Home Stay

Today we were all lucky enough to spend the entire day with a local family from the Iraqw tribe, in which we participated in all their daily routines and traditions. I was with one other girl in the group, and we hiked several miles to get there with heavy bags full of maize flour, sugar, vegetable fat, cabbage heads, goat meat and jugs of water. 

We were greeted with a warm welcome and were happy to see that the family had multiple, really cute watoto.  Some of their names were Kelsia, Julius, Deogratus, and Loveness.  One of the mamas was named Mama Happy.  Most of the names here are either ridiculously amusing or really hard to pronounce.  

Thankfully the oldest boy who was twenty, Florian, was able to speak decent English.  We started the day weeding in the fields with him, but it was nearly impossible to tell which was a weed and which was a crop.  Needless to say, we accidentally pulled out a few baby corn sprouts.  After we had done our best at weeding, we headed back up to the hut to relax for a while before lunch.  We were tickling the kids and resting on the couch when all of a sudden a loud squawk came from the corner.  There was a full size chicken sitting on five eggs in the corner of the room behind the couch.  And another one in the other corner.  We later learned this wasn’t the only wildlife in the house- wasps would frequently fly in and out, as their homes were holes in the mud walls of the hut’s main room.

After scooping out goat poop from the other hut, we began to prepare lunch with some of the mamas using the food that we had brought.  We did this over an open fire inside the hut, which filled it with smoke and was kind of unpleasant.  We were failures at chopping the cabbage too, since they used a huge ponga (knife) and did it faster than a chef at a restaurant.  I also tried my corn kernel grinding skills and didn’t get very far before they just laughed and took over.   First we cooked the vegetables, and then ugali, which is a mix of maize flour and water and is served at almost every meal and found everywhere here in Tanzania.  It’s the consistency of white rice when cooked. 

Since the family insisted that we drink a cup of chai (tea) every couple of hours, and it was rude to refuse, I also experienced the first pit latrine here for the first time.  The bathroom is called a choo and was outside.  It was quite an experience…I’ll leave it at that. 

Later on in the day, I showed the kids the bubbles that I had brought.  They went crazyyyy!  They all took turns blowing them and chasing after them, shrieking.  It was adorable.  The little girl, Kelsia, also really liked my sunglasses, which she insisted on wearing upside down every time she put them on.

The most important thing I learned from the day was that the life these people live is simple and traditional, not something to look down on or pity.  The family had two toys: a very small ball and a little green car that all of the children shared playing with and none of them fought over.  Their family ties are so much stronger and they don’t have all of the “wants” that Americans have, things we claim we can’t live without.  Their lifestyle isn’t sad or upsetting, rather it’s full of genuine happiness.  

Village Visits

I haven’t posted in a few days because I was busy completing three papers due last night at midnight…but a lot has happened since my last post!

We had another non-scheduled program day and decided to "sleep in", if you can call sleeping until 8 sleeping in, and then went on a hike.  It was really intense!  For parts of it I was practically rock climbing.  The incline was steep and it was soooo hot out.  But the group made it in a little over an hour when it has taken groups in the past 3 hours!  We were all exhausted when we got to the top so we headed to Kudu Lodge, which is basically a really nice resort in the middle of nowhere Tanzania. 

We got there and weren’t getting our hopes up about the pool, since the last one we were told we could swim in was green.  This time, however, it was crystal clear with a bar in the pool and a huge elephant fountain that sprayed water into the pool from its trunk.  It was so nice to be able to swim after hiking up a mountain in 90 degree weather.  Of course it came at a price- ten dollars per person just to swim. 

For the last part of the afternoon I went into Karatu with one of the other students to do some curio (souvenir) shopping.  As soon as we stepped out of the Land Cruiser we were immediately approached, as usual, by some of the venders who are our age and speak pretty good English.  In the past, they’ve been friendly and showed us around, so we followed them around Karatu again, mostly because we didn’t have a choice.  They would have just continued to follow/harass us. 

They took us to some cool places off of the main paved road that we never would have found on our own: a huge market with everything from ugali (a staple food here made from corn), to little fish from Lake Victoria by the barrel, to red bananas to local brewing ingredients; the place where they make shoes out of old tires, and where the best deal is for fabric.  I ended up buying a few souvenirs from the guys at the end and successfully bargained for the first time.

