Serengeti National Park Camping Extravaganza

Okay, sorry for taking forever and a half to write this.  But an update on the most incredible camping adventure ever!!!  We went to Serengeti National Park for five days and spent countless hours going on game drives and seeing the coolest animals ever.  We saw leopards, lions, cheetahs, hippos, hyenas, giraffes, and so many more!  However there were two moments that really stuck out in my mind.  

One was the very first day after about 6 hours in the car and waking up at 5 for cook crew we finally arrived at the park gate where we could stand out of the hatches and go on a game drive towards our campsite.  Within twenty minutes of entering park we saw a cheetah which is very rarely seen and as if that weren't cool enough we saw a lion hunting her.  She was pregnant however she used her speed and got away but it was so fascinating to watch and the lion ran right by my car in which there were some not so very nice words exclaimed.  You should already be excited for the video that I will post when I'm home.  

The second thing was that every night if you wanted to stay up late you went into the vehicle (land cruiser) so that you wouldn't keep everybody else at the site.  The last night I decided to stay up late and around 11:30 pm we witnessed our askari Bura (more on him later cuz he is awesome!!!) chase after a hyena full speed to try and get it to let go of our trash can.  Now the trash can is quite large, one you would find in a cafeteria and was full of trash which you can imagine was pretty heavy, however the hyena lugged it like it was nothing.  It was hilarious to watch and yet a little scary at the same time.

Other events of the trip included listening to a graduate student talk about her research for the lion project, bird watching (not a personal favorite but better than I imagined), studying elephants which took 5 hours to find (quite the game drive!) and going to the lodge to swim and rinse the filth off our bodies.  On the last day we also saw a lion hunting warthogs and you would never believe how fast warthogs are.  I thought they had no chance but let me tell you, don't underestimate them!  

But my favorite animal of the whole trip was definitely lions, especially the cubs.  Multiple times they were within two meters of our car and often I didn't even have to use zoom on my camera.  They are absolutely beautiful and I'm highly considering working with them later in life, along with the millions of other things I want to do.  Here are some of my favorite pictures, most of them lions because I'm obsessed, but enjoy!!!!  

pregnant cheetah before being hunted

lions on their honeymoon where they spend 7 days by themselves

Simba? Is that you?

Hey adorable!

Familia

Hyenas and their awkward body structure

baby hyena!!!

playtime

of course, my new sunset obsession

oh hey tourism

baby is so excited

why did the hippo cross the road?

last view of a lion for the trip!

Oh and on a totally different note happy belated 15th birthday to the best little sister in the whole world!  I love you Sierra and hope it was the best one ever!

Ngorongoro Crater

Hey everybody!  Sorry it's been so long but we have had three crazy days to Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and now packing for Serengeti National Park!!!  Although I am about to leave for expedition, in the coming minutes actually, until Tuesday night I wanted to share some of my favorite photos with you from Ngorongoro Crater.  Seriously, if you come to East Africa you have to go here!  It's my favorite spot by far!  And we saw hyenas, lions, rhinos (mating!), buffalo, leopards, elephants, and so many cool animals so one of the best safaris as well!  Oh and wish me luck on expedition because apparently herds of animals migrate through camp normally and there are whistle commands to see whether it is safe to get out of your tent at night to go to the bathroom.  When asked how much the tent really provided protection the answer was, "oh the animals aren't looking to eat you..."  See you in 5 days!

Happy Birthday!

Today we went to Lake Manyara National Park and tomorrow is Ngorongoro Crater so we are super busy but I just wanted to send a birthday shout-out to my best friend in the entire world, Kaitlyn!  Happy 21st and I love and miss you tons!!!!!

Karibu Tanzania

So my love for Kenya is definitely still there and always will be, but my love for Tanzania is definitely growing.  Today was a non-program day (aka a weekend) where we just had one class in the morning from 8-9:30 and then the rest of the day to do what we wanted.  I chose to go on a hike to the elephant cave which is a whole bunch of caves that have been carved out by elephants.  On the way we saw fresh leopard paw prints as well as humongous elephant tracks.  It was pretty cool and I was a little scared but the guide did not seemed panicked at all so that put me at ease.  In my mind I was thinking of ways to fend off the leopard with my walking stick.  But, needless to say it was absolutely beautiful and it reminded me of the rainforest feel in Costa Rica and I felt like I should be ziplining down the mountains. At the top we reached the elephant caves and then stood at the top of a waterfall that was 40 meters tall.  It was an unbelievable view and I'm so happy I went!  Tanzania is beautiful, it really is.  

