Wow, its really funny to finally be here. There are vervet monkeys and baboons, and bush babies, and birds of every size and sort IN our camp! There is Mt Kili. in the back ground who was spectacular today! I say "who" because the mountain is such a presence that it is like a person. The trail around the inside of the fence is gorgeous and its a blessing to be able to go places in camp and feel totally alone. It rained twice about four days ago and everything is fit to bursting with fuzzy green buds and little shoots of grass coming up everywhere. Its really a treat to be here...in spring...I guess! Just letting you all know that I am here and alive and well.
Love Sara
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Kwaheri Tanzania!
As we finish up everything in Tanzania and get ready for the switch to Kenya, I am especially aware of time here and how time moves. We had umpteen assignments to finish and there are umpteen last things to do before we go. Everything moves so slowly here that you are never rushed, things just happen when they happen. But because things move slowly there is never quite enough time to do all of the things we were trying to do. Its odd how in the end it all works out. I am not quite sure what makes it work out, but so far it has managed to. Perhaps it is the accepting present attitude of the Tanzanians that just makes the whole world flow.
On Saturday we worked at the primary school just down the road to help them build a kitchen. We have just begun to build what will eventually be a closed stove type cooking area, which will use less than half of the firewood than the open fires they have been using to cook. It was exciting and fun to help out and give our service and work with the kids to cement the floors of the new structure. We had a few adventures along the way… we were cementing the second and last room, and we were almost finished so only Aaron and I were in the room smoothing the last of the cement. All of a sudden the children who were leaning in the windows watching started shouting and pointing. Coming out of the newly put down and still soft cement was a medium sized black mamba! It slithered its way right out of the cement only two feet away from Aaron and maybe five feet from me. We all backed quickly out of the room and one of the Tanzanian men came over with a rake and killed it. I was a bit taken aback, as were many of us, and then we started thinking about the reality of a black mamba around children. If one of them were to be bitten out here where there is no immediate medical care available, that child would almost certainly die. After that realization I decided I understood their actions (interesting how this place puts things into perspective).
We worked all day long and at the end of the day we finally dragged our weary selves to camp. As I walked back to camp, I looked out over the mountains and valleys, the trees and fields, the cows and people, and realized that I truly felt like I was walking home. I felt deeply at peace with this place. It is definitely a challenge after finally feeling at home to pick up and transition to Kenya, but it also puts my heart at ease to know how quickly I feel so comfortable here.
I will miss hearing the pigeon peas rattling in their husks as the wind sweeps over the fields. I will miss the sunsets out side our gate and the way the mountains turn a hazy blue. I will miss our walks around this area and greeting everyone we pass. I will miss reading with the children at the primary school and having each one hold my hand and pet my arms and stare up at me with wide eyes. I will miss our incredible staff and the family we have built together. We have started saying goodbyes and after leaving a dear friend tonight I sat down with tears in my eyes and said “I hate this!” a fellow student came to comfort me and replied “I know, but the best part is you love these people more than you will miss them and that’s what matters in the end.” What a piece of wisdom, and what an incredible thing to know in my heart.
With that, I will write next in Kenya!
Much Love, Sara
On Saturday we worked at the primary school just down the road to help them build a kitchen. We have just begun to build what will eventually be a closed stove type cooking area, which will use less than half of the firewood than the open fires they have been using to cook. It was exciting and fun to help out and give our service and work with the kids to cement the floors of the new structure. We had a few adventures along the way… we were cementing the second and last room, and we were almost finished so only Aaron and I were in the room smoothing the last of the cement. All of a sudden the children who were leaning in the windows watching started shouting and pointing. Coming out of the newly put down and still soft cement was a medium sized black mamba! It slithered its way right out of the cement only two feet away from Aaron and maybe five feet from me. We all backed quickly out of the room and one of the Tanzanian men came over with a rake and killed it. I was a bit taken aback, as were many of us, and then we started thinking about the reality of a black mamba around children. If one of them were to be bitten out here where there is no immediate medical care available, that child would almost certainly die. After that realization I decided I understood their actions (interesting how this place puts things into perspective).
We worked all day long and at the end of the day we finally dragged our weary selves to camp. As I walked back to camp, I looked out over the mountains and valleys, the trees and fields, the cows and people, and realized that I truly felt like I was walking home. I felt deeply at peace with this place. It is definitely a challenge after finally feeling at home to pick up and transition to Kenya, but it also puts my heart at ease to know how quickly I feel so comfortable here.