The next day we had class on lions and trophy hunting.  For a 21 day safari to be able to shoot any kind of game you want, its $76,000.  With a professional guide.  Drinks not included.  It was both amazing and sickening to hear this, especially since so many of the species are endangered or threatened.  The government is trying to move lions into the Appendix 1 category, meaning they can no longer be hunted at all.  Kenya has completely banned hunting of any game for several years now. 

Afterwards we went to the school to start building a stove inside the kitchen.  Currently they are cooking meals for hundreds of children over an open fire outside and using so much firewood that the kids are required to carry some to school each day if they want to eat.  However, the guy that was supposed to help with building never showed up, so hopefully the cement that we mixed doesn’t dry out before we go back this afternoon!

Also today, we conducted interviews for Environmental Policy in the local town, Rhotia, to assess people’s needs within the community and their knowledge of what is being done about the local problems.  The number one answer was water, followed by education, although we also got some interesting answers such as selfishness.  I was even one of two students who got to speak with the doctor at the local hospital.  We strolled in and were able to speak with him after waiting only 10 minutes.  It was the COMPLETE opposite of an American hospital: deserted, calm, small.  With all of the health issues that are of concern in Africa, I expected to see it packed and overwhelmed, yet it was quite the opposite.   

The doctor sat at his desk and spoke fairly good English to us, dressed in a typical white coat uniform with a stethoscope around his neck.  He told us that acute respiratory infections were the major health concern, with malaria being much lower on the list.  He only mentioned AIDS and other STIs later in conversation.  The medicine was very cheap at this clinic, more affordable than other places, he told us.  Sterile gloves cost 100 shillings (10 cents) and antibiotics were only a few hundred shillings.  I didn’t see anything on the list that was more than a few thousand shillings (a few dollars).  He mentioned that much of the financial help to build the clinic came from Switzerland. 

Among many of the locals along the road we talked to, we also stopped at a school.  The principal was very aware of the problems at the school and in the community, stating that currently the high school had no teachers for biology, physics, chemistry or math and no laboratories.  I really wish that could be changed…

Can’t believe I’ve already been here for almost three weeks!  Time is flying!

Adventures at Tarangire

Today we went to Tarangire National Park  for a day trip safari as well as an assignment for our Wildlife Management class.  The project was to count mammals, using a rangefinder to determine their distance away from the vehicle in addition to how many were in each transect, a distance of 2 km.  We also were told to bring our bathing suits to swim in the pool at the lodge, and Erica reminded us to shower so that we don’t turn the water a different color.  And no, showering is no longer a routine activity.

We were split up among the four Land Cruisers and each went our separate ways.  My group saw 237 elephants within 16 km, and definitely over 300 elephants throughout the entire day.   

We also saw plenty of giraffes, bright blue starlings, impala, Grant’s gazelle and a jackal. 

 And even palm trees!

One of the other groups however was not so lucky.  They got stuck in the mud and had to push the Land Cruiser a total of 17 times.  They saw plenty of cool tracks from lions and carcasses from their kills, but were absolutely covered in mud, were hours late, and spent the entire day walking barefoot and trying to get where the rest of the group was, aka sipping cocktails at the pool overlooking an incredible view of elephants and baobob trees for miles.  Here's a view from the lodge:

 I was a little skeptical about the pool, as the water was green and you couldn’t see the bottom, but it did smell like there was chlorine in it.  We found some huge bugs and turtles in it though.  I only put my feet in.

Needless to say, I was not jealous of the mud group.  They are now soaking their feet in antiseptic for 45 minutes.  The only part that I imagine was nice about walking through mud all day was to be able to get out of the car, which is forbidden in the national parks.  It feels so surreal to be there yet not be able to get out and walk around.  Sometimes I feel like I’m just watching a movie as we fly by in the Land Cruiser and take note or pictures of what we see rather than actually interacting with the environment. 

It was an extremely long day and we didn’t get back to eat dinner until 9:30.  But because of the incident, combined with such horrible internet access for the past week, we got a two-day extension on our papers! 

Note to self...

…don’t confuse “mwanafunzi” (student) with “mwanafunza” (one with jiggers).  One of the other students told the schoolkids today that she is a “mwanafunza” and they burst out laughing.  In case you were wondering, jiggers are tiny bugs that parasitize humans.   

So we all thought she was joking when she came into the dining hall and announced that she thought she had a jigger.  Turns out she actually did have one and had to have it extracted.  It was pretty exciting because for weeks the group has been joking about getting a jigger and predicting who will be the first to get one, based on whose feet are the dirtiest and who spends the most time walking around barefoot.  This is Africa.

