Finals!

Can't believe it's finals week already! back home everyone is just starting to have midterms..

The work is really starting to pile up here. Not because of procrastination but because of stupid teachers that give out assignments less than a week before they're due. As of today I have to:

1. FInish a poster/powerpoint describing the mammal density distribution in Tarangire National Park (equipped with all sorts of statistical tests that make no sense to me).
2. Make a game board that teachers the players about giraffe/habitat interactions.
3. Write 25 150-250 word descriptions on animal ecology for stupid pictures. (given two days ago and due at the end of the week.) Some of the pictures include: a cricket sitting on someone's leg, a bird sitting on a tree branch, a group of giraffe standing, etc.
4. Make a statistical analysis of wildebeest counts in Serengeti. (given yesterday and due at the end of the week).

The teachers here really need to start working on giving us assignments in advance. Maybe I'm just not used to the african teaching style.


Also, classes are officially over! Today was our last lecture and starting tomorrow we just have reading days until our finals on Saturday and Sunday. After finals we have two days of returning graded material and then packing up and heading to Kenya!!

oh! and since we missed the Olympics out here in Tanzania, we're making up for it by having our own little Olympics games- Tanzania group vs. Kenya group. Us Tanzanian kids are probably going to win. We even ordered jerseys with the Tanzanian flag colors and bandanas. Hopefully we'll get face paint too.

The games:
ultimate ninja (introduced by me during RAP)
ugali eating contest
watermelon seed spitting
swahili translation
east african culture quiz
maasai jumping
volleyball
soccer
water balancing
egg & spoon balancing
I signed up for ultimate ninja and maasai jumping.

Don't know why I signed up for the jumping.. should be interesting,

One of the girls here, Lauren, taught us a short dance to Jai-ho. We're thinking of practicing some more and doing it as we enter the Kenya camp to intimidate them.


Since I'm leaving the Havennature camp in a week, I thought I'd upload some photos of the site since I never got around to it.


These are our tents.



The chumba! where we eat, study, hang out.


Outside view of the kitchen and where we line up for dinner.



Our very africa classroom.


The fire pit and view of the local farms.



Inside the bathroom- open bathrooms welcome birds in the morning.


Kids on the running track.


oh and I got pink eye this morning yikes!

Serengeti

Returned from Serengeti two days ago! It was so much better than expected- saw more animals than I thought I would and camping out was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

We started our 7 hour trip to Serengeti early on Thursday morning. We left at 7:00, passed through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and stopped at Oldupai (Olduvai) Gorge before arriving at Serengeti. Oldupai was kind of a let down.. You would think that the site of the earliest human fossils would have a better exhibition than it did, which was just a little shack crammed with scattered information about th findings. The view of the gorge was beautiful, but no different from any other landscape view we've seen. We didn't even get to drive through the trails in the gorge. It was still a great experience.

After the let down at Oldupai, we drove the final stretch to Serengeti in 2 hours and finally arrived at the entrance to the park. As soon as we drove into the park, we opened up our hatches and looked out for any animals. It didn't take long to see something spectacular- 5 minutes into our drive we saw a herd of thousands and thousands of zebra and wildebeest grazing in preparation for their great migration north.




Another hour later we arrived at our campsite! Equipped with flushing toilets, showers (which we weren't allowed to use), a kitchen space, and a fire pit. Much more luxurious than I expected. We set up our tents, 1 tent for every 5-6 people, unpacked, and jumped back into the cars for an evening game drive.



Our first game drive was very successful, we saw a pride of female lions, A LEOPARD!, hippos floatin in a pond, and on our way back we had to cross a flooded road by a river that had a crocodile swimming in it! So cool.




When we got back Judy, our chef back at Havennature Camp that we brought with us, cooked us up a delicious meal that we ate on our handy mess kits. After dinner we had announcements about the next few days and then, something crazy happened. Lions started roaring and grumbling VERRY close to our site. Sarah yelled for all of us to get in our tents and to only come out if an askari (security guard) was there to guide us to the bathroom. All throughout the night lions, hyenas, and baboons woke me up with loud roaring and screeching. It was amazing yet extremely terrifying.

In the morning we exchanged stories about what we heard, a few heard a hyena run through camp and knock over buckets of water. Sarah had to go through the tall grass to find them and only found 2 of 3.

We skipped breakfast in the morning so we could go on an early game drive, which was lame. No animals seen except a few herd of impala and some hartebeest. We got back, had breakfast, hung around camp till lunch, then went on another game drive.

This game drive was a lot more exciting. We saw more lions, some Thomson's and Grant's gazelle, hippo, hartebeest, topi, and another leopard! This leopard was chillin in a tree with at least 10 safari trucks surrounding it. It was kind of sad but the leopard knew he had control over the situation- he just jumped out of the tree and everyone dispersed. Another car from our group was lucky enough to have the leopard walk right up to their truck.




Our third day in Serengeti was probably the best. We had a 6 hour long morning game drive and since it was so long we were able to drive farther out from camp to see new areas of the park. In the afternoon we came up to a huge open grassland area with large kopis (giant rock structures) everywhere. Here we saw the equivalent of Pride Rock from Lion King. At one kopi we saw 3 baby lion cubs from about 5-10 meters away! They were looking right at us so I got a lot of good photos. RIght around the corner were 2 mature female lions basking in the sun. And on the other side of the kopi were 3 other females, one of which looked very pregnant.




After our amazing game drive we went back to camp for a rushed lunch and then headed to a research center for a guest lecture on disease prevention and control in Serengeti. After 6 hours in a bouncy car in the sun, no one was able to stay awake. I felt bad because the lecturer was very interesting, but it was just way to hard to keep my eyes open. After was another game drive. Highlights: lions, another leopard, more antelope, hippos, some beautiful birds, including ostrich.



The next day started off with another morning game drive. Again, we didn't see much. I think there's something about morning game drives.. we never seem to see anything cool. We did get to go to a hippo pool and watch some hippos fight each other.



After the hippo pool we headed over to the Serena Lodge, the chain of lodges mentioned in an earlier post. This on was just as luxurious and had food that was even tastier. Mom would be proud, I got I think 6 plates at the buffet. 2 plates of steak and veggie kabobs, baked fish, sausage, rice and chicken stir fry. 2 plates of salad and fresh fruit. and 2 plates of dessert: chocolate covered bananas, grape creamy jello, brownie bites, and fresh passion fruit and tomato fruit. The passion fruit was crazy! I was hoping I'd get to try it sometime. It has such a strong overpowering flavor, first sour and then sweet. It was great with the brownies.

After the buffet I showered for the first time in 4 days and jumped into the pool. Like the other Serena Lodge, the pool was an infinity pool. I had a few gin and tonics and then showered again and headed back to camp.

SInce we were leaving the next morning, we had a debriefing about the trip and what we learned (we did do a few exercises while on game drives for class). The next morning we woke up at 5:30 to pack up the truck with our equipment and take down our tents. Unfortunately, it was pouring when we woke up so we had to do all of this in the rain. I was soaked by the time we were ready to leave.

On our drive back to havennature, we stopped at Ngorongoro Crater- one of the 7 natural wonders? or something. It was probably the best National Park we went to. A little background info.

Ngorongoro Crater was formed when a gigantic volcano blew it's top and created a giant crater, 15 km in diameter. Since then, herds of animals moved in to take advantage of the rich open grasslands, many lakes, and frequent rainfall.

Getting into the park was tricky, since we had to descend the side of the crater. It was a bumpy and rough ride down the side, but we got a great view of the whole park. Inside the park we hoped to see cheetahs and rhinos, two mammals we haven't seen yet. We were lucky to see 6 rhinos, but no cheetah. :(



We also saw lots of hippo, topi, hartebeest, gazelle, lions, wildebeest, buffalo, and elephant. We even saw a female lion rolling in the grass about 3 feet away from the road!

