This time we stayed at the Dik Dik campsite. It was a really nice campsite with four toilets/pits and two showers in each side of the bathroom. I heard the showers were even warm sometimes! There was also an extra building that we used for food storage and a place to escape the elements and the tourists used as a dining hall. The one downside was how hard the ground was. It was almost impossible to get a stake driven in far enough to be useful so we ended up mostly securing our tents to rocks and they sagged over the days. Some of the tourists judged us but it worked well enough to live in for four days...

After dinner Burra found a Thompson's Gazelle by the bathroom. When he escorts us to the bathroom he always shines his light around and checks for animals. At first the light only lit of the eyes and it was scary but then he said "swala pala" and I realized it was a gazelle. I don't know if he didn't think we understood or he was just bored but he picked up a rock and threw it at the Tommy to make it move. It didn't really work though. It just picked up its head and stared at him like "what??"

I woke up in the middle of the night and heard hyenas. They don't sound how you expect them to. Anna said "that sounds like birds except it's night..." When I got up to go to the bathroom Burra shushed me, whispered "fisi" and pointed to the kitchen. There was a hyena creeping up to the trash can. It scouted around, looking very guilty the whole time. When it got to the trash can it stood up on its hind legs, propped its front legs on the lip of the barrel, and checked around one more time.  Then it stuck its head in the trash can and sniffed around. It kept scaring itself with the noise the trash was making but it kept sticking its head back in and occasionally pulling things out. After a while Burra started to sneak towards it with his fimbo (ascari stick). Every time it would pull its head out of the trash Burra would freeze and he got about halfway to it before it noticed him and ran away. You would not believe how big hyenas are! They slink around, are dog-like and look small compared to a lion but when this one was standing flat on the ground it's head was taller than waist height on me and it was probably my height when it was standing up on its hind legs.

Day Two

As of lunch time on day two I had seen more lions in Serengeti than in the whole first session. We saw 17 lions in the morning. We also saw two leopards. The first one had just dragged a kill (Tommy) up a tree and was about to start eating it when too many cars pulled up and it got scared. It jumped down the tree and ran off into the grass. As it jumped the tourists behind us yelled "GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!" It was super obnoxious: first, because yelling scares the animals and, second, because they had just pulled away from the leopard a little and positioned themselves behind us so there was no reason to yell at us. So we saw that leopard for about 30 seconds. We saw the tail of the second leopard and then, when it settled down in a bush, we could see about 6 inches of one of its legs. There were 30-40 cars gathered there and many of the drivers pulled off the road and parked illegally to try to let their passengers get a glimpse of the leopard. It was so frustrating because they scared the leopards off and boxed us in for about 45 minutes. We amused ourselves by taking pictures of the cars doing illegal activities to give to the park staff so they would get fined. 

Speaking of inappropriate actions of tourists there was a french man in camp who went out of his way to be rude to us. He complained about our food truck, the way we set up our tents, and our lamps among other things. Then Andy and I sat down across the room from him and started quietly discussing a book. He interrupted us to tell us that we were extremely rude for not saying hi to anyone, the Africans were more educated than us because they all said hi, and we were setting a horrible example for all Americans. Andy told him "well that's your opinion." We both held our tongues and didn't say anything about what a bad opinion he was giving us of French people by going out of his was to attach us. Then the next second he asked us where we were from and tried to be friends with us. It was EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Oh and Anna, one of the other students, speaks fluent French so she knew everything they were saying about us, roughly translated a few things, and was extremely ashamed of the example they were setting.

Day Three

First thing in the morning we saw a coalition of adult males lions. One of them walked right by our car and then we came upon two more a minute later. One was very agitated and trying to get at something in the river. We figured out that it was a hippo carcass that was omitting the suffocating smell we were inhaling and the lion was trying to get at. He tried repeatedly to get at the hippo carcass but just kept snarling and growling. Later we figured out there was a large croc in the river (~3 meters long) so maybe that's why the lion was so distressed.

After the male lions we saw a couple of prides of females and juveniles. The second pride got split by a train of cars and the juvenile male that was with them got very distressed. He was pacing, panting and snarling. It made for good pictures but it made me so mad at how inconsiderate tourist jeep drivers are. All they want is the best view for their clients so they can get the best tip no matter what cost to the animal. When all of the lions had crossed most of the pride sat down on a dirt mound while two of the lionesses started to stalk the Tommy's nearby. I think they were trying to teach the juveniles how to hunt. Unfortunately the gazelle noticed them really early and so they pretty much had no chance of catching them. It was still amazing to watch them hunting. The lionesses definitely fanned out to scare the gazelle back into the main pride. It was a good plan it just didn't work that time.

The best part of the day was the cheetahs. In the morning two of the cars saw a female with three cubs right by the road and watched the cubs play and the mom hunt for over an hour. I was super jealous but then we saw our own mother with cubs. They were resting on a dirt mound when we first pulled up but the cars quickly made them nervous. The mom walked off into the grass and the cubs followed after a minute. They crossed the road right in front of us. Unfortunately a tourist car illegally offroaded and pulled right in front of us so we couldn't see the cubs when they crossed the road. The tourists were a big problem this session. But anyways... I was so happy to see a cheetah with cubs. Cheetah cubs have a 50-70% mortality rate so I felt so incredibly lucky to see any.

The other best part of the day was the pride of lions that were walking past us in the street. There were 13 of them walking down the road. One had found a wool hat in the road and was excitedly ripping it apart. I had my head out the window looking at them when a lioness walked within a few feet of the car and stared me in the face. At some point it just hit me that I should pull my head in cause she could kill me right then. I didn’t though. I was so amazed to be that close to her and have her focused on me.

Day Four

This seriously was the best day ever. In the morning we saw seven lions, and a pair of cheetahs. The first four lions were lying around doing lion things. We watched them for a few minutes and then worked our way out of the mass of cars gathered around of them. On the way we saw one of our cars and they told us to keep heading towards the herd of cars in the distance because there was a cheetah resting there. There were approximately 40 cars lined up to watch the cheetahs (it turned out there were two). It was actually pretty lucky though because we hung back to avoid getting stuck in the traffic jam so when we saw them get up and start to walk we were able to go around the pack and pull in front for a great view. It was the first time I had seen a pair of cheetahs. When the cheetahs found a shady spot they laid down and we moved on. We drove through a whole lot of nothing but Tommy's for a while until someone yelled "wait!" There were two lions in the tree; one spreadeagled over a branch and the other resting a fork with its legs on either side of the main branch and its tail hanging down in the middle of the fork. Then we pulled forward a little and discovered a third on awkwardly draped over another branch. As we watched he got up and one of the others got up too. They re-positioned so that they were laying together.

After the lions we saw a group of giraffes. It was really neat because there were three of them physically interacting. They were rubbing necks and leaning on each other. The other cool thing was that they were also really close and one was looking at us pretty much the whole time. I'm pretty sure she was looking at us because we made her nervous but she was gorgeous and I took so many pictures cause it was like she was posing.

