Tag Archives: Tanzania

Goodbye Tanzania. Hello Kenya.

I’ve made the switch! My time in East Africa is now halfway over. I’ll spend the rest of my time here in Kimana, Kenya. KBC (Kilimanjaro Bush Camp) is so different from our Moyo Hill camp in Tanzania. First of all, it’s so much bigger. We have tons of free space, a soccer field and volleyball court, two fire pits, a mile long running trail, twice as many bandas, a tv room, and an amazing library. There are tons of trees and flowering bushes in camp and vervet monkeys, baboons, bushbabies, and dik diks are often seen inside our fence. Every morning I wake up to the sight of Mt. Kilimanjaro’s snow capped peaks. It’s really quite incredible.

 

Leaving Tanzania was difficult, though. I truly loved the staff there and loved every day we spent together. On our last night in TZ, we had a sort of going away dinner. They had set the tables and chairs up outside around the fire circle and there were candles on all the tables. We had a feast like never before. There was ugali, rolls, and chapatti bread, scalloped and mashed potatoes, chicken, beef, veggie burgers, fresh juice, and more. As I sat in the firelight, watching the people who had become my family eating, talking, and laughing, I couldn’t help by tear up (…okay, I cried like  baby). I was just overwhelmed by the happiness around me, the simple perfection of it all, and the realization that it was coming to an end. I knew that I was in for more amazing times in Kenya, but still… I had found so much joy in this place and I wasn’t ready to leave Tanzania.

 

Our environmental policy professor, Mwamhanga, traveled with us to Kenya, and before he went back to Tanzania he hugged me and said to me, “Every time you see Mt. Kilimanjaro, think of Tanzania. That is your home.”  (Even though we can see the mountain from our camp here, its not actually part of Kenya.) I will never forget that.

 

So, now… we’ve been here for about a week and everyone is starting to feel more comfortable. We are getting to know all our new staff members and they have been keeping us busy with lots of academic work. Here are just a few of the things we’ve done in the past few days:

 

  • �      Field lecture. We hiked up to the top of one of the Chyulu Hills, a pretty intense and steep climb actually, to look out over the Rift Valley and talk about land use in the area.
  • �      Interviews. With local guides as translators, we conducted interviews with farmers in our community about human-wildlife conflicts (most people have problems with elephants and zebras tramping their crops in the dry season and want the government to fix an electric fence that will keep the animals out).
  • �      Rangeland assessment. We conducted ground surveys in small groups throughout the Tsavo-Amboseli wildlife corridor, looking at erosion, trampling, herb cover, grass height, canopy layers, etc.

 

Also, on a non-academic note, we had an awesome Halloween party with costumes, pumpkin carving, and candy! We’ve done a couple of nature walks in the mornings and watched some movies on the projector at night. Sometimes it’s still hard to get used to the fact that I’m not in Tanzania anymore. But we are having tons of fun here and there is so much to keep us busy that the days are passing by quickly! I miss our Moyo Hill camp a lot but I hope by the end of my time here I will consider this place home too. 


Location: Kimana, Kenya

SERENGETI!

Sorry its been so long since my last post. Last week we had exams for a few days and then went on expedition to Serengeti National Park. We spent 5 days and 4 nights in the park, camping out in tents. Since we’ve been back, I’ve had a lot of assignments due for all of my classes. This is the last week of class here and then we head of to Kenya (already?!?) so we have a bunch of stuff to finish up. Anyways, let me write about my time in Serengeti…

 

