Author Archives: jlp551

I love expedition!


I’m finally back at Moyo Hill and everyone here agrees that we should just spend the rest of the semester camping in the Serengeti. It was one of the most unique and amazing experiences I’ve ever had. Sure, we’ve been on a couple game drives through some beautiful parks but nothing compares to the vastness of the Serengeti. We had the opportunity to take early morning sunrise game drives as well as sunset game drives, when the wildlife is most active! (no one is allowed to drive when it is dark).  I will try to recount everything I saw… lion, hyena, zebra, giraffe, cheetah, leopard, wildebeest, buffalo, Thomson’s gazelle, Grant’s gazelle, hartebeest, topi, eland, elephant, jackal, waterbuck, and at least 30 species of bird. I am so thankful that we have our professors in the cars with us during these game drives. If I didn’t have them I probably would have seen less than half of those species mentioned. I’m getting much better than when I first arrived but they are native to this area and know everything about exactly where and when to find the wildlife. I learned an interesting tidbit about Maasai culture one morning while I was riding with my Swahili and culture teacher, Yohanna. We saw a small herd of topi and gazelle and he told us to look at the cattle. At first we thought he was pulling our leg but then we realized he was serious! He is Maasai and only Maasai men are allowed to own the cattle, which they cherish so deeply. Women are only allowed to own the milk that comes from them. The story goes that many years ago women were allowed to own cattle but were irresponsible and lost them all to the wild. Their cattle are now the wild animals of the savannah and only the “responsible” men can own the currently domesticated cattle. I thought it was a very interesting look into the gender roles of these different cultures. Yohanna was also fun to ride with because he had amusing names for everything we saw. Elephants for example are “moving houses”. It made the game drives just that much more interesting!

We are here to learn so of course, our game drives always had a purpose. I actually prefer it that way because it gives us something to look for and focus on. The first day was practice identifying birds. We just spent 4 hours, first thing in the morning, stopping for every bird we saw and then identifying it with our huge bird guides. It was a really helpful exercise because the next day was an actual point count exercise where every bird in a 30 meter radius was counted and identified every 250 meters for 2 hours. I have a paper due tomorrow for Wildlife Ecology involving statistical analysis of the results to determine diversity in different habitats within the park and habitat utilization by different feeding guilds (insectivore, carnivore, granivore etc). The next day was my favorite. Just like the baboon observations in Manyara National park, we had to find a family of elephants and observe/record their behaviors for several hours. The cool thing about observing a group of animals for a long period of time is that you get the chance to see how they interact with each other, how they interact with their environment, what they eat, how they eat and sometimes even rare behaviors. We were lucky enough to see our particular family get very spooked by something (we are guessing it was an alarm signal from a spooked waterbuck), escape across a dried river bed, circle around the young to protect them and trumpet loudly to scare away any potential danger (grown elephants have no predators except man and babies have very few).

In addition to these exercises, we had a few lectures. One for example was from the Chief Wildlife Ecologist for Serengeti National Park. Any of us would do anything to have that job. Another was from a graduate student from the University of Minnesota working with the Lion Project, researching dynamics between lions and lesser predators such as leopards and hyenas. All of the girls wanted to be her and the guys wanted to marry her. All other time was spent game driving for fun, hanging out around the camp fire, trying to stay dry in the thunderstorms, and even relaxing for an afternoon at the luxurious Serena Lodge. Our next expedition to Tsavo in Kenya can’t come fast enough…

Now that we’re back at camp, we only have 5 days until we leave for Kenya! That time will probably be spent finalizing grades and assignments, packing up our things, and spending as much time as possible in Karatu, Mto Wa Mbu, and Rhotia. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say that I love Tanzania and am quite reluctant to leave. We must leave behind all of the staff (there is a separate staff for Kenya), which is heartbreaking in itself. We have all become so close with them and wish they could just come with us. I’m sure the other staff is just as wonderful though. I will also miss the beauty of Tanzania. This area is lush and green with beautiful rolling hills within the escarpments. Kenya will be a much different sight, dusty savannah and flat land except for Mount Kilimanjaro. It will be a much different kind of beauty. It will also be much more isolated. There is no town to walk into and very few people living near by. The internet is also very bad so I think we will all get to be even closer than we are now as we will be the only people to interact with! This week will be bittersweet but I can’t wait for the new adventure of Kenya!

 

Baadaye!


Location: Rhotia, Tanzania

Expedition!