On the way to lunch we ran into a group of elephants that were mud bathing some large mud puddles near the road. A couple of big ones were taking up trunk fulls of mud and spraying them over their stomachs and sides. A baby laid down in the mud and kinda rolled around until it was mostly covered and then stumbled away. One of the elephants crossed the road within a couple of feet of our jeep and stopped to look at us when it was right next to the car. It was a little terrifying and one of the girls was whispering "it's okay. it's okay" over and over again until it was passed. It was extremely terrifying later when we heard that another of our cars had been attacked by an elephant in the same group after lunch. Evidently the baby had injured itself somehow and couldn't get up. One of the elephants thought that the cars were too close and charged the car. She ripped the grill and the air pipe off the front of the car. Then she walked away, pretended to be done only to charge the car again. This time she caught the window and ripped out the rear windows that the students were sitting next to. At that point the driver floored it and got everyone out of there. No one was hurt but from all accounts it was absolutely terrifying. No one knows what exactly triggered her attack.

We had lunch at the Serena (a five star lodge). This time I wasn't sick so I enjoyed every bit of it. I ate three full plates of food and desert and considered going back for more until I realized it was almost time to go and I wanted to relax by the pool for a little while before we left. I had fresh vegetables with balsamic vinaigrette, fresh baked bread, a fish filet, brown rice, mixed vegetables, made to order pasta, cheese, and a chocolate coffee mousse-like desert. I also found out that Patricia, one of our cooks, was trained by one of the chefs at Serena (no wonder we have such good food!) After eating I sat by the pool and dipped my feet in. When Patricia asked me why I wasn't swimming I said the water was too cold. When we asked her why she wasn't swimming she said "I will die!"

It started to rain as we were about to leave the lodge. The rain was so nice and refreshing that I stood out in it until it was time to leave. Then I walked casually out to the car and leaned out the window until we started driving. When we were driving the rain was flying in the window badly so I closed it most of the way and just stuck my hand out.

Less than five minutes after we left the lodge we saw a leopard. Molly exclaimed "is that a lion in that tree?! No, it has spots!" and we all started searching for it. We decided none of us really minded the rain that much and popped the top for a better view. Good thing we did too. It walked along about 50m away parallel to the road for a while, marking trees and playing, and then it started to walk straight towards us. It ended up crossing the road directly in front of our car. It was absolutely amazing. Leopards are usually very shy and will hide if too many cars are nearby.

After the leopard we saw a group of giraffes. Danson exclaimed "Surely that is Thomas!" It was hilarious because it sounded like he was genuinely thrilled to see Thomas.

Next, we headed to the hippo pool. It took a long time and was a little rough because of the rain but it was totally worth it. The hippos were more active than they had been the last time we were there. We also took pictures making hippo faces and narrated the actions of the hippos. It was a great time.

After the hippo pool we got lost. We turned the wrong way at a fork in the road even though Nuru was on the phone getting directions. We were singing camp songs from our childhood and cracking up and no one suspected anything was strange. About a half hour later we ended up at a gate marked SNP (aka one of the park entrances). A guy on the other side of the waved us through so we actually left the gate and had to explain ourselves. Luckily they let us back in cause it was getting dark and past the time when they allowed people to enter the park. Almost took out a zebra foal, a tommy and a hyena on the way back to camp. There was also a hippo crossing the road but we were already slowed down for a bridge so we didn't have a close call with that one. I stuck out of the top the whole ride back and it was awesome. Except for the bugs. Or the mud. Or the rocks. I don't know what was hitting me in the face but it hurt like hell. When one hit me just under the eye I actually sat down and in a halfway panicked voice because it hurt to badly asked the other people if my face was bleeding or something. A minute later I was back up though (with my face mostly covered with my bandanna). It would have been awkward if anyone had driven by and seen us cause the three of us who were in the front had pretty much everything except our eyes covered with bandannas and scarves. (By the way I just realized I have a bruise under my eye where the bug/rock hit me.)

We got back to camp in the dark and rain. It was dark and raining but the cooks rewarmed dinner for us so it was okay. I had cook crew but that went quickly and then I got to go put on dry clothes and curl up in my sleeping bag. I was so comfy and cozy when I fell asleep :]

Day Five

It rained all night but luckily it stopped shortly after I woke up. So all of our tents and everything were wet but luckily we didn't have to get wet as we packed up- just muddy. The white rhino (our big lorry truck) got stuck in the mud when trying to drive into camp and one of the other jeeps had to tow it out. I was really funny because for some reason Pascal and Nuru were running after the rhino after it had been pulled free. Pascal jumped on the side of the truck and rode along while Nuru just ran alongside *NEWSFLASH: I just got the perfect marshmellow! :D*

Right outside of camp we found a giraffe chilling on the side of the road. Giraffes have crazy wrinkles on their faces. It's great.

The ride back to Moyo Hill was uneventful other than the mud. It was very muddy so we were fishtailed and hydroplaned our way for the first half of the trip. It was totally awesome! Every time we were about to go over a particularly rough patch Kioko would say "brace yourself." Some of the girls didn't brace themselves and one flew across the car into the other and then, a few minutes later, the one who had been squished slipped and smashed her head into the side of the car. It sounds horrible but it was hilarious. I stood up every time we approached a muddy patch because it was like a roller coaster.

It was so nice to get back to camp. It really felt like coming home as we approached Rhotia. I love it here.

Slaughter Day

Today was goat slaughter day! Since Yohanna is injured and Nuru is sick I helped hold the goat so Yohanna could cut its throat. When Yohanna was done me and a couple of other students grabbed one of the feet and dissected it. We skinned it and then Andy (the kid who screamed "NO!" at a dirty puppy who was walking towards him so pretty much the last person I would expect to voluntarily grab a dead animal) grabbed one of the tendons and started pulling on it so the foot was waving at people. Then I started saying "hellloo." It was great. Andy walked around camp waving the foot at people and then he finally came back and said "I guess I should put my friend down..."

After Andy had given up his goat leg friend he picked up the goat's head and tried to close its eyes. Then I decided that we should dissect the head so we started skinning it. I did half and Postal and Andy were making fun of me for nicking a blood vessel. But then Andy tried skinning the other half of the head, saw how many blood vessels there were, and promptly shut up.

After skinning we decided to try to take the eyes out of the head. Since I saw a vet at the humane society remove a cat's eye my goal was to approximately replicate that: with a pocket knife. It is very difficult to remove an eye with a pocket knife. The knife itself was okay because it was pretty sharp but eyes have an incredible range of movement within their socket and are very slippery so it was very hard to secure it well enough to cut around it. I could have gone and gotten my tweezers but I borrowed them from another student in camp and I didn't think she would approve of them being used to remove eyeballs... I got my eye out without much trouble but Andy struggled. His ended up coming out with a bunch of connective tissue still attached and a big chunk of the optic nerve. Postal just stood there and asked if he could pop an eyeball yet.

Once we had removed both of the eyes we let Postal pop one and then we dissected the other. Postal popped his pretty uneventfully but then squeezed all of the clear jelly innards out everywhere. Andy actually dissected his nicely (well as nicely as you can with a pocket knife...). I had never seen an eyeball dissected. It was awesome. Inside there is clear jelly, a lens, the iris, and a pretty reflective section on the back of the eye. I didn't realize the pupil is really just a hole into the eye. I also had no idea that the lens was little a clear hard ball. It's absolutely amazing that we can see through that. The reflective part of the eye was really neat too.

The disappointment of the day was my corn. I went to the tailor as a favor to some other students and asked Yohanna to watch the corn I was roasting on the fire. Apparently he didn't hear me cause I came back and half of my corn was burnt to a crisp. Then I tried to turn it and cook the other side and it fell. So then I had half burnt corn and half ash-covered corn. Good thing dinner was good cause I was really sad that my corn was ruined.

Jiggers and Bushmen

Yesterday morning I slept. It was great. We were supposed to be working on our school assignment but I was halfway done so I decided to sleep instead.