And after the hike we went to the town of Karatu which is about 15 minutes from the campsite and hung out there for a little bit.  It was a huge success because I tried practicing my swahili.  Also, I had my pump site in my arm and after some guy asked what medicine it was I responded with that it helped keep my arm connected to my body and that sometimes if I take the medicine off in the shower my arm falls off.  Really funny to me, probably not so funny to everybody else.  Oh and we found an awesome music store that has agreed to blast our music when we do our flash mob in town ( way more on that later).  Lastly, good old Happy Days.  It is a pub where we got American food and have never been happier.  I split a hawaiian pizza and a cheeseburger and it was deluxe.  Except my stomach hurt after so it should be quite interesting returning to american food full time.  

Oh, and as if the day wasn't cool enough after the pub Joe and I signed out at the gate and went down into town to visit our neighbors and the most adorable kids ever!  I'm trying desperately to learn their names but there are so many of them it's crazy.  Of course pictures of their cute faces are on their way, but for now some pictures from today's hike.

Elephant caves in the back

beautiful waterfall

Diafail turns into a Diawin???

So once upon a time the whole group left for Tanzania at 6 am on Thursday morning, meaning we woke up at 5 to pack our last things and eat breakfast.  So, naturally I was quite tired and emotional from having to leave all of the staff, but excited for the new adventure to come.  We did a search of our banda like 25 times because my bandamate is quite the prepared one, and nothing was to be found except our pet mouse Martha so we were good to go.  Confident that I had not forgotten anything we set out for Tanzania with a strict timeline on meeting the Tanzania group at the border and about 1.5 hours in I realized something.  I had forgotten all of my insulin in the fridge in Kenya.  I quickly scanned my pump to see there were exactly 92 units left in my pump which would last me about 2 days.  Panicking, the following conversation occurred...

Me: Harrison (our driver), I need to talk to Molly (Student Affairs Manager aka most glorious person in the world) because I forgot something very important at KBC.
Harrison: What did you forget?  We can mail it to you.
Me: No, it's my insulin and I really need it.
Harrison (on the radio): Molly, please hold up in your car.
I roll down the window after pulling up to the car Molly was driving...
Me: Once upon a time I forgot all of my insulin back at camp.
Molly: Really? (puts her hand over her mouth) Well, we can't go back now but let me call Kioko and we will figure something out.
Me: Okay (I sink into the seat out of embarrassment...)

After a couple tears and a few, "Why am I so dumb?" statements we finally arrive at the border where I try and hide from Molly out of embarrassment and terror.  But, luckily she says that a guy will be returning from KBC to Tanzania in two days and in the meantime we can get insulin from the local clinic in Tanzania.  Thanking my lucky stars the guy with the insulin is coming in the next three hours because he got stuck in traffic in Arusha.  However, this morning we went to the clinic just incase, and guess what I came home with?  Good old Regular insulin.  Haven't used it since I was I think 10, maybe younger, but I'm feeling pretty cool right now.  It's even a little bit retro, if you will.  So I'm pretty stoked about that and the doses seem to be working, however, as if that wasn't a diawin in itself.  On the way back from the clinic me and the other two girls that came along got to go out to lunch with our new student affairs manager, Erica.  She is fabulous by the way.  And the lunch was even somewhat american involving a chicken caesar salad and pizza (kind of)!  Of course though it's a secret, but let's just say I might just have to run out of insulin another time.

So overall I would probably say that the largest diafail of my whole life turned into one of the biggest diawins including R and american food.  Just another reason why I love Africa.....tons.  

Update...finally!

