Sam's in Africa

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

walk on the wild side

So the past two weeks on safari within some of the most remarkable national parks within Tanzania have been some of the best time I have had in Tanzania and traveling in my life. I am so thankful that I am able to have this opportunity to travel for two weeks enjoying the breathtaking geography, wildlife, and sunrises/sets daily. There is an exorbitant amount to update anyone who’s lucky enough to stumble upon this post on so I will most likely keep it to certain stories and things, which I saw in addition to the pictures which I will try to load. To give you an idea of how our safari was laid out for the past two weeks our schedule is as follows: Left Arusha on the 20^th and arrived at Ngorongoro Crater, from there we spent all day on the 21^st in the crater moving to Serengeti NP on the 22^nd. We stayed within the northern tip of the massive Serengeti NP from the 23^rd till the 26^th when we ventured to Wasso which is a small town close to Kenya. Spending a night there we then drove to Lake Natron where we would embark on a Maasai home stay for four days and three nights (stories to follow). Then we returned to Arusha this week for finals in which we are completing our Final ISP proposals in which we write our introductions, study sites, and methods of data collection for our respective studies.

Ok so location one, Ngorongoro Crater…I think it may be one of the natural wonders of the world but will need some confirmation. This crater is about 12 miles across and upon arriving to one edge you can honestly see the entire ecosystem within this bowl. There is a massive watering hole, sections of forests and bushland, but for the most part it is all grassland and flat and clear. This spot is very unique because since it is a crater the animals within it rarely migrate due to the difficulty of hiking out of the crater. Personally I have not seen any of the large cats up to this point, but heard from our foresters and Tanzanian drivers that we would have no trouble while there. So camping the first night we were told that due to the fog above the crater there is usually no visible sunrise but awaking at 6:30 we were surprised to find a multicolored sunrise lighting up the massive crater. Venturing into the crater not 20 minutes into the crater we encountered two male cheetahs lounging by the side of the road. We must have been within 10 meters of the two of them and after lounging and then licking each other’s faces the two of them got up and strolled within reach of our car. I could have opened the door and stopped them in their tracks, but they were merely traveling to another spot further down the road to rest there. It is obvious how large of a presence they have as the walk because all of the animals within a hundred meters of them were well aware of their presence and would sprint away to the other side of the herd. After we let the cheetahs roam off we continued on our hunt for the critically endangered black rhinos who number less than 20 in the crater and our goal of the day was to find some. Driving along we saw every safari animal imaginable within the first hour except for rhinos and lions. Then as we were driving our driver Karim spotted a black rhino in the far distance. With high-powered binoculars you could see its outline but little detail. After driving a bit more and just observing the beauty within the crater we made our way to our lunch spot, and not 5 minutes away from the lunch bathrooms and hippo pool we found four lions, two females and two male lions lounging. We stopped and took time for pictures and to watch these large powerful beasts sleep and walk around. After this we continued to the lunch site, which was just over a ridge a few hundred meters from this lion site. After eating lunch we were prompted to go to the bathroom to relieve ourselves before getting back in the cars to drive back through the crater home. On my way to the bathroom with a friend we noticed a large male lion appear over the ridge to the left of the bathrooms and casually walk behind the men’s room to the side of the woman’s room where he laid down on the cool pavement in the shade. He must have been walking within a stones throw away from us, except this time we didn’t have the vantage point or protection of the land rover to protect us. People were very calm in the sense that the Tanzanians around told us to keep our distance but pictures were fine. I later learned that at full sprint a lion can cover 100 meters in about 6 seconds, so any one of us could have been his lunchtime snack…whoops (sorry to almost get eaten mom and dad).

So returning to our campsite we had another night of relaxing cards and socializing by our tents and by the dinner table, while cape buffalo wandered through our campsite every hour or so and had to be scared away by workers. The next morning we hit the road on the way to Serengetti. During this drive we were on some of the flattest land I have ever seen. It honestly just goes on and on with no end. This full day trip took us to our campsite right before dinner and after setting up our tents we got to see another awesome sunset before dinner. The next 4 days were spent collecting data with our field study teams in the morning and being tourists in the afternoons. I completed my hunt for the big 5 while here seeing a Leopard two days in a row up in a tree. We also found a kill site with multiple female lions and all of their cubs, and the 5 or 6 cubs had bloody faces from the kill, but looked very satisfied lounging in the tree. Now off to Wasso where we spent a night in a small guesthouse.