After lunch we had community service. The project was planting trees for the camp nursery (same as last session) so the combined summer students got to do something else. We collected seed pods from one of the trees near the classroom building. After reaching, jumping, climbing and collecting as many pods as possible we sat down and shucked the pods to collect the seeds. We spent about an hour removing and collecting the seeds. We found Nairobi flies. Well it may have been one because as soon as I found one Courtney was like "oh yea, I didn't kill the one I found..." Still Nairobi flies are nasty and it was really unnerving to find because they expel acid when they are squished and it causes a chemical burn. 

When we were done with our activity the other students were still working. We looked at them and I considered joining but I didn't feel like working anymore. Instead of helping we just goofed off. I don't even really know what we did but it was really funny.

In the eveneing El discovered she had a jigger so watching Molly remove it became our entertainment for the night. Five of us followed El to Molly's house to observe and by the end I think there were eight of us crowded in there. Postal had to go and get Andrew because he was drugged up on tranquilizers (prescribed by the doctor here to help combat another bad medicine that was prescribed) and Andrew was afraid that El's jigger bite was in an inappropriate place. Jigger bites are pretty much always on feet or toes. Because Andrew was pretty drugged up he was making the funniest sounds in reaction to watching Molly remove the jigger. Removing the jigger involved using a needle to pierce the callous, a pin to open up the callous and then fingers and tweezers to squeeze the callous to make sure that the jigger's egg sac was completely removed. In the middle of squeezing the eggs sac out Andy was like "it's like having a baby!" and Molly started laughing so hard that she had to stop what she was doing to recover. It's hard to sum up why it was so great but it really was very entertaining :D

After the jigger removal there was a dum dum party in my banda. Courtney, one of my roommates, brought a huge bag of dum dums and so a bunch of people came over to enjoy some. I asked for a butterscotch and they all called me an old lady. Then they found as many butterscotch dum dums as they could and stuck them in my hair so that I had a hairpiece of dum dums. I don't know why people were so hyper last night. This group is awesome though. They're always doing ridiculous things.

Today we went to visit a bushman settlement. It was mostly an indescribable experience because I feel like whatever I say I'll be missing a huge chunk of it but I'll try... So the first thing that hits you when you walk into camp is the number of bones and skulls hanging in the trees. There were pig/warthog jaws, baboon skulls, and antelope horns adorning the bigger trees in the area. After passing the skulls and a group of women and children we walked up a little hill and sat down on a rocky outcrop.

On the outcrop we met the men. The men were dressed in baboon skins with old american clothes underneath. They wore either beaded headbands or headdresses made of baboon skins or zebra manes. They lined up, shook our hands and said hi. When I got through the introduction line the first thing I saw was a baboon carcass hanging in the tree. It was cut in half, partially shaved and partially skinned. They said they had killed it the day before. Yohanna touched it by accident and said "oh, that's still soft!"

Once I managed to look away from the baboon our translator talked to us about the weapons that the bushmen use. They hunt with bows and don't use spears. They have a variety of types of bows and can shoot prey up to 100 yards away. As far as arrows, they have three types. The first type is a wooden arrow that doesn't have a metal arrowhead. This wooden arrow is used to hunt small prey. The second type of arrow has a flattened metal arrowhead much like the typical type of arrow seen in the US. It's used to shoot medium-sized game. The third type of arrow had a metal head but it is skinny with vicious-looking spikes on the edge. The arrowhead of this arrow is dipped in poison and used to shoot large prey. When you shoot large prey the poison spreads quickly through their body, especially if they are running. If you use the poison arrows you can use the meat but not the blood of the animal because it contains the poison.

After they explained how they hunt they showed us how they make fire. It was the same way that the Maasai make fire so I just wandered around, played with a bow that they had given us to look at, and stared at the baboon. I really liked the bow. It was nicely made and flexible with strings made of veins and decorative bands of animals pelt. Oh yea, and the bushmen pulled out a pipe and some pot and started to smoke as they were showing students how to make a fire. They were so aggressive about smoking; they would argue with each other, snatch the pipe out of each other’s hands and take angry drags on the pipe. Molly was really mad because we had asked them not to smoke while we were there. Luckily they didn’t offer any weed to any students because then things definitely would have gone downhill really quickly.

Once everyone who wanted to try to make a fire had tried we checked out the living areas of the bush people. They had examples of dry season houses and wet season houses set up. The wet season houses were little huts made of leaves from the plants in the area combined with bits of fabric and plastic. The dry season houses were actually not houses at all; they were just little clearings with fire pits and mats.

Next the bush people wanted to show us some of their dances. They danced in a circle similar to the way the local school children do. One person was in the middle at a time and other people ran in and out and then they ran in a circle. The thing that they did that was really unique at one point the women moved to the outside and the men grabbed the tail of the baboon pelt on the guy in front of him. The line of men then snaked their way around in the middle of the circle and then they broke out and did a small dance on their own. The little children kept trying to join the dancing and getting chased out of the group. The cutest little kid was a boy with just a t-shirt on and a beaded bands around his waist, knees and ankles. Someone commented that they liked how he was dressed in beads instead of clothes. After they had completed their dance they invited all of the students in to dance. I stayed on the outside, took pictures and laughed at the other students.

After the dancing the women lead us off and showed us how they collect roots. They use roots for food as well as a water source during the dry season. The root that I tried mostly tasted like nothing (water?) but it had a slightly weird and a little bitter taste. It was very wet and I can see how it would be a good source of water when all of the main water sources have dried up. After we were done trying roots Cecelia came up with a baobab pod and Christian opened it. Inside the baobab pod there was a bunch of seeds covered in white stuff. The white stuff was dry… Pretty much the consistency of the dried marshmallows that are in Lucky Charms. I have no idea how to describe what it tasted like but it was really good. Sweetish with a little bit of a tartness… Yummy. That’s all I know for sure.

When we got back to camp the bushmen were showing everyone how to shoot their bows. A lot of people were terrible at it and it was hilarious; they would try really hard to pull back the bow and then the arrow would flop right to the ground when they released it. *News update: one of the guys just came into the dining hall and announced that he had had solid poop. This is a huge deal because he’s had horrible diarrhea for days. He had a horrifying experience of diarrhea in the bush this morning that I walked into the middle of the story of and almost puked. It was also the funniest poop story I’ve heard here yet.* When I got a bow I had a really good shot and hit the target. I was really proud because a bunch of the bushmen shook my hand and congratulated me. I was so excited that I got to shoot a bow that I bought one. I’d been looking at bows in the duka but I didn’t feel like they were very significant so I hadn’t gotten one yet. I ended up getting a small bow with genet fur decorations and two wooden small animal arrows. I love them.

After we left the bushman settlement we stopped at a lodge. They had a bathroom with a little tiny pitcher of soap. It was so cute! They also had a bar area, a pool and a series of fishponds with waterfalls.

From the lodge we walked out towards Lake Eyasi. Lake Eyasi is a saltwater lake and was very shrunken from the dry season like Lake Manyara. The horrible part about the area around Lake Eyasi was that people used mosquito nets to fish so they would catch large amounts of fish. The problem with this method of fishing was that if they didn’t get to the nets while the fish were fresh they would just dump the fish on the shore. There were huge piles of dead fish everywhere in the open land where the lake had receded. The funny part was that Kioko picked up a dead fish and put it in the straps of my backpack so when I took it off to grab something out of a pocket I had a disgusting dead fish staring me in the face. I got Gasper to remove it for me. I have touched plenty of dead things but dead fish are so disgusting! Kioko was just cracking up in the background. Then he told me there was also a fish in my backpack. When Courtney went to check he picked one up and was going to put it in the pocket. Luckily I saw what he was doing out of the corner of my eye and stopped him. Kioko is my favorite teacher. He’s quiet but he says and does really funny things if you pay attention.


