Cultural Bomas, Orphanage Visit, and Tarangire National Park

2/16/12

Mambo!

Hope you all are doing well! A lot happens here every day so once again I have a lot to write about. 

Last week(or a few days ago? Not even sure what day this happened) we got up early in the morning, ate breakfast, and went to visit a Maasai boma (the swahili word for homestead). I was really looking forward to this because ive been really interested in their culture and was thinking we would really get to see what their lives are like. Unfortunately, I left a bit disappointed. We drove up in the trucks, unloaded, and were greeted by two men in multiple layers of traditional maasai fabric. The fabrics are mainly different variations of blue and red plaid, but oranges and purples are often thrown in the mix as well. The fabric hangs down to their ankles and flaps fervently in the strong winds of the open shrubland. They shook our hands and we walked down towards the area where the boma’s (huts basically) were situated. A line of adult women were also dressed in layers upon layers of fabrics in vivid colors, and wore white circular disks of beads around their necks, with long beaded ear pieces hanging from gaping holes in their earlobes. Their heads were shaved and atop the smooth dark skin was another beaded piece that resembled a sort of crown. It is difficult to describe, but know that they looked beautiful. They sang us a song and the only man who knew some English told us that “this is a song to welcome students, to wish you well in your studies.” Yeah, right. Im positive that it was just a song that they use to welcome all tourist groups that come visit, as this boma was almost explicitly funded by tourism. We asked them questions while one of our amazing staffers who is Masai translated the language for us, and then took the shortest tour of my life around the village. We went into their huts, which were said to sleep 4 adults plus their children, and I was baffled that it was even possible to fit that many people inside there standing up, let along sleeping! The tour was given silently as they knew no English and we knew none of their language, and it before we knew it we were being directed to the nicest, largest building yet, which housed hundreds of beaded trinkets they urged us forcefully to buy.   As always, the tour had turned into a “come over here, seemingly rich white Americans, and buy things from us” trip, and I was a little annoyed. But, the items were beautiful and I knew exactly where the profits were going, so even though I had seen every item in other variations in the markets of karatu I bought some bracelets and such. Overall we learned very little of their culture, got to observe no part of their real life, and barely interacted with the people that live there. Oh well, it was still a neat experience and im happy I went.

Later that afternoon we had community service at a local orphanage. This was one of my favorite activities so far! The small cluster of buildings was home to over 40 orphans under the age of 9 I believe, and not a joke every single Tanzanian child I have seen here is the cutest child I have EVER SEEN. And I don’t even like kids very much? But I LOVE these kids. They welcomed us by singing “if you’re happy and you know it” in English and clearly did not know what it meant but it was so cute. They sang a few other songs and then a group went to the boy’s room to paint the walls with lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Im not the best artist so I stayed with the group that was going to cement a floor, except that never happened cause the stuff never showed up. So, I ended up playing with the kids for about 4 hours, and one little boy in particular attached himself to my hip like ive been his life-long babysitter. He also had a strange fascination with my watch, pressing all 5 buttons on it simultaneously, thus making none of them have an effect. He was so cuteeeee, they all were, and we read them stories, played soccer, twirled and swung them around, and other things kids love to do. They all just wanted to play and be loved! So I adopted one.

Kidding. You have to live here two years to be able to adopt a Tanzanian child(fun fact).  The orphanage has a tough time as the number of children coming to live there increases every year. They started with 20 and now have over 40. All of the children’s parents died of AIDs and none of the children contracted it, as was confirmed after being tested by a doctor before moving in there. I was so moved by the caretakers there, such amazing people who have such big hearts. They support so many children and get paid very little, as there is hardly enough to feed everyone for the week, how would they be taking home large salaries? It’s unreal the sacrifices they make for these children, and it really puts my life into perspective. Would I be willing to sacrifice so much for 40 children that aren’t mine, with more arriving every day?  Inspiring. Emma, one of the students with SFS, brought some recorders for the kids to have and I feel pretty bad for the caretakers, having to listen to a bunch of kids with recorders shrieking nonsense musical notes around the orphanage. The kids loved it though. We are going back which im so excited for! Also ill be buying some beautiful paintings and trinkets that the caretakers make and sell to make money for food and clothing, etc. 

