The last four days, plus the promise of pictures!

All right, so as you probably guessed, I'm safely back home in the States. I'm almost all moved in to my new apartment and the internet is up and working, so I have no more excuses to not finish updating the blog and uploading my 1,576 pictures.

Friday, August 10, 2012

This was was a well-deserved rest day and the morning was devoted to a lot of photo-sharing, hanging out, and laundry. In the afternoon, we presented the mini-poster we had made the week before Serengeti to the staff and other students. A pretty low-key day.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

This was our home-stay day. We were all paired up (conveniently with people we really liked- thanks to Molly... see if you can guess who I was with) and sent to the home of one of the locals near the school. Katherine and I went to a family that consisted of a mom, a dad (who was a work most of the day), two sons, a daughter, and a guard dog.

The morning was really fantastic. We were made and served delicious chai tea, helped with the dished, and helped make lunch, which consisted of beef, cabbage, rice, ugali, and a tomato-broth-sauce. Ugali, by the way, is a corn-meal type dish that has the consistency of mashed potatoes and is bland but meant to be dipped in sauces; they also served this a camp and I really enjoyed it. While doing all these tasks, we drew pictures with the kids and tried, somewhat successfully, to communicate with the mom, who spoke very little English. I also got to show off my waterproof paper notebook, which they really seemed to enjoy.

But then, after lunch, Uncle Andrew showed up.

The mom's brother, Andrew, had gone to school in Dar Es Salaam (the biggest city in Tanzania) and therefore spoke English really well. At first, he seemed really interested in talking to Katherine and I and teaching us words in Swahili or Iraqw (one of the tribes in the area, like the Masaai) while we helped out with more chores. But then, slowly, he essentially pulled Katherine and I away from the rest of the family and only wanted to talk about the United States and how he could get a job and go to school there. Which, I mean, is fine... but we spent 3 hours with this guy while the kids disappeared and the mom sat to the side and did other things.

The other sort of completely obnoxious thing about Crazy Uncle Andrew was that he constantly tried to hold hands with Katherine and/or myself. I knew that hand-holding between members of the same gender was a sign of close friendship, and that PDA between the genders is a big no-no, so I wasn't sure what to think. But when it got to the point where Andrew actually took Katherine's hand out of her pocket to hold it, we were a little beyond considering social norms.

Anyway, Andrew told us that someday he was going to come to America and stay with my or Katherine's families while we find him a school and a job. He also told us that he hates people who drink, who are fat, and told me that I need to use something on my face because of pimples (which everyone thought was hilarious, because I had almost zero breakouts while in Africa because of the dryness).

Needless to say, when the truck came to pick us up, Katherine and I basically ran to it. Once on the road, we asked one of the East African students if that hand-holding thing was normal. He laughed and said no. Katherine then (jokingly) said that she thought we might be married to the guy now... Later at camp, she and I started getting referred to as sister-wives.

At least it was an interesting experience.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

This was our last non-program day, and we went back to Mto Wa Mbu (I spelled it incorrectly earlier). Two weeks previously, one of the girls (Lisa) had gone to one of the larger painting shops and learned how to paint in Tinga Tinga style. She did a really good job with it, so a bunch more of us wanted to go back and try this time.

We first had to paint our backgrounds and let them dry, so we did that and then went to walk around Masai Market again. Most of the shopkeepers recognize/remember the mwanafunzi mzungu (see if you've been paying attention) so their attitudes toward us this time we a little less aggressive and a little more trusting (just slightly). Katherine was bent on finding a painting of a leopard, but all people were showing us were cheetahs (which they usually assured us were actually leopards... I guess they didn't know we were studying wildlife).

I wasn't sure what I wanted, but I had broken my watch strap earlier during the trip and never wore it at home anyway, so I was going to trade it for something (they love watches for some reason). I was pretty sure I didn't want another painting (I had one from the orphanage and the one I was painting) but then we walked into a shop and I saw a painting that is essentially a Tingatinga bird explosion, with lots of dark blues, purples, and pinks, which I didn't see a lot of in other Tingatinga paintings (they use brighter colors usually). Anyway, I had to have it, but we went to lunch first to make sure we had enough money.

First, we went back to the painting place and did the outlines/background fill of our animals. I did flamingos. :) Then we had to wait for those to dry.

We had our last pizza at Pizza Point, which was delicious of course. Katherine walked to a shop down the street and got her leopard painting (she almost had to give up the pants she was wearing for it) and then we headed back to Masai Market. Katherine and I bartered off my watch, a couple cheap water bottles, 2 bug-repellent wipes, travel-sized toothpaste (thanks, Codyrose!), and 12,000 shillings (about $8) for my bird painting and a painting for Katherine. And then I was officially out of money (except for what we had to pay the people who taught us Tingatinga and the bill I was bringing home as a souvenir).