I will miss hearing the pigeon peas rattling in their husks as the wind sweeps over the fields. I will miss the sunsets out side our gate and the way the mountains turn a hazy blue. I will miss our walks around this area and greeting everyone we pass. I will miss reading with the children at the primary school and having each one hold my hand and pet my arms and stare up at me with wide eyes. I will miss our incredible staff and the family we have built together. We have started saying goodbyes and after leaving a dear friend tonight I sat down with tears in my eyes and said “I hate this!” a fellow student came to comfort me and replied “I know, but the best part is you love these people more than you will miss them and that’s what matters in the end.” What a piece of wisdom, and what an incredible thing to know in my heart.
With that, I will write next in Kenya!
Much Love, Sara
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
EXPEDITION!
Below are the long overdue snippets of our five day expedition to Serengeti National Park. I hope you enjoy!
The Serengeti…
Serengeti comes from a Maasai word meaning endless plains. When I heard that I though it was nice, but when I saw it my jaw dropped. These so called “endless plains” are an ocean of grass. Sometimes we would drive along a road in our land cruisers and 3 of 4 sides would be completely flat grassland until the horizon and on the 4th side there would be some small hills in the distant blue background. I have never experienced the feeling of smallness you get from being in the ocean, when I wasn’t in the ocean, but standing up in the land cruisers seeing stretches of grass up on grass blowing in the wind made me feel smaller than I ever have before.
Serengeti National Park is located on the northern boarder of Tanzania. It is especially famous for over 1.5 million wildebeest that migrate back and forth between Serengeti in Tanzania and the Maasai-Mara in Kenya. The wildebeest are just now beginning to make there way back down from Maasai-Mara, so we did not see many in the Serengeti, but we saw so many other amazing animals I wasn’t really thinking about what we weren’t seeing.
Favorite Moments from Serengeti
A New Cat
Driving back to our camp on the last afternoon and we saw something moving through the grass. It was too small to be a lion or even a cheetah or leopard, but it looked a lot like a cat. Finally we got a clear look at it, and it was a Serval. They look a lot like house cats but about three times the size. They have long legs and striking patterns and enormous ears. They hunt by hearing their prey until they are close enough to pounce on it. Their long legs help them get above the grass height so that they can hear rustles made by prey. It was an incredible creature and a very shy one at that so we were especially lucky to spot it.
And It Rained
On our second day we came back to camp from our morning drive and lecture to eat lunch and rest. After lunch it looked like it was going to rain so I climbed into my tent to have a nap and pass the storm. I woke up when a tent mate said “Sara, is this all water under our tent?” she had here hand on the bottom of our tent and that looked like a water mattress. I put my rain gear on and went out in the a down pour like I have never seen. I didn’t know there was that much water in East Africa or that it was possible for it to all come out of the sky at the same time! It was such an unbelievable thing to see it rain after a month and a half without it that we just laughed and watched as a small creek formed and flowed directly under two of the tents. I have more respect for African Safari tents than just about any inanimate object in this world. Our tents were a bit damp and the bottoms of our sleeping pads were wet, but for the most part and especially considering the amount of water that had come out of the sky, our stuff was shockingly dry!
Ancient Footprints
Oldupai Gorge, the cradle of humankind. It was pretty amazing to really be there. They have this funny little falling apart museum that is full of replicates of all of the incredible artifacts they have pulled out of the gorge. They made a large emphasis on the fact that it was named after a plant in the Maasai language spelled Oldupai, but the first scientific papers that were written said Olduvai, so most people know it spelled with a “v” but they were trying to correct that misconception. So I am passing that info on to you and furthering their attempt at correcting history. The display and replicate (plaster mold) they had of the set of the Laetoli Footprints were truly amazing. The information plaque talked about the importance of a print versus a fossilized bone. The bone gives you the structure and alignment, but the print tells you exactly how weight was distributed on the foot and the movement that created that particular print. I could hardly comprehend that a being, very similar to me, with feet that look just like mine, had moved in such a way, in such a place, in such a time, so that it happened to be preserved, captured in rock, for millions of years. The whole exhibit was amazing.
Cheese.
We bought the buffet for lunch at the Lodge in Serengeti and I have truly never enjoyed cheese as much as I did that afternoon. Things they don’t tell you when you are going to Tanzania 1. There is no readily available cheese 2. You will miss cheese tremendously 3. When you do finally eat cheese you will think you have gone to heaven. My friend Sally was sitting next to me at the table as we ate our cheese (we ate other things too but most importantly cheese) and she said with a smile on her face “Oh my god, I just died. I’m dead.” Pretty much sums our cheese experience.
