Sam's in Africa: March 2011

BLOG POST!!!!!

So last time I had Internet was about two weeks ago before we emerged ourselves into the tropical rainforest within Tanzania’s Usambara Mountain Range near the eastern coast of the country. The journey here took approximately 8 hours by car from Arusha to our campsite in the forest. Leaving at 8:30 am and arriving at 4:30 pm just in time for tea was brutal but a beautiful drive the entire way. For the last two hours of the drive we left the comfort of a tarmac road and ventured 80 Km winding around mountains and back and forth through switchbacks in order to reach our destination at Mazumbai Forest Reserve (where I will also be spending my Independent Study Project, ISP). Upon arrival we set up tents on a grassy platform next to the Swiss chalet where I will be living during my ISP for 20 days later in the program. The Swiss chalet was built around 60 years ago and is made from amazing local woods and has multiple bedrooms, a living room, an office, a dining room, and a kitchen, which has a massive cast iron, stove which must weigh at least a ton. No idea how it got up there but it provided a medium for our cooks to continue making us some of the best food I have ever eaten.

On that note, I have not spoken about the food at all on this trip so I guess I will give a quick update on what we have been eating and how awesome it has been. While on safari in the National Parks and Forest Reserves we bring along our own camp crew who boils our water, cooks all of our food, and provides almost anything we could ever ask for. This group of guys makes our trip possible and never ceases to amaze us. While on safari in the NP’s the whip up some of the most complex and delicious meals with such minimal supplies leading me to think that they have stoves, grills and ovens within the kitchen tent, while in reality they are merely slow cooking over coal and using portable burners. Our head cooks are named Okuli and Samwel and they both have the best sense of humor while always welcoming an extra hand into the kitchen to cut up vegetables or mix up a brewing beef stew. Every meal, which we have eaten, has happily surprised me and left me in the astounded wake of its delectable taste. So far my favorite meal in Tanzania has been Chapati (a delicious doughy pancake like filler), which is usually eaten with beans, mchica (spiced vegitable dish), mbuzi (goat), and if you like it spicy pili pili sauce which is made from some of the hottest peppers I’ve ever had. So I am assuming you now understand how well we eat, and cant wait for me to return home and attempt to cook the Tanzanian food I have grown to know so well while here.

Back to Mazumbai we would spend the days similar to how we spend them while in the National Parks by waking up for breakfast around 7 and allocating the morning to specifying on a certain aspect of the forest which your group (of 4-5 people) is assigned and collecting field data which will be analyzed that afternoon and presented to the rest of the groups. All of the data usually complements each other very well and puts together the cohesiveness of that specific ecosystem. We had most of our afternoons off to explore the forest on our own or just sit back and relax after your group finishes compiling and processing their data from the field that morning. One of the afternoons as a class and with a few local foresters we ventured up to the highest peak of Mazumbai Forest Reserve climbing from ~1600m to ~1900m. It was a great hike and after coming back down the other side of the mountain to the road I had my first encounter with Black and White Colobus monkeys. (talked about later)

One morning that we had free we traveled to a local school, which SIT has been donating supplies to help construct new buildings and provide a better learning environment for the 350 students who study here who previously had to walk 15 km each way to school multiple towns away. Every year SIT returns and talks with the school headmaster about what is needed and then we do what we can to donate supplies from the programs budget. This year the headmaster discussed the difficulty with acquiring water. Since this school is still far for many people they feed the kids daily and need to cook for 350 kids. Its hard to believe but since within Tanzanian society females collect the water in 5 gallon buckets and carry it on their heads, female students are required to travel about 2 hours a day up and down the section of the mountain this school is on to acquire water for the cooking and drinking. So this year we are donating cement, metal piping and a water catchment bucket to collect water from a nearby source and have it collect by the school for cooking and drinking usage. We went to this school on a Saturday and there were no students there but the headmaster told us about a local tournament which was occurring that day. We were generously invited to watch the tournament between 6 local villages with games including soccer, netball, and marathon (races). Of course we accepted because I didn’t know what other time I would be able to watch hundreds upon hundreds of school children ranging from 5-18 play sports and cheer their respective teams on.

