What a day!

Starting my birthday off strong with a great quote…

Me: Moses!  Guess what day it is?

Moses: What?

Me: It’s my birthday!

Moses:  Oh of course, we have to slaughter a chicken.

Me: Why a chicken?

Moses: Or a goat…

Today might have been the best birthday I’ve had… like ever.  It consisted of me interviewing farmers about their issues with wildlife damaging their crops with a local guide, Tatu (one of the few women guides, but super stellar!).  The interviewees complimented my Swahili, but frankly did not care at all about the fact it was my birthday because they don’t celebrate birthdays here.  Then we were told that we had to walk back to our meeting point (pizza shop J ) because the car was far away but we didn’t want to walk the 10 km back to the shop.  So instead we hired two motorcycles and rode the way there for only 500 shillings ($.30).  It was incredible!

Then it followed by going to Safari Park which is a local bar.  I ordered my first drink which was Malibu rum mixed with mango juice and it was quite tasty.  I never thought I would be at a bar with my professor, but then again I never thought a lot of things would happen until I came to Africa. 

After returning from Safari Park I decided to kucheza na watoto (play with the kids) down the street.  I discovered a new baby that I might just have to visit daily and turned duck duck goose into a mambo mambo poa game where the poa was just me tickling the chosen one because the running just wasn’t going to happen.  After the adorable children I came back to cookies from Erica, our student affairs manager, and then dinner followed by cake.  The cake tastes delicious in my mind but actually no baked things here are really good.  It was a crunchy, thick, mushy, corn bread like, cake with orange hinted frosting that literally still had solid chunks of sugar in it.  Yet, it was a big deal. 

But, as if the day wasn’t miraculous enough I’ve realized that it’s going to be weird not being famous when I go home.  Every time I step out of the gates of our school people flock towards me.  All of them want to hear me speak Swahili, kids want to hold my hand, they want my pens because they are “higher quality” pens than they have here, and the waving and yelling “Hallo” is never ending.  I don’t know if you guys realized, but in Karatu I’m kind of a big deal.  Not sure that will transfer to Tolland….

Baby Love

Today we had a non-program day and we spent the morning helping paint rooms for the kids at an orphanage in Mto Wa Mbu.  The kids were on break where most of them spent time with their closest relatives so that the orphanage could be renovated.  We painted crazy flowers, animals, even some mushrooms with gnomes on the walls and I was surprised at how artistic everyone was.  However, to be honest I didn’t spend that much time painting.  I spent almost the whole time with this cutie in my arms.  Her name is Righteous and she is 4 months old and quite the diva already (note: the hoop earrings and pink boots).  I’m usually not that fond of babies due to the crying/fussy/wake me up at night factor.  However,  I may have discovered a new love for them.  But how could you not?  I mean look at that face…

Then, the rest of the day I hung out in Mto Wa Mbu.  I got a shirt made at the tailor, bargained for a Tanzania soccer jersey for around $6 (usually $12-15), and enjoyed chatting in Swahili with some locals. 

Also, side note:  I think I’ve been here way too long because yesterday they had a goat roast and I came back from a run to them slaughtering it and I didn’t think twice… just waved and asked how their days were.  Life back in the U.S. could be interesting.

I think it's supposed to be awkward but it wasn't....

I would consider myself a fairly awkward person, but it has never really bothered me because I just blame it on living at a summer camp for 1/4 of my life.  However, here in Africa many words have been redefined including clean, middle of nowhere, delicious, easy, parent, confusion and many more.  Today, during my Directed Research I encountered a situation which I'm pretty sure should have been way more awkward than it was during our interviews.  After a full day of mapping an area using GPS, walking 12 km by foot in the hot sun, I was more than thrilled to be on interviews the next day (today).  We had a two page questionnaire that was quite extensive about wildlife and their interactions that were supposed to take approximately 30 minutes each.

Now, just to set the scene for this situation.  We, Crossley, Stanley (our local guide translator) and I, are out in the middle of nowhere with a couple bomas (temporary settlements) full of Maasai families that we set out to interview.  I was wearing my culturally appropriate long skirt with my loose shirt and a tie-dye bandana on my head that I was prepared to trade later at the market.  Oh and I was caked in sunscreen giving me that overall strangely shiny look.  Put the backpack with the huge smiley face on my back and you've got quite the outfit.

We had just been told by our professor via radio that we needed to conduct the interviews in Swahili.  Now, my swahili is still not very good and I can't talk to anyone for more than 3 minutes if they aren't under the age of 10.  All of a sudden I was told that I had to interview these people who also barely know swahili (they speak kimaasai) and get something out of it with the help of my local guide.  A teenage boy who knows swahili offers to translate from Kimaasai to Kiswahili and then our local guide would translate from Kiswahili to english.  So the interview begins and they put out their cute little chairs to welcome us into their home and we sit under the tree....sounds peaceful right?