Exams and work are finally over! We spent the day preparing and packing for Serengeti. The camp has been in frenzy because we’re all so excited. We are leaving at 7am tomorrow morning and will spend the great majority of the day just travelling there. We have to drive through Ngorongoro Conservation Area to get into Serengeti. We will be stopping at Olduvai Gorge archeological site where the first evidence of hominids were found! We will finally proceed to Serengeti’s gate where we have a two-hour drive through the park to get to our campsite. We will spend the majority of the evening setting up camp and our massive tents. The next few days will then be spent taking extremely early morning game drives (6am), eating breakfast and then having various lectures and exercises.

            We were briefed on safety precautions this morning and learned all about what the camp will really be like. We are surrounded by trained professionals who know what to do in the event of an emergency but I know we will be safe. I’m just excited to be so close to the wildlife! One of the most amusing things about the campsite is the reason why our showers don’t work (and proof how close we are to the animals!). We have been warned that we will probably not shower for the next 5 days because there is a single tank that catches rainwater to supply the showers. Apparently, the elephants are quite fond of pushing it over, so we rarely have enough water to take showers! We will also be falling asleep to the sounds of lions, hyenas and zebra calling in the distance. A lion’s roar can travel over 15km, so a lion several miles away can sound like it’s right next to our tent. I think I’ll sleep with a tape recorder on all night! I hope we finally get to see a cheetah or a leopard! And we should get the chance to see a great number of lions and elephants. I’m going to keep a very detailed journal and will be sure to write a novel when I finally get back to my computer on Friday!

 

Wish me luck!


Location: Rhotia, Tanzania

Exams

So, the past few days have just been a flurry of studying for exams. We had our wildlife ecology exam this afternoon and tomorrow brings Wildlife Management and Environmental Policy. I’m so excited for them to be over because that means it’s another non-program day and Serengeti is right around the corner! I won’t be able to update while I’m there ( I probably won’t even bring my computer) but keep an eye out next weekend for an insanely long post because I’ll have 5 days of craziness and excitement to talk about!

The only interesting thing we have done lately besides studying and reviewing is market day! This is the same market that we went to on February 7th right after we arrived. It was a lot more fun this time around because I’m not completely comfortable with walking around town and talking to the locals in Swahili. It was so much easier to navigate and find exactly what we wanted such as fabric, jewelery and clothing. Unfortunately, we had about 10 rastas following us around the whole time trying to sell their trinkets because they noticed we were there to buy a lot of things. We were there for almost an hour before finally heading back to the cars to try and escape the mayhem. While sitting in the car, waiting to leave we had another wave of people trying to sell their treasures through the windows. I bought a beautiful handwoven bowl from one mama and almost got a couple meters of fabric for free from a young guy who said I had a pretty face but when I wouldn’t give him my cell phone number and we started pulling away, I knew I wasn’t going to get that fabric! But, it was still a lot of fun. The only bad part was heading back to camp knowing we had a lot of work to do! On that note, I should get back to studying. Love from Africa!


Location: Rhotia, Tanzania

Oh how we love nonprogram days

So today was finally another nonprogram day! We had a short lecture first thing in the morning to share presentations on population density analyses we conducted from Tarangire National Park. Once the presentations were finished, we were finally able to proceed with our non-program day! About 15 of us traveled into Mto Wa Mbu for various activities. Some decided to take painting lessons, others just wanted to walk around and shop and the rest of us grabbed some bikes and went on a bike tour! We first biked through town and then ventured on a dirt road lined by banana plantations. It was beautiful! The bikes were a lot nicer than I thought they were going to be. They had gears and hand brakes and there was only one person who got a flat tire from an acacia thorn (even though they were everywhere). The path we biked was beautiful and not very hilly or difficult but extremely bumpy. We were all pretty sore after 3 hours of biking through the rocks! But it was completely worth it. We finally left the banana plantations behind and entered Manyara National Park where we rode our bikes across the dried lake bed to the edge of Lake Manyara. We stood along the water’s edge and admired the thousands of pink flamingos that were in the lake in front of us. I couldn’t believe how close we could get to them. Then, to make it even better, we continued to ride our bikes along the plain with zebra, wildabeest and antelope running along side us only about 75 feet away. We also saw a hippo that had wandered out of the water to graze on the grass on the bank. It’s the first time I’ve seen a hippo that wasn’t sleeping and mostly covered by water! We were thankful to start heading back because it was extremely hot in the midday sun. We biked back towards town through some more banana plantations saying hello to everyone along the way. We made a stop at a curio shop that specialized in carving. The owner told us all about carving and how his people had migrated to this area from Mozambique in search of a better life. Erica has promised us that on our next program day, we will have the opportunity to go back to the carving shop along with a painting shop and get lessons on how to paint and carve! We were all exhausted and unanimously agreed to go back to camp to get cleaned up before we headed to Happy Days for a late lunch. It was so nice to relax and play card games with everyone without having to worry about assignments.

