Ithaca is Gorges. Bangata is Beautiful.

Although it would take multiple blogs to sufficiently talk about everything that has happened since we arrived in Bangata on Sunday, I have not written a word in my journal. All of my spare time has been spent studying Swahili in hopes of having a decent conversation with my Mama by the time we leave Bangata. (Hey, a girl can dream)
 

Rather than trying to detail the ups and downs, miscommunications and misunderstandings, awkward and remarkable moments that have occurred in our first three days of homestay, I am just going to highlight a few things.

1.  It is only befitting that I start off by thanking Ajeet for the English to Swahili pocket dictionary that he gave me. It has saved my life this week! Incase you haven’t picked up, the language barrier has proven to make simple tasks extremely complex. Although we have 4 hours of Swahili lessons every morning and I feel like I am improving substantially every day, I am constantly frustrated by my inability to express myself and understand others. My go-to word is “Sielewi” (I don’t understand) and I’ve realized that the only thing one can do is to laugh along with those laughing at/with me.

2.  My immediate family is made up of my Mama, Levis who is 15, Erick (nicknamed Mba) who is 10, and Glory (nicknamed Baby) who is 4. Our Baba works at a hotel in Nairobi but is coming home this weekend. Levis speaks some English (and Mama seems to have picked up some words) which is extremely helpful, although he is gone most the day. We live next door to one of my classmates, Jake, one one side, and Bibi (grandmother) on the other. There are constantly kids running between yards, fetching water and going from one house to another. It is a very communal way of living and Jake and I still aren’t 100% sure who belongs to what family.

3.  Our house is in a village called Ngiresi located right next to Bangata. The views of Mt. Meru and the sunset from the village are absolutely astounding. In the mornings, I walk to school with several classmates who live nearby. Our walk is down a steep hill, through banana and maize fields, across a river (which I fell into yesterday), and up another steep climb. Even though Mama makes me bathe every morning before school, by the time we arrive I have broken a sweat and my feet are covered in dirt.

4.  Our house consists of 4 bedrooms and a living room/kitchen. The living room has several couches and chairs, a TV and DVD player, a stereo, a coffee table, a fridge (at least that’s what I think it is), and religious and motivational posters dotting the walls. My favorite is a poster with the 35 “World’s Worst Dictators”— including Hitler, Gaddafi, Hussein, and Margaret Thatcher— which I was told that Baba got in Nairobi. My bedroom is spacious and simple with a full-size bed, a small table, and a chair. I am awaken every morning, at nearly 6 on the dot, to the sound chickens coo-ing outside.

5.  My days consists of going to Swahili lessons, doing homework and running around with my classmates at the Center (where class is held), and returning home before dark I am welcomed home to tea, and then attempt to help Mama cook dinner (She is an amazing cook and I am probably just cramping her style), playing with the children, and standing idly by. When dinner is served, around 8PM, the TV is switched on and our evenings so far have been spent with eyes glued to the screen watching a movie called Brothers which I'm pretty they all have memorized. (Levis' other favorite DVD consists of probably a dozen Eddie Murphy movies and a menu that is in Chinese)

6. The first night in Bangata, I was woken abruptly in the middle of the night by Mama yelling outside my door. Since I had no idea what she was saying and didn't know the Swahili for "hold on", I jumped out of bed and rushed to cover up my legs with my kanga. She came into the room shining a flashlight around, still yelling, as I stood in confusion saying "Sielewi!". I was then pulled into another bedroom where she shined the light on a bunch of ants crawling around the concrete floor and then threw salt at them. I was then escorted back into my room where the light was shone again light a spotlight once more before she left. Unsure what had just happened or what to do next, I crawled back into bed. Around 3 AM I was woken again my what sounded like a violent chicken fight in living room. It's funny how chickens (and 4-day-old chicks!) parading through the house, jumping on couches, and being chased out, has become a norm.