It was a pretty far drive to get to the park. After a couple hours we reached Uldupai Gorge, the “birthplace of humanity.” This is where Louis and Mary Leaky discovered the skulls of Homo erectus and Australopithecus. Then a few more hours and we were in Serengeti. Once we got in the park, we opened up the hatches of the land cruisers and stood up to look around. Serengeti comes from a Maasai word meaning endless plains, and it was clear to see why they called it that. The land just goes on and on in all directions, more vast and impressive than any park we had been to before. There were all kinds of animals, but they often seemed tiny surrounded by the immense landscape. As we drove through the park to get to our camp, a few lone rainclouds decided to let out some drops. It was little preview of the storm we would see the next day. When we arrived at camp, we all got out tents set up and helped to unload all the kitchen equipment and prepare the fire circle and everything that needed done. The campsite wasn’t anything too official; it was just a marked area in the middle of the Serengeti with a bathroom off to one side and a small building to cook in and keep food safe from animals. Anyways, the next morning we got up super early to go on our first game drive. Then we got a lecture from a park vet about wildlife diseases. Back at camp, rainclouds were rolling in as we ate lunch. A little while later it started raining pretty good and we put on our raincoats. Some people headed for the tents right away, but others including myself stayed outside for a bit. We stood in the rain until the wind was freezing cold and a small river began to run though camp. It didn’t take long for the rain to become a storm and we ran into a car for shelter. We waited it out there, playing cards for a while and enjoying the break. But more than anything, I enjoyed the rain. It was amazing to feel the hot sun one moment and the cold rain the next, to be drenched in the water that is truly the lifeblood of the Serengeti.

 

The next day we woke early again; we had a bird counting assignment. Each car was designated a certain habitat area and transect to drive along. We stopped every so often to identify and count any birds we saw around us. The data we collected is now being used for one of the assignments I have due this week, about the species richness and feeding guilds and stuff. Might not sound that exciting, but I actually liked the bird count a lot despite the fact that I’m not really a bird person. After that count, we started another on ungulates (gazelle, zebra, hartebeest, topi, etc.) with a similar assignment to go along with it. Over the next few days, we didn’t have any other assignments to complete. We did have two more lectures though, one on plant/herbivore interactions and one on tourism in the Serengeti. Other than that, our time was mostly spent game driving. I saw a cheetah and its three cubs drinking from a puddle, countless elephants seeming to amass from all directions around us, a mother hippo running around with her baby, crocodiles hiding in the muddy river, and finally… leopards! On two separate occasions I saw one relaxing on the branch of a tree and one time we were practically right underneath it. It looked down at us, all dignified yet lazy – a most gorgeous creature for sure.

 

On the last day of expedition, we got to visit Serena Safari Lodge. Quite simply it can be described in three words: heaven on earth. After 4 days of being crammed together in little tents, crammed together in little cars, driving through red dust all day, and sitting in campfire smoke all night, the openness and cleanliness of the lodge was extremely welcomed by everyone. We got to shower and swim in a beautiful pool, order food at the bar, and lay out on comfy couches and lounge chairs. It was like a little oasis in the middle of the Serengeti and I definitely lived it up, loving every second of it. On our drive back to camp, one girl realized she forgot her hat at the lodge. Our Student Affairs Manager decided to go back for it even though it was a long drive and there was a chance we wouldn’t get to camp until after dark. The girl wasn’t in our car but we were the closest to the lodge so we went back. It added at least an hour to our drive, but I’m really glad we did it. We got to watch some pretty intense storm clouds roll by in the distance and see the sunset over the plains which we couldn’t see from camp because of the trees. Seeing elephants silhouetted by the pink sky with lightening flashing in the clouds was a sight I will never forget. It was dark by the time we got back and it was really cool to have the chance to ride in the land cruiser at night, the eyes of zebras reflecting in our headlights as they leapt off the road in front of us. And that night was the best night I have had in Africa yet. After dinner, a few of us decided to stay up as long as we could to look and listen for animals. I lay by our campfire for hours, watching stars shoot across the sky and bats fly above me as lions called in the distance and hyenas walked through our camp. It was beautiful and exciting and I couldn’t have hoped for a more perfect way to end my Serengeti expedition.  