The rest of the night was spent watching movies, completely taking advantage of the day off. We will really appreciate this day because exams start in just a few days! Then not long after is Serengeti!! I can’t wait!

Until Later 🙂 


Location: Mto Wa Mbu, Tanzania

Finding hominid

Today was another typical day in East Africa. After driving through pasture land with no roads to count and identify grasses for two hours, Erica took me and a couple others to the ATM in Karatu. On the way home, we decided to look for hominid, the olive baboon that walks on his back legs, chases women and opens doors to steal food. We pulled off the road, backtracked by driving on the side walk and ran into a man who was carrying a slingshot allegedly trying to shoot hominid out of a tree. Hominid had been on the run again earlier that day, opening doors and stealing food. Unfortunately, we were forced to return home without a hominid sighting but we made a new friend with a slingshot who promised to help us find hominid if we ever came back looking for him. What would life be without a famous, annoying baboon to keep us occupied…

🙂


Location: Karatu, Tanzania

Ngorongoro Crater and conservation area

The day started bright and early with breakfast at 6:15. Our goal was to leave camp by 7 and drive to the crater! It took us about a half and hour to get to the gate. The day started out great with our car flooding with steam because the engine overheated and the cap flew off the radiator. We freaked out at first and evacuated the car but finally realized it was just steam. Martin and Yohanna (our driver and guide/swahili teacher) handled the whole situation calmly and simply added more water before we were on our way! We finally made it to the gate and got out to check out the gift shop, go to the bathroom and see some exhibits about the park. Before we even managed to get inside, there was a huge male baboon who came right up to our cars. A group of us were standing right outside the cars hoping he wouldn’t come too close. Then, for some reason, Josh held up an orange and the baboon charged! He came within inches of me before Josh threw away the orange and it ran away to catch and eat it. It was really funny afterwards but quite scary at the time. Baboons are pretty terrifying up close! But no one was hurt so we continued inside.

I learned a lot about the crater and the park from the exhibits inside the visitor’s center. Ngorongoro was created in the 1950’s when Maasai were pushed out of Serengeti Reserve and needed a place to relocate. The conservation was an experiment in land use where pastoralism, conservation and tourism could all exist within one area. In this way, Ngorongoro is completely unique from other conservation areas or national parks. It is the only area where people (mostly Maasai) are allowed to live and utilize resources while the wildlife are protected at the same time.

The crater is the largest in the world and was created by a volcanic eruption millions of years ago. Nine different volcanoes were formed in the area during the past four million years (one is still active). Ash and dust from these volcanoes spread over the region to form the fertile soils of the Serengeti. Since its creation, the crater has been home to several extinct species of mammal including early human ancestors. There is actually a large archaeological site within the park that has produced perfectly preserved footprints from early hominid and extinct mammals.

After buying a few things from the gift shop, we all headed up to the highlands along the rim of the crater for a guest lecture at the park headquarters. A tourism officer explained all of the above information to us and gave us an overview of the parks history and future path. It’s amazing that the experiment has worked so well and the people living within the borders of Ngorongoro have learned to live sustainably with the resources and wildlife.

We finally made our way down to the crater. The path was long and winding but completely worth the wait. The view from the top of the crater was breathtaking. Pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice.

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When we finally made it to the bottom, the temperature difference was surprising. The top of the crater had the expected morning chill but the bottom of the crater was hot and sunny. We were immediately overwhelmed by hundreds of zebra, wildabeest and water buffalo. There were also several species of bird all around us such as black kites, ibis, white stork, blacksmith plover, flamingo, ostrich, kori bustard, Egyptian goose and crowned crane (to name a few).  The kori bustard is one of the largest flying birds in the world. We had the chance to see a male, female and a male all puffed up in his best display for the ladies.

 

For most of the day, we only saw the birds, wildabeest, zebra, a couple hippo and several gazelle species (impala, grants gazelle, thompson’s gazelle). Those were interesting though. We saw zebra mating, a lot of babies from all species and some interesting behaviors such as dusting (rolling around in the dirt to deter flys).

 

We met up with some other cruisers for lunch and found out that everyone else has already seen rhino, lions, and hyena! We were sorely disappointed and wanted to get going right away to try and catch them too but not before a black kite swooped in out of nowhere and stole a sandwich out of Kim’s hands! She was just fine, so it makes for a good story. With only 2 hours left in the park we finally saw two black rhino, several lions and a small group of hyena. Unfortunately, the rhino and hyena were very far away but my wonderful binoculars saved the day. The lions on the other hand were incredible. We saw them sleeping, rolling around and even saw one female scouting the herds of wildabeest and zebra, getting ready to hunt! We were so disappointed when Yohanna and Martin said we had to start heading home. She was definitely getting ready to stalk and kill.

