Hello again! We have been very busy here, writing papers, going to national parks, and exploring the local communities. On Tuesday we went to Tarangire national park to do a Game Drive and transect count, aka we would drive 2km, gawk at whatever animal happened to be within 500m, and record the number of species, group members, habitat and activity. We saw so many elephants that it is not a big deal to any of us anymore. Many of them are almost close enough to touch! We were on a mission to find some lions, but no such luck. Im sure we will be seeing them in Ngorongoro and Serengiti though. On Wednesday some of us went on a bike ride to Lake Manyara. I enjoyed myself by jumping the speedbumps and rocks that were on the road, which the guides did not look completely enthusiastic about but hey, the bikes did have suspension, which means they are jumpable :). The coolest part was that when we got to the lake, there were herds of zebra, wildebeest, and impala there, so me and the few other people who were going fast saw a herd of impala stampede across the road in front of us! We also saw the wildebeests run on the way back, which is so much cooler to see from a bike than a Land Rover!  Tomorrow we are starting the process of interviewing locals about their opinions of wildlife and how we can improve their lifestyles. This should be interesting, and the only sentence I have constructed so far is “Ninapenda kula chakula” which means I like to eat food. Wish me luck!

Location: Karatu, Tanzania