At dinner Ninah asked me how I like the baboon. I was eating beef that was delicious and he insisted that it was the baboon we'd seen in the bushman camp. Then Molly was eating fish and he insisted that was baboon too. I said "baboon of the sea?" and he just laughed. Christian piped in and said that baby baboons have white meat though. Then, even though we knew we weren't eating baboon, it wasn't quite as funny. I'm not sure how he knows that. He says he's never eaten baboon.

Duma Duma Duma

Yesterday we did more interviews. We talked to one family where one of the kids was making motor boat noises the whole time and another kid who peed right next to us as we were talking to his mother and grandmother. We also talked to another family where only the grandma was home. She was old and I’m pretty sure she was senile. She would babble for about five minutes and then the guide would pretty much just say “she doesn’t know.” At one point he said “her son’s keep bees and they use honey but she doesn’t know beeswax.” It was great. Haha.

After the interviews we came back to camp and discussed we had learned. Apparently they use trees here to cure STDS and treat AIDS. They also think that planting trees makes it rain. There are some really interesting beliefs here…

Yohanna is back in camp and doing pretty well. I was so relieved to see him back in camp! It's unclear on whether his collar bone is broken or not but he's got a pressure wrap on it and is obviously in a lot of pain. 

Molly suggested that we make Yohanna a get well soon card. I made him a tinga-tinga inspired one with birds on the cover because one of my favorite moments with him was when we were bird watching and he just said "I like birds." I had all of the staff and students sign it. Pascal had the funniest note. He wrote "no more riding on motorcycles. If you fall off again I will fire you." It was hilarious because Pascal is a driver and he has no authority to fire Yohanna. I think it was just his way of telling Yohanna to stay safe in the future.

At dinner I finally saw Yohanna so I gave him his card. He had the best reaction to it. At first he smiled and said "for me?" Then he saw the birds and said "Oh, soon I will be able to fly." Then he opened up the card and just got this huge smile on his face when he saw all of the notes and signatures. After he had looked at the inside of the card he hugged it to his chest and walked around with a huge smile on his face for a few minutes.

Today we went to Ngorongoro Crater. I woke up around 5 this morning and was so excited for the day I just laid in bed and smiled. I thought I was too excited to go back to sleep but then I promptly did.

We had to wait a long time to get a pass to enter the crater and the main building was closed for renovations so we had to figure out how to amuse ourselves. Christian ranted about how much the office staff sucked for pretty much the whole hour that we waited. Some of us stood around and chatted. The best was the group who started playing vegetable showdown. Vegetable showdown is the game we played the other night were two people duel by acting out an adjective and a vegetable. They got Kioko to play and that was great. He pretty much just jumped around and waved his arms like the kid he was dueling with but it was really funny. At one point the two dueling students ended up rolling on the ground across the parking lot. Christian just looked over at them with a confused and said "next thing we know the baboons will come and join their game." I laughed and said "it's all fun and games until someone gets bitten..."

After the first gate but before the second one we stopped for a lecture. It was so cold! It was windy and we had our lecture behind a little hill so that we could get a break from the wind. It must have looked ridiculous to all of the tourists to see us all sitting in a huddle (we were literally sitting on top of each other trying to get warm).

The first unique animal sighting that we saw was three lions. When we first drove up it looked like there were two dead lions but then they moved and we saw that 1) they were alive and 2) there were actually three lions. There were two males and a female just lounging and soaking up the sun.

The second cool thing we saw was a cheetah. It was sitting when we drove up but then it seemed to get uncomfortable with all of the cars so it got up and started walking away. -News update: I am currently sitting by the fire. The maasai students just asked me why we are so flexible. I am sitting with my legs crossed so I was confused until they showed me their efforts to cross their legs. Anna goes "they can't do anything!" And then it was clarified that the maasai can't sit with their legs crossed. Next we need to show them yoga.- It wandered into some reeds and then came out a while later. It wandered away and we followed it. I'm so glad that we waited and followed it because it broke into a jog to pass the cars. After it got past the cars it took off sprinting into the center of a mixed herd of wildebeest, zebras and gazelles. The herd took off and we lost sight of the cheetah for a while but when they settled down and we still couldn't find the cheetah we figured out that it had failed to catch whichever animal it was gong after.

After a few minutes the cheetah popped up out of the grass and started walking towards some of the gazelle. It wasn't paying attention to the wildebeest and a bunch of them started to gang up and follow it. The wildebeest gained speed and dropped their horns until the cheetah turn around and threatened them by swatting at them and dropping into a crouch. When the cheetah tried to get up and walk away again the wildebeest started to chase it again and the cheetah was forced to stop walking and face them again. So it ended up that the cheetah was just sitting and watching the wildebeest who were watching him. It was funny because there were zebras wandering in the middle of the standoff who seemed completely oblivious to the fact that there was a cheetah there. After a while the wildebeest got bored and started to wander away but as soon as the cheetah stood up they all turned back and watched it again. Since the gazelle were alerted by the wildebeest behavior and the wildebeest wouldn't leave the cheetah alone the cheetah ended up just walking away. At that point we had watched the cheetah for about an hour and a half and decided to go find something else. It was very interesting though because it made you wonder about all of the challenges that cheetahs face to eat. The whole time I was watching the cheetah all I could think was how amazing it is that cheetahs haven't gone extinct.

After the cheetah we saw a zebra that had been recently attacked. It has scratches on it's neck and shoulder from the encounter. The zebra obviously wasn't feeling very well; it was standing right on the road and didn't move when we drove up.

Tinga Tinga

Today was a non-program day. In the morning I went on a hike to a waterfall. On the drive to the hike Molly was making Mario cart noises as she got stuck driving on the sidewalk (we couldn't find a solid looking bridge to get off the sidewalk and back onto the street), flew over bumps, and chased chickens and goats off the road with the car. Also, every time that we went by cabbage fields El would yell "cabbage!" in a hilarious voice so that just enhanced the drive.

The hike was awesome. We started in a banana farm and then split off into the woods. From there we hiked up a river bed. Because it is the dry season here the river had been reduced to a small stream so there was plenty of exposed rocks to hike on. I absolutely LOVED the waterfall. There wasn't very much water flowing down the falls but it was still really nice. I climbed up as far as I could and then climbed back down, took my shoes off and walked around in the pool at the bottom of the falls. Riverside hikes are my favorite hikes and, even though I'm horribly out of shape, I had a great morning. I only fell once and barely got scraped so it's all good.

After the hike I walked to a painting shop that we had visited last session and asked them if they would teach me how to do a tinga tinga painting. To my surprise they said "yes, of course," invited me in, and set me up with a painter to teach me. They had me pick a canvas first. I picked a square one and the teacher started to sketch the general shapes for me but then I changed my mind and started another one on a long rectangle. As soon as he started drawing the giraffe outline on that canvas I knew that I had made the right call to switch canvases. After sketching a very rough outline of a giraffe, a tree and some birds the painter showed me how to fill in the painting. He would do I little of one section to demonstrate the technique and then I would replicate what he had done and finish painting that part.

