Serengeti National Park

The past five days camping in the Serengeti were unbelievable. We camped in an ungated and unfenced area within the Serengeti, and animals could walk through really at any time. Often at night, there were hyaenas and lions nearby or in our camp (and don't worry mom, we had guards and I refrained from walking toward scary noises at night). Giving you a play-by-play of the trip is impossible, and since I find myself completely unable to describe my experience with words alone, I decided to make this post more picture oriented than my last ones. I promise to keep things as hilarious as possible.

Olduvai Gorge (really should be Oldupai- damn Europeans always screwing things up) I was in some serious rock and fossil heaven here. This place is famous for its fossils relating to human evolution. The rock layers aren’t too shabby either.

Mr. Lion Man greeting our car on our game-drive to the campsite. And when I say greet, I mean guarding his lady and growling at us when we got to close.

Cheetah brothers giving us a fabulous show. Initally when our car arrived, there was only one brother and he began calling for his other half (male cheetahs are only found in male groups with their brother).  I actually teared up when we came across them and the fact that they were less than a foot from our car made the whole sighting even more amazing.

Lion cub chilling with his mommy. 

I could have stayed here all day watching this pride of lions. There were about 4 females and 8 cubs. SO CUTE

DERP

Chilling with a rock hyrax. “BG, I know it’s cute, but don’t touch it. Also, you probably shouldn’t let it jump on you”

Lazy, lazy leopard sleeping in a tree. His kills were hanging in the next tree over. I think we stared at him for almost an hour. Also, when we came back later that day, the lazy leopard was STILL sleeping. What a life.

Elephant parade. The baby made me squeal like a child.

Oh look, what a beautiful cerval. OH MY GOD IT JUST KILLED SOMETHING.

Lions feasting on a newly killed buffalo. After feasting, most of the lions fell onto their backs and passed out. Earlier in the day, our SFS group had feasted at a wonderful buffet- we all knew exactly how the lions felt. Delicious food can do that to you.

I "dabbled" a bit in birding during this expedition. Here is a beautiful lilac breasted roller. I'm pretty sure this is one of only five birds I am now capable of identifying.

Crocodile! Some impala got pretty dang close to it, but their brains kicked in and they fled before this majestic creature could attack.

A wittle baby warthog.

Our sendoff from the Serengeti. This was one of the last animals we saw as we speed off back to the SFS center in Rhotia.

There's still a ton of pictures that didn't make it to this post (mainly because it's a pain to deal with resizing and uploading), but I'll try to send some to those who want them when the internet is at full strength.

Coffee, wax and dyed fingers

If you were planning on sending some mail, now is the time to use my address in Kenya since I will be leaving glorious Tanzania in two weeks (commence the sad goodbye tears)


Brigitta Rongstad
Center for Wildlife Management Studies 
P.O. Box 27743 (Nyayo Stadium)
00506 – NAIROBI, KENYA
East Africa 


On our last non scheduled program day, about half of our group decided to travel to Gibb’s farm, a coffee plantation and beautiful lodge, for our first real cup of coffee in Africa. Let’s just say that it’s been so long since I’ve had caffeine, that I reacted very similarly to how I react when I drink red bull and jaeger (that joke is for you Dad). I swear I only had two cups, but it was the most heavenly two cups of coffee I have ever had in my life. The views of this place were also incredible. My jaw pretty much dropped when I sat down in a giant wooden chair with my steaming cup of joe and looked over the ridge into the valley. 

 Beautiful view with my coffee

 One of the lodge's beautiful cabins

We also got a tour of the small farm adjacent to the lodge where they grow some of the coffee and also vegetables. We saw where the shelled the ripe coffee beans and also where the shelled beans were laid out to dry.

 Nature shot, lily style

 Drying coffee beans

 Coffee beans not yet harvested

View looking up Gibb's Farm

After Gibb’s farm, our group had an amazing opportunity to make our batik, a “painting” on a cotton cloth created through the use wax and paint layers. The basic process first requires outlining the image you wish to create (which was done for all of us incapable artists- naturally I picked the giraffe one). The second step was to decide whether or not you wanted white in you picture. I did not, since I was aiming for ultimate simplicity, but if you did you covered the places on the cloth you wished to be white with a layer of wax. Next you moved on to the dyeing station. Here you chose what “light” colors you wished to start with. I chose yellow, orange and a light red, which I applied over my entire cloth. After drying the paint, I moved to the waxing station where I then covered the background of my design (i.e. not the giraffes I had outlined on the cloth) with wax so to preserve the beautiful sunset colors I had just painted. I then moved back to the painting station to paint my giraffes black. And yes, I’m aware giraffes are not black, but I dig rocks not paintings. We left our final creations with the wonderful teacher so that he could iron the wax off, and I will know tomorrow how poorly it went. My fingers are still dyed black, but it's okay since I'm constantly covered in dirt here anyways.