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Location: Karatu, Tanzania

Homestay

Today we did homestays. That means we were paired up and sent off to spend the day with a local family. The point was to give us a hands-on experience with the townspeople, see how they live, do what they do on a daily basis. So my partner, Hannah, and I walked to a little nearby farm this morning with a cooler of clean water and two bags of provisions – cabbages, sugar, soap, etc. Ready to meet us at the door was a girl our age, Yohana, and her grandparents. Bibi and Babu (grandmother and grandfather) spoke only Swahili, but Yohana had pretty good English and was essentially our hostess for the day. First, we sat down and had a cup of chai tea and then Yohana showed us around the farm – pigeon peas, coffee, banana trees, cows, chickens, goats, three little mud-and-stick buildings. Then we sat down in one building (which consisted of a bedroom, a common room/living room/ dinning room thing, and a storage room full of corn) to prepare lunch. Hannah, Yohana, Bibi, and I opened a lot of beans and cut up the cabbages. It took a long time but it was really fun and relaxing. We felt comfortable with our host family right away. It was like the kinship you feel with distant relatives as you cook Thanksgiving dinner together or something. We chatted like we were old friends catching up and even shared a few laughs with Bibi, Yohana as translator. Then we went into the other building (which was comprised of a kitchen room and another storage type area) to cook lunch. All the buildings had dirt floors and the kitchen area had a slopping roof over the fire circle. There were only a few tiny square holes for windows and the whole building filled up quickly with smoke. This was not easy to get used to and my hosts found it hilarious that my eyes continued to water profusely the whole time. They also cracked up at my “Swahinglish” calls of “moshi in my macho!” (smoke in my eyes!) Pretty entertaining. Somehow, I managed to help with lunch. We made the cabbage and peas and also ugali which is a fluffly paste made out of maize flour and water that they eat with pretty much everything. After lunch, Hannah and I decided to make something special for our host family. We went out and picked lemons off a tree in the yard and with the sugar we brought, made lemonade. We figured they would like it because they make their tea super sweet here. Yohana and Bibi made sour faces, though, and didn’t particularly like it. Babu, on the other hand, downed three cups full, and that made us feel good. After that, Yohana took us on a little hike up to the top of the hill that the farm is on. The three of us sat up there for over an hour, just talking and laughing and enjoying the sunny day and beautiful view of the entire valley. When we returned, it was time to milk the cow. I was so excited for this! I’ve never milked a cow before and I must say it was an interesting experience! And hilarious as well. Everyone was really amused by my initial inability to get any milk out. I almost died laughing too. I couldn’t believe when it was over that it was time to go.  We had spent about 9 hours with our host family and had such a perfect day. It was nice to really get to know some of the people that live by us. It was also nice to have a peaceful day away from the hustle of 27 other students. One of the best parts about the homestay was sharing with our friends when we got back. Everyone had had experiences comparable to ours – days full of smiles, feelings of acceptance and companionship. Good times.

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Location: Karatu, Tanzania

Tarangire

Amazing day at Tarangire. We all broke into four groups and drove in different areas of the park. Each group ran a transect and counted all the large mammals they saw in order to calculate species density later on. That took all morning and then we went to the safari lodge for lunch. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Driving through the park was incredible. The landscape was totally different from Manyara National Park which is situated between the lake and a chain of steep hills. Tarangire is wide and vast, land stretching far out on all sides. Sometimes there were hills or wooded areas, but for the most part it was shrubland with baobabs and acacias scattered throughout. At one point there was a long row of tall palm trees lining a ridge near the mostly-dry river bed. Throughout the park I was continuously amazed by the beauty of the land, how wild it seemed, how ancient. But this spot in particular stands out in my mind as something unreal. It seemed prehistoric, an illusion of time. I half expected to see a brontosaurus walk out from behind the trees. Although we did not actually see any dinosaurs, we did see some pretty incredible things. Most noteworthy were three cheetahs relaxing in the shade of a bush – a very exciting and rare opportunity. So lunchtime came and we met up with the other groups at the lodge which was, in itself, breathtaking. An incredibly high wooden roof hung above a circle shaped porch which was full of chairs and couches with giant puffy cushions. There was a concrete deck to the porch and the view there was beyond words. I laid down on a soft bench and looked out for miles over Tarangire. The sky was white clouds with patches of clear blue showing through. The land was dry and golden with green and brown trees poking up everywhere. Off to one side the river zig zagged into the distance. There were elephants grazing between the trees and crossing gracefully over the river, tiny babies at the heels of their mothers. Gazelles and dik diks moved among them as well as warthogs and ostriches. I closed my eyes and soaked up the moment. At peace. In Africa 🙂