First, the tree, giraffe, and bird silhouettes were filled in with black paint. Then the paint had to dry. Drying took about an hour and a half and I watched another painter work and talked to the men who worked at the shop while I waited. The painter was doing knife paintings and he worked impressively quickly. The knife paintings seemed to be all very deliberate randomness. They offered to let me try but I said I would just watch. Once my silhouettes were dry I filled in the shading on the giraffe with a line of white paint spread out with a stiff brush. Then colored in the white sections on the birds as well as the spots on the giraffe. After that I used black paint to fill in the details on the birds and outline the white sections of the animals so that they stood out against the white background. Once this was done I added grass under the giraffe's feet using the same stiff-brushed technique as the shading. Finally I signed my name.

Everyone at the painting shop was amazing. They talked to me as I worked and continuously complimented my work. I think that they were genuinely impressed (one guy asked me if painting was my profession) but maybe they just complement all tourists; either way it was really nice. They also took pictures of me working with my camera so that I would have documentation of the creation process. And they offered me food and got me a coke. I spent about 4 hours in the painting store and they entertained me and taught me the whole time.

The day ended with me running back to the cars with my still-wet painting in my hand because Molly called and said we had to go. I had a great day though. I think that if we go back to Mtu Wa Mbu I will go back to the painting place and ask if I can make another painting :]

Going... Going... Gone for $2,000!

Last night the Olympic Games came to camp. Just before dinner the lights in the dining hall were turned off and dramatic music started to play. Then we started to hear the dinner bell ringing from outside. It got louder until Julia came running into the dining hall. She had a piece of Obama fabric tied as a cape over her shoulders. Marssia was right behind her with an American flag head bandanna on her head and the Olympic "torch" in her hand. The torch was a flashlight with orange and white paper taped around the edges. They ran through one doorway, out the other and then back in through the kitchen entrance.

After dinner we split off into four teams and played vegetable showdown. The counties were Canada, Soviet Russia, Lichtenstein, and Mesopotamia. I was Switzerland because I had a headache and didn't want to play. Vegetable showdown consists of two people basically dueling but when you get three steps away an adjective and vegetable are yelled out and the people have to act them out as best they can. For example, slimy eggplant or athletic lettuce. The competitors were very official and shook hands cordially before dueling.

Our first stop this morning was in a forested area on the side of the road. We discussed the effects of the installment of roads on wildlife. Roadkill is not generally well studied here but just by casual observation it seems that dogs and small nocturnal carnivores (civets and genets) are the most commonly killed species. We learned that one of the main ways that people are trying to decrease roadkill is by building tunnels under roads and bridges over roads that the animals can use. Animals such as hyenas and lions often adopt drainage pipes as homes too so it is becoming a useful habitat component. Elephants are the most interesting animals that we discussed in relation to roads. If you install a bridge once the elephants discover it they will consistently use it and teach their young to use it. They also have been observed imitating road noises in some areas. It is thought that they imitate road noises to help teach their offspring what roads are.

After the short lecture on the road, we walked around in the forested area next to the road for a little while. There were lots of little holes from civets and genets. There were also little balls built by dung beetles left laying around. The main trees were acacias. The most common one is a type that forms a symbiotic relationship with ants. The tree has a bunch of little balls all over it and the ants live in them. The ants help the tree by crawling onto and biting any animals that try to eat the tree. Kioko kept poking at branches to show us that ants and he ended up with ants all over him. We asked him "don't they bite?" and he said "well... yes" and then proceeded to someone frantically try to brush them all off. Haha. He showed us another tree called a sandpaper tree. It had little orange berries all over it. Kioko ate one so I ate one too. It tasted pretty good (just sweet) but was very sticky and immediately started to dry out my mouth. So of course I convinced some other students to eat some. Then we were all practically running back to the car to get  water because our mouths were uncomfortably dry. The sad part was the water didn't really help...

Our second stop was a curio shop where we had been last session. The owner of the shop explained to us about the process of obtaining Tanzanite and other materials that he sells. Tanzanite is green or brownish tinted when it is mined and it is only after a heating process that it turns blue and/or purple. It is considered a semi-precious stone currently but the shop owner believes that it will be given the status of precious soon because there is so little of it that is unmined. Tanzania is the only place in the world where Tanzanite is mined and there is only one place in Tanzania where you can get it.

The third place that we stopped was in a game controlled area outside of Mtu Wa Mbu. We sat under a tree between two maasai bomas for our lecture. The maasai came out of their houses when they heard us drive up. One of the little boys came running out naked with some cloth in his hand; a couple of steps out the door I think he realized he was naked because he skidded to a halt and covered himself sheepishly. The maasai crowded around where we were sitting and I learned later that they thought that the rangers were trying to sell their land to us. Once they figured out that was not the case they just watched us and listened to the rangers talk (they spoke in Swahili and our teachers translated).

The rangers explained to us how their game controlled area worked. The unique aspect of game controlled areas, compared to national parks, is that hunting with a permit is legal in game controlled areas. There are three kinds of permits that are issued: tourist permits, residential permits, and special permits. The price of each permit is based on the animal that the person wants to hunt. A person pays for the number and type of animals that they want to kill and then they are free to hunt that animal (with a ranger) until they kill their approved number or their permit expires (whichever comes first). Tourists can kill any animals except giraffes, cheetahs and rhinos during the hunting season. Giraffes are not killed because they are the national animal and the other two are not killed because they are endangered. Residents can kill animals for sustenance during the hunting season. This means that they can hunt buffalo, wildebeest, antelope species and other prey species that are used as a food source. Special permits are given to important individuals and locals for special occasions. Special permits allow for individuals to kill animals that are not normally hunted and/or animals outside of the hunting season.

The most interesting part of the lecture for me was the prices of the permits to kill certain animals. For a tourist to get a permit to kill a lion is only $2,000. Granted, they have to pay lodging, guide fees, etc, but I thought this was an extremely low price. Considering the rate that the lion population is decreasing I think that the Tanzanian government needs to strongly consider increasing this price or taking lions off of the list of animals that people can legally hunt. An elephant permit costs $15,000 and if the tourist succeeds in killing an elephant they must forfeit the tusks to the authorities. It only costs $250 for a permit to kill a wildebeest. For locals a permit for a buffalo is only 100,000 Tzs (~ $80). I couldn't believe that it was so cheap. It's great for the people though because a buffalo could feed a whole village.

On the drive back I asked Kioko what incentive people had to follow the law and get a permit. He said that killing without a permit could result in jail time or going to court (fines or jail). He also said that taking a ranger with you is often very beneficial. The rangers know the best places to find the animals and are usually very competent with a gun so that if the person with the permit cannot find/kill an animal the ranger usually can.

After lunch we had a computer lab. It consisted of analyzing the data that we had collected on safari so that we could start making our posters. Christian went through everything and then we split off into groups. First Gasper came up and told me he had no idea what was going on. Then Fahaad. Then Moses. So basically I was swarmed by lost East Africans. It was a lot of fun trying to explain what we had to do to them. Gasper was pretty much hopeless but Fahaad just needed general directions and Moses was a very funny mixture of wanting to do it himself and having no idea what he was doing. Gasper also had a computer that was very uncooperative so it made it that much harder to explain everything to him. I had a great time explaining the assignment to them.

Dinner was a dance party. It was awesome. I love the group of students here this session. Someone brought an Ipod dock so various people's ipods were plugged in and we just jammed. We heard everything from build me up buttercup to wagon wheel to earth wind and fire. Everyone was singing along and dancing. Dancing the way you do in your room when no one is watching. It was hilarious. The best dinner I've had here yet.

