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.