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Location: Kararu, Tanzania

In touch with the community

The last few days have been really busy. Two days ago we got invited to the local secondary school’s graduation ceremony. We rolled up all late and everyone stared at us as we walked in. They made a special welcome speech for us, too. It was a little awkward at first. Now, Rotia gets little to none of the tourist action from the nearby parks and cities and we are the only outsiders I have seen around. So we are pretty much the talk of the town and seem to stir up a lot of commotion everywhere we go. But this was different because but once we were settled in the atmosphere was very comfortable. For once, we are not the center of attention. We were just part of the crowd, enjoying the students’ ceremony like everyone else. We watched the students sing songs and give speeches in Swahili (All I could understand was “wanafunzi.” Students.) and the parents came up and did an amazing dance with singing and drumming. Very cool to see and also very cool just to feel like a welcomed part of the community that we are living in here.

And then yesterday was set aside for community service in town. We went to a small orphanage to lay a concrete floor and build some play sets for the kids. As soon as we arrived, we were surrounded by about 20 kids between ages 2 and 12. One little girl named Amina grabbed me from the beginning. She taught me this little hand game and I gave her piggyback rides and we took pictures and played with other little kids. The only actual work I did was pouring some concrete into a hole. But there were so many kids running around and not a lot of jobs to do anyways so most of us were just playing. But we ended up completing the floor and building a see-saw and a little wooden playhouse. And the kids were so happy with them. Actually they were so happy to begin with, just to have us there playing with them, that the things we built didn’t make too much of a difference. It was all laughter and smiles the entire time. And they were so loving. All Amina wanted to do was be held and give hugs and kisses on the nose and cheeks. Cutest little thing ever. A lot of the kids at the orphanage have lost their parents to AIDS. They really don’t have any chance of being adopted so the workers at the place are just looking for people to sponsor them. They have a little shop where they sell artwork and they are planning on selling their fruits and vegetables soon too. Its run completely on donations that mostly come from tourists who stop by on their way to Serengeti or Manyara. Its sad I guess, but you don’t get that feeling while you are there. The kids were so happy, full of energy, and got along great with each other and the staff. They are taught language and art and math there and they have books and maps and the walls are painted with cute pictures. They are working on expanding the buildings more too so they have more space. You could tell the kids were longing for love and attention, but they were treated well so that’s something.

Tomorrow is our day trip to Tanangire National Park. As nice as the community work can be, I’m really here for the wildlife so it will be awesome to get back out there. 

