Serengeti Expedition

I don't even know how to start talking about how amazing my expedition to the Serengeti was. It was good enough to warrant two pictures for one post! The past five days went by so fast that I may not remember which day everything happened, but I will just try to pick out the highlights. The drive there was long, probably about 6 hours or so. We went through Ngorongoro Conservation Area to get there, which is also super cool. Ngorongoro is a multi-land use area where they conserve wildlife and have people living there at the same time, unlike National Parks where people cannot live there. On our way into the camp site we stopped off at Olduvai Gorge, which is essentially known as the "Cradle of Man" where the oldest forms of humans have been found. It was pretty cool to learn about the layered sediments that helped them identify when the soil was formed. After that, on our way into Dik Dik camp site, we did a game drive. We left around 6:30 am until 8:30 am. Basically we did this every morning that we were in the Serengeti and after lunch when we were done our exercises for class. We had a bird watching exercise, carnivore observations, and tourist observations which were pretty interesting. Throughout the trip we saw some awesome animals! There were quite a few leopards in the Serengeti, which was awesome! They just chill in baobab trees and sleep in the shade. One of the days we saw a leopard feeding on a gazelle up in a tree! It was pretty exciting. Leopards are strong enough to carry their kills up a tree and swing them over a branch to get in the perfect position to feed. We saw so many lions. There was one day that we saw a lion stalking its prey which seemed to be a zebra. It would have taken very long if we stayed there so we stayed for about half hour while all of the zebras were freaking out. Later on one of the days we saw a pride of lions feeding on what looked like a buffalo. For some reason feeding was a very exciting thing for us after seeing so many animals around. There were many hippos and even a crocodile in the waters there! At one point we saw a dead hippo being pulled underwater by a crocodile so it could rot enough for the crocodile to feed on it. It was sad to pack up and leave the Serengeti but it also felt nice to be back home at the camp.

Homestay at Baba Idi's House

This was my home-stay family, minus Baba Philipo. I had such an amazing day! Anna and I were greeted by Mama who took us into her house. She has two daughters, Ester and Amanda, and one son, Walter. The boy on the left is a family friend named Hameer. We started off hand washing laundry. I kept doing it wrong so Amanda had to keep showing me. After that we went into a food storage room and helped shell some peas. It was interesting to do this because many of the peas we were shelling had larvae and maggots in them. We didn't eat those ones of course, but it was just strange to open up peas and actually see that. We took a break from shelling peas and had the most amazing chai tea (which actually is redundant because in Swahili chai means tea). After the tea we went to help cook lunch. This included us trying to peel the skin off tomatoes, try to cut meat without a cutting board, flip peas in a woven dish, and try to stir ugali. Anna and I were so bad at everything so they just laughed and told us "enough" and we sat and watched them cook. I'm pretty sure they thought we would be awful wives because we couldn't do anything that the youngest daughter could. After that they brought the food into the living room and all of the women ate. It was a delicious meal of white rice, peas, and meat with an awesome tomato and onion sauce. The young boys ate in the bedroom and Baba Philipo ate his dinner by himself after we were done. It is strange how different Tanzanian culture is in that respect. After lunch we all hung out, looked at the duka (store) that the family owned and shelled some more peas I assume were for dinner. While we were doing that a bunch of their friends came over and talked to us. There was one woman who was very good at English and could translate a lot of what we said to the others. She kept asking us if we had the same vegetables as them and if we had the same diseases as them. It was cool to see what they were learning in higher education that we learned in elementary and middle school. Their book included an overall biology like cells, nutrition, and the environment. We reluctantly left before dinner when Paulo and Boniface picked us up. It was truly and amazing experience that I will never forget. I hope someday I can come back to Tanzania and see how they are and where they go in life.  

Ngorongoro Crater

I can't even begin to think of the words to describe how amazing today was. We got up early to drive to Ngorongoro Crater to have a short lecture and a day-long safari. This was our first safari where we didn't have any assignments to complete or data to collect during the trip. Ngorongoro Crater is absolutely breathtaking. You drive down the steep side of the crater until you reach the bottom where the safari really begins. Fun Fact: Ngorongoro Crater was originally a volcano. It erupted and left the giant crater that is Ngorongoro. My professor took us a different way from everyone else and it was kind of a slow start. We saw the usual wildebeest, zebras, and gazelles. It is still exciting though, riding in the Land Cruisers, standing up on the seats with the top of the car up. The exact order of what we saw when is blurry but at one point we were in the middle of herds of wildebeests and zebras. They were surrounding our entire car and we just stopped and watched them eat, drink, rest. It was insane how many there were; hundreds at least! There were some warthogs with them too, which is pretty cool. Ostriches are around here and there and they are such strange creatures! One of the most exciting things of the day was when we saw a black rhino out in the middle of the grasslands hanging out with the buffalo. It was very far away and we could only see it with binoculars, but we could see if well enough that it was definitely a rhino! That is a rare thing to see here. There were some awesome hippos in the hippo pool that were flopping around and talking to each other. Hippos are so big and calm. They just chill out all day. Probably the most exciting thing of my life so far was seeing a lioness and her cub 7 feet away from our car. When we first spotted the lioness we thought she was alone but then the cub poked its head up from feeding. It was amazing. They just laid there for a while and the lioness licked the cub to groom it. After a bit the lioness stood up and started walking while the cub just sat there. The cub quickly ran after her and they walked across the grass. We followed them for a bit and at one point the lioness and cub crossed the road right in front of our car! It was such a unique experience! Before we left we stopped by to see another lioness but she was hidden in the grass. We saw her walking for a bit. We also saw two male lions through binoculars near the hippo pool. Male lions are so majestic and beautiful. It will take a lot to top today, but in a couple of weeks we go to the Serengeti. I’m sure that will be just as good, if not better than today and I can’t wait!     

Moyo Hill

The past week or so has been pretty normal and filled with classes. Yesterday we started off a week of travel lectures, field exercises and a safari in Ngorongoro! We had a lecture for all three of our classes up on the top of Kilimatembo (Elephant Hill) and then we explored a communal forest right down the road that was very different than the ones at home. They have barely any grass and the trees are burned and chopped from human impact. Today we had a bird watching field exercise for Wildlife Ecology where we climbed Moyo Hill. Moyo Hill is the actual hill where our camp is located except we are at the bottom in Rhotia. It was a nice easy hike and the birds are so beautiful! The colors are yellows, whites, blacks, blues, everything. Along with the birds this area had gigantic trees that looked normal at the trunk but seemed to have cacti as the leaves. They were wicked cool! The top of Moyo Hill had such an amazing view of towns below and at one point we could even see Karatu. The towns look so different. The grass is sparse and there is mostly dark dirt roads. Cattle is walking around everywhere. Although Moyo Hill is not very high the breeze is so much stronger than at camp. It is refreshing while the hot sun beats down on us all day. There are still so few words to describe how beautiful and interesting the world is here compared to New Hampshire.

Maasai Market & Tarangire National Park

Yesterday and today were such great days! We spent our day off hanging around camp in the morning (getting some more sleep!) and went into the Maasai Market. I got to bargain a lot, which I love! The people there are just so awesome. You walk into the market and they are all like "Karibu, come into my shop!" After shopping we went to a pizza place called Pizza Point and got some really good pizza and beer (their beers are named after places in Tanzania (Kilimanjaro, Serengeti). Today was even more awesome! We had a field trip for our Wildlife Management class to collect animal count data in Tarangire National Park. We were there the whole day and saw so many animals! There were tons of elephants, zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, warthogs, giraffes, ostriches, mongoose, and so many pretty birds! The giraffe in this picture walked right in front of our Land Cruiser! All the animals just hang out wherever they want. One family of elephants stood in the middle of the road for a good 10 minutes. Around that same time we saw a lion!!  That was one of the only species I hadn't seen that I really wanted to and it was so beautiful! None of my pictures of the lion came out very good because my digital camera doesn't have an attachable zoom lens but some the people that had better cameras got great pictures. If you ever get the chance to go on an trip like this I would definitely recommend putting the money into a decent SLR digital camera. It is definitely worth the money to capture such amazing once in a lifetime moments. We also saw a cheetah which is wicked rare in the park that we were at. It was laying underneath a tree behind some tall grass but we could see it's face sometimes and it's tail. Both the lion and the cheetah were amazing sights!

Lake Manyara National Park Safari

Today we went on our first safari! After a couple hours of classes we headed in our Land Cruisers to Lake Manyara National Park. It was the most amazing experience of my life! We started off seeing (which are pretty cool) as we drove down the bumpy dirt road through the park. We stood on our seats and looked through the pop up roof that lifted up above our heads. As we scanned the dense forest we caught glimpses of so many awesome animals. There were a bunch of Blue Monkeys in the trees. They would climb up the branches and just sit for a couple of minutes, turning their heads back and forth. We saw some Warthogs grazing. Near the beginning of our trip we saw one old elephant in the forest by himself. He was just chomping on some leaves. Even though the sight was so simple it was truly breathtaking! How often is it that you get to look out your car window and see an enormous elephant? As we were driving there were so many cool trees. Mostly ones that look like they are from the Lion King. They are called Baobab trees. Even though the trees were dead and brown, they still created a beautiful landscape. We saw tons of troupes of baboons all along the whole drive. Some were in large groups farther from us, some walking and sitting in the road ahead of us. We were fortunate enough to see some small groups of males chase and fight each other for the title of Alpha male or for a female’s attention. We also saw some baby baboons swinging from trees and resting on their mothers’ backs. Baboons have many interesting interactions. 

Arrival in Tanzania

I have successfully made it to Tanzania! After a few long days of flying I am finally here! There are so many things that I want to talk about but I am so tired so this entry will be short. We arrived at Kilimanjaro Airport  and by then I still didn't even believe I had arrived. We drove into Arusha first thing to get some food and relax after so many hours of flying. Then we drove about two hours into Rhotia which is the village that the Center for Wildlife Management is. The sights while driving were completely unreal. First of all, driving in Tanzania is a bit crazy. First off they drive on the left side of the road which threw me off but they also don't yield to other people turning into traffic, pedestrians, or bicyclists. They pass on the right side without the dotted line and even when there is a car coming the opposite direction pretty fast. It was bizarre! Other than the roads I saw so many people, even children, walking everywhere. The majority of people walk every where they go. Many had water buckets, food baskets to bring to markets, or anything else you could think of balancing on their heads. The color of their clothes were beautiful! They were so vibrant and patterned. Children would wave to us from the road. The houses and shops are completely different than at home. Tons of small shops, with tiny windows to buy from, line the roads on either side. The color of the dirt is amazingly beautiful. It is such a nice red color. Where there were no shops (and some places where there were) people would be herding their cattle and allowing them into fields to eat. Animals have so much land here! There are also amazing trees that are spread out along the landscape. I can't remember what they are called but they are like the ones from the Lion King. They are so beautful! There is one tar road that goes from Arusha and follows through many villages but off of those tar roads are just bumpy dirt roads so the rides are always fun!  We took a tour of the village along with the parts of the campus we haven't seen yet. The community is so different. Everyone is always outside just hanging out. We have tried to learn some Swahili so we said "Jambo!" (hello!) to many people on the street. Usually they responded with a smile and a wave, especially the kids! Our campus is located down the street from a local primary school where we will hopefully get to play soccer sometime soon with the kids. The picture above is the sign at the start of our road for the primary school. Internet is sparse here (I am surprised we get it and it isn't too slow yet) and I am busy and tired so I will be posting here and there. We can only download a couple of pictures each time so I will try and pick 1-2 pictures from the week to post.

 Kwa heri! (which means goodbye because I don't know how to say goodnight yet!)