 A few other afterthoughts that I do not have time to elaborate on:

- My family does not have a kitchen table and eats on the couch, often with our hands, with I thoroughly enjoy. (See Dad, table manners are overrated) 

- People here have the cleanest clothes I've ever seen. And let me tell you, hand washing is NOT an easy task.

Photo Time!

The view of Mt. Meru from our first campsite at Nderokowoi ranch. Our tents were just to the right.

Sunset at Nderokowoi.

After our first Sunday morning church service.

Zebras and giraffes hanging out by the watering hole.

Babu Likki- the grandfather of our group and one of the wisest people I've ever met. His knowledge of Tanzanian wildlife (and life in general) is endless.

Onesmo- a Massai senior warrior who joins us on safari. This picture was taken inside of a Massai women's home, called a boma.

Matt with Mike, a modern Massai (as you can see by his jeans compared with Onesmo's red robe). Massai warriors hunt lions that attack their livestock. When a lion is killed, the warrior who threw the first spear gets the lions tail and the warrior who thew the second spear gets the paw. Mike has two tails and a paw.

Alex, our resident bird expert. He can identify thousands of species of birds before I can even spot them.

Our campsite at a Swiss chalet  just outside of Muzumbai rainforest.

Delicious mangoes.

Most of the gang at Tarangire.

 

 A superb starling. They would literally land inches from you. 

Our all-girl ruminants group (minus Eliza who took the picture) with Samuel Sr.our driver.

Baboon piggy back ride.

Afternoon showers abrewin'.

Sunset on a game drive :)

Our tents under the Baobab tree at Tarangire.

Jenny being "healed" (slash having her fortune told) by a traditional Massai healer.  I was told that I will live a long life, take after a family member in being a leader, and have a first-born son...

The Massai healer's boma. He has 25 wives and over a hundred children that all live there. It's basically it's own city.

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!

Mountain Living

After 3 busy days exploring Arusha— hardly enough to get a taste of it— our group of 28 was split into 2 groups to go on safari (In Swahili, safari means ‘to travel’ or ‘to journey’). On Friday, my group left for a seven hour drive to Muzumbai Tropical Forest, one of the few fully protected tropical areas in Africa.


If the quintessential view of Africa is of a flat, dry savannah with one Acacia tree (like our first campsite), Muzumbai is far from it. Our safari cars wound through miles and miles of lush, green mountains, villagers balancing loads of fresh fruit and lumber on their heads (my new goal for the trip is to learn to do this), and children running towards us shouting “Muzungu! Muzungu!” (meaning white person) to which we respond “Afriko! Afriko!” The last two hours of the drive were spent ‘’oo’ and ‘ah’ing out the windows at this little-known paradise. 

Late afternoon we arrived at a beautiful, Swiss chalet overlooking the rolling Usambara Mountains which are dotted with mountain villages. The rest of the day was spent playing a game of soccer on the mowed lawn beneath our tents, devouring Oakley and the rest of the cook crew’s famous chapati for dinner (In Tanzania, voluptuousness is a sign of health and wealth and they do a great job of ensuring ours), and hanging out in the lit chalet, which is also the park library. 

The next morning we met Mr. Modest, the Manager of the Forest Reserve (who we later learned has a snow skiing diploma. Probably one of the few Tanzanians...), who briefed us on the history, species diversity, and importance of Muzumbai. 

As I mentioned in my last post, greetings are extremely important in Tanzanian culture. We were then given 3 hours to ‘get acquainted’ with the forest. We were asked to leave our cameras, watches and journals, given vague directions, and told to simply go experience it in whatever fashion we so chose— whether than be running through the forest naked (they neglected to mention the number of thorns) or climbing a tree to take a nap. The only guidelines were 1. No swinging on vines since a past SIT student dislocated her shoulder doing so and 2. Come back when the sun is directly above us. With a good combination of fighting my way through the vegetation and sitting quietly on a fallen tree branch as huge blue butterflies circled my head, the time flew by. On the way out, I stop to sit on a rock and listen to beautiful singing coming from a Sunday morning church service in the village below us, illuminating the valley. 