We finished up our paintings, all of which turned out pretty cool, and headed back to camp.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Our last full day at camp. :(

In the morning, we did some "closing activities" which is where Katherine and I discovered that we're both sympathetic criers and couldn't be near each other if one of us was shedding tears. Which didn't work out. But anyway, we did some verbal evaluations of how we thought the academics, non-program activities, and other things worked out. We said some preliminary goodbyes and then Molly talked to us about what to expect when we get home (like unconstrained sorrow... just kidding). It was an emotional morning, so I took a nap after lunch.

The afternoon was devoted mostly to packing, last-minute picture taking and sharing, and a last walk around Moyo Hill. For dinner, the kitchen staff did a fantastic job at making us a feast of some of our favorite foods, plus a cake. It was wonderful. Then we watched a music video (of all of us, even most of the staff, dancing to Call Me Maybe) and the obligatory end-of-something-significant-slideshow-set-to-emotional-music. Then Melissa, my banda-mate, and I watched Big Band Theory and went to bed.

Sunday, August 14, 2012

After breakfast, we packed our luggage into the trucks and said goodbye to the staff and to the two East African students who lived in the area. So much crying. And not just from me and Katherine this time! But mostly me and Katherine. Then we left for the long trip home.

We stopped in Arusha for lunch, said goodbye to a couple more people, and then headed to the airport.

The rest of the trip was basically: Kilimanjaro Airport to Nairobi Airport (1 hour), waiting (3 hours), Nairobi Airport to London Airport (8 hours), more goodbyes and then waiting (4 hours), London Airport to JFK Airport (7 hours), the rest of the goodbyes, panicking through customs and security and collecting and re-checking baggage only to be delayed about an hour (3 hours), and then New York to Columbus (2 hours).

I was picked up at the airport by my wonderful mother, boyfriend, and friends (Christy and Al) and then went home. I expected to go to sleep, but instead I talked my poor mom's ear off until about 11:00 at night. And then I slept, for a really long time.


So, that's it! School starts back up tomorrow and it's back to real life. Pictures are being posted to Facebook as we speak, so I'll post links to the album(s) as soon as I'm finished, and then I'll post the best ones directly here on the blog.

Thanks again for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. And if anyone is wondering, yes, I would recommend a trip to Tanzania to anyone and I would go back in a heartbeat.

SERENGETI EXPEDITION

Day 1 (5/8/12) (They do the date European style here)

We left EARLY and made the very bumpy drive toward the park. We stopped for lunch at Oldupai Gorge, also known as the Cradle of Humanity (or Olduvai Gorge, because of a mistranslation). It was here that Mary and Lewis Leaky discovered a couple different pre-human fossils and important stuff like that. It was actually really interesting, and cool to know that there’s still research going on there.

So then we drove some more. It’s a really long drive. And bumpy. And I was in the back seat of the truck, so every time we hit something particularly hard, I thought I was going to fly out the window.

Anyway, we finally got to the park and it’s BIG. Serengeti is derived from a Maasai word meaning “endless plains” and that is not a lie. There seems to be NOTHING in every direction, except grass. So we enter the park gates, and within just a couple minutes we see a lioness and some (mostly grown) cubs lying under a bush. Talk about a welcome committee. We also quickly saw some secretary birds, which are kind of funny looking and I was really hoping to see one while I was here (we saw quite a few in the end).

We actually saw a lot of lions and lots of really awesome birds, as well as elephants, hyrax, dik-dik, hartebeest, giraffe, hippos, and A LEOPARD. Briefly. Before some tourists scared it off. But we did still see the kill in the tree, so that was cool.

We eventually made it to our campsite, where we were promptly insulted by French tourists in reference to our tent constructing abilities. Later, these same tourists tried to tell us we were uneducated because we don’t say “Jambo” to them every time we see them, like the Africans do. So. Yeah they were nice. Eh hem. Anyway, the campsite was really nice but my sleeping pad was absolutely horrible. I may have been sleeping on the dirt. Fortunately, it was only for four nights and I actually wasn’t sleeping on the dirt so I guess I can’t really complain (too much).

Day 2 (6/8/12)

We started the next day with a game drive and some data collection. We saw giraffe, an owl, hippos, gazelle and impala, many birds, a crocodile (only it’s eyes and nose, unfortunately), buffalo, elephants (including a younger one with an injured trunk; the trunk was about half as long as it should be), and A LEOPARD FOR REAL. So that’s 4/5 of the Big Five for the trip (we never saw a rhino). We also saw lions and lions in trees.