The next day we had a non-program day, where we went for a bike ride tour around Mtu Wambu(a local town) and biked through lake manyara national park! It was magical, let me tell you, as a line of bikers wound down thin animal path as a group of wildebeest ran next to us, and zebras grazing not 70m from us. Amazing.

I also worked on my bartering skills in Mtu wambu, getting fabric and other trinkets for good prices. Yay me! The trick is to walk away and they come after you with lower prices, then walk away again, and finally get it around where you want. Or to say, “I only have ____ amount. Sorry, guess I cant buy it!” and walk away. “I will sell you for that price!” they hastily reply before you get too far. Its working pretty well. Some of the fabrics I bought that day ive taken to a tailor to have made into dresses, I get them back in a week! Exciting!

The day after thaaaat(yeah, a busy couple of days that I should have posted about already) we went to Tarangire national park. My favorite park yet, easily. Its basically an open bush/shrub land, so there are trees and shrubs scattered throughout grasslands. It was just so…African. I would estimate I saw about 200 elephants that day, half of them within 100m of my truck. At one point there was a large female in the distance with two little grey mounds that didn’t even reach above the grass. As we continued to watch we realized she was with two of the smallest baby elephants I have ever seen! They were only about a week old, our guide guessed, and we watched as they followed her towards the larger group browsing on trees and grass. We also saw giraffes, impala, wildebeest, and more. still no big cats though ughhh. although we are guaranteed to see them when we to to Ngorongoro and Serengeti. After the safari/data gathering ride through the park we stopped at a resort located in the heart of the park, and it was unreal. We walked in to a large, open lobby with large, comfortable chairs and the area exuded the vibe "I have money, i wanted to see some elephants, and so i pay a thousand dollars a night so i can do it in extreme comfort". There was no wall and you would walk outside to the porch, which looked out onto the park with herds of elephants grazing in the distance, giraffes drinking from a stream, and birds flying through the air. It was unreal, it looked like a computer desktop background. 

We went swimming and ordered some nachos, which were the biggest joke of a plate of food worth 6USD ive ever experienced. Literally 6 taco chips, scarcely sprinkled with cheese and 3 sliced olives. In the middle sat a pathetic teaspoon of watery “salsa.” Seriously resort restaurant? We also found out, after we had already swam, that it costs money to use the pool. Uhh…what? We had clearly already swam though, and thus couldn’t get out of paying for it. That is a common theme here, you will do something and they don’t tell you a price till after you have already eaten or done it, thus making sure you cant back out. But it was actually a really great, relaxing experience there, though striking it its stark contrast to the rural setting we are used to. Caucasian Europeans want to safari in luxury and comfort, let me tell you, aka apparently they are willing to pay a dollar a chip. 

I have more to write about but will in the next post. This is already super long. I suppose that is what you should come to expect from this blog, eh?

Badai! (see you later!)

Natalie

Leaving the honeymoon phase

2/10/12

Mambo! (whats up!) to which you reply- Poa! ( which means ‘cool’, but that’s just how your respond)

I have a lot to write about in this post cause it’s been awhile, so sorry for the length in advance.

Last week we had our first safari trip to Lake Manyara National Park, and it was such an amazing experience. We piled into large, 8 seater green trucks and drove down to the bottom of the manyara escarpment(we live on the top of it) to the entrance of the park. Then it was time to put our roofs up! You can lift up the entire top of the trucks and then stand on the seats and look out at everything around you. Really awesome. It was finally time to drive into the park on the dirt roads, with dust being kicked up everywhere and dense forest vegetation on either side of the road. It was an overwhelming amount of visual and audible stimuli, and its really difficult to explain how beautiful this place is. Definitely not what I imagined for a safari trip; I imagined pretty much a desert with very few trees and being able to see animals everywhere. Instead, there were many different types of habitats that we drove through (acacia woodland, riverine vegetation, grasslands, etc). We had three different assignments to do while we were in the trucks, but all I wanted to do was take pictures and observe!! Unfortunately that wasn’t possible, so on my neck I juggled my camera with my large telephoto lens, my binoculars, my sunglasses, my hat, and in my hands I had my clipboard, a notebook, a safari field guide, and a pen. Overwhelming. But I was too excited by what I was seeing to care! We saw elephants(about 7 feet from our truck!!! Amazing!!), giraffes,zebras, warthogs, buffalo, baboons(tons!), vervet monkeys, dik-diks(which are about 2 feet tall, adorable little deer-like ungulates), lots of impala, some amazing birds, and more. Its really quite magical as you drive through this place, with the top half of your body out of the roof of the truck, snapping pictures fervently, and there are these white butterflies that are so numerous its like you are constantly driving through flower petals falling from the sky. Its so amazing. On the horizon are mountains and the top of the escarpment, with baobab and acacia trees everywhere. The trees are so stunning and some look as if they are sculpted from clay. In the grassland area near the lake(which is so vast) there were so many zebras and water buffalo. Flamingoes dotted the lake and flew up in groups every few minutes. I got some pretty good pictures and am very excited to show them to you all!