Our journey out of the park was just as cool as our trip in. We had to take a different road up the crater, which took about 30 minutes. This road went through tropical forest and tall trees. It was cool seeing the different environment. There were also parts of the road that gave us more clear shots of the entire park.



We got back to camp a few hours later, unpacked, and relaxed. The next day was a relaxed day which included sleeping in till 8:30 (which is late for me now), going for a run, a late lunch, and a quick wildlife management class at 3. Then Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark after dinner.

rafiki ain't a baboon

he's a blue mandrill. and he shouldn't be able to speak swahili cuz they're only found in west africa not east.

we've been having weekly movie nights and tonight is Lion King night. It's funny that I can point out all the discrepancies in the movie after only a few weeks in tanzania.

anywayz..

we're going to Serengeti this Sunday!!! we'll be camping out for about a week. I heard that last year a hyena got caught on someone's tent and an askari (security guy) had to come and scare it away. I'm really excited for my night pees, too. if we have to pee at night we shine a flashlight outside of our tent and an askari has to escort us to pee in the bushes because of the animal dangers. wowow hopefully we'll finally see some simbas.

ew the part of lion king when simba pounces zazu just came on. I guess they added a new song here and it's awkward and sucks.



I can't believe that we're already more than half way through with our time in Tanzania! We're going to have finals in 2 weeks already! so crazyy

Oh and sad sad sad news... Yuda, our swahili teacher, morning walk, and hiking guide is leaving SFS to Dar es Salaam to work at a national park :(. Tomorrow is our non-program day for this week so we're going on our last hike with Yuda and then heading to Karatu Town for lunch and a surprise going away party for Yuda!

well, new post when I get back from Serengeti in a week!

watoto

Yesterday was our third non-program day. In the morning we went to an orphanage a few miles away from our campsite called Watoto Care (Children Care). Most of the kids that live there moved in because their parents died from aids so it was a pretty heavy experience. At first it was really sad hearing the director tell us about the history of the kids and the orphanage, but then they started to dance and play so it was nice to see that they were happy.

We played a few games with them- little sally walker, duck duck goose, red rover- and then read books with them. We were only there for a few hours because we had lunch reservations at a lodge down the street... I felt really bad that we also planned to go to lodge for a buffet and swimming after our trip to the orphanage. But we did pitch in a bunch of money to buy them 75 pounds of rice, beans, loaves of bread, soap, and some meat. I made good friends with a few of the kids but wasn't able to get their names.. But I did get to read a few books to them and swing them around the yard. Hopefully we'll be able to go back soon! It was a lot of fun.

Here are some pictures from the trip..




watoto playing little sally walker


caroline, jackie, and miriam playing with the kids



We left the orphanage right before lunch and got to the Serena Lodge right as the buffet opened (going to a lodge seems so contradictory to every reason that we came here). Buttttt the buffet was probably the best meal I've had since I've been here. There was beef brisket, grilled chicken (without all the bones mm), REAL salad!, spicy vegetable curry, fried buttery fish, seasonal veggies, a wide cheese assortment, lasagna!!!, fresh fruit, and delicious desserts! If any of you ever make it big and decide to come to africa to have a very non-africa experience, I recommend you stay here (http://www.serenahotels.com/tanzania/lakemanyara/home.asp) The pool was just as great as the buffet. The whole resort was on the side of the rift valley, overlooking lake manyara, and so was the pool. We got a few drinks, that were about 10 $$$ each.. and headed out right before dinner time.

After Serena Lodge we went to a curio shop down the street to buy some souvenirs. I got some pretty cool things, most gifts so I shouldn't write what I bought for you all to read.