In the afternoon we went on what we thought would be a leisurely educational hike led by Mr. Modest and the park rangers, but which turned out to be a trek up a mountain. Although many of my classmates were not thrilled by the surprise, I couldn’t help but think about the difficulty of daily activities of the people leaving in the vertical villages around us. These places make Ithaca-living look flat. 

On Monday and Tuesday we spent our mornings in three groups collecting data on tree stratification, height, species diversity, and other factors, and then compiled our data onto charts to be presented before dinner. Our afternoons were spent lounging on the lawn, attempting to juggle the soccer ball, washing clothes, and doing readings (drinking tea goes without say). After dinner we sit around playing mafia, Poor Man’s Toe (for all you game-loving friends, I will have to teach you), and celebrity. 

Before I left the US, Tyler Fishbone told me to “have conversations with as many people as you can.” On Wednesday, we got a great opportunity. We ventured into a nearby village to talk to the villagers about their lives and perceptions of the forest reserve. We split into four groups— ethnobotany, agroforestry, gender, and fuel wood— to hold focus groups with the help of the foresters who translated. 

When we first got to to the village center, we were greeted by about 10 men standing outside the building, who shook everyones hand with a smile— before realizing that the village center had moved and these were just random people. Just another example of how welcoming and friendly everyone is around here. 

As part of the gender group, we talked with two women and two men, all separately. The moment we walked into the first woman’s home, 5 small children started hysterically crying— a bit uncomfortable but hard to blame them. If you’d never seen a white face before I imagine it would be quite scary. We asked about their families, day-to-day activities, the division of labor, contraception practices, population increases, and education. The first woman was Christian (one of the few in the village), single, has a 1-year old son and plans to open up a restaurant. The second woman was a muslim who claimed to be 35 although her husband said she was 27 (this would never happen in America...). She had four kids and said she “resigned”— If her husband wanted more he could marry another wife. Both she and her husband were farmers although they each have their own land. We were all pleasantly surprised by the strong-will and independence of these women. While most Muslim men in this area have multiple wives (they are Polygamists), both the men we spoke to only had one, which they attributed to the hard financial times. Aside from the first lady, none of the people we interviewed had ever left their little, mountain village. After purchasing a grocery bag full of delicious mangoes for only 1000 shillings (less than $1), we headed back to camp to devour them. Before dinner, we all shared our experiences in the focus groups, definitely one of the highlights of my trip so far. 

Nobody was excited to leave Muzumbai yesterday but the car ride down the mountains was equally as majestic. We stopped for a break in a town where some guy took advantage of my spotty Swahili, telling me his name was “Husband” so I decided I should spend the rest of the ride studying vocab to avoid such mixups in the future. (One of my friends meant to say “It was nice to meet you” at the end of her focus group in the village but switched up some words and said, “It’s nice to be fat.”) 

We met up with the other half the group last night back in Arusha for just enough time to catch up and exchange stories. Headed to Tarangire National Park in a couple hours! Though it seems like our time in Arusha (and therefore, time with internet access) is extremely rushed, on safari our days are full of siesta time. With a truly amazing group of people, I couldn’t ask for anything more. 

Pictures coming soon!

A Peaceful Beginning

Hujambo! (Nope, not 'jambo'. Mean Girls got it wrong) I am writing from my tent in the northern Tanzanian bush as zebras cackle outside. But first, let me rewind about a week...


