Homestay Week

We were assigned to our homestay families this past Sunday, so I have had a couple of days to adjust to Bangatan life. Although it has to be said that life here is completely different from life at home, I do like it. My Mama and I were the last to be assigned to each other, but she treats me like part of the family already. She is very kind, and she speaks English, so she is constantly teaching me Swahili.  The first night that I arrived, my Mama and I danced while we made dinner.  I also have a 12-year-old Dada (sister), Amani, who helps me with basically everything, and she loves how soft my hair is. Every night she does my hair up into 3 braids while I work on homework or we play cards. My Babu (grandfather) is a retired teacher, so he loves to teach me grammatically correct kiswahili. And lastly, I have a 1-year-old Dