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.