Iraqw Homestay

The Iraqw tribe is a tribe of East Africa that has its origins in the Middle East. Most of the people in the area surrounding our SFS camp are Iraqw people, and on Saturday we had our Iraqw homestay. Each person in our group was partnered with another student and assigned a household around Rhotia. We spent the day (8-5) working, cooking, relaxing, playing and talking with our host families. Elaine and I were assigned a wonderful family whose house is situated on top of a beautiful hill (the views were breathtaking). 

The outside of our host family's house

The Mama (head mother of the household) is a sister of one of the staff members, Paolo, at the SFS camp. In the morning, we had tea time. And let me tell you, the chai tea the Iraqw people make is literally to die for. I probably would have licked it off the ground if it had spilt. During tea time we also talked with the nephew of the Mama, Joseph, and told him about America and asked him about his schooling. Joseph even gave us a swahili lesson after laughing at our horrible attempts to explain things in swahili. After tea time, we started preparing the food for lunch in a small mud hut not connected to the home. We got to shell peas and cut up some meat, onions, tomatoes and cabbage. We then helped cook lunch over a firewood stove made out of soil/clay. I’m pretty sure I over inhaled some smoke, but I didn’t pass out and my slightly blurred vision eventually returned to normal. Elaine and I also “learned” how to cook ugali, a staple food in Tanzania, that requires extremely rapid and precise stirring. We were obviously pretty pitiful at it because our Mama took control of the stirring pretty quickly. 

Cooking some rice

Attempting to stir some Ugali

Cleaning some dishes with Mama and Victoria

After cooking, we sat down to lunch with the Mama and the rest of the household (two nephews and a niece, along with a family visitor). I had an extremely hard time with the meat because it was extremely chewy and still covered in fat, but luckily I was able to swallow a couple pieces so as to not offend our hosts. Everything else about the meal was fantastic and the cabbage was probably my favorite. After lunch we helped clean dishes, and then all of a sudden and without our knowledge it was Tanzanian siesta time. We relaxed in the living room for a good two hours before we were welcomed with another tea time. Our final activity of the day was sorting dried peas from a pile of leaves and dirt. When the car pulled up to take us back to the center, I really did not want to leave. Even though we had a slow day, I wanted to stay and learn more about the family and their lifestyle. It really was an amazing experience, and I wish that others could share it.

 Joseph and the calf

 The youngest member of the household (2yrs old) being shy

Finally came out of hiding to say hi! This little monster decided to keep shaking my hand all afternoon, and he even became so enamored with my pasty white skin that he started petting my leg.

Environmental Conservation and Community Service

In the morning on Wednesday, we got a chance to travel around to a school, a home and a brick making place which all have one thing in common: environmental and/or energy conservation. The school is located just outside Karatu, and an investor from America provided them with funds to build an environmental conservation center, a nursery, a garden and new stoves that burn less wood. The school uses drip irrigation and catches rain water to limit the need to purchase water from Karatu. We were also told that the children at the school really enjoy learning about the environment, and that it is a consistent topic in their curriculum. 

 Water cycle mural

 Tree nursery

 Emblem for environmental conservation

 Front of School

Garden

Next we traveled to a home that burns animal dung, instead of wood for cooking. The Mama told us the household got the idea from a village council meeting, and they have been encouraging neighbors to make the switch as well. Finally, we stopped at a brick making facility. Unlike the vast majority of brick making in the region, this facility does not burn bricks to keep their form, instead they use a hydraulic machine to press the bricks into form. Brick making is a huge environmental problem in the area and avoiding one major part of the problem (the burning and emission of greenhouse gases- the other being soil erosion from digging up clay) is a huge step in the right direction.

House made out of unburnt bricks

In the afternoon, we had our first community service. We went to local primary school in Rhotia and played, read and sang with the kids. They had so much fun playing with our cameras and all the toys we brought. We sang “We Will Rock You” by request, and we taught them the English version of head shoulders knees and toes. We played duck duck goose and soccer. The girls especially wanted my watch and my out-of-control bracelet collection, although I could not give them my watch (I need it desperately to tell time) and I could only give away two bracelets (as they were ones I had made). I would love the opportunity to go back another day.

