Animals Galore

        To follow up the novel I posted last week, I’m going to keep this update short and sweet and let my pictures do this talking! 

        Our group arrived back in Arusha a couple hours ago, after a week-long safari to Tarangire National Park and Lake Minyara National Park. In Tarangire, we camped under a huge Baobab tree. Legend has it that a long time ago God was angry and ripped the all the Baobab trees out of the ground and put them back in upside down which is why the branches look like roots.  We split into three groups— ruminants (animals that chew their cud), non-ruminants, and birds– to conduct studies in the morning. As part of the ruminant group, we drove around from 8AM until 11AM searching for and observing impala, dik-dik, giraffes, and waterbucks. Although the ruminants seemed to be successfully avoiding us and we spent most our time struggling to collect data on skittish impala, watching animals for an extended period of time really augments your appreciation of them.

        Confined to our campsite after lunch, we all crowded in the shade to avoid the unbearable afternoon heat.  At 4PM each day we jumped into the safari cars to go on game drives. When my parents dropped me off at the airport, my dad gave me a bell to ward off large animals that he wished for me to see “at a sufficient distance”. Well, turns out animals don’t care too much what parents wish (sorry dad). Elephants paraded by close enough to touch, baboons played and swung on all sides of us, families of warthogs with hilarious comb-overs dogged our vehicles, and the most spectacular birds I have ever seen, including enormous ostriches, surrounded us. Although you are prohibited from leaving the Land Rovers in the park, we couldn’t contain ourselves when we were greeted by a rare afternoon shower and ran around like crazy people, rinsing off the layer of dirt that covers our skin, as the Tanzanian drivers laughed at us. The sunsets on these game drives were no doubt some of the most breath-taking I’ve ever seen— it was nearly impossible to take a bad photo. 

        On Wednesday, we headed to Mto Wa Bu (meaning “Mosquito River”), a village right outside of Lake Minyara National Park, where we stayed at busy, well-kept campsite with a pool that we took full advantage of. We went on a “cultural tour” around the town where we had the opportunity to test out our bartering skills on wood carvings, paintings, and Tanzanian soccer jerseys. Although many people didn’t bring money with them, the artists allowed us to take what we wanted as long as we promised to come back and pay the next day. This is certainly not America!

        On Thursday morning, we headed to Lake Minyara Park to find more ruminants, and came across hippos, wildabeest, and a lioness feeding on a buffalo carcass! (Don’t worry, this was from a sufficient distance). Last night we got our groove on at a disco in town where one of the few local people in attendance was wearing a St. Louis Cardinals shirt! Our stay in Mto Wa Bu brought up lots of questions about the tourism industry and the impacts of National Parks on nearby villages which we will continue to discuss as we travel around. 

        This weekend, we have much needed time off to catch up on things and celebrate two birthdays before we begin our three week homestay in Bangata on Sunday! We got information about our families along with a picture last week. My family has three children (2 boys and a baby girl), 18 chickens, 3 cows, a Mama and a Baba. I can’t wait to meet them!