On another note, we’re heading to Tarangire National Park tomorrow.  They have a really nice tourist lodge there with an expensive buffet that includes cheese and dessert.  It also includes swimming in their pool.  Obviously I’m all over that.  Oh and we might see some cool animals while we’re there too. 

I have three papers due on the 20^th, as well as one due to tomorrow, but they’re all based on field observations of either an animal we have seen or tribal people we have interviewed.  The only difficult part is finding adequate references, as the internet doesn't work very well and the books in the library here are outdated.

More pictures soon!

Orphanage

After classes today, we got ready to visit the local orphanage.  I went with four other girls into town to buy two crates of soda for the kids.  It took around 10 minutes before we talked to someone who understood what we wanted, and we depleted the duka (store) of Fanta.  Then we headed to the orphanage. 

I can’t even begin to describe it.  It was literally something like you see on those commercials that are begging you to donate money to save the children.  When we arrived, we were greeted by two men, one is the director and the other is the teacher for the children that live there.  Neither of the men are paid.  All of the kids are orphans because their parents died from AIDS or some other disease.  We walked through a small room and into a courtyard that was no bigger than my dorm room.  It was entirely cement…really safe.  The approximately 30 kids, ages 3 to 12, that live there are divided into a boys room and a girls room.  There is nothing in the room aside from three bunkbeds.  EIGHT children sleep on a bunkbed, four on the top and four on the bottom. 

They are in the process of building a new sleeping area with showers, including running water and electricity.  However, it is very slow moving because of the lack of funds.  I had thought ahead to bring balls, bubbles, little cars, stickers and other toys for the kids so I approached the teacher after our tour.  As I was pulling things out of my bag his eyes kept getting bigger and his thank-you’s even more enthusiastic.  He put everything aside, since it would have been chaos if he had brought it out for the kids all at once.  He asked me to write down my email address and told me he would email me, probably about how the kids liked the toys.  Then he wanted to take a picture with me and said “god bless you.”  I couldn’t believe what a difference a few toys made in the eyes of one of the caretakers. 

The kids are all very shy at first but they quickly warm up.  Our Student Affairs Manager, Erica, brought fingerpaints with her and the kids loved that.  Very few of them spoke English, but Erica was able to translate one girl saying, “My white person, come here and help me paint again.”  Paint ended up all over clothes and faces. 

A few of the students played guitar while the rest of us danced and played games with the kids.  There was one see-saw and one swing.  As soon as we started handing out the soda, the kids went nuts.  Some of them had two.  They were all so happy.  And they really liked putting on my sunglasses. 

The plan is to visit again in a few weeks.  Even though it was really sad, it was so much fun to make the kids happy and play with them!

Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day isn’t a huge holiday in Africa, as you might expect.  But since we live on Moyo Hill, “moyo” being the Swahili word for heart, we have to celebrate.  We kicked it off last night with M & M cookies, which already taste like little pieces of heaven after being here for almost two weeks.  The group tried to watch The Notebook, a chick flick with Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling, on someone’s laptop but our speakers weren’t loud enough…

We had a non-scheduled program day today in honor of the holiday (meaning no academic related stuff), so the group chose to go hiking at Elephant Cave Waterfall, visit a traditional Iraqw boma and spend the afternoon in Karatu, the local town.  Driving to the hike was crazy because the roads are dirt and there was just a major thunderstorm the night before.  We almost got stuck in the mud several times and it felt a lot like a Disney World ride between the way the jeep was sliding all over the road and the fact that we were in an African forest. 

The waterfall hike was incredible- it was very uphill but we finally reached several caves dug out by elephants.  We jumped across a small river to see the caves, inside of which we could see scratches from the elephants digging them out.  The reason they make these caves is because the soil in this area is very rich in nutrients, so they lick at the dirt to supplement their diet.  

At this point, we’re about ready to leave when we realize that we’re missing someone.  Yes, someone literally wandered off by themselves in the middle of an African jungle.  We were waiting for her to return for over an hour and getting pretty nervous.  Every ranger in the park was looking for her.  Eventually we got word that she was back at the Land Cruisers in the parking lot as there was (amazingly) cell phone service in the area.  It was too bad she took off because it cut into our time at the boma and in Karatu.

At the end of our hike we stopped at the waterfall.  We could stand right at the edge, not like in the United States where there’s a barrier and a million warning signs before you can even see the attraction.  The views were beautiful.