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Location: Karatu, Tanzania

Lake Manyara

Today I experienced my first safari. We spent the day at Lake Manyara National Park. It was UNREAL. We saw monkeys, storks, pelicans, elephants, giraffes, gazelles, zebra, buffalos, wild pigs, mongooses, ostriches, and countless other species, including some I never knew existed. The most exciting part of the day was our encounter with the bull elephant. Driving down the winding dirt road in our land cruiser, standing up in the hatches, we turned a corner and there was this huge elephant standing in the road. He was protecting his herd of females and babies that were feeding in the brush and along the roadside. We stopped the land cruiser and he stared us down. Then he started walking straight towards us! He came very close and our driver and teacher, Kioko, continued ahead. I guess the elephant decided we were okay because he moved to the side to let us pass. But he was inches from us and he was not happy about it. Then he planted himself back in the middle of the road, waiting for the next car. We decided to wait too, so we pulled a little ahead to watch. Well, when the next car came around the bend a few moments later, he stood his ground. He kicked and threw dirt up into the air and wouldn’t let the car through. The female elephants were trumpeting and getting nervous. So the other car backed up and didn’t come past. It was crazy! The bull decided to let us by but not the next people. We were very lucky to have that amazing experience. Everything about the park was amazing actually. From the beginning we saw hornbills and baboons everywhere. Caught a glimpse of both species feeding their young. Soon we began to see small groups of impalas and giraffe. One of the greatest things about driving though the park was viewing all the amazing plants and learning to identify some trees. We saw the incredible baobab, many species of acacia, cordias, the African sausage tree, and something the Maasai call the “testicle tree” because of its paired seed pods. Sometimes these trees lined the road like a jungle, sometimes we could see them growing on the hills and mountains, and other times they were sparse, a savannah landscape. We crossed sandy trenches that will fill with water when the rains come. At times we were close to Lake Manyara itself seeing strips of flamingos in the water and wildebeests along the shore. We stopped at a place where a hot spring runs into the lake and I put the tips of my fingers in the steaming water. We also stopped at a pond where a huge group of hippos live. I saw some play-fighting as zebra, warthogs, and cranes wandered by the pond. It was truly unbelievable. The perfect first safari experience. It wasn’t all tourist-fun though. We were taking field notes throughout the day and now I have two reports due about animal behaviors I observed in the park. A third report is due about the Maasai culture. Tomorrow we will be visiting a boma to learn about their ways firsthand. Although the work is already taking up a lot of my time, I don’t mind it. It’s all worth it to see the things I am seeing.


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Location: Karatu, Tanzania

Arriving at SFS

So much traveling! Once I got to Nairobi and waited all day for the rest of the group to arrive, we took a little plane over the border to Tanzania. Then we drove for an hour to a hotel. Since we boarded at dusk and drove in the dark, I was unable to see anything that surrounded me. The next morning, we got up early to leave and when I stepped out of the room I was so amazed by what I saw. There was a beautiful mountain and trees, mist was rising up from the ground and there was a cute bright colored caf�. My first real sight of Tanzania. It was perfect. Then we took the 4 hour drive to our camp site. On the way we saw giraffes and baboons and buffalos along the road. We stopped at a lookout over Lake Manyara and saw flamingos in the distance and so many flocks of birds. Everything was so amazing. And then when we got to the Center–SO AMAZING! It’s in this tiny town which is beautiful and when our land cruisers pulled in there were all these people waiting and waving to us. The camp is still under construction since it is the new site. But it’s incredible. They are making everything perfect for us. Our bandas are big, I only have to share with two other girls. We have our own bathroom with hot water. A volleyball court is being made. The chefs and cleaning people are all local and are so nice to us. I just can’t believe how wonderful it is here. Totally surpassed my expectations. Most all the students are great too. Still getting to know everyone. My roommates are Carrie and Arima and they are so much fun. We spent last night writing in our journals and chatting and laughing together. Today we had orientation for our classes: Environmental Policy, Wildlife Management, Wildlife Ecology, and Swahili Language/Culture. It all seems very interesting and our teachers are very nice. We will be going out into the field a lot with them too. Our first trip is to Lake Manyara National Park. We are doing that Saturday. Should be awesome. After orientation today, we went into the village to try our hand at greeting people. That was an interesting experience. We went off on our in small groups and practiced what little Swahili we knew from today and yesterday: hello (in a couple of ways), how are you?, I’m a student, what’s your name?, my name is… I was very nervous since I don’t like this sort of thing. But it was a lot of fun in the end. The townspeople are extremely nice for the most part. They like to smile and wave and help you with your Swahili if they can. They also like to laugh at you when you look stupid. But they are well natured. They are actually excited for us to be here. Foreign people pass through this town on the way to tourist spots like Serengeti, but they don’t really stay here. Our director and staff have worked really had to prepare the people for our coming, to ask their permission, to join their community board, and all that. So we are the first students ever to come here. It is so exciting. They keep telling us what an effect we are going to have on these people and how we are trailblazers for every other group of students that come here. So we have to make a really good impression on the town. We live so close to them, we are literally their neighbors. It won’t be like that in Kenya. That site is much more of a field station, we are told. Its surrounded by animals, not people. Which I am excited about. But it will be a downgrade in comforts. No hot water, apparently the internet is way worse there, and stuff like that. I’m excited to find out but I already know I will be sad to leave here in like 6 weeks. This place is beyond my wildest dreams. It is called the Moyo Hill Site, because we are located at the very top of the hill of town. Moyo means heart. Which is so fitting. Everyone has such a happy heart here 🙂 


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Location: Karatu, Tanzania

So close!

