Days before the Maasai homestay

On Tuesday we arrived at our campsite near the Maasai homestay. On Wednesday, we learned what it was like to be both a Maasai women and a Maasai man. The women do pretty much everything. All the men do is herd animals and sit around. The homestays were sponsored by the pastoral women's council. The pastoral women's council is a non-governmental organization that focuses on educating women, and giving them more authority to control their lives. That night we were taught some Maasai words that would be useful during the homestay. I didn't remember any of the words though.

The Serengeti

After spending a night on the rim of the crater, we headed out. We drove around the serengeti. We stopped at Olduvai Gorge and at the shifting sands. The gorge was a site where some hominid remains had been found. Shifting sands is a mound of sand that moves a little bit every year. We found a mummified frog, and several dead dung beetles in the sand. The whole area was a little creepy. That afternoon we arrived at our campsite on the outside of the serengeti. We stayed at that campsite for a few days. It was very windy there. My tent was blown down, and others were damaged in the wind. One of the days, we walked to a hippo pool. The pool smelled terrible because of hippo defecation and the lack of moving water. We had our test in bio the final full day we were there. It wasn't too difficult. On monday morning we moved to the campsite near where we would be doing our Maasai homestay.

The Ngorongoro Crater

November19th-November 21st We drove from the Yaida Valley to the outskirts of the crater on the Wednesday the 19th. For part of the drive we were on paved roads. It was the first time in awhile that that had been true. Usually we were on dirt roads, or following tire tracks in the dirt. Anyway, the campsite we stayed at was pretty nice. It had warm showers and an area with electricity. The following morning we woke up at about 5 to go inside the crater. Instead of taking the Unimogs into the crater, we took smaller land rovers because the unimogs are not allowed in. In the crater we saw tons of animals. My favorites were the hippos and hyenas. There were also tons of wildabeests, buffalos, warthogs, and birds. We saw a couple of lions, and a baboon troupe, along with some black-faced vervet monkey. That night we camped right on the rim. As we were listening to someone give their presentation, an elephant walked through the campsite. It wasn't ours, but it was pretty close. It was also about as cold as the Nou forest on the rim because we were at a similar altitude, like around 8,000 feet. Photo: The unimogs, taken at our campsite in the Nou Forest

Yaida Valley Activities

The people of the Yaida valley are the Hadza. They are a hunter-gatherer tribe. They share what they obtain with each other. The society is egalitarian. The only thing that isn't shared completely is honey because honey can be sold for money to pay school fees or to purchase cell-phones, although cell-phones are shared amongst the different tribal members. Their language has clickls in it, one of which is indicated with an ! when it is written down. The first full day we were there, we went down to where they had set up camp. We went with the women to watch them gather. The main thing they seemed to be gathering was a root that they called !ekwa. I don't remember the English or Swahili name for it. There was a lot of moisture in the root. It might be a good dry season source of water for the Hadza. That afternoon we had the opportunity to do some bead work or make arrows. I chose to make an arrow. To straighten the wood, the Hadza use fire to heat up the wood so that it is easier to bend. For the tip, they use a flattenned nail. They must have used stones before they had contact with westerners. Mine turned out okay, but some where along the way that day I lost track of it. I don't know if anyone managed to get his or hers back to his or her home. The following day, we walked across the valley to the next campsite we were staying at. It was about a 9 mile hike. The unimogs (the trucks we drove around in) carried our bags. It was a pretty nice hike although by the end of it it got pretty hot. On the 18th, we split into groups and went out hunting with two hadza men. We got kind of close to catching a few medium-sized animals, but they got away. They did manage to catch a hyrax, which resembles a rodent, but is actually cousin to the elephant. We got really close to a wart hog. The hadza were gathering honey when we noticed a warthog just standing there, maybe 10 yards away from the two Hadza. Unfortunately, by the time they got their bows ready, the wart hog had run away. Back to the hyra, after walking around for a couple more hours, and eating a small amount of honey, we went back to camp. There we turned over the hyrax to the women who were going to cook it. They roasted it over the fire with the fur and everything still on it. As the hair began to burn, they peeled off the fur and hair. Unfortunately, the hyrax was a female and was pregnant. :(. Later that day, I watched a goat being slaughtered. One of the guys in our group slit it's throat. I watched the gutting process, and I got to see the stomach contents, which consisted of grass, digested to various degrees depending on the stomach it was in. Unluckily, the goat was also pregnant. The hadza eat every part of the animal that they kill including the all the organs. They even eat the fetuses. The hadza are a cool tribe because they are a window into the human past.

Nov 11th- 15th

On Wednesday we went to the the Nou forest. No one seemed able to tell me why, including the Iraqw who live on the edge of the forest. It was nice to have a break from the hot, dry weather of the plains, and be up in the cool forest. It was actually cold at night. On Thursday, we hiked down to a waterfall. The water around the fall was very cold. I didn't go swimming it, although some members of my group did. The next day we went to the village. We got to see one of the traditional houses. It kind of reminded me of a hobbit hole. It was dark and smoky on the inside. There were some pens for the animals inside of it. Apparently that style of house has been banned because it is a breeding ground for TB. Later on we got to see them dance. Some of the guys joined in with them. In general, the houses were made of the same combination of wood and mud that the houses in Tumbe were made of. The following day we drove to the Yaida valley. The Yaida valley had the same terrain as most of the other areas we had been in except for the Nou forest: Acacias, commiphoras, candelabra euphorbias. It also had these really annoying stingless bees that were about the same size as flies. They did make good honey though.

Tarangire National Park

In Tarangire we saw a ton of animals, including Zebras, lions, giraffes, baboons, birds (including Ostrich), gazelles, dik diks, impalas. The animals in Tarangire were way less concerned about the unimog than the animals outside of the park.

Tuesday Nov 4th- Nov 9th, Arusha- beginning of safari

Us, chillin on the top of Mt. Sambu View from the top of Mt. Sambu On Tuesday, we went into Arusha to buy any last minute items needed for safari and to check the internet one last time before a four week drought. On Wednesday, we found out that Barack Obama won the election. Some people got up really early to watch the coverage. Everyone was stoked. After we learned the results, we went to Olasiti village, a waArusha community near Dorobo's campsite. We got to talk to a villager, and to see the terrain from a hill near by that we walked up. On Thursday, we left Arusha and properly began our safari. We drove to Oldonyo Sambu. Oldonyo means moutain in kimaasai. En route we saw some animals. I think we saw giraffe and zebra, but I can't remember exactly. While driving I was suprised to see people. I really shouldn't have been, but we were in remote areas, which in the US would not have any people. I guess the difference is due to the fact that in Tanzania, the natives weren't killed off and kicked off their land in the same numbers as they were in the US. Friday: We talked with some Maasai in the morning because it was raining and we couldn't go for a walk. The person I was talking to was twenty years old. He was married. It was interesting to compare his life to mine since we were the same age. In the afternoon it stopped raining, and so we went for a walk and saw some animals. One of the more interesting things that we saw was a dead carcass hanging from a tree. It was apparently set as a lion trap. The idea was that the lion would come back again and again to the same spot, and would drop his guard, making it easier for a hunter to shoot him. On Saturday, we hiked Mt. Sambu in the morning. It was nice to get a broad view of the terrain. It was also cool to see an elephant in the distance. On Sunday we went on another walk to the mountain that we hiked the previous day. Overall, the first week of safari went well, no complaints here. Photos: Top Left: Us, on top of Oldonyo Sambu Top Right: View from Oldonyo Sambu Bottom Left: The group hanging out beneath the tent, Oldonyo Sambu Bottom Right: View from the hill we went to the top of in Olasiti Village