                

 The second day we went back to Lake Manyara NP and focused on studying and observing olive baboon behavior. This consisted of driving until we found a troop of baboons(a group,  stopping and observing them until they retreated to the forest where we could no longer see them, taking notes every 5 mintues. These guys are so cool, with very interesting social interactions. And the babies are so adorable!! I had to write a scientific paper on my observations that I just handed in yesterday, and I think it went pretty well.

Okay. So a few days after that we had a non-program day, meaning we didn’t have class. So, you would think we would just get to laze around right? Nope! They had activities planned all day that we could choose to sign up for, but OF COURSE im going to sign up for all of them! I don’t want to miss anything!

First we went to Karatu, a town near us that is bigger than Rhotia(I was mistaken in a previous post. We are not in karatu,  our camp is in Rhotia. Sorry about that). We were let loose to explore and buy things if we so desired. As soon as we got out of the cars we had at least 7 people surrounding us trying to make friends or sell things to us. I could tell their items were mass produced, but they all insisted that they made them themselves or their grandmothers made them or stories like that. I didn’t fall for it. We ventured away in a smaller group to try to avoid seeming as touristy, but lets be real. Everyone knew we were tourists. We walked off the main road and explored little alleys and side streets with shops selling fruits, fabrics, clothing, toiletries, etc. Overall everyone was very friendly, but we still had people following us. One was very nice, his name was Christian, and he helped us learn the name of various fruits as we explored this really fantastic food market. He actually didn’t try to sell us anything, which was nice of him. I bought some fabric in karatu which is really beautiful, I think I may have it made into a dress by one of the tailors here.

Then we went to the Karatu market, a few minutes away, which only happens once a month. We drove up to a large, open area with dust clouds hanging in the air and hundreds of people congregating everywhere. We were told we had 45 minutes, and then had to be back at the cars. 45 minutes seemed like so little time at the beginning, but in retrospect any longer than that would have been way to overwhelming! This was the strangest experience of my life to date. It went something like this:

We stepped out of the car and IMMEDIATELY  5 men were around us shoving necklaces, bracelets, and t-shirts in our faces. “Hapana, asante” (no, thank you) we replied meekly, afraid to offend. Myself and two others were on a mission to find maasai fabric, but were unsure where to start. Around the perimeter of the main area(consisting of hoards of people with various items placed out on large tarps), there were people selling cattle at auctions, radio stations rapping to audiences, and tons of people conversing and sitting on bikes. We started to venture into the thick of it, and already had a group of about 15 men following us, trying to sell us things. One passing man blatantly tried to pickpocket beth, luckily she had nothing for him to take, and after that we kept a very tight hand and eye on our bags. One very forward man, who I am POSITIVE I saw in karatu as well(how did he get here so fast??) asked us directly “what are you looking for?” and I replied “fabric.” He set off in a brisk pace and motioned for us to follow. Winding through tarps, meat cooking on sticks over fires, various smells of spices being sorted, and clouds of dust we finally arrived at a tarp with at least a hundred different types of fabric. “what color do you want?” he asked me. “im not sure. I am just looking” I replied.

“take your time” he said, and then proceeded to literally bombard me with choices. “what about this one? Very pretty! This one? Or this one! This has that color you touched before. You want that color? All these are that color! What color do you want? This is a nice one, very cheap. I sell you for good price. Very cheap. This one? You like that one? I have this one too. Look at this”

IT WAS THE MOST OVERWHELIMG THING I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. Dude! Just let me look! I then told him I wanted maasaii fabric, and he set off again to find another tarp. Here he did the same thing, but I actually found something I wanted. After bartering with him to get the price down, I got a large piece of, beautiful purple fabric for about 20 USD. I’m so excited about it. But, we still had a group of people trying  to sell us things, following us, staring at us, etc. and I felt like I just needed to get OUT. So we walked to the outside, and some still followed us. At this point we had gotten used to forcefully saying “HAPANA.” (NO.) and then they finally took us seriously, walking away in disappointment.