From the hike we went straight to the Iraqw boma, another traditional African village.  The most interesting part of the visit was drinking local brew, which tasted like really sour yeast and had little chunks in it.  “When in Africa…”

                                                        Traditional wedding skirt (above)

                                                                     The local brew

So after we headed into town and as soon as we got out of the cars, we were bombarded once again by vendors.  When we try to bargain with them (which is very typical of an African market), they laugh at us because they know we have no idea what we’re doing and that we can afford everything they sell.  My roommate, Jess, and I bought some fabric to get dresses and other stuff made since there is a tailor right down the street.  We got 8 meters for 45,000 Tanzanian shillings ($35) and it seems to be really good quality. 

Still in Karatu, we went to the bar that the group literally keeps in business, called Happy Days.  It was amazing to be able to eat a cheeseburger and fries!  I had a drink called Amarula which is a South African liquor…it’s essentially melted chocolate ice cream. 

When we got back to camp we were required to bring a date to dinner, due to Valentine’s Day.  Since there are only a few guys in the group a lot of the girls went with their friends, so I went with Kim.  She picked me up at my banda and we wore dresses and muddy hiking boots, with some bug spray as perfume.  In the chumba (dining hall), they set up candles and tablecloths and one of the girls brought lollipops and valentines. It was pretty different from Valentine’s Day at home, but it was still fun.

Tomorrow we’re vegetation sampling.  A.k.a. counting different kinds of grass.  Thankfully it’s only for two hours.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Swahili phrase of the day:  mnyama mkali (dangerous animal)

Traditional Maasai Bomas and School Visit!

Class today involved speaking with very traditional natives who are part of the Maasai tribe and visiting an elementary school to learn numbers in Swahili from the kids.  SOOOO much better than sitting in class back at home! 

At the boma, which is just the Swahili word for village, we were greeted with four songs the Maasai sang for us.  The women and the men sang and danced, which were more like jumps but it was pretty cool.  It was wicked African.  They were wearing the typical dress which was bright colored fabric covering their entire bodies.  The Maasai are very modest and cover up their shoulders all the way down to their ankles.  They even wrap their babies and toddlers up in the same fabric in order to carry them on their backs!  The women have large holes in their ears for multiple sets of earrings and wear beaded necklaces that look more like collars, called wedding necklaces. 

After their performance they showed us around their huts made of tree branches, mud and grass.  Inside it was kind of cramped with two small beds, one for the mother and the small girls and the other for the dad and the small boys.  There was also a small stove and a few shelves for storing cooking utensils.  Two tiny windows the size of my hand were built in for the smoke to come out.  We interviewed them afterwards, asking questions relating to their lifestyle to their homes to conservation issues.  It was really interesting to hear how they actually appreciated the national park nearby, since it is a major tourist attraction and makes a significant amount of money for them.  They moved to this main tourist road in order to make a greater income by selling jewelry made of beads and metals.  Women make a million shillings a year from this craft, and since the African Wildlife Fund has provided price tags and name tags, the individual woman who made the piece of jewelry profits from her own sales.  At the more rural boma not located on the tourist road, women are not allowed to own livestock and have no source of income, so the national park and tourism is truly their livelihood.

Later in the afternoon after Environmental Policy, we headed up the hill to the elementary school, where we were greeted by hundreds of young children running towards us.  It was overwhelming.  They all wanted to shake all of our hands and repeated, “Jambo!”  or a more local dialect.  At one point I had like five kids hanging from me.  They would fight over holding the mzungu’s (what they call us, meaning white people’s) hands and would push each other out of the way to get more attention from us.  In the classroom we taught them Row, row, row your boat and then they taught us numbers.  The three little boys I was sitting on the bench with were shy but very smart.  One of them took a piece of paper out of a makeshift notebook, made of loose leaf paper with thick layers of newspaper as a front and back cover.  He began writing and speaking to me in English.  He was a great teacher!  He made me say each number and each hour of the day in Swahili, then taught me a song to learn the Swahili numbers.  It was pretty impressive. 

We went outside afterwards and some of the group played soccer with the kids.  It was Mzungus vs. Watoto (White People vs. Children).  Not sure who won, as I was over with the majority of the group learning Swahili games and songs in a circle.  They cracked up when they were teaching me clapping hand games since they were so complicated and I couldn’t get them right.  Finally we played a game where they called people out in the circle and we came into the middle and did a dance.  The two kids hands I was holding were so eager they nearly dragged me into the middle.  These are the new friends I made at school today:

Of course we have class tomorrow even though it’s Saturday…but we get Valentine’s Day off!  That’s all for now!