This trip to wasso comes with another very interesting story. There is a man up in northern Tanzania in a district called lushoto who is a priest. A few months ago this man came out saying that he has a tree which was touched by God, and that God told him to tap the tree for its medicine and to administer it to people in need. This topic has exploded among Tanzania and every single person you speak with knows of Babu (Babu means grandfather, but that is what they are calling him). Babu has been charging people 500 Tsh for the medicine (1500 Tsh = 1 USD), so essentially 33 cents in order to take this medicine, which can cure diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, or any other chronic illness. So as word has spread over the last couple of weeks this miracle cure has become the hottest commodity within Tanzania. People are scraping together all of their money in order to pay for rides to this tree in order to find a cure for their sickness. It is an interesting topic in the sense that people who are deathly ill are being removed from their hospital beds to travel up north to wait in 5 days worth of slowly moving traffic where people are camping out on the side of the road while waiting in line for the Dawa (medicine in swahili). Truckloads full of people in the back compartments are driving along extremely poor unpaved, rocky, hilly roads during the wet season. Most of these cars are stalling out if excessive rain comes, and a number more are breaking down along the trip. People have taken the medicine and say that their HIV test thereafter responds negative after being positive their entire life. So think what you want about whether or not this medicine works, but Tanzanians here are going crazy for it.

Back on track…so after our long drive to Wasso passing all of this traffic we were on our way to Lake Natron the next day. Here we would be embarking on our second homestay in Tanzania. I have mentioned the Maasai before here, but they have an amazing culture and it was an experience I couldn’t have imagined. The first day meeting up with my mama in town was much like my Bangata homestay in which the mamas came and were matched up with their sons and daughters and we all hugged and then split up into our own adventures. I walked with my mama to town where we met up with the rest of the mamas and students to have sodas at a Duka (streetside shop). My mama who had a child less than a year old, was feeding him soda as he sucked it down happily. Then after doing a bit of food shopping we went somewhere in town where my mama picked up a goat which she began to carry in addition to her baby which was strapped to her back. We were walking with a few other students and their mamas to our side of town and I quickly relieved my mama from here goat and offered to carry it. The journey took about 35 minutes to our boma goat in arms. Arriving to our boma I realized that one of my friends named polly would be staying within my boma, being that each of our babas (dads) were brothers. Our boma was right by the river and on the first day my younger brother Marco and I went to a real beautiful waterfall about a 20-minute walk up the river. We went swimming and relaxed on the rocks for a while before hiking back for dinner. The typical days hereafter began with sleeping outside on a cowhide under a bug net, and then waking up to walk the goats out to the hills to eat fresh grass and watch the sun rise. Then we would return and myself, being a child and not a murani (maasai warrior who care for the cattle) I spent time with the rest of my mama’s 7 children and the other 10 or so within the boma. As a child we have no worries other than helping around the mamas around the boma, playing in the river (at any given time during the hot hours of the day there are about 30 naked children running and playing in the water), walking to town, or resting in the shade. Then around dinnertime we would eat and relax outside until and event called an esoto happened. An esoto is a dance that happens after dark when the murani come back from being in the fields with the cattle all day. The dance consists of a half circle of warrior men connected to a half circle of young girls aging 10-15. The men sing a series of chants while taking turns jumping and stomping their feet, as the hit the ground they run at the girls and turn, in effect whipping their hair at the girls who they are trying to court. As the men chant in unison the girls sing back in high-pitched tones while shaking the immense ammout of jewelry around their necks. The sounds around the esoto take over the boma and can be heard from far away. I attended the esoto all three nights of my stay with the maasai because I was staying in the boma where it took place. I had friends travel from the other side of town up to an hour walk at 10 pm to attend the dance. I can say that after attending three of the esotos my jumping in the circle became significantly better. After the last day in our home stay we returned to our campsite where we returned the favor to our mamas by buying their jewelry. The next day we headed back to Arusha for finals week. This week has been a lot of work with final ISP proposals laying out our entire studies which we will all be splitting up to complete on Friday. Friday morning I will be going to Mazumbai Forest reserve with 8 other students on a 6 hour bus ride then a 2 hour car ride up to the swiss chateau where we will be staying.

Sorry if any of you have lost interest after this long post, but I’ve just needed to record it all for personal records and so I don’t forget all of this. Hope you have all enjoyed this and if you need to contact me while I am at mazumbai give me a call at +255762147422 (use skype and choose Tanzania or buy a calling card, it can be expensive on a cell phone) or email me and I may be able to check that once or twice over the 20 days.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Pics from Mazumbai

Friday, March 18, 2011

Monkeys in the Forest

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!