Our first drive through Tanzania at night was already very different The steering wheel in the Land Cruiser is on the right side and Tanzanians drive on the opposite side of the road that Americans do. The landscape was so dark and when there was light, there were little villages/towns with people standing by the road or inside homes after 10 PM. Many were walking along the roads in pure darkness and there were a lot of motorcycle drivers along the roads too. As we continued, I watched the trees and open landscape pass by. I also noticed that Tanzanians continuously flash their lights and will flash their turn signals when passing drivers in the other lane at night. We arrived at the hotel, received the keys to our rooms and ate our first Tanzanian dinner. Our first night in Tanzania had begun!

The next morning, we ate breakfast and gathered our things, and then we went on to exchange money. Before we reached the gates to our camp, we drove through a small village where children playing outside were clearly very happy to see us. They smiled and waved to us while we drove by. We arrived at our camp around noon. The entrance with giraffes and lions and elephants painted on it opened up, and we entered our new home for the next three months.

Our small camp (or campus) is welcoming and pretty cozy actually. There are student and faculty bandas (translates to shed or barn in Swahili, but they are actually like little dorms), a classroom, a dining hall, a small library, a garage, and even faculty offices. The bandas have a bathroom, two bunk beds, and desks. I laugh when they call camp a “campus” because it really doesn’t seem like one at all. I am use to a large campus with about 45,000 students. Here there are 42 students and 30 faculty and staff members. Our camp is definitely a place for learning, but sometimes we have so much fun that we barely realize we are learning. 

On the first evening, I met my three roommates and got settled into our banda, Tembo (translates to ‘elephant’ in Swahili). I also went with some fellow classmates and watched some peers play soccer. Some local children were excited to see us. They immediately ran to us and gave us all high fives. They tried our sunglasses and hats on, and I even had two of the children braiding my hair. They loved getting their pictures taken (with or without us) and seeing themselves on the digital cameras.

The next few days involved a pretty straight forward schedule: breakfast at 7:30, classes begin at 8:00 AM, lunch at 12:00 PM, and we would complete classes around 5:00 PM. My current courses are: Introduction to Swahili, Techniques of Wildlife Management, Wildlife Ecology and Environmental Policy and Socioeconomic Values. In November, we will begin our directed research. I spent Wednesday though Saturday relaxing in our banda, playing games, attending classes, studying, watching The Game of Thrones at night with the group, practicing slacklining, and I even hiked up Moyo Hill to explore and take pictures. We are staying in the valley below Moyo Hill. 

We have classes Monday through Saturday, and Sundays are our days off. We went on a hike to Elephant Cave and waterfall at the Ngorongoro Conservation Area down the road from us. It was short and beautiful one mile hike, where I saw my first baboon! Afterwards, we went to Happy Days Pub where they were playing American music (to my surprise). It was a great place to hang out and spend time with our new family and the pub cat, named “Paka” (translates to ‘cat’ in Swahili). Most of us then made it over to the monthly market in Karatu where we could practice our bargaining skills–oh boy! It was similar to a huge flea market, only the stands were very close together. There were shirts, shoes, fabrics, fruits, meats, dishes, crafts, livestock (cows, goats) and more. As soon as we exited our vehicle, people with backpacks were asking us to buy things. We proceed into the market and began shopping. I spent about an hour and a half looking around. I used some Swahili that I have learned in class to bargain, but I still have a lot of practicing to do. I bought two pieces of fabric to take to the tailor and a purse. It was a crazy but awesome experience! While we were walking back to our vehicles (and still being mobbed by locals selling things), we witnessed a small bull (cow) get loose from its owner and then the people begin to scatter. It was quite chaotic, but entertaining as well (because it wasn’t running in my direction). 

We had our first field exercise outdoors at Lake Manyara National Park yesterday and continued it today. We went on game (wildlife) drives in a Land Cruiser. It was my first African safari! The first creatures were saw were olive baboons, and we soon learned that they were all over the park. I saw my first wild bush elephants, zebras, Masai giraffes, hornbills, warthogs, wildebeest, cape buffalo, impala, Thompson’s gazelle, hippopotamuses, and much more! We did not see lions, but we understand that at other parks, they are all over the place. The park we were able to visit these last few days is home to the “tree climbing lions.” Yesterday, three elephants (2 of the 3 are pictured above) walked within two feet of our safari vehicle. It was amazing! They walked right past us as if we weren’t even there. Two great first days in the field.. I cannot wait to see what is ahead!