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 :]