Pretty much the past week!

SO MANY UPDATES TO DO I’M SORRY.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

On this day we went out to a farm in the morning and sort of learned how to make terracing on hillsides, and why they are beneficial to the environment (they prevent run-off, and run-off is bad). Mostly though, we played limbo because our main tools were two poles attached by a string. So there’s that.

In the afternoon we went to the primary school down the street and played some games with the kids (they were supposed to be educational and maybe help them with their English), and then played fun games like Duck, Duck, Goose and Red Rover (which they call Land Rover… ha). Anyway, this was the day that I learned the term “mzungu” which literally, I think, means “foreigner” but really it means white person. The kids use it without reserve when referring to us.

Friday, July 27, 2012

This day we went to Manyara Ranch, which is a protected area near the national park, but people (I think only Maasai) are allowed to graze their cattle in the area. So, of course, it was our job to count cattle and wildlife and figure out their effects on each other. We saw lots and lots of cattle. And a few zebra. And some more cattle. All day long.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

So I was feeling pretty gross this morning (I’d been kind of up and down the past few days), so Molly (the student affairs manager) offered to take Katherine and I to the clinic (Katherine had a throat infection). First we went to part of a traveling lecture, which included looking through a community forest and visiting a curio shop and talking about how both can help wildlife in the area. But let’s be honest, visiting a clinic in Africa is more interesting.

So before the last stop (which was apparently about hunting and might have made me sad anyway), Molly, Katherine, and I split off from the group and drove to the clinic. Now, to keep everyone from panicking, the clinic is run by a guy from California named Dr. Frank and it’s really high tech and not in a shack. His story is actually really neat: For his 50^th birthday, the doctor and his wife came to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, during which he suffered altitude sickness and needed to be treated here. He realized how… not great the medical centers are here, and decided to start his own. And he totally did. The great thing is that he charges mzungu (mostly tourists) a little more for services and is then able to charge the locals (and SFS students, ha) a lot less (like, the equivalent of a couple US dollars). He even had a tour driver offer to poison all his tours so the center gets more money hahaha.

So anyway, talked to the doctor and did some tests and found out that I don’t have malaria but I did have a bacterial infection in my gut, so Dr. Frank gave me some antibiotics and also some anti-nausea meds and sent me on my way. The good news was that the antibiotics did their work by the end of the next day and food is delicious again. The bad news was that I took the anti-nausea pill at around 4:30 in the afternoon and slept until 8:00 Sunday morning. But I feel so much better now! (Katherine is all better too.)

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Today was a non-program day, and instead of doing the planned event, the Sick Couple and a few other people decided to sleep in and just hang around camp in the morning. Around noon we drove to the town of Mtu wa Mbu (literally: River of Mosquitoes. Mmm.) and ate lunch at this American-style pizza place that I might have mentioned before but I forget. Then we walked down the street to Masaai Market, which I think has less to do with the Maasai than with attracting tourists but that’s okay. We walked around there and looked in all the booths with the pushy salesmen; at one point Ashley had the most epic bargaining session with one of them and got him really close to the price she wanted on something. The other salesmen were trying to get the rest of our attentions but I was like “No, I haven’t watched TV in two weeks and this is very entertaining.” (On that note, I’m very sad that I’m missing the Olympics.)

I only bought one thing at the market, and it’s a set of salt and pepper shakers made out of cow bone that look kind of like giraffe feet/legs. They don’t sound that cute, but they are, I promise.

There are also these cute little skink-like lizards that live in the cracks of the concrete in the cities and I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to catch one. Just connecting back to the herpetology class I took at the beginning of the summer. :)

At the end of the trip, we stopped back at the curio shop we went to the previous day and did some real shopping. They sell certified Tanzanite there. Tanzanite is a semi-precious gemstone that is this really gorgeous dark blue/purple color and is only found in one small part of Tanzania, hence the name. The stone is not exactly ethically mined right now, but the owner of this store is honest about it and is one of the few who is genuinely working to get young boys out of the mines and convince them to go back to school, so he’s not the worst person to buy from. Anyway, I bought a ring with a teeny tiny (but good quality) stone and it’s so pretty and I love it. :D

Monday, July 30, 2012

So I woke up really tired, likely due to all the drugs working their way through my system (I took another dose of antibiotics, anti-nausea, and anti-giardia meds just in case before bed, plus the regular malaria prevention), and I was in a little bit of a daze all day.

In the morning, we went back into the rural areas of Rhotia to conduct interviews about how the people use the natural plant and animal life around them. It was… not so successful, because I’m not sure the people really understood what we wanted to know (keep in mind, these concepts had to go through the translator and back). I think it has to do with the fact that the idea of ownership is really important here (which makes conservation of “public” areas kind of confusing and hard for the locals… hence why we are here). Anyway, the fact that we didn’t get a lot of straight answers and that I was sleepy just didn’t make a productive morning.

In the afternoon, we had a guest lecturer come talk about lions and pride dynamics. Which was really interesting, but I was also really sleepy still. I pretty much went to bed right after dinner…

Today!

… because we went to NGORONGORO CRATER! Which is actually not a crater, but a caldera from a large volcano exploding a long time ago. I guess more people can picture the shape when you say “crater” though. Anyway.

WE SAW SO MANY ANIMALS IT WAS AMAZING. Once again, it’s not even close to good enough to just describe it, so you must wait for pictures but eeee.

We saw: zebra, elephant, wildebeest, gazelle, LIONS, HYENAS, AFRICAN CROWNED CRANES, kori bustards, ostriches, HIPPOS, many other birds, jackals, warthogs, and… a… CHEETAH. SHE SORT OF HUNTED/JUST KIND OF RAN BUT IT WAS SO COOL. AHH. Anyway. The crater is beautiful and amazing and I’m sad that we don’t get to go back. But someday I will have to, because it’s supposed to be one of the best places in East Africa to see Black Rhinos and we didn’t. But yes. So amazing.

Tomorrow is basically a work day for a project, and we’re also planting some tree saplings so I’ll probably wait another couple days to update again. Thanks for continuing to read, and I’m really excited to share pictures once I’m home!

Cheetah = Duma
Ostrich = Mbuni