This is what happens when the kids take my camera

Maasai Cultural Boma

On Tuesday, we visited a Maasai Cultural Boma located near Lake Manyara National Park. It is a small village of Maasai people who have decided to open up their homes and to show their culture (traditional dress, gender roles, dance, song, etc.) to tourists. It was a strange experience. On one hand, it was very interesting to see them present their culture to us, but on the other, I felt that the experience was not totally authentic. I felt as if the boma was set up to show tourists what they expected to see rather than what the Maasai actually do. I do not wish to express total dislike for the whole experience because there were many parts of the visit that I enjoyed. We got to dance with the Maasai and walk inside their small homes. We got to ask them questions, albeit questions they were totally unprepared for, but they still attempted to answer them even if the answers they gave we believed to be somewhat untruthful.

 Maasai welcome dance

 Cam dancing with the Maasai men. They've got some serious ups.

 Maggie wanted in too... laughter all around.

Laura, Kylie and I in front of a small Maasai home.

The wazungu watatu

Today was another non-scheduled program day, and we had the opportunity to go to three markets. We started the day in Karatu in the town market. Most of us students were hunting down gifts for family and friends. I went a little Maasai shuka crazy (family members brace yourself for glorious gifts). I also got a few pieces of jewelry after being bombarded with options from the local wandering salesmen. They always can sense when a mzungu (=white person, it’s not a bad or threatening term) is in town and you always have to be willing to bargain for long periods of time to avoid the mzungu or "tourist" price.

After Karatu, we moved on to the Maasai Market in Mto wa Mbo. At this point in the day, my bargaining skills were on point and I got a lot of really cool trinkets. Favorite purchase of the day: rhino earrings. They will be worn at all times when I get back to the states. Laura, Keela and I also found some hilarious mzungu shirts. Our drivers and the staff got a kick out of them and I promise to get pictures of the "wazungu watatu" (literally = three white people; we've taken it to mean the three mzungu musketeers) soon. After strolling around the Maasai Market for a bit, me and few others ate lunch at Pizza Point. I’m pretty lucky I have a high tolerance for spice because I’m pretty sure the pizza maker accidentally spilt a whole jar a chili pepper on my pizza. It was still freaking delicious.

After lunch, our group moved on the to the large once-every-so-often market outside Karatu. There were so many people around, and it was awesome to walk around and see all the cool things being sold. I could have bought a goat for less than 20 bucks, but I resisted. Totally regretting not buying one though; would have made an awesome SFS Tanzania camp pet. There was also a massive sea of tire shoes. Naturally since I already own two pairs, I had to buy another (but seriously, they’re the coolest shoes I own now). After this epic day of shopping, it’s probably safe to say I have absolutely no room left in my suitcases to bring anything else new home. It’s a good thing I’ll be donating some of my clothes, sheets, socks and textbooks in Kenya before I fly home.

 The market was packed with people.

 Audrey and her creepy (?) Obama Bag

 There were so many places to get cool cloth. It was so tempting.

The sea of tire shoes.

Ngorongoro Crater

Another day. Another safari. Today my SFS group went to Ngorongoro Crater. We started off the day with an extremely bumpy car ride and a lecture about how Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a multi-use area set aside for both wildlife and humans. We then proceeded to drive down the steep sides of the crater (picture the steepest road you can think of with no guard rails and LOTS of red dust) to get down to the wildlife area. It was like my first day at Disney World, only awesomer.

 Picture sesh before we descended into the crater

View of the crater at the end of the day 

We saw an unbelievable amount of lions, including a juvenile male who was just starting to grow his mane and a beautiful old woman who walked right up to the road. We even saw a group of lions so passed out that all of them were entirely on their backs sleeping. 

 We were able to get really close to this lioness. She was old and beautiful.

The young male- he was pretty far away so the picture is not great.

There was even a massive safari car traffic jam near where a waterbuck had just given birth (the baby was adorable and I have photographic evidence). The cars in this traffic jam lacked proper safari etiquette (they were blocking the entire road) and so naturally our driver, Nina, got out of the car (probably illegal) and organized an escape plan.

 Not such a fabulous photo, but the baby is so adorable.

I also got to see my first wild hyena today. I’ve been hearing them at night outside our camp, but had yet to see one up close. Two hyenas starting pissing off some wildebeest and an elephant, but I’m pretty sure they would have lost that battle.

 Just chillin like a villain 

We also apparently “saw” a rhino and a serval, although I’m pretty sure it was more our driver assuring us that the tiny specs we were seeing in our binoculars were those things. It really is amazing what the staff members can spot while on safari while driving a vehicle filled with overexcited college kids. We still got Kenya for more up close rhinos and I have yet to give up hope on seeing a serval much closer to the cars. Our driver (Nina) was also attacked by a feisty baboon today when he was trying to shoo it away from another car. I’m lacking in photographic evidence, but the hilarious mental movie is forever engraved in my mind.

Pumba family!

Just enjoying the safari and the zebra butts.

Beautiful view of the side of the crater and some very large cape buffalo.