Unfortunately, during announcements we found out that Yohanna had been in an accident. He was riding a piki piki (motor cycle) and fell off. He has a broken collar bone. I know none of you know Yohanna but he's one of my favorite people here so please send good thoughts his way. He has a newborn baby and could use any help he can get to heal as quickly as possible.

Get Out and Walk

Today we went to Manyara Ranch. It is a protected area where people can graze their animals but can't hunt. The morning wasn't very interesting. We saw a few cool birds, including a go-away-bird, but not much else. The afternoon was awesome though. I was on top of my spotting game.

The first thing I spotted was mostly an accident. I thought it was a waterbuck. Waterbuck are common and that wouldn't have been all that exciting but upon closer inspection we found that it was a lesser kudu. Kudu are very rare in this area and Manyara Ranch is pretty much the only place you can find them. They are large antelope with big twisting horns, thick stripes down their throat and thin stripes on their sides.

The second animal spotting was also an accident. I spotted a pile of bones on the ground and I asked Christian if he could back up a little so I could see what animal it was. He said no, but I could get out and walk over there to check it out. I was shocked because we're hardly ever allowed out of the cars but I wasn't going to miss my chance so I hopped out of the car. The pile appeared to be a dumping area for the maasai boma; it had an equine skull as well as a lot of miscellaneous bones. I was almost done looking at it when I spotted a spotted turtle shell. I thought that was a weird thing to be in that pile so I picked it up. It was alive! It was a leopard tortoise less than the size of my palm (maybe a year old). Christian told us that it was probably eating some of the bone pieces because tortoises require a lot of calcium as they are growing.

The third thing I spotted was the best. I saw these rounded ears sticking out of the grass and I knew that it was some kind of predator. I exclaimed "hyena! no, lion. hyena... predator!" It turned out it was a lioness with 3 cubs. They got up and walked away from up when we stopped but since we were in Manyara Ranch we were allowed to follow them. Christian drove after them and we watched them climb around on the edge of a ravine for a few minutes. It wasn't very good conditions for pictures but it was still awesome to see lions on the move- especially cause I had spotted them!

Notes and Forgotten Moments (2)

1) Giraffes coats get darker as the giraffes age.

2) Lion cubs' noses are black, turn pink, and then turn blacker again with age. You can tell a lion's age by the amount of blackness on its nose. The color of its mane however depends on climate and genetics rather than age. Generally a lion's mane is darker in a cooler climate than in a warmer one.

3) Apparently there was a blue monkey in camp last session. None of us knew about it though. Haha.

4) The fence around camp is a new edition. It was put up because of the hyena attacks in the area. There used to just be bushes lining the property. The fence was only finished a week or so before we arrived.

5) Yohanna is selling bows and arrows in the camp duka. They are very different from bows and arrows that I have used in the US. The bows are made of wood and very stiff. Yohanna showed me that the usually shoot the big bow kneeling and with the bow braced on their knee so that they can get better leverage. The Arrows are much meaner looking than most of those in the US. They varied but the common theme was very nasty looking spikes in the sides of the arrow heads. Yohanna told me that if you shoot some of the more extreme ones into an animal you have to rotate them and shred the flesh around them so that it is possible to pull them out.

6) Many of the maasai have small circles burned onto their cheeks. I asked Yohanna why and he told me that traditionally sick children were given the mark as protection to keep them from getting sick again. It was prescribed by the village medicine man. Today, however, Yohanna said that the burns have become a sort of a fashion statement. Almost all Maasai have the burns as a decorative cultural mark. However, Danson told me that some of the tribes are moving away from the markings because they are moving into towns, modernizing, and sending their children to public schools.

7) This morning there was a white-browed coucal in the dining hall. Martha caught it. I was really excited because I love those birds. They have really intense bright red eyes. It was sad though because the bird was struggling and losing a lot of feathers. I started asking Martha to let it go and Yohanna started yelling at her so she released it out the window. It was a great thing to see first thing in the morning. I didn't even know white-browed coucals lived around our camp.

8) We were doing a field exercise that involved using a couple of measuring stick tied together with a string and a level to create terraces in the land. One of the groups started limboing when they were done with their exercise. It was hilarious to watch.

9) Ninah and Pascal made hats out of some leaves while we were all having a field lecture. The leaves were fuzzy and almost had a velcro interaction when they were stuck together. It was so funny that I think most of us were watching them more than Mwamhanga (the teacher).

Schule

For our community service we had to come up with an activity to do with the kids at the primary school. The requirements were that it had to be educational somehow and wildlife related. After much discussion, we decided to describe animals to the kids and then have them guess what they are. Danson, one of the Kenyan students, and Gasper, one of the Tanzanian students, helped me translate the descriptions into swahili. That was a very interesting process because Gasper put so much thought into it. Before he translated everything he discussed the english sentence with me to make sure he understood the meaning and then he would talk to Danson and determine the best translation. He also kept wanting me to change the order in which the statements were made. I'm not really sure what his thought process was but I just put everything in the order he wanted. It took at least an hour for us to come up with five animal descriptions with translations that everyone was happy with. Haha.

When we presented our game to the group the kids really liked it. They caught on quickly and started hopping in their seats and waving their hands in the air as we described the animals. One kid who looked to be about half of the age of the others would figure out all of the animals after our first or second sentence and then proceed to wiggle around until we finished and either called on her or someone else. Another kid guessed totally random and wrong animals every time. It was really cute.

After we were done with our game we asked the kids if they wanted to teach us anything. They said a song and then sang four or five songs for us. Most of them were songs in english that were similar to those that I sang as a kid (if you're happy and you know it and one like the wheels on the bus except they sang about getting ready in the morning). After the songs they formed a circle and sang and danced. Then we split off into smaller groups and played duck duck goose. It ended up being a mixture of duck duck goose and tembo tembo simba (the version we'd taught them last time). After a little while that died off and we played land rover (red rover). I felt bad because the little kids were getting beat up when we played. One kid got knocked flat on her face and started sobbing. I brushed her off as best I could but she didn't seem comforted so I just let her get over it. After a little while she was laughing at the rest of us so I guess she was okay. I also played the hokey pokey so that the younger kids could participate. They thought that was great; especially when I stuck my butt in :D After the hokey pokey we played hand games. Someone taught the kids hand clapping games and they had to remind me how to play; I haven't played since I was about their age.


When our time was up the kids walked us back to camp. They shook our hands, gave us high fives, took pictures with us and said goodbye about a million times. One kid came up to me and grabbed my hand like we were having a thumb war but just pressed against my hand as hard as she could. I pushed back and made faces and noises like I was pushing as hard as I could. She thought that was hilarious and kept saying "tena! tena!" (again! again!). Then she said "tosha" (enough), walked away, and then turned around and came back again a couple of minutes later to do it again. Finally I said "tosha tosha" and escaped back into camp.

Nyani Tea Party

Yesterday we worked on papers pretty much all day. We got to chose our topic so I did mine in zebra habitat use, behavior and associations with other animals. Kioko gave me an awesome book to use as a resource called Portraits in the Wild: Animal Behavior in East Africa by Cynthia Moss. I think I'll need to buy it when I get home. Its a very well written book full of interesting behavior information.

Today we went to Tarangire National Park. This time our car didn't get attacked by tse tse flies! It was so much better than last time.