All of a sudden word gets around the homestead that wazungu (white people) are present and the interview becomes a family event.  There are probably about 10 little munchkins with snot dripping from their nose and a third of them are not clothed.  There are 5 teenagers with their sassy faces who gather together and whisper things to each other followed by loud laughter and you know they are talking about you.  Then we have the mommas who are yelling at you for taking pictures even though it wasn't a camera but actually a GPS and asking for money.  Add on the multiple women who have breasts blatantly out of their robe "breast feeding" aka within one hour of the last time the kid was around.  We can't forget about the men with their herding sticks and skirts that are shorter than mine that too are finding it difficult not to make jokes.  Lastly, the mzee, who is the old man that is in charge of the boma, who people told us was not mentally stable that we were supposedly interviewing (probably not the best scientific choice) was leaning against a tree mumbling to himself.

Now I try and bring some sort of normality to the situation and start the interview by whipping out my swahili with of course the worst accent ever and reading off some questions.  After every third word or any word more than 4 letters they would burst into laughter and have at least a 15 second discussion, about what, I have no idea.  There were lots of giggles and stares and of course the pointing.  So between the avoiding people's stares and giggles and whatever impressions they had of us white people there was the fact that there were literally hundreds of flies swarming around my face to the point that I can't write and I don't think I have ever hated something more.  But, this is totally normal for them and the Maasai actually like when there are a lot of flies because that means there is a lot of milk to go around.  So slapping at them or setting up some sort of swatting system = completely inappropriate.  So, barely breathing, letting flies go up my nose and in my eyes, being made fun of for speaking swahili, followed by the general family appearance really wraps it up.

Forever, I will appreciate that there aren't that many flies at my camp on Moyo Hill and I am realizing just how much of a culture shock it will be to return to the U.S.  You mean women's breasts flying around, flies eating your eyes, people mumbling things in other languages while laughing at you, and drawing a crowd because I'm white isn't normal?

No cookies, no walking...those are the rules

So the past few days have been academics with a little fun on the side.  I probably emphasized the second part a little too much for my grades' liking, but hey.  So we took our exam which I think went well but we never know in Africa.  Then I learned that I was in Wildlife Management directed research which isn't the one I chose but it was my second choice so I was okay with it.  So I started talking to people as everybody got excited about their new groups and I found out that everybody got their first choice in the entire group except for me.  This is when I started getting a bit skeptical.  So I approached one of the professors (wearing my sass pants of course) and asked if I could switch.  He told me it was logistics and that there were too many people in the group.  To which I knew he was not telling the truth because people who ranked WM and Wildlife Ecology (my choice) evenly got put in WE.  So I admitted this to him and he looked a bit stunned.  Finally after quite some time they admitted that they had decided as faculty and with the safety director at SFS that it would be safer for me to be in WM because I was in a vehicle at all times and WE consists of long hikes.  "We didn't think walking was the safest option for you with your diabetes."  Well, that's a new one I thought.  Apparently not only can we not eat cookies but we can't walk now either.  I was extremely annoyed and put my sass sweatshirt on and said, "I think it's completely unfair for you all to make decisions about me without even consulting me especially when you know little to nothing about diabetes.  I would like you to tell me everything you know about diabetes."  To which he was a little stunned and after a little finally blurted, "well I know it's caused by too much insulin. And we think the walking will make your diabetes worse."  Okay, so now I can't walk and apparently it's getting worse in case I didn't have it "bad enough" before.  I wasn't even really sure where to begin.  So I started explaining him the basics such as diabetes isn't caused by too much insulin, and yes I can walk (even run on good days :-) ), and yes I will be eating a slice of my birthday cake in a week.  I think he was a little embarrassed because he got pretty quiet and said he would talk it over with the other professors and our Student Affairs Manager.  Finally it was decided that I could go with the WE Directed Research but at that point I was already behind and I just now caught up, handing in my proposal a day late.  But, the research starts tomorrow and my goals include 1) publishing my final paper on the human impacts on the ecology and distribution of large mammalian wildlife 2) showing the professors that diabetes doesn't mean you can't walk and that they shouldn't make assumptions without even remotely any knowledge behind it and 3) to visit the kids at the primary school for reading time every day after fieldwork whether I'm exhausted or not.  Hopefully the goals will go well and that at least I'll change one person's misperceptions of diabetes....possibly even two if it goes really well.  But, for now, this is what I will look like for the next 10 days, hopefully the happiness will stick. 

Mto wa mbu

Yesterday we went on a biking trip in Mto wa mbu which is the coolest little town ever.  The bike trip was awesome including a charging wildebeest right in front of us (slightly scary).  It was super hot at first which led to some serious dehydration issues, however we finally got to the lake with tons of flamingoes...epic jumping picture coming later.  Then we biked to the hippo pool which was also fairly frightening but super cool.  Oh and everybody wore their Tanzania jerseys they bought at the market in Karatu with over 5,000 people (amazing experience) where I didn't get a jersey but bought a cute dress for $3000 shillings or 2 dollars, but we looked like a white African cycling team.  On the way back it started raining and it felt so good!  During the trip over 6 people's bikes broke which in the United States people would have been demanding a refund and been really angry but here...it's kind of expected.  It was just another of those only in Africa moments.  Nobody really cared and a couple of athletic guys just ran the last couple of miles so it was totally chill.  But overall it was really cool and some students from the SIT program actually saw us and our whiteness and met up with us which was awesome.  Oh and pizza was involved afterward which was deluxe.  So overall a pretty exciting day!  We have our final exam tomorrow which I need to get 156% on but I think it should go well....but I should probably still study anyway, right?          

Ana maria...love of my life

we are so happy!

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!