Days until arrival: 1

Here it is. The time I have been waiting for for SO LONG. My flight into Nairobi leaves tomorrow night. I’m already in Africa– Egypt actually– on vacation, so I don’t think my flight will be terribly long. Once I arrive in Kenya I have to get my visa, somehow manage three suitcases, and meet the rest of the students and staff. From there, we will take another flight to Tanzania. There are two groups of students in the program; I am in group 1. So I will spend the first half the semester in Tanzania and the second in Kenya. That also means I will be doing my research project in Kenya. 
I don’t know what I am most excited about. Meeting the other students in my program is definitely up there. And meeting people in the Maasai village. I’ve learned a couple of Swahili words so far, and will be taking a language/culture class, so it will be so cool to communicate with the local people. Which brings me to something else I’m really excited about– at the end of the program, the students get to present their research findings to the people in the village. Its amazing to think about sharing your work with people who are actually effected by what your studying, and to be a part of change in a community. Finally, I’m just so excited to BE in that place. To smell the air, to see the herds of animals, to feel the dirt on my feet. Definitely tired of waiting. 
Well, my wait is almost over now. I’ll be posting again within the week… from Tanzania! 🙂

Location: Cairo, Egypt

Only 2 weeks left?!

Hello all!

In exactly 1 week from today we will be leaving or preparing to leave the Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Center here in Mang’ula and will be on our way to Dar es Salaam! I am actually going to be really sad to leave the UEMC. We have great locals who work with us and it is pretty comfy. We have all made multiple comments about bringing out cook, Justin, back with us to the US. This guy does amazing things with food. It’s all so healthy (other than the carb overload) and yummy – I will miss him!

In exactly 2 weeks from today I will have been home for almost a full day! How crazy is that?! I can’t believe we are this far in. When I first signed up for this study abroad experience, I thought I would be ready to go by now but I am not at all! I’m already trying to think of ways I can make it back to Africa in the future. I’ve got the travel fever.

 Now it seems like things are moving so quickly. We have our big semester projects to complete before Friday plus a paper due on Tuesday and paper due on Saturday! Wheww! It is going to be an intense workweek here in Mang’ula.

We have all decided and finalized our semester projects. We have such an array of topics being covered. Some are working with the village of Tundu – creating design projects for water runoff, roads, population growth and alternative fuel usage. We have some people working on projects for the UEMC here – designing an alternative fuel demonstration and creating a mock website for marketing the park and local village to tourists. My project is really great for my two majors (management and community development). I will be creating a management guide-booklet for development plans. I am pretty excited about it but I have A LOT of work to do – a lot of people to talk to and a lot of information to find. Plus we don’t have access to internet so we are forced to work with what we got. It should be a huge growing experience. In the real world we may not have internet or alternative databases to work with communities. It really forces us to work harder and stretch ourselves.

Amidst all out work here we have been finding time for some fun. Last night we went into town to watch the USA world cup match against Britain. Although it was something so normal, it was exciting. I’m not really sure what type of building there was but the set up was great! A projector was playing the live game up against the entire wall. We all sat back in our lawn chairs and enjoyed with some locals. It is great how interested people are in soccer. I know we have big fan bases for sports in America but it kind of makes me wish we were a big soccer country. It is a pretty interesting (and impressive!) sport. Plus the US tied so we were able to walk away with some bit of pride. It is just so interesting how a normal day activity can be something completely new.

I made another attempt to post pictures but it failed miserably. So sorry.

I don’t really know if I will have any time or any subject matter to write about for the next few days but you can expect to hear from me once I make it to Dar. Wish us luck on our work and travels!