We had a lecture about wild dogs at a research center in the afternoon, which was really interesting but everyone was also really tired and the room was really warm. (For next year, we suggested moving the lecture to the morning.) Another thing to note is the food. Our kitchen staff came to the Serengeti with us, and there was a small, shared kitchen at the campsite. Somehow, the food was exactly the same as at Moyo Hill. It was remarkable.

Anyway, in the early evening something weird happened. It rained. Keep in mind that it’s the dry season here. It wasn’t a heavy rain, but it was definitely more than a drizzle and it was odd. Fortunately the tents were waterproof.

Day 3 (7/8/12)

More or less the same deal as the previous day, game drives and data collection (by the way, we were collecting data on species association, tourists, and carnivores). One of the first things my car and only one other SFS car (and one tourist car) saw was a cheetah and her THREE CUBS. AHHH. SO CUTE/RARE/WONDERFUL. But so we’re watching, and Mom Cheetah starts getting up and looking pretty intently at some gazelle hanging out on the other side of the road (this is before the tourists show up). She starts walking really slowly toward them, and we all know what is about to happen, but then the tourists drive up and frighten the gazelle. Mom runs after them (SO FAST) and we lose sight of her, and she eventually comes back empty handed. Which is sad, but her cubs were already pretty old and looked really healthy, so I think she’ll manage. It was so amazing.

That day we also saw hyena, topi (a big antelope), giraffes (with babies!), and other birds. Our afternoon game drive was pretty slow, actually. Also in the afternoon, we went to the visitor center (pretty nice) and looked around there, and then had a lecture about the history and management of the park, after which the lecturer (he might have been a director of something) asked us for some of our ideas about how to improve management, which was neat. Most of our comments concerned the education of the tourists (for instance, knowing to not loudly drive up when a cheetah is about to start a hunt).

It rained again that evening.

Day 4 (8/8/12)

This day we didn’t take any data collection and just did game drives. I was in a really great car with Molly and the SAM from Kenya (who was with us during her vacation time, which is awesome) and it turned out to be one of the funniest days of the trip. We saw an eagle that we couldn’t identify (weird), giraffes, a tourist picnic site (it’ll be funnier with pictures), gazelle, lions, giraffes, and elephants in the mud.

One hilarious moment that may not be funny if you weren’t there involved one of the East African students, Danson (a Maasai from Kenya). He’s extremely tall, and his favorite animal is a giraffe, so we just call him a giraffe (it’s also funny because one of the subspecies of giraffe is Masai, pronounced the same as Maasai). Anyway, we drove up to some giraffes early on and said “Danson, look, it’s your family!” and he goes “Oooh hi! That is my little brother…………. Kenneth!” We. Lost. It. And he kept doing that with all the giraffes we saw, all day long. Some had African names, but then some were named Kenneth (and Tom and David). So unbelievably funny.

For lunch we went to one of the really, REALLY fancy tourist lodges and enjoyed their wonderful buffet (some people also enjoyed the pool if they had a bathing suit). As we were leaving the lodge, it started to rain again. BUT!

So we’re driving down the road, and it’s really coming down, and suddenly Molly thinks she sees something in the tree and stops. Here’s what she said: “It might be a lion… I think… No wait… IT HAS SPOTS!!” There was a leopard just a few meters from the road. When we stopped, it got out of the tree and started walking but didn’t get any farther away. No, it actually got closer and crossed the road right in front of our car. All the SFS people saw it, and it was amazing.

After that, it stopped raining and our car broke off from everyone else because we were the only group who hadn’t been to the hippo pool. We headed there (saw an African fish eagle on the way) and OH GOODNESS hippos are smelly. So, so smelly. But there were a ton of them, and it was still really great to see.

It was getting late, so we started to drive back to camp. Unfortunately, both people in the front seat (Molly and our mechanic) thought the other person knew the way, and we ended up at one of the gates. Our camp is pretty close to the center of the park. So. We were really lost. But it was hilarious. We drove high speed back to camp, and it started to rain again. It got dark really fast, and was both a little scary but also really exciting. We made it back to camp around 8:00 (the sun sets around 6:00, for reference) and got some dinner. Also that night I was MOD (Mwanafunzi [student] Of the Day) but since it was raining, I taught everyone about kiwi birds really quickly.

Now, here’s the part where I remind you that I’m safe and everyone else at camp is safe and that nature can be kind of unpredictable at time and that there’s a reason we call them wild animals.

Earlier in the same day, after my group broke off to go to the hippo pool, a group of most our other cars were together watching elephants. One of the baby elephants was injured and- long story short to protect the privacy of those involved- the matriarch elephant got protective and attacked one of our cars and ripped one of the windows out. EVERYONE IS FINE, but I saw video later from inside and outside of the car and I know it was a pretty terrifying experience for everyone there. Aside from everyone being okay, the other redeeming thing… I guess that’s not the best word, but I thought it was really interesting watching the elephants’ behavior during the situation. They are so intelligent, and so strong as a family unit, and just such powerful animals… It was… scary but fascinating.