The best part of the day was when we were in the middle of a herd of elephants. One of them was sniffing us. That meant it was staring at us with its ears fanned out and its trunk straight up in the air. Then a baby came up and was copying it. We started the car to move away and it scared the baby. I have two pictures in a row: one of the baby sniffing and one of it with its trunk still up in the air but its mouth dropped open and its tongue sticking out in surprise. Its a very funny sequence. The other awesome part was when we started the car it upset one of the older females and she started threatening our car. She stuck her ears out, trumpeted, and started walking towards us. Then some other elephants who were a little farther away got upset too and started threatening our car also. It was really cool. We were supposed to be counting the elephants and getting distance readings of how far they were from the car so I was just like, "Ninah, can we stop when its safe?"

I had my first bush bathroom break. I had to wait for a time when there were no cars going by because if someone catches you out of the car in the park you can get a huge fine. I also had to pee right next to the car because there were impala, zebra, and elephants pretty close to us so it was too dangerous to go behind a bush.

We stopped at a lodge for lunch. I saw the East African students taking a group picture so I ran over and offered to take it for them so they could all be in it. After that I got in a picture myself. We gave Moses the camera and boy was that a mistake. Apparently Moses is not very technology savvy. First he was holding the camera upside down. Then he didn't adjust the zoom so the pictures were just of one of the guy's crotches. We finally got a decent picture but it was absolutely a hilarious mess. I have never had so much trouble taking a group picture.

On the drive back to camp Ninah told me all about my future and his. He told me that I had to stay in Tanzania. I had to marry a Tanzanian man and get a job in tourism. He also told me that he is building a house in Karatu and is going to have baboons and cheetahs in his house. He said that he is going to train a baboon to drink tea and eat lunch and dinner. According to Ninah you can train a baboon to do everything in four years and if I come to his house to visit in two years his baboon will say "Hello. How are you?" I asked him if he would have a dik dik and he said "No, only happy animals. Maybe a simba." I don't know where Ninah gets these stories from but I love it. He is always entertaining :]

African Mama

This morning we interviewed the community. We had a local guide and translator who helped us to communicate with the people that we stopped to talk to. Our guide this time was very friendly and he looked about 13 but he was 18. After our interviews when we were walking back he took out his phone and started playing a Lil' Wayne song. We talked about music and jammed as we walked back to camp. Then one of our cars drove by so we all crammed in. There were four of us in the back seat and the driver as well as two guides in the front seat. I kept relaxing as we went over bumps so that I was squishing the people next to me. It was very fun.

Before lunch I went to the tailor and picked up the clothes I had ordered. My pants and shirt were ready. They are great. The pants are blue with yellow birds (chickens?) and eggs. The shirt is green with a paisley-type pattern. It's prettier than paisley but I don't really know how to describe it... The pants are pajamas. I am SOOOO excited to have pajama pants with pockets: do you realize how hard that is to find in the US? The shirt is a kind of dressy shirt with a collar and elbow length sleeves. I was so excited about my clothes that I just kept them on as I walked back to camp.

On the way back to camp I stopped at Yohanna's house. Yohanna's wife had a baby the day that the session one students left. She and the baby just got home from the hospital a day or two ago. When we asked Yohanna what the baby's name was he said Black Mzungu (black white person) and he said that he was going to get her a camera and sunglasses so that she could be a mzungu. It was hilarious. Then we asked him what her name really is and he said "Leslie the Great." I thought he was kidding about that too but today when I asked his wife the baby's name she told me it is Leslie. One of the students last session was named Leslie and she told him if he had a girl he had to name her Leslie and, unless this is an extremely elaborate joke on the students, he really did as she asked.

The primary school children were on lunch break so there were a bunch of them walking down the road. A lot of them ran up to me, said hi, shook my hand, asked me how I was and what my name was. I answered them, reciprocated their questions and told them I would see them later. One group of girls started running with their arms spread for hugs when they saw me. I gave them all hugs and they showed me the lip gloss that they all had on. One of them pulled the lip gloss out of her pocket and wanted to put it on me. I leaned down and she did my lips for me. The girls loved that :D

When I got to lunch I told the staff "I am African today." Cecelia told me that if I took some charcoal and painted my face then maybe I could be African. I laughed and said "Oh yea, I'll need a head scarf to cover my hair too." Gasper, one of the Tanzanian students, told me that I looked like an African mama.

Coffee Coffee Coffee

This morning the rest of the group went hiking to the elephant caves but because we had already been there we went to Gibb's farm. Gibb's is a coffee farm and resort. The first place we went when we got there was the bathroom and even that was impressive; there were two rolls of toilet paper (one hanging on each wall) in the stall and a gorgeous view looking out over the farm from the sinks.

We just walked up and hoped that someone had time to give us a tour. Luckily they had a guide free to give one. The best part it was free except for the tip we gave our guide.

The guide took us through the organic gardens first. They had everything there from herbs to vegetables to fruit. They had two types of thyme, oregano, parsley, basil, rosemary, dill, mint, broccoli, artichokes, squash, turnips, carrots, lettuce, spinach, peas, string beans, chili peppers, chives, tree tomatoes (they are most similar to pomegranate as far as I can describe them), rhubarb, strawberries, papaya, bananas and, of course, coffee! The best part was that we could try everything. I ate some kind of flower that is used as a garnish, thyme (lemon and normal), oregano, parsley, mint, peas, string beans, tree tomatoes, and strawberries. I also licked raw coffee beans: they have a sugary taste to them. The tree tomatoes were surprisingly bitter but once you got to the inside the seeds were good. The strawberry that I had was probably the best strawberry I've ever had in my life. The guide was awesome because when we liked something he would just pick more of it for us. I couldn't believe it because we were not paying guests. I hope I didn't get giardia or anything from eating raw unwashed food. Time will tell I guess...

After we finished in the gardens we went to see the animals that they kept. They had pigs, donkeys and cows. They kill one pig every two weeks at a butcher block that they have there on the farm. They keep the cattle for milk. The animals ranged in age from newborn to full grown breeding adults and I was generally impressed with the conditions that they were kept under.

Once the tour was over we browsed the gift shop and ordered some coffee. The coffee was delicious. I don't even like coffee that much but I was so satisfied when we left. And it was only $2 for two large cups of locally grown freshly brewed coffee.

After we finished our coffee we met back up with the rest of the group and headed to Karatu. I was so confused when we got to Karatu because we came into town a different way than usual. It took we pretty much all day to figure out that we were in an area of town that I actually know. It was depressing how lost I was just because we came into town a different way.

The best part about Karatu was going to Fahaad's house. Fahaad is one of the East African students and Karatu is his home town. We got to meet his mother, father, brothers, sister and a handful of extended family members. They were all extremely nice and their house was very nice too. They owned a compound area that was built in a U shape that included living space, toilets, and covered garage-like areas where they kept machines to process food. Faahad invited us all into his room- which, by the way, was big enough to hold two full size beds, a couch and a coffee table- and brought us sodas. People here are so hospitable and polite. Fahaad and his family told us that the giraffe is the national animal of Tanzania because it is peaceful and polite like the people of Tanzania. I will miss the people here so much when I have to go home. Before we left Fahaad's middle brother rapped for us and his youngest brother sang us a couple of songs that he had learned in school. Then we got a picture with his whole family and they told us that we could come back and visit even if Fahaad wasn't there.

My Awesome African Birthday

Around 3 am this morning I woke up and was so excited about my birthday that it took me forever to fall back to sleep.