Okay so sorry I'm horrible at updating.  The past week has been absurdly busy and so many changes have happened that I found it hard to post.  Also, the internet...subpar.  But yesterday evening I left the precious town of Kimana that I have absolutely fallen in love with in order to travel 10 hours to my new home in Rhotia, Tanzania.  Leaving Kimana was one of the hardest things I have ever done and it brought back memories of how I used to cry for two days straight after leaving a CBC session.  In fact, I'm actually having trouble accepting this new camp site (aka resort!!!) as my new home because I keep comparing it to Kenya.  I made so many friends, especially at the nearby secondary school that I will remember forever.  Luckily, I have gotten their addresses and even their one of their facebook pages (proof that facebook is taking over the world) so hopefully we will keep in touch as they go off to university next year.  They have taught me so much and really forced me to realize how much of a difference a positive attitude can make in someone's life.  They also taught me how important it is to not be afraid to interact with strangers.  I know that everybody's parents tell you to stay away from strangers so instinctually we become very shy, but this time I consciously made an effort to treat these beautiful kids just as I would my little sister.  So I bossed them around and was super sarcastic, sang songs, made fun of them, you know, the usual.  And of course a photo shoot was necessary.  

And although it wasn't quite as personal I will deeply miss the little munchkins at the primary school that were overjoyed by copying my every move.

And then, of course the other hard thing was leaving the staff.  The staff in Kenya are some of the most incredible people I have ever met.  I wish I could have stayed up all night listening to their stories and advice.  I now have such new ambitions and ways of seeing things and I can't thank them enough for giving me this experience.  So we threw a staff party for them which involved dressing up like Maasai, remaking Party in the USA to become Party in the KBC (Kilimanjaro Bush Camp), making a slideshow, baking cookies, making smores, a dance party and of course roasting a goat.  They said it's the best party they have ever seen from students and although I would like to believe them I have a feeling they say that to everyone because they are too precious to say otherwise.

My favorites, Ernest and Jackson

And so leaving Kenya and my favorite staff: Molly, Susana, Judy, Ernest, Mtero, Jackson, Daniel, and Shem was the hardest thing ever and although Tanzania (we call it the promise land) is beautiful I can't stop thinking about Kenya.  Don't get me wrong Tanzania is beautiful, there are hot showers that are indoors and attached to our bandas, there is 24 hour internet, the food is much better, and there is a separate classroom than dining room (minimizing the pots and pans banging during class).  But I can't get Kenya off my mind and how badly I want to go back.  I'm trying to convince myself to forget about it and see Tanzania as a whole new place and embrace the new amenities and the fact that we can leave camp and go into the community whenever we want which is new.  We'll see how it goes from here, but right now I'm missing Kimana like no other. 

Finals, say what?

So the past 4 days have been dedicated to finals/midterms/I have no idea what they are.  They are worth 35-40% of our grades but we have another set of tests in a month in Tanzania...so make what you want of them.  2 days of studying, 2 days of finals.  Well that was what was supposed to happen at least.  So studying....not my forte.  Procrastinator I think is an understatement.  Unfortunate, I realize.  But this time around it was a lot more fun than usual.  Like I didn't put it off for hours on end, well I did but not as many hours as usual.  Having 28 study partners for all of your classes is very convenient especially when out of a group that large there is bound to be someone who takes good notes...or even notes at all.  Also, having 20 people split a study guide makes it be created in like 4 seconds flat.  (that was an awkwardly worded sentence but I'm too lazy to fix it)  Moral of the story, studying and exams are actually wicked fun in Africa!  A couple of my favorite moments:

1. Tome (our man vs. wild professor): Even if you don't have any sort of idea what the answer to the question is at least write something.  That way I can interpret it to pick out the best things.
-to which I say.... Dear Tome, please put your interpreting skills to work when you grade mine.  Love                   always, Arianna

2. Right before our first exam one of my classmates Cooper puts this song on full volume on his laptop.  "Don't worry, bout a thing. Every little thing is gonna be alright" (at least I think those are the words)

3. The following statements were on some study guides

-This program is like a Mom.  She gives dual and equal love to her babies: biodiversity and development
-Important to provide tangible benefits to the local community aka. SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!
-High potential to earn money from rich, fat, white European people (tourism)
-why was PRA adopted?  A whole bunch of other methods that were tried bombed.  Might as well switch it up, ya know?
-PRAs are like aquatic ninja warriors: they'll mess you up no matter where you are
-be flexible: roll with the punches, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
-because it's ethical YA GERK
-make observations, hypotheses (scientific method, yo)

So these "finals or whatever you call it" were actually not anywhere near miserable and I think I did pretty well as long as some interpretation goes on.  And on a completely different note, Congrats to Sierra on rocking it at girl dancer in Guys and Dolls!!!! I'm positive you were the best one! Love you!