After the market we went to a place to get some food, and I got a cheeseburger and some beer, which was great at the time! Later that night…not so much. Definitely not used to eating that much red meat and rich foods, so it hit my stomach pretty hard. A lot of people weren’t feeling so hot that night.

Since then I have actually been feeling pretty rough. These past three days I have had abdominal pain, nausea, loss of appetite, and achiness. Havent been eating much lately, but at least now I can be around the dining hall during meals, meaning the smells don’t make me nauseous! Yay! Improvement! Still can only stomach fruit though, and am working up to bread. It seems a lot of people are having these problems. Perhaps just now our bodies are realizing and catching up to the fact that we are going to be eating the same things for some time, and are just getting used to it.

Im leaving the’ honeymoon’ phase of being abroad now, and starting to hit a low point actually. Feeling homesick for my family, friends, bed, normal food, normal activities. You wouldn’t believe how much I miss cheese. Like, seriously. I am really trying to push through these feelings though, knowing I’m just getting adjusted. In the meantime, email me about your lives cause it makes me really happy to hear what you have been up to. I may not get back to you for awhile, but trust that I do read them!

Im off to write a paper on the effects of poaching on zebra populations. Interesting  stuff! To me, at least. 

UPDATE: wrote this post while our internet was out. it just came back a bit ago, so now i can post! update, i am no longer sick! huzzah! 3 days of feeling REALLY crummy and pretty homesick and now im feeling way better. lifted spirits, can eat the food again, and my papers are written! tomorrow we get to visit a rural maasai village and volunteer at an orphanage. im SO EXCITEDDDD. 

Also, today we had a traditional maasai goat roast! Johanna, one of the staff who is so knowledgeable and amazing(he is maasai and grew up in a very rural village in the typical maasai community you can read about) did it for us and it was really interesting. I watched the process the entire way though, and then ate some ribs and leg. Dont be grossed out, its actually way less gross to me than eating factory produced meats at mcdonalds. I like knowing where my meat comes from! 

Love,

Natalie

Classes and Adorable Schoolchildren

Jambo rafiki,

All is well here in Tanzania. Its 9:45pm and im getting ready to go to bed. My schedule is so different here than it is at school, normally I would go to bed at 1am and wake up at 9:30am, now I go to bed at 10pm and wake up at 6:30am. I have no problem waking up though, surprisingly, as the birds are very active in the early morning and the roosters crow incessantly.

Today we had lots of class, 5 hours of it. The most we've had so far. We had wildlife management where we basically learned methods to collect data in the field and count animals, estimating population densities and other trends in wildlife from observations alone. We practiced estimating distances and then checking them with a rangefinder; I can now put on job applications that I am a skilled estimator of distances between 10 and 50 meters. Nice. We also had our economic and policy class today with a very heated discussion on how we should balance the interests and basic needs of local communities with the goals of conservation efforts to conserve wildlife. It's a really tough issue to address; as humans we have every right to focus on the short term and address the needs of the people and communities here so that they have access to basic necessities like food, water, shelter, etc. That being said, we as conservationists look in the long term and recognize the need to find sustainable ways to keep ecosystems healthy for years to come, which ultimately helps the communities as well if they have access to the resources or are the ones managing the resources. Its just difficult, putting yourself in the shoes of a family that lives here, what is going to be more important? Providing food for your family for the week, or protecting elephants and lions that eat your crops and cattle in the name of conservation? We are working to try to develop a way to encourage the communities here to invest in conservation efforts and invest in the wildlife and resources so that although they are the ones that pay the price for conservation, they are also those that receive the benefits. But, we have to avoid forcing ourselves upon them and into their lives, informing them what to do, or telling them what they are doing is "wrong" or whatever else. That is not how we want to interact with the community and that isn't how we want to work towards sustainability. Undoubtedly it was people coming in and displacing them from their land(ahem the Berlin Conference. if you don't know what it is I suggest you look it up), disrupting their traditional management and tenure systems, and imposing the western way of life onto these various cultures that initially sparked a lot of the issues we are dealing with today. Instead we hope to be sort of mediators, and help to further community conservation efforts where locals, who know the most about the areas, can lead the way towards conservation.