We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. Arriving at the field about a 20 minute drive from the swiss chalet we popped out of the woods into a large clearing with a dirt soccer pitch, dirt netball court, and around 2,000 Tanzanians kids and adults. Our cars, being the only ones in the area parked and were immediately surrounded by hundreds of kids. Stepping out of the car to screaming Tanzanian children was one of the most overwhelming experiences since arriving here in Tanzania and possibly ever. For the next three hours we couldn’t go anywhere without attracting flocks of children surrounding you for the sole purpose to stare at you. When lining up on the sideline to watch the soccer game, we were almost more of a spectacle than the players. People surrounded the entire pitch, and covered every inch of the sideline. When it came time for halftime at the game we immediately were swarmed again with children. Many of the kids too young to play on their schools’ team would go out on the field with small balls of plastic bags bundled together with string. Since the kids surrounding us at halftime were only doing so to stare at us I decided to give them a show. I acquired one of these plastic bag balls and started juggling, attracting swarms of kids from every direction. Surrounded by children I did kick-ups and tried every trick in my arsenal, attracting yells and cheers with every movement. While I was doing this a few friends of mine started some chants and were running around with kids following and yelling at them. This mayhem went on for about 10-15 minutes until the teams walked back onto the pitch and everyone surrounded the pitch again. After the game we meandered through our fans back to the cars and spent about 10 minutes giving high fives through the windows and honking while urging the hundreds of kids to move out from in front of the car.

So back to the Black and White Colobus species of monkey (Mbega in swahili), which are native to equatorial tropical areas around the world. Within the Mazumbai area they are extremely interesting because of how their habitats have changed so drastically over the recent years. Only about 2 years ago there was a large troop of Mbega but with development of a road bisecting the forest reserve and the encroachment of tea, banana fields, and maize fields they are being more and more affected by their surroundings. The troop was split when the road was further developed and now resides in two isolated segments of the forest. For ISP projects in the past these primates have been studied in length due to their adjustment to changing habitats. Last fall (2010) two girls decided to study these primates within their separate habitats and compile and compare data in order gain an idea of how this now split troop is adjusting to its new habitats. Since I have done few extensive natural science studies I decided to concentrate my ISP on doing a follow-up on this study. This means that I will be allocating about a month at the end of the program to returning to this site and collecting data about the Mbega in Mazumbai. I will then be writing a 25-page paper about my findings and comparing them to past studies in order to see changes and differentiation in behavior.

Another great aspect of this program is the use of ISP prep week. After we had our week of exploration within Mazumbai with our entire group and teachers/guides, the entire group of 23 students was let loose and traveled to their ISP sites to collect initial data and acquire permission to do their studies. This was the first time we have been let loose into Tanzanian society without a structured schedule and we all had to spread our wings and learn to fly. Friends of mine traveled to areas such as Dar es Salaam, Mto wa Mbu, Arusha, etc, while I stayed at Mazumbai with 8 friends studying various other things within the forest. These projects include birds, strangler figs, chameleons, fungi, local village healer practices, gender and sports within rural villages, insects, and use of firewood from the nature reserves (TZ acquires ~90% of their fuel from fire wood, and illegally collects from the forest. Is this sustainable?). After our week of parading around the forest preparing and completing practice data collection everyone traveled back to our Arusha home base. We are leaving for our last and longest safari on Sunday to Ngorogoro crater, Serengeti NP, and Lake Natron for our 4-day Maasai home stay. This is supposed to be the most eventful safari with viewing of every typical African animal you could imagine. When we travel to Lake Natron for our Maasai home stay we will be totally off the grid for the extent of our time, and will be fully emerged in their daily lives for 4 days and 3 nights. Ill be back in contact with the outside world two weeks from now upon our return from safari for finals week before ISP.

Sorry for the long post and any misspellings, editing blog posts is not my forte. Hope this post kept you all entertained, comment if you like!