 

By the time we had to head home, we were all very ready. It’s amazing how exhausting a day of sitting in a land cruiser can be! It must be all the sun and excitement. It’s now back to classes and getting ready for exams! Exams start next week and the week after that is our 5-day expedition to Serengeti National Park! We’ve been told that every night we will fall asleep to lions roaring and elephants trumpeting in the distance. I think I’ll just keep my video camera recording all night!

 

Well I’m sorry for the novel but there’s just so much to share! I’m also making up for the fact that I’ll barely be able to post anything once I get to Kenya. I’ve heard that the internet there is absolutely horrible and barely works. Hopefully I’ll be able to post at least once a week!


Location: Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

Spirit of Africa

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to attend a Lutheran service here in town. We had the option of going to a Catholic mass or the Lutheran service. I chose the Lutheran service because we were told the Catholic mass is almost identical to a mass at home and I wanted to see something different. Also, we have been invited to go to mass with the children next time we have a community service event at the school. We started walking to the church around 9:30 yesterday morning and got there just as others were starting to arrive. There were about 8 of us and we attracted a lot of attention. All positive though of course. Just like everywhere else I’ve been here in Africa, everyone is extremely kind and welcoming. The pastor was full of energy and asked us to stand in front of the congregation and introduce ourselves (there were about 80 in attendance). Everyone was so pleased that we could introduce ourselves in kiswahili and say where in America we were from. We finally took our seats and just tried to capture as much as we could of what they were saying – the whole service was in kiswahili of course. My favorite part was probably the music. It was so beautiful. I managed to record a few songs but I don’t think I’ll be able to upload them here. The only instruments were their voices and a drum but it sounded like so much more. Somehow, everyone knew exactly which parts to sing and how to sing it well. It was so beautiful that I desperately wanted to participate and ended up just making up my own words and trying to follow along with the melody. The whole service lasted about 3 hours but it only felt like 1. We were invited to the pastor’s home afterward to chat and sign his guest book. I could tell he was sorry to see us leave but we promised to return!

The rest of the afternoon was spent at this beautiful art gallery where we got to relax in thick cut grass and enjoy spinach and artichoke pizza and cinnamon ice cream. I haven’t had ice cream since I left home and this was seriously the best ice cream I have ever had. It tasted exactly like a snickerdoodle! Yesterday was a great day

Today, we had another travelling lecture. We first went to a rice farm and talked with the head farmer about his biggest issues. He was surprisingly uneducated and sadly misinformed. That’s actually a big issue with farmers here. He thought that all the water he gets for his rice came from the Nile River. It comes from surface runoff from the mountains. Because he thinks it comes from the Nile he has no interest in supporting local efforts to conserve water in the watersheds and reservoirs. It’s really sad… Education is seriously the biggest problem here. So many of their issues could be fixed with simple, focused education. They don’t need math, science and english. They need education on sustainability, crop management, geography and business. 
Our next stop took us to Maasai land where we sat in the shade of a gigantic baobab tree watching the boys drive huge herds of cattle across the flood plain by Lake Manyara. The view was truly beautiful. There were a few zebra in the distance along the water’s edge and the horizon was a flood of pink from all the flamingos. We were lectured by Frank and Kioko about the relationship between the Maasai, livestock and the wildlife of Lake Manyara National Park. An issue of great concern is disease transmission, particularly rabies and canine distemper. Veterinary care in this region is rare and very expensive. Most cattle owners buy medication and vaccinations for their cattle from local stores that some how have easy access to veterinary products. Kioko compared it to buying sugar here, because it’s so easy and anyone can do it. Every town has their own store that sells veterinary products for livestock owners. Frank told me about how there are initiatives in some parks such as Serengeti to vaccinate wildlife and protect them from rabies and distemper. I think the problem originates from the hundreds of dogs that are running around this area with lord knows what diseases. They pass the diseases to livestock and then the  wildlife get it when they come in contact with the livestock or when predators hunt the livestock. There was an SFS student a couple years ago who actually graduated from this program, went on to grad school in Nairobi and now works for an NGO vaccinating dogs and livestock in the area to try and solve this problem. What a job that would be huh?

There is so much room for improvement in this area and the locals desperately need our help to teach them how to deal with these issues and live sustainably with the wildlife and natural resources. It really doesn’t have to be the people or the nature that survives. Both can coexist and flourish if we can only teach them how…

Well time is going by so fast! Wednesday is our next game drive to Ngorongoro crater, next week are our final exams and the week after that is our 5 day expedition to Serengeti National Park! We are all so excited to spend time camping out in the national park!

Until next time! 


Location: Rhotia, Tanzania