Location: Mang'ula, Tanzania

Surveys and Safaris

Crazy times in Tanzania, let me tell ya.

You may remember after my last blog we were on our way to start our work within the village. On Thursday and Friday we spent the days surveying a village about an hour away from our campus. The village, Tundu, is pretty large but only having 2 days we had to focus our surveying a bit. It was my first time collecting data and creating maps. Within our group we had 3 different groups of 3-4 people. Each group was assigned a section and was sent off with a translator and 1 or 2 village council members. My group was in charge of roads and pathways. At first glance I was completely stressed out about how many little paths there were to do, but the village council member told us that every space without a house is considered a path – meaning we only had to do “main roads”. We spent the entire day, 10 – 4:30 (including a lunch break) systematically going through paths. Surveying is kind of a tedious job. We had one member who would walk along the path and find a GPS point every 20-40 paces. We then had a member who would write down the GPS coordinates, the point number and any notes. A third member took pictures of every single point and measured the path width while I was the sketcher in charge of drawing an overall map including all the points. Keeping track of all those paths was kind of confusing for me but it worked out all right due to the aid of multicolored pens. The next day, Friday was the same schedule except we finished up the roads mid-morning and switched to mapping the houses. Houses were a little different. Since the GPS satellites in the area fluctuate we couldn’t drop GPS point of the house – instead we had to drop the point at one house corner, measure the length and width of the building, and calculate the wall’s bearing while continuing with data recording and sketching. Whew it was a long day but they did go extremely quickly once we got into a groove. I was the data recorder for the house mapping. It took a lot of patience and a lot of communication but I learned a lot from the job.

Working in the village was nice. We really got free-range. The village council seemed really grateful and pleased by our work. Having a scaled, logistical map of the town will be extremely helpful in helping the village plan for future land use and expansion. With the approval of the village council we were able to do and go anywhere. It really helped me get a better understanding of village life. The poverty would still get to me at times but in this area it is hard to avoid that.

After a few days of hard work we were treated to a great weekend and early week. On Saturday we had the opportunity to go World Environmental Day help at the local elementary school. It was a school competition between 9 schools that created skits and performances to demonstrate the importance of conservation.  Some of the dances, songs and skits by these kids were amazing! It was so interesting to see the kids doing traditional tribal dances to student-played drums. I really enjoyed it. The after the performances we were able to hang out with the kids for a while. The crowd size was extremely shocking to me. While 9 smaller school groups performed there were over probably over 600 kids there to watch. After the performances were finished, the music was kept on and our group danced with everyone. The crowd was so huge we could barely move, let alone dance but it was so fun! They got such enjoyment out of seeing us goof around. The girls in particular got bombarded. They loved to touch our hair and dance with us. I couldn’t even move my arms because I had 4 children holding on to each hand and forearm.

The experience was so amazing but we still had more to come. Sunday afternoon we left for Mikumi National Park for a 3 night 3 day safari. While we were there we stayed at the Angala Tented Camp. For a camp site this place was nice! We had actual toilets and somewhat warm water. It was such a treat! All the game drives through the park were amazing; tons of giraffes, elephants, zebras, impala, wildebeests, warthogs, baboons and the most beautiful birds. I was so surprised how close our jeeps were able to get. The highlight of the trip was Monday evening when we finished off the ride by finding a pack of 7 lions eating a wildebeest. We were so close we could hear the lions eating, and ripping the meat up. It was only 20 yards away. Despite the awesomeness of the lions my favorite animal was the giraffes. It is so big and graceful and interesting. The baboons were very entertaining to watch as well, they make the top 3.

Now we have made the return trip back the monitoring center. It is kind of nice to be back, this place is starting to feel like home! The next week and a half is going to be crazy! We are getting deep into our work and the projects we need to create for the villages. Work, work, work, work. That is all that’s on the agenda. At times I am ready for home but I think I am going to be so sad when we leave here. Oh well, I won’t think about it now. Off to do more work!


Location: Mang'ula, Tanzania