Despite a 12-hour underestimation of travel time (For some reason I was under the impression I arrived at 8AM not 8PM) the flights went smoothly and I was kept entertained by the NOW 77 CD complete with Firework, Club Can't Handle Me, and Forget You. After going through customs, we were greeted outside the airport by Baby Jack, our program director, and Doreen, his assistant (or the "social director" as she likes to call herself) and boarded a bus for a two hour ride in the pitch dark to Nderokowoi Ranch. Although we were all exhausted, we were kept wide awake by the roller coaster of a ride down dirt roads, quickly making friends as we bumped shoulders with one another and crossed our fingers that the bus wouldn't break down. One girl verbalized what we were all undoubtedly thinking, "What the hell are we doing here?!" Halfway there we stopped for a bathroom break and stood dumbfounded by the night ski, exponentially larger than any I've seen before. We made it to camp well after midnight, immediately set up our tents, and ate a fresh-cooked meal before crashing around 3AM. As we fell asleep to hyena and zebra sounds in the dark distance, the surroundings remained a mystery until morning. We awoke to a vast savannah covered in brown grass and scattered with Acacia trees.


Our days at Nderokowoi begin at sunrise over Mt. Kilimanjaro and end with a beautiful, yellow sunset over Mt. Meru. Although I'm not used to the 6AM to 9PM schedule, I've quickly grown to love it. No matter what the activities of the day consist of, there's always time set out for tea to unwind, socialize, and refill our bodies with caffeine. We have morning teatime before breakfast, mid-morning teatime before lunch, and afternoon teatime around four o'clock. In fact, I should probably change the name of this blog to "Tea Time". Although it may seem excessive, it's really nice to have the day built around this relaxation and conversation time instead of trying to squeeze it in to an impossibly busy schedule as I tend to do.


"Class" takes place in a circle and is regularly interrupted as people spot animals grazing in the distance and baboons swinging in the trees. It is also never linear- we will be learning basic Swahili one moment, discussing the best clubs in Arusha the next, and distinguishing between national parks and wildlife reserves a minute later. The last couple days, we've divided into groups led by Tanzanians to bird and wildlife life, study ecology, and visit a Masai boma. In the evenings, we take turns going on night safaris where we've seen impala, zebra, wildabeast, dik-dik, owls, and feral cats, among other animals native to the area.


On Sunday, after a few days of getting to know each other and the program, we put on our Kangas- long, patterned skirts given to us as a gift from the SIT staff- to go to church, for our first real cultural experience. I sat back and took in the beautiful singing, simple danging, and passionate chanting, as birds flew in and out of the open, stained-glass windows. Although we did not understand a word of what was being said, I couldn't help but smile along with everyone else in the church as the spirited preacher gave his sermon by heart. The service was followed by 'Thanksgiving', a food auction to raise money for the church. After singing Lion King sounds, Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes, and Waka Waka with some children who made fun of my attempt to introduce myself in Swahili, we drove to a nearby village for our first taste of Tanzanian beer. Beer bottles here are twice the size, have twice the alcohol content, and cost about $1, so needless to say it was a fun afternoon.


For a quick history of Tanzania... According to Baba Jack, Tanzania is the only Sub-Saharan African country that has "No blood in the ground." While many of the countries surrounding Tanzania (Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa) are very politicized and the populations are divided by ethnic and religious groups, Tanzania is different. The peaceful transition from British control to independence left Tanzania void of such strife. While Kenyans identify themselves by 'tribe', Tanzanians identify as 'Tanzanian'. Although there are 120 different ethnic groups and languages spoken, Tanzanians are extremely tolerant. Dar es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania, translates to 'Haven of Peace' and from what I've experience so far, the name is quite fitting.


Yesterday we drove three hours back to Arusha to stay until Saturday morning when we depart for two weeks of safari. Although the bush is astounding, I was itching to get a taste of city life. In the mornings we have Swahili lessons at Klub Afriko, the touristy hotel that we are staying at, and then we're free at 12:30 to explore!


In Swahili, the greeting is the most important part of a conversation. It typically includes several questions- "How are you? How is your family? How is school?" What makes it easy is that the answer is always "Nzuri"- good. Even if you've been puking all night, the answer is "Nzuri kidogo"- a little good. There are no bad days in Tanzania.