Oh and recently it's been pretty rainy and it seems like it's having an effect on the size of the bugs.. I've been seeing a bunch of gigantic bugs around camp recently; gigantic moths (8? inch wing span), bigbig praying mantis, huge stick bug at least 9 inches long. Hopefully it won't get much worse.. I'm already freaking out about the huge moths. If you didn't know I have a strange fear of moths for some reason. I think it's their sporadic flying patterns- they fly in one direction and the next second they're dive bombing your face. And the disturbing sound of their wings fluttering. There's been one in the bathroom for a really long time and I think it finally died. It nested on the ceiling and would spaz out every night. I feel like they're too big to even fly because they can barely get off the ground.

A girl told me that the reason they fly around lights is because they use the moon to navigate so they get confused now with the advent of electricity. Stupid ass bugs. Electricity has been around for a long time, you'd think natural selection would've kicked in by now.





no pictures of the moth but I'll get one soon

tarangire with pictures? wawaaawa

yesterday was our trip to Tarangire National Park! It was another early morning- woke up at 5:45 for breakfast at 6:00 and then headed out at 6:45.

It only took about an hour and a half to get to the park. I kind of wish it was a longer drive cuz it's so nice driving around here. There are always happy people waving at us and such beautiful landscapes of fields and rolling hills.

When we got to the park we were re-briefed on the exercise we were going to conduct while in the park. We were doing an animal counting exercise; drive for 2 km and record the species of animal we see, the population, the distance they are from the road, and the distance from the starting point. After 2 km we reset the count, drove 500 m and started the 2 km again.

We saw mostly the same animals and a few new ones.
The new animals we saw: water buck, banded mongoose, lesser kudu, ostrich, hartebeest, a bunch of vultures, and a dead genet. Sadly no lions, cheetahs, or leopards.

Even though we saw the same animals, this park was a lot more interesting than Lake Manyara. Firstly, it was much bigger than Manyara. There were many more roads to go down and larger roaming space for the animals. I think I heard someone say it has the largest elephant population out of all the national parks (something like an elephant for every 1km²), which was obvious because we saw elephants EVERYWHERE.

There was also a big river that ran through the park. We got to get pretty close and saw a heard of elephants playing in the water. At one point we had to stop because there was a baby elephant playing in a puddle of water in the middle of the road.


ahhh didn't think that picture would load! I'll try to do a few more.

There were a bunch of frickin little titsi flies. They're like regular flies but bigger and bite. They're disgusting, annoying, and hurt. They seem to just bite for no reason too, I really don't get it.

After our safari we went to the Tourist Lodge in the middle of the park. We got to go swimming and ate at the buffet. It was delicious and fun. The pool was greaattt. It was a pretty hot day so it was nice to cool down in a cold pool. It had a little water slide too! The lodge itself was gorgeous. It stood on top of a hill and overlooked the park. You could see the river from this giant overlook- and a few animals roaming around.

After lunch and swimming we went to Dr. Kissui's (our wildlife management teacher) research lab. We didn't get to see lions or anything, but we did see a bunch of animal skulls that they found around the park. They had an elephant skull that was gigaaantic.

That was pretty much our trip to Tarangire.. I'll upload a few pictures from earlier in the trip!



dumb giraffe in Lake Manyara National Park.


gray crested cranes in Manyara


warthog, wildebeest, and zebra


Esther and me at the Maasai Manyatta


Primary school kids we visited


Most of the group at the Iraqw village


Crazy market in Karatu


Elephants in Tarangire

hikin' up the rift valley!

yesterday was our nice but very short day off.

I still woke up at the usual 7:00am for breakfast and headed out at 8:00am for the bottom of the Rift Valley. Our campsite is at the top of the valley so it only took about 10 minutes to get to the bottom/starting point of our hike. The hike started out pretty steady and flat. & we passed by a huge clan of baboons before we started ascending. Oh and one of my contacts fell out during the car ride there..