Later I found out a few more pieces of the story, and the baby elephant died from its injuries that night. :(

Day 5 (9/8/12)

We packed up camp this morning and started our drive home. And if we saw anything, I can’t remember it, because we saw pretty much nothing. I didn’t take any pictures this day. I’m not sure if it was because of the rain or what, but it was good to catch up on sleep and get home. Oh, we also stopped back at the Ngorongoro Gate and their new education room was open, and it’s really nice. It’s been the most comparable to an education center in the US that I’ve seen here so far, so I hope updates are happening all over.

So that’s it! Actually, I still have four days to update about. But at 8:00AM tomorrow we head out for home! Let’s just say today was extremely emotion but also really awesome. Updates will be posted as soon as possible!

Thanks for reading!

Kwaheri = Goodbye

The Post-Safari, Pre-Long-Blog-Entry Entry

Safely returned to Moyo Hill from the Serengeti! It was amazing, to say the absolute least. Therefore the blog entry about it probably won't be posted until tomorrow or Sunday (which means, yes, I will still probably be writing about TZ when I'm back to OH).

Stay tuned!

More new experiences

So the final exam was actually a little harder than I expected, but not unreasonable. I think I did pretty well. :)

And another thing about yesterday. We had a goat roast at camp, which consisted of all the logical steps between live goat in pen to goat meat on plate. I didn’t go see the goat because I planned on eating him later, and I also didn’t watch the slaughter (but we were invited to); I actually napped during it so I didn’t have to see or hear anything. But, in the end, goat meat is pretty good but not really anything special.

The rest of the day today is devoted to PACKING! We’re all so excited. :D

Goat = Mbuzi

A couple days of nothing, and a day of awkward...

Wednesday, August (?!) 1, 2012

This day was just a work day for a poster project, which I more-or-less had finished after a couple of hours. A lot of slacking off this day. In the afternoon, we did some community service at the camp, which consisted of putting dirt into bags so they can plant tree seedlings in them later. It was… tedious. But that’s all right, it was a mostly restful day if nothing else.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Yesterday we visited a Hadzabe (bushmen) clan that has opened up their “village” to tourists to raise income. Or that’s the story we were told, anyway. And it’s true, it’s just really pretty awkward. I’m pretty sure a lot of what they showed us (a dance, their clothing, etc.) is not a big part of their real lives, but just something showy for the tourists. For instance, most of the men/boys were wearing baboon pelts, which they supposedly only wear for hunting and at the time they were not hunting... Oh and there was also a (GRAPHIC CONTENT:) dead baboon, pretty much intact except that it was cut in half, hanging from one of the trees. Super pleasant. Also there was lots of smoking of a… particular herb. So. That was awkward. 

Yeah. I just don’t know how I feel about it. And it actually got more awkward, when our teacher decided we were going to talk about whether or not they should modernize to cattle-raising and farming right in front of them (who don’t speak English or much Swahili but still) and the guide (who speaks some of their language, Swahili, and English). And it got worse when the teacher basically said they would die out if they didn’t modernize (they’re hunter-gatherers right now) and most of the class disagreed and said it was their decision to make. And yes, I can see valid arguments for both sides, especially when you consider the environmental issues… but we shouldn’t have been talking about it RIGHT THERE and we should have been given more than 15 minutes to debate such a significant topic. So summary: AWKWARD DAY.

Oh and I guess after that we stopped at a tourist lodge that supposedly practices sustainable tourism, but the owner wasn’t free to give us a tour anymore. So all I learned was that they farm their own fish instead of harvesting from the nearby lake. Which is good. Then we decided to walk to the lake, but we think it might have actually just been a mirage because the more we walked, the farther away it looked. Plus the wind was going about 80 miles per hour. Yeah. Yesterday was weird.

Today!

Our final exam is tomorrow (which is kind of silly) so today is a “study” day. I’m pretty sure that no one is studying right now. The exam sounds like it’s going to be pretty straightforward and about the biggest topics we’ve covered, and the Session 1 kids say that their exam a month ago was pretty easy too. No one’s really concerned. So we’re all just hanging out.

But the reason our exam is so early in the program is because on Sunday we’re leaving for a FIVE DAY CAMPING TRIP IN THE SERENGETI. It’s going to be amazing. But also don’t expect any updates until probably next Saturday. But after that, it’s only a few days until home! And pictures!! I’ve taken over 1,000 pictures so far!!!

Anyway, wish me luck on my exam and thanks for still reading!

Exam = Mtihani