After class I went for a walk with two friends to practice using our binoculars on moving targets. Well, that was the goal we set out with...but that didn't happen. At all. Instead, as we walked towards the school yard, mobs of little adorable children came bounding towards us, all smiles and open arms. We were bombarded with greetings and it was a bit overwhelming to be honest. They were all absolutely adorable and so sincere and warm, but the sheer number of them was intimidating! Three of us and about 50 children! They pushed to be the one who got to hold our hand, give us hugs, and look through our cameras and binoculars. So many little faces staring up at me, unable to communicate more than hello's and names. Little Martha kept wanting me to pick her up, but I unfortunately couldn't hold her, hold hands with 10 others, and hang on to my binoculars at the same time! If they couldn't hold my hand they would hold my arm, and some even started rubbing my skin, giggling at the freckles and white hair. Some even began to smell my arm, which was strange, but then I realized I had just put on sunscreen that probably smelled really floral. It was still a strange experience though, although they were clearly just curious. After 45 minutes of being swarmed with adorable we said "kwa heri rafiki!" (goodbye friend!) and pushed our way out of the group, some of them following us and holding our hands all the way back to the gate of our camp. Ive never experienced anything like that before, ever, but although overwhelming they all meant no harm and were so darn cute.

Later I went for a "run" with some other friends, and I put run in quotations because it was hardly that. One mile loop on a dirt path around the outside of the camp, and I was pretty much dying. The elevation was really affecting my body. Difficulty breathing and muscle cramps as if I had already run 6 miles! Its definitely something ill have to work up to, some people are already going 5 laps and inviting me along, no way!

After dinner we played a game around the campfire, I feel like i'm at sleep-a-way camp for college students haha.
Oh the only other thing I can note is that I think I am either allergic to something here or have a sun rash? Its only on my forearms and itches mildly, but i'm waiting for it to go away it looks so strange and spotty. Ick. But if thats the worst of my medical issues I definitely cannot complain! 

oh also, we figured out that we actually have hot water in the bandas! there's a switch you turn on and it heats it!! Life's little pleasures, I no longer have the instinct to hold my breath when I shower.

Tomorrow we go to Lake Manyara National Park for our first field expedition. I AM SO EXCITED. Ill report on what its like in the next blog post!

-Natalie

Getting Settled

2/1/12

Jambo!

Habari gani? 

I have now been at the Moyo hills camp in tanzania for a few days, and am starting to get adjusted to the time zone, the schedule, the heat, and the general daily life here. And guess what! My luggage came! Yay! Life is good. I wake up at about 6:45, as breakfast is at 7, and surprisingly I have no problem getting out of bed in the mornings. The nights are cool, perfect temperature for sleeping with a blanket, and the mornings refreshing. We wake up to roosters crowing, cows mooing, and numerous beautiful and rhythmic bird calls from the trees around us. Very similar to any rural area you would see in wisconsin, so its interesting to see that rural is pretty much rural wherever you are. At night I often wake up to the sounds of hyena talking and howling, not in a particularily aggressive way but simply being active. The sun begins to rise after 7 and the camp is illuminated in bright sun yet cool enough to be extremely comfortable. I crawl out of my mosquito net from the top bunk and the breakfast bell rings to signal food is ready. During the day it gets really warm around 2pm, and luckily I havent gotten sunburned yet(a lot of people here cannot say the same!).

The food has been great so far; for breakfast we have eggs with peppers, bacon or sausage, toast, pancakes, fruit, and cereal if we so desire. For dinner we often have noodles, sauteed veggies(sometimes in curry), rice, fruit, some kind of meat, and some sort of bean or lentil dish. I usually try a bit of everything and its generally very delicious! For dinner today we had chapati which Is probably my new favorite food here, it’s a sort of flatbread, thinner than pita and naan but soooo delicious. We all sit in the dining hall with two large tables, and chat with the staff and professors. 

The staff are all really amazing. We have cooks, gaurds, drivers, assistant professors, professors, student affairs managers, and a few other people who do other tasks around the camp, like maintaining the safari trucks which are the most expensive things on camp. A lot of the staff only speak swahili, and all of us mainly speak english, so its an interesting language barrier that we work to overcome. One of the staff members likes to communicate by making animal noises and its really entertaining, he makes us all giggle. Today he taught us a popular song in swahili, and its pretty simple. People have clearly had it stuck in their heads all day, as you can hear us singing it all around the camp. It goes like this:

Jambo/ Jambo Bwana/ Habari Gani?/ Mzuri sana!/ wageni/ mwakaribishwa/ tanzania/ hakuna matata

Hello! / hello sir / how are you? / very good!/ our guests/ all are welcome/ tanzania/ no worries

If you want to hear how it goes you can google the jambo song, im pretty sure that’s what it is and its very popular!

Today was our first day of class, and im really excited for the academic part of this experience. We have a wildlife ecology class with John Kioko(everyone is named john by the way, its extremely popular), wildlife management with german Christian(I cant remember his last name), and socioeconomics and policy with professor John Mwamhanga. Unfortunately our swahili class wont start for another week, which I am dissapointed about because I really want to learn how to communicate with the staff more easily! Its kindof interesting to get used to their accents during lecture, the two johns have thick swahili accents and Christian is SO german. Classes are at different times each day which it’s a little strange, and are generally about an hour and a half. Between classes we have time to do homework or nap or read, whatever really. I layed in a hammock for about an hour today in the shade and read--bliss. 

Yesterday we took a tour of the town we are in, Karatu. I felt SO touristy walking in such a big group with our cameras and looks of amazement, I was a little self concious. I am actually looking forward to going out in a much smaller group, two or three people, so we don’t stand out AS much, although we will always stand out. I kept accidentally lagging behind as everywhere I turned was a photo op I couldn’t pass up. Its really great, everyone in the community knows who we are and where we stay, and are very welcoming because the SFS has such a great repuation in town. When we leave the camp we are a reflection of the SFS, so we have to be respectful and well behaved. There is a school about  5 minutes away from our camp, and the first time I left the camp to go for a walk three kids literally RAN towards us, arms outstretched, and I braced myself for the most sincere, enthusiastic hug ive ever received! THEY ARE SO ADORABLE. They couldn’t speak much english and we couldn’t speak much swahili, so it was mainly hello’s, how are you, smiles, and playing with our cameras. They loved to be in pictures and see them on our screens afterwards.They giggle seeing themselves in pictures.  At one point a little girl pointed at my glasses, took them off my face and then started walking away with them! No, no, no! I swept her up and took them back, laughing and trying to communicate that I needed those! I think glasses are just so rare here that she wanted them as her own. 

Walking through the town is very interesting, people sit in the shade, hangout with livestock, or work on separating these purple beans from their stalks. These beans are scattered everywhere on the dirt walking path, as they fall out of bags as they are being transported on bikes to be sold for food. Everyone says “jambo!” as you walk by and smiles, recognizing that we are so clearly not locals. At one point a lady motioned to one of the other students and so she walked up to see what she wanted, it was as if she wanted to give her something. Then she started motioning like she wanted to give her a piggy-back ride, it was so strange, and her face became a bit aggressive so we quickly said have a good afternoon and left. Im still not sure what she was doing. Also, sometimes people will motion to you to give them money, and at first I had no idea what the hand gesture meant. After someone told me it became pretty obvious, and I felt a bit sheepish as I had smiled broadly and waved back thinking it was some welcoming gesture. 

A HUGE locust just flew into the room, oh my gosh its like 5 inches long and literally flies!! So crazy! Havent gotten to see any big animals yet, but we are taking a trip to the manyara lake ecosystem on Saturday. I cant wait! There are a few cats that roam around here but you don’t want to go near them really, even if they would let you, cause they are pretty much feral. The dogs and cats here are not treated the same way you treat them in america, you generally don’t want to touch them because they probably have fleas and really arent that domesticated. 

Well, im going to go watch the lion king, its playing on the projector right now and its so cool to see the opening scene with all the animals when we are so close to actually seeing them in real life!!

Hope all is well, and if I don’t respond to emails its because my internet is really sloooowww at loading wiscmail.

Lots of love

Natalie