THe hike was amazing. The first 20 minutes were pretty gruesome but after a while my body got used to the strain. We stopped every once in a while to look at and identify animal tracks and different bugs. There was this one bug called the ant lion that digs little inverted cones in the dirt to trap ants in it. We dropped a few ants in and watched the ant lions snap out of the dirt and drag them under. Back at camp Nixon, the camp managers son, caught a few and put them in a bowl of dirt to play with.

The rest of the hike was great and at the top we got a beautiful view of Lake Manyara. Oh and before we reached the very top a giant herd of goats stampeded into us. Two stopped on the side of the trail and started to go at it.. kinda gross.

After getting to the top of the valley, we had about an hour and a half of walking to get back to camp. On the way we stopped by a beautiful lodge that Yuda, our swahili teacher and guide for the day, used to work at. He led us to the outdoor bar that had a patio that looked over the side of the mountain and out onto Lake Manyara.

After a refreshing soda we walked the last 45 minutes back to camp. Back at camp we had lunch and then headed out to Karatu Town for another lunch at Happy Days. I got the mac n cheese which was deliciousz.

Ater lunch some people headed into town to explore, but me and a group stayed back because almost everything was closed because it was Sunday afternoon. We stayed back and had some drinks then went back to camp at around 6:00.

Overall it was a great day off, but way too short. Now back to classes for another week until our next day off. But Wednesday were going to Tarangire National Park! Our teacher, Dr Kissui, is taking us into the park. He's been doing lion research there for years now so hopefully he'll be able to find us a pride!

I'll update after our trip to Tarangire!

writing papers

the work load is starting to build up! and classes are starting to look a lot better. the teachers are starting to organize their lectures and reading so everything's starting to fall into place.

our first assignment so far: come up a research topic and create a research proposal.

this research topic is based on our second trip to lake manyara. while we were there we took notes on any animal behavior that we observed in giraffe, elephant, warthog, or zebra. we came up with our research question and hypothesis depending on what we observed and found the most interesting. I was going to write about elephants because I thought they were the most active and compelling animals that we saw in the park, but so did everyone else. sooo I decided to research giraffe, even though they were extremely boring and inactive.

I kind of used this to my advantage by discussing the effects of tourism on wild giraffe. I figured all wild giraffe can't be THAT boring.. and that there must be a reason that they just stand around and stare at tourists that drive by.

it's starting to come together on paper.. but very slowly. it's just such a boring topic to be researching that I have no motivation.



our second assignment is a lot more interesting. before our trip to the maasai manyatta we were given the assignment of writing about the effects of tourism on maasai sociocultural and economic values. this'll be a much more interesting paper to write. I got a lot of information from the interview with Esther, the maasai woman we questioned, so it'll be a pretty easy paper to write.


besides the work load things are going great in tanzania! today, after lunch, we went to a local lutheran church for some community service. we paired up with a secondary school student (us high school equivalent) to plant trees with. Sateeth, a student in sfs, and I paired with a 4th year student named Alphan.. I think.. it was kind of hard to understand what he said his name was.

we dug 4 holes and planted 4 tree saplings. it was a lot of fun and my first time tree planting!

the church we planted the trees for was a tiny little church in a small town 5 minutes from camp. it was decorated with white and purple drapery with random plants everywhere. there was also this cool guy in the corner that played an electric keyboard while the secondary students sang and danced.

when we got back from the church, the highly anticipated group of students finally arrived to camp. (we were told a few days ago that a group of 30 something students were coming to stay at the campsite for a night.) they ended up being from england.
we played a few games of volleyball with them, we won the first lost the second. but probably would've beat them twice if we had played to 25 the second game.



tomorrow we're going to another village! we're gunna do some PRA (participatory rural appraisal) research. I'm still not entirely sure what that means. something along the lines of doing community projects while working directly with the community and their needs. it'll be fun to do more interviewing and research.

and sunday is finally our day off!! which we only get once a week..

I think we're going on a morning hike and then heading back to happy days!!! woooo

missin everyone! hope life is good in the usa