Pride Rock
There are kopjes all over the Serengeti. A kopje is an outcropping of rocks in the middle of the plains (think Pride Rock, Lion King). They are really cool and bizarre looking structures in an otherwise completely flat area. We got to visit one of them and climb around on it (“but not too much because you might hurt yourself” tut tut tut… says our stand in Mom named Erica. Really, she’s awesome. I can only imagine the stress of being responsible for 27 20-ish-year-olds who had been cooped up in cars for two days and now they have giant rocks to climb around on). It was super fun and beautiful and there were pink/purple/blue lizards running around on all of the rocks.
Birds!
We did a few field exercises on ungulates and birds. I learned a ton! For those birders who are reading this and especially requested to know the birds we have been seeing here is a partial list!
Abyssinian Black Wheatear, African White-backed Vulture, Bare-faced Go-away Bird (really big and totally cool bird!), Black-backed Weaver, Common Bulbul, Dark-backed Weaver, Drongo, Grey-backed Fiscal, Helmeted Guinea Fowl (tons of them everywhere!), Von der Dekens Hornbill, Lilac-breasted Roller (such beautiful birds. They are purple, and blue, and turquoise, and pink), Little Bee Eater (also super cool green and yellow bird!), Magpie Shrike, Martial Eagle, Red-headed Weaver, Ring-necked Dove, Sandgrouse, Scaly Francolins, Superb Starling, Blue-earred Starling, Brown Parrot, Brown Snake Eagle (super intense birds, wouldn’t want to be small and fuzzy), Egyptian Goose, Fischer’s Lovebirds (I thought these only existed in book and maybe pet shops), Hildebrandt Starling, Hoopoe (very large rust colored bird with an extravagant crest), Marsh Sandpiper, Three-banded Plover, Black Crake, Blacksmith Plover (the previous four are really interesting water birds. We got to watch them looking for food for a bit which was quite entertaining),White-browed Coucal (craziest call I have heard so farthe description in my bird book which is ver accurate is “hoo-hoo-hoo-huhuhhuhuhuhuhuhuhu… and a series of gurgling notes likened to water being poured from a bottle”), Yellow-billed Oxpecker (they really do hang out on the buffalo)…! Ok, I hope that was incredibly satisfying for some and sorry for other’s who were 100% not interested.
We also saw an incredible amount of lions, male, female, and little ones, leopard, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, zebras, topi (they are really interestingly colored), gazelles, impala, hippos (saw two out of water! They are the most enormous creatures! Where did they come from and who thought it was a good idea for all of the hippos to hang out together cuz they are the grumpiest animals I have yet to come across!), crocodiles (ah scary!), warthogs, hyraxes (related to elephants even though they look like rabbits), banded mongoose (mongeese?), Buffalo (saw a herd of them that must have been a few hundred strong. Wouldn’t wanted to have been on foot I can say that much), hyenas, and jackals.
In a nutshell it was astounding!
The Serengeti…
Serengeti comes from a Maasai word meaning endless plains. When I heard that I though it was nice, but when I saw it my jaw dropped. These so called “endless plains” are an ocean of grass. Sometimes we would drive along a road in our land cruisers and 3 of 4 sides would be completely flat grassland until the horizon and on the 4th side there would be some small hills in the distant blue background. I have never experienced the feeling of smallness you get from being in the ocean, when I wasn’t in the ocean, but standing up in the land cruisers seeing stretches of grass up on grass blowing in the wind made me feel smaller than I ever have before.
Serengeti National Park is located on the northern boarder of Tanzania. It is especially famous for over 1.5 million wildebeest that migrate back and forth between Serengeti in Tanzania and the Maasai-Mara in Kenya. The wildebeest are just now beginning to make there way back down from Maasai-Mara, so we did not see many in the Serengeti, but we saw so many other amazing animals I wasn’t really thinking about what we weren’t seeing.
Favorite Moments from Serengeti
A New Cat
Driving back to our camp on the last afternoon and we saw something moving through the grass. It was too small to be a lion or even a cheetah or leopard, but it looked a lot like a cat. Finally we got a clear look at it, and it was a Serval. They look a lot like house cats but about three times the size. They have long legs and striking patterns and enormous ears. They hunt by hearing their prey until they are close enough to pounce on it. Their long legs help them get above the grass height so that they can hear rustles made by prey. It was an incredible creature and a very shy one at that so we were especially lucky to spot it.
