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