This morning for breakfast we had banana bread (which I love) so I was very happy.

At 7:30 sharp we headed to Manyara National Park. We saw so many dik diks in the park. I think that they knew that it was my birthday and I love them so they placed themselves in visible areas. Haha. We also saw lots of giraffes and elephants. And rock hyraxes. I've never seen them in Manyara before today. We saw mongooses too. They were funny to watch because they were constantly running around and vigorously digging.

After the park we went to Pizza Point for lunch :] I ate a whole pizza by myself and enjoyed every bite of it.

From Pizza Point we headed to the orphanage. Finding out that our community service project was at the orphanage today was a present in itself. I love the orphanage and the children there. The kids are amazing. They are getting comfortable in their new home and they remembered me. They were calling my name :D I helped paint a zebra on the wall of one the bedrooms. Some other students painted lions, a cheetah, and elephant holding baloons, flowers and bugs. After I was done painting I went outside and played with the kids. Isa braided my hair again and when he was done Baraka, another kid, gave me a wonderful side pony tail.

The kids were very rowdy and they completely exhausted me. They wanted to be carried, swung around and danced with. It was a blast. They found the music on my phone and started playing that. They loved the music and were very happy to find my African playlist. I found some very funny videos on my phone of the kids dancing that other kids had taken. In order to escape and get a drink of water I shoved my phone in my pocket and danced away. They thought that was funny and most of them let me go and found another mzungu to bother.

When I walked to the car to get my water and take a break they followed me looking for music and pictures. One of the kids stole my water bottle and tried to drink from it; the top was on so no water came out though. He was really confused and tried to drink from the bottom too before figuring out he had to unscrew the top and chugging down the rest of my water in three or four gulps. I pretty much just stood there and watched him in shock. Haha.

When it was time to go the kids walked me to the car and gave me big hugs before I got in. I can't wait to see them again!

I slept most of the ride back to camp and then we had a little down time before dinner when we got back. I took time to look through my pictures from the day and take a shower. Well, the water was freezing so I washed my hair under the faucet and wiped the rest of me off with wipes. It was close enough to a shower: in the end I was clean.

I was the guest of honor at dinner because it was my birthday. I walked in the dining hall and everyone cheered and yelled happy birthday. There were ribbons and balloons hanging from the ceiling and a special seat just for me. My seat had balloons on the back and ribbons, a candle, a bouquet of flowers,and a birthday card on the table in front of it. The flowers were beautiful and the card was cute. I especially loved the messages that the other students wrote in the card; they ranged from simple to funny to sweet. It was really funny because when I got in line for food no one had set there things down next to my seat (meaning it was looking like I was going to have to eat along) but luckily people joined me once they got their food.

I got bumped to the front of the food line because it was my birthday. It was funny though because I walked up to the front of the line and said "they said I have to come up here and cut in because it's my birthday" and one of the girl's responses was "can you cut behind me?"

After dinner there were more festivities. The RAP activity was a song that the camp staff sings a lot. When the MOD did the demo he did a special version for my birthday:

"Jambo, jambo bwana
habari gani
mzuri sana

Wageni, mwakaribishwa,
Tanzania hakuna matata

Lisa hakuna matata"

And then Burrah, the ascari who always sings the song, didn't know they did it special because of my birthday added "Courtney hakuna matata." It was really cute and I just sang along.

Next was cake time. The lights were turned off and the cook crew came out carrying a cake (with candles of course) and singing. They set the cake down in front of me and I tried to blow out the candles; unfortunately they were trick candles so even after about 4 attempts they kept coming back. African trick candles are much more interesting than American trick candle; they shoot off sparks like sparklers occasionally. It's a little scary :]

Once we dealt with the candles I could finally get to the cake itself. There was a nice border on one side but on the other side the end of the word birthday fell off the cake (it actually said birthda). When I was laughing at this Molly explained that because I requested special frosting they didn't make enough to cover the whole cake and they had to cut off about an inch on one end. The frosting was amazing. I requested chocolate and they made a chocolate butter cream frosting. In my opinion that made it the best cake we have had in Tanzania and I ate multiple very large pieces.

Some people had very interesting cake eating habits. I was given a hard time about serving others before myself but I love middle pieces so I gave out the edges I had to cut to get to the middle. Kioko didn't want any frosting so he cut a piece and then left the frosting. Molly only wanted the frosting so she ate his frosting plus a little more that she cut off the top of another piece. For a while the frostingless piece looked sad and lonely but then another girl happily ate it. The best was after most people were done one of the girls came and sat across from me and was scraping the remaining frosting edges off of the aluminum foil. She ate a LOT of frosting and later commented "Ugh, I feel like I have a brick in my stomach."

My favorite way that I was told happy birthday today was the way Courtney said it to me. She walked up to me, took my hands, and very seriously said "I have something I've been meaning to tell you... Happy birthday!!" I was so worried she had something serious to tell me. Haha.

After dinner we all sat around the fire. The Kenya students tried to teach us how to do traditional Maasai dances. We were all pretty horrible at it, especially the woman's dance with requires a lot of shoulder shaking. I was laughing too hard to really make a solid attempt at the moves or the grunting-type sounds that accompanied the dance. Ninah also tried to teach us a song. It was a really pretty song and from what I could understand it was about loving Tanzania. We did okay until about 4 lines in and then we all collapsed into laughter because everyone butchered the words so badly. Ninah said he would write down the lyrics for us later so that we could learn it properly.

So, basically I had an amazing birthday and I am going to bed happy. Nala salama.

Coconuts

Today we went to Lake Manyara Park. We saw a lot more animals than the first time we went to Manyara last session; I hope that's a good omen for the rest of the trip. I'm exhausted right now and my stomach hurts so I'm not going to go into details but there wasn't a lot of new or super exciting stuff. We were asking about the palm trees so Joseph, the driver, got out of the car and grabbed on of the nuts for us. Everyone was like "oh no! What are you doing? Don't get eaten!" I kept the nut so i can open it later and see what its like. Later we saw an eagle owl which is a large owl with pink eye lids. That was really cool. We also saw a young elephant who wasn't very good with his trunk. He kept trying to pull up grass but it wasn't working so he'd use his foot to kick the grass loose as he pulled and then eat it. It was very smart of him. I'm really excited for tomorrow. We're going to Manyara in the morning, to pizza point for lunch and then to the orphanage to volunteer and help them paint in the afternoon. And it's my birthday! I'm so excited that we have a good schedule for my birthday!

Poo poo poo

We are the gopher girls. We always go fer guys but they never go fer us. We don't know why...

^ That's my new favorite song that I learned today. At the end you stick your front teeth out and make a rodent noise.

Our focus today for class was dung. We spent all morning learning about animal poop. Then in the afternoon we went to Lake Manyara and walked transects looking at poop samples. They gave us bags of samples from 5 or 6 different species and we carried them around to use for comparisons as we found our own samples. It was actually really fun. The Kenya students were hilarious because they kept playing with the poop like it was a soccer ball. They were kicking and juggling chunks of poop. They also talked to the Maasai kids who were herding cattle a lot. The kids were very interesting because there was something about them that made them seem like miniature adults more than kids...

I generally love this group of students. I actually feel bad when I'm "antisocial" and go off and do my own thing for a little while.

Oh! I learned how to play bao today! Bao is the game that I bought last session. It is similar to mancala and one of the Tanzanian students taught me to play. I kicked his butt. Beginners luck I guess.