And It Rained
On our second day we came back to camp from our morning drive and lecture to eat lunch and rest. After lunch it looked like it was going to rain so I climbed into my tent to have a nap and pass the storm. I woke up when a tent mate said “Sara, is this all water under our tent?” she had here hand on the bottom of our tent and that looked like a water mattress. I put my rain gear on and went out in the a down pour like I have never seen. I didn’t know there was that much water in East Africa or that it was possible for it to all come out of the sky at the same time! It was such an unbelievable thing to see it rain after a month and a half without it that we just laughed and watched as a small creek formed and flowed directly under two of the tents. I have more respect for African Safari tents than just about any inanimate object in this world. Our tents were a bit damp and the bottoms of our sleeping pads were wet, but for the most part and especially considering the amount of water that had come out of the sky, our stuff was shockingly dry!
Ancient Footprints
Oldupai Gorge, the cradle of humankind. It was pretty amazing to really be there. They have this funny little falling apart museum that is full of replicates of all of the incredible artifacts they have pulled out of the gorge. They made a large emphasis on the fact that it was named after a plant in the Maasai language spelled Oldupai, but the first scientific papers that were written said Olduvai, so most people know it spelled with a “v” but they were trying to correct that misconception. So I am passing that info on to you and furthering their attempt at correcting history. The display and replicate (plaster mold) they had of the set of the Laetoli Footprints were truly amazing. The information plaque talked about the importance of a print versus a fossilized bone. The bone gives you the structure and alignment, but the print tells you exactly how weight was distributed on the foot and the movement that created that particular print. I could hardly comprehend that a being, very similar to me, with feet that look just like mine, had moved in such a way, in such a place, in such a time, so that it happened to be preserved, captured in rock, for millions of years. The whole exhibit was amazing.
Cheese.
We bought the buffet for lunch at the Lodge in Serengeti and I have truly never enjoyed cheese as much as I did that afternoon. Things they don’t tell you when you are going to Tanzania 1. There is no readily available cheese 2. You will miss cheese tremendously 3. When you do finally eat cheese you will think you have gone to heaven. My friend Sally was sitting next to me at the table as we ate our cheese (we ate other things too but most importantly cheese) and she said with a smile on her face “Oh my god, I just died. I’m dead.” Pretty much sums our cheese experience.
Pride Rock
There are kopjes all over the Serengeti. A kopje is an outcropping of rocks in the middle of the plains (think Pride Rock, Lion King). They are really cool and bizarre looking structures in an otherwise completely flat area. We got to visit one of them and climb around on it (“but not too much because you might hurt yourself” tut tut tut… says our stand in Mom named Erica. Really, she’s awesome. I can only imagine the stress of being responsible for 27 20-ish-year-olds who had been cooped up in cars for two days and now they have giant rocks to climb around on). It was super fun and beautiful and there were pink/purple/blue lizards running around on all of the rocks.
Birds!
We did a few field exercises on ungulates and birds. I learned a ton! For those birders who are reading this and especially requested to know the birds we have been seeing here is a partial list!
Abyssinian Black Wheatear, African White-backed Vulture, Bare-faced Go-away Bird (really big and totally cool bird!), Black-backed Weaver, Common Bulbul, Dark-backed Weaver, Drongo, Grey-backed Fiscal, Helmeted Guinea Fowl (tons of them everywhere!), Von der Dekens Hornbill, Lilac-breasted Roller (such beautiful birds. They are purple, and blue, and turquoise, and pink), Little Bee Eater (also super cool green and yellow bird!), Magpie Shrike, Martial Eagle, Red-headed Weaver, Ring-necked Dove, Sandgrouse, Scaly Francolins, Superb Starling, Blue-earred Starling, Brown Parrot, Brown Snake Eagle (super intense birds, wouldn’t want to be small and fuzzy), Egyptian Goose, Fischer’s Lovebirds (I thought these only existed in book and maybe pet shops), Hildebrandt Starling, Hoopoe (very large rust colored bird with an extravagant crest), Marsh Sandpiper, Three-banded Plover, Black Crake, Blacksmith Plover (the previous four are really interesting water birds. We got to watch them looking for food for a bit which was quite entertaining),White-browed Coucal (craziest call I have heard so farthe description in my bird book which is ver accurate is “hoo-hoo-hoo-huhuhhuhuhuhuhuhuhu… and a series of gurgling notes likened to water being poured from a bottle”), Yellow-billed Oxpecker (they really do hang out on the buffalo)…! Ok, I hope that was incredibly satisfying for some and sorry for other’s who were 100% not interested.
We also saw an incredible amount of lions, male, female, and little ones, leopard, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, zebras, topi (they are really interestingly colored), gazelles, impala, hippos (saw two out of water! They are the most enormous creatures! Where did they come from and who thought it was a good idea for all of the hippos to hang out together cuz they are the grumpiest animals I have yet to come across!), crocodiles (ah scary!), warthogs, hyraxes (related to elephants even though they look like rabbits), banded mongoose (mongeese?), Buffalo (saw a herd of them that must have been a few hundred strong. Wouldn’t wanted to have been on foot I can say that much), hyenas, and jackals.
In a nutshell it was astounding!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Songs and Sundays
Church and other thoughts:
On Sunday we had a non-program day, which is like a pseudo weekend. It’s a day where we don’t have classes, but do have optional organized activities. We get them every 5-10 days depending. Sometimes on Saturday or Sunday mornings when we do have class (which is much more often than not) while we are at breakfast at 7 am we will think about how our friends back in the USA are probably out on a Friday or Saturday night (the time difference) hanging out with friends knowing that they can sleep in till noon the next day. Our lack of weekends is more often humorous than painful, so we laugh if off and go to class where we learn about lions and giraffes, and rhinos, oh my!
But this Sunday, for the first time, we had a non-program day on the actual weekend which allowed us to go to church. We went with a few staff members to the Catholic Church in Rhotia. There were five students who went which was lovely because sometimes when we go out into public all together (all 28 of us) its incredibly overwhelming. We were still quite a spectacle, but at least it was less cumbersome to maneuver and we could more easily interact with people. We arrived a bit early so that we could get settled without there being a million people around. I wore the shirt I got tailored here and a long black skirt (mostly we wear skirts in town out of respect for their cultural norms and modesty). The church was painted in greens and blues and had simple stain glass windows made by the community. It was a beautiful building. There were gobs of children everywhere, whispering and pointing and staring at us from every corner of the room. The pews were plain a wooden with no backs, but with places to kneel. The service began as the choir entered singing and a little group of younger kids who kept the rhythm with a walking clapping sequence (the choir was all young people 16-25-ish). This set the tone for a wonderful alive energy during the whole service. Although everything was in Swahili it was soothing and beautiful just to be there absorbing and watching everything that was happening. It brought me back to going to church in American Samoa for the same reason, just to take it all in. The choir sang often and we stood and sat and prayed many times during the service. I could follow the general sequence of events and watched as closed communion was performed and the choir sang and did little movements to their songs (think dancing, but appropriate for joyful church). We were thanked for being there and then went to meet some of the important people of the church afterwards. It was a wonderful experience.
It is very interesting to be the first group of students here at this camp in Rhotia. Essentially we are making the first impression. Sometimes it feels like a lot of pressure to be the ones forming this picture of “Americans” for the people in this village, but it is also a gift. I am amazed by all different aspects of our interactions with the people here. Sometimes we are welcomed at church and people want to talk with us and hear our story. Other times it is challenging when little Tanzania children see me and run up to shake my hand and ask me for money, or pens, or candy. Through all of it, I try to understand where they are coming as I wish they would do with us as well. Maybe in time the children here will learn that we are not here shower them with material things, but rather to build a community and an understanding and help repair their school and work with them on different projects. Perhaps every semester that comes here and reinforces our intentions will generate a community understanding about us and our purpose here.
Well that’s all for now. We have exams tomorrow and the next day (which I really should be studying for, but I have been and needed a bit of a break), Friday to prepare for our expedition, and then we go one expedition for a week in Serengeti National Park. I can’t tell you how ecited I am to get out, do some fieldwork, and camp for awhile. I probably won’t write until I get back so enjoy life until next time!
The sun is shining on pink bougainvilleas outside the library window,
Sara
On Sunday we had a non-program day, which is like a pseudo weekend. It’s a day where we don’t have classes, but do have optional organized activities. We get them every 5-10 days depending. Sometimes on Saturday or Sunday mornings when we do have class (which is much more often than not) while we are at breakfast at 7 am we will think about how our friends back in the USA are probably out on a Friday or Saturday night (the time difference) hanging out with friends knowing that they can sleep in till noon the next day. Our lack of weekends is more often humorous than painful, so we laugh if off and go to class where we learn about lions and giraffes, and rhinos, oh my!
But this Sunday, for the first time, we had a non-program day on the actual weekend which allowed us to go to church. We went with a few staff members to the Catholic Church in Rhotia. There were five students who went which was lovely because sometimes when we go out into public all together (all 28 of us) its incredibly overwhelming. We were still quite a spectacle, but at least it was less cumbersome to maneuver and we could more easily interact with people. We arrived a bit early so that we could get settled without there being a million people around. I wore the shirt I got tailored here and a long black skirt (mostly we wear skirts in town out of respect for their cultural norms and modesty). The church was painted in greens and blues and had simple stain glass windows made by the community. It was a beautiful building. There were gobs of children everywhere, whispering and pointing and staring at us from every corner of the room. The pews were plain a wooden with no backs, but with places to kneel. The service began as the choir entered singing and a little group of younger kids who kept the rhythm with a walking clapping sequence (the choir was all young people 16-25-ish). This set the tone for a wonderful alive energy during the whole service. Although everything was in Swahili it was soothing and beautiful just to be there absorbing and watching everything that was happening. It brought me back to going to church in American Samoa for the same reason, just to take it all in. The choir sang often and we stood and sat and prayed many times during the service. I could follow the general sequence of events and watched as closed communion was performed and the choir sang and did little movements to their songs (think dancing, but appropriate for joyful church). We were thanked for being there and then went to meet some of the important people of the church afterwards. It was a wonderful experience.
It is very interesting to be the first group of students here at this camp in Rhotia. Essentially we are making the first impression. Sometimes it feels like a lot of pressure to be the ones forming this picture of “Americans” for the people in this village, but it is also a gift. I am amazed by all different aspects of our interactions with the people here. Sometimes we are welcomed at church and people want to talk with us and hear our story. Other times it is challenging when little Tanzania children see me and run up to shake my hand and ask me for money, or pens, or candy. Through all of it, I try to understand where they are coming as I wish they would do with us as well. Maybe in time the children here will learn that we are not here shower them with material things, but rather to build a community and an understanding and help repair their school and work with them on different projects. Perhaps every semester that comes here and reinforces our intentions will generate a community understanding about us and our purpose here.
Well that’s all for now. We have exams tomorrow and the next day (which I really should be studying for, but I have been and needed a bit of a break), Friday to prepare for our expedition, and then we go one expedition for a week in Serengeti National Park. I can’t tell you how ecited I am to get out, do some fieldwork, and camp for awhile. I probably won’t write until I get back so enjoy life until next time!
The sun is shining on pink bougainvilleas outside the library window,
Sara
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Blue sky and red dirt
Home stay:
On Monday we had home stays with different families in our village, Rhotia, from 8am-5pm. I went with another student here, Allyson, and we stayed with an Iraqw family (the local tribe, and yes that is actually how it's spelled. I think I spelled it differently in a previous blog post). There was a great-grandmother (~60 years old), a grandmother (~40 years old), a mother (23 years old), and some young children of the grandmother and the mother (a seven year old and a baby). We just lived with them for a day and did whatever they did. For Allyson and I the day consisted of making chai (milk tea with so much sugar it makes me cringe), lots and lots of ugali (corn-flour-thick-grits-like-stuff), cabbage with tomatoes and onions and more chai. We milked cows (we were both terrible at it/it was very funny and very difficult), carried sticks on our backs by tying them with rope that basically makes backpack straps, sorted and de-cobbed corn, cleaned the old goat house/pen by scraping all of the poop out into a big pile (yum!), visited some relatives and neighbors, took care of the baby, made rope out of a plants veins (?maybe I am not sure what they were), and spent a lot of time sitting and being as people cam and went from the house. It was very interesting to be in their houses (mud and stick built homes that were a few rooms large, and to learn many of the different things they did on a daily basis, but most of all it was interesting to be with them. I am noticing more and more how challenging it is for me to be, just be. I would consider myself of the more slow present Americans and yet still my being skills pale in comparison to Tanzanians. These Iraqw are professional be-ers. It wonderful to be around! You can see their be-ingness in the way they walk as well. Their entire energy stays centered in both their front and back of their body even as they are moving forward. I am so aware of how much our (American’s) energy is projected into our front space we are always going, doing, making, producing, but never being here. All day for different amounts of time we would just sit in our families house and drink chai or be with the baby or just sit, sometimes the women would talk and converse and sometimes not, but we would just hang out there. The part of the day that I liked best was making the rope. The grandmother (~40) picked some leaves of a plant that looks like a giant aloe plant but it is super tough and sharp on the ends. She then made a wooden tool with a stick and machete and stripped the tough leaves. This took away all of the tissue between the veins or some sort of fortified sting-like innards of the plant. Then while they were still wet and flexible we braided them together. It was totally cool. I was amazed to then make the connection between the rope that we were making and the rope that we had used this morning to carry the wood on our backs. It was a wonderful, overwhelming, exhausting experience.
Ngorongoro Crater:
Yesterday (Oct 1st) we went to Ngorongoro Conservation Area where we visited the largest caldera in the world. It was unbelievable! I was blown to smithereens with amazement at the natural world, the animals, the plants, the landscapes, the geology. The crater is 250km on the floor. The sides are super steep and 610 m tall which crates this little world in and of itself with animals galore. What a day full of lions! We saw lions stalking, lions pregnant, lions sleeping, lions playing, lions lazing around in front of the public bathrooms, lions resting after their feast of a buffalo they killed, mama lions, papa lions, teenage lions, baby lions. WOW. I am still reeling from the day. We also watched a hyena run around with a wildebeest leg in his mouth swinging from the knee. I must say they are very scary animals. We saw two more jackals and tons of zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, and buffalo. I think African buffalo are about the coolest things. They are enormous. If you look across the plains and see some dark things that look about as big a cars then you have found the buffalo. They are dark and huge and have enormous horns and move at about 0.00000001 miles/minute. We only saw two elephants because its very hard for them to get down into the crater as the rim is incredibly steep. There are no Giraffes for that reason as well. We also saw Kori Bustards, Black Kites, bee eaters, and crested cranes which were all very impressive. Whew it was quite a day that is still sinking in!
Tailor:
Here in northern Tanzania there is beautiful cloth that is sold and worn and used as blankets, table clothes, and anything else they can think of. I have bought two different kinds so far, one that is blue green turquoise and has birds on it and one that is bright green and yellow/tan it geometric patterns. They are soooo beautiful. We went to a tailor who lives just three houses down from our camp, and I had a dress and a skirt made. They are absolutely beautiful. They are so well made. The tailor lined them, reinforced areas prone to ripping, and finished all of the edges even on the insides. If I wear them together I look just like the women in town! It was very exciting to get them back and see how well they were made. I paid ten dollars for both the shirt and the skirt and don’t think I could have spent my money better!
Food:
Here we eat yummy food! We usually have rice and or ugali (corn/flour grits like stuff with less flavor that they use to pick up their food and eat it with their fingers), some kind of lentils/beans, pasta/potatoes, some kind of green thing or veggie, and sometimes we have green bananas in a sauce, usually fruit (watermelon, papaya, pineapples, bananas…) sometimes a super liquid-y soup that we then put rice or veggies or anything else in, and, if we are lucky, bread! Arthur, our head cook makes the best bread EVER. He makes soft hot rolls that are super moist and squishy and he also makes chipati (its like African version on nan. It’s a bit less stretchy/doughy and more like a fat thick soft tortilla made with some lentils. Sooooo basically amazing!). In other words I am completely enjoying eating at every meal!
Blogging is a funny thing because I never know who is reading this and learning about my life. Its like doing a performance but not knowing who's in the audience. Kinda fun, as well as bizarre! Hope you (whoever you are) are enjoying this and if you want to hear about anything in particular let me know!
Much Love and exhaustion (thank goodness we have a day off tomorrow),
Sara
On Monday we had home stays with different families in our village, Rhotia, from 8am-5pm. I went with another student here, Allyson, and we stayed with an Iraqw family (the local tribe, and yes that is actually how it's spelled. I think I spelled it differently in a previous blog post). There was a great-grandmother (~60 years old), a grandmother (~40 years old), a mother (23 years old), and some young children of the grandmother and the mother (a seven year old and a baby). We just lived with them for a day and did whatever they did. For Allyson and I the day consisted of making chai (milk tea with so much sugar it makes me cringe), lots and lots of ugali (corn-flour-thick-grits-like-stuff), cabbage with tomatoes and onions and more chai. We milked cows (we were both terrible at it/it was very funny and very difficult), carried sticks on our backs by tying them with rope that basically makes backpack straps, sorted and de-cobbed corn, cleaned the old goat house/pen by scraping all of the poop out into a big pile (yum!), visited some relatives and neighbors, took care of the baby, made rope out of a plants veins (?maybe I am not sure what they were), and spent a lot of time sitting and being as people cam and went from the house. It was very interesting to be in their houses (mud and stick built homes that were a few rooms large, and to learn many of the different things they did on a daily basis, but most of all it was interesting to be with them. I am noticing more and more how challenging it is for me to be, just be. I would consider myself of the more slow present Americans and yet still my being skills pale in comparison to Tanzanians. These Iraqw are professional be-ers. It wonderful to be around! You can see their be-ingness in the way they walk as well. Their entire energy stays centered in both their front and back of their body even as they are moving forward. I am so aware of how much our (American’s) energy is projected into our front space we are always going, doing, making, producing, but never being here. All day for different amounts of time we would just sit in our families house and drink chai or be with the baby or just sit, sometimes the women would talk and converse and sometimes not, but we would just hang out there. The part of the day that I liked best was making the rope. The grandmother (~40) picked some leaves of a plant that looks like a giant aloe plant but it is super tough and sharp on the ends. She then made a wooden tool with a stick and machete and stripped the tough leaves. This took away all of the tissue between the veins or some sort of fortified sting-like innards of the plant. Then while they were still wet and flexible we braided them together. It was totally cool. I was amazed to then make the connection between the rope that we were making and the rope that we had used this morning to carry the wood on our backs. It was a wonderful, overwhelming, exhausting experience.
Ngorongoro Crater:
Yesterday (Oct 1st) we went to Ngorongoro Conservation Area where we visited the largest caldera in the world. It was unbelievable! I was blown to smithereens with amazement at the natural world, the animals, the plants, the landscapes, the geology. The crater is 250km on the floor. The sides are super steep and 610 m tall which crates this little world in and of itself with animals galore. What a day full of lions! We saw lions stalking, lions pregnant, lions sleeping, lions playing, lions lazing around in front of the public bathrooms, lions resting after their feast of a buffalo they killed, mama lions, papa lions, teenage lions, baby lions. WOW. I am still reeling from the day. We also watched a hyena run around with a wildebeest leg in his mouth swinging from the knee. I must say they are very scary animals. We saw two more jackals and tons of zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, and buffalo. I think African buffalo are about the coolest things. They are enormous. If you look across the plains and see some dark things that look about as big a cars then you have found the buffalo. They are dark and huge and have enormous horns and move at about 0.00000001 miles/minute. We only saw two elephants because its very hard for them to get down into the crater as the rim is incredibly steep. There are no Giraffes for that reason as well. We also saw Kori Bustards, Black Kites, bee eaters, and crested cranes which were all very impressive. Whew it was quite a day that is still sinking in!
Tailor:
Here in northern Tanzania there is beautiful cloth that is sold and worn and used as blankets, table clothes, and anything else they can think of. I have bought two different kinds so far, one that is blue green turquoise and has birds on it and one that is bright green and yellow/tan it geometric patterns. They are soooo beautiful. We went to a tailor who lives just three houses down from our camp, and I had a dress and a skirt made. They are absolutely beautiful. They are so well made. The tailor lined them, reinforced areas prone to ripping, and finished all of the edges even on the insides. If I wear them together I look just like the women in town! It was very exciting to get them back and see how well they were made. I paid ten dollars for both the shirt and the skirt and don’t think I could have spent my money better!
Food:
Here we eat yummy food! We usually have rice and or ugali (corn/flour grits like stuff with less flavor that they use to pick up their food and eat it with their fingers), some kind of lentils/beans, pasta/potatoes, some kind of green thing or veggie, and sometimes we have green bananas in a sauce, usually fruit (watermelon, papaya, pineapples, bananas…) sometimes a super liquid-y soup that we then put rice or veggies or anything else in, and, if we are lucky, bread! Arthur, our head cook makes the best bread EVER. He makes soft hot rolls that are super moist and squishy and he also makes chipati (its like African version on nan. It’s a bit less stretchy/doughy and more like a fat thick soft tortilla made with some lentils. Sooooo basically amazing!). In other words I am completely enjoying eating at every meal!
Blogging is a funny thing because I never know who is reading this and learning about my life. Its like doing a performance but not knowing who's in the audience. Kinda fun, as well as bizarre! Hope you (whoever you are) are enjoying this and if you want to hear about anything in particular let me know!
Much Love and exhaustion (thank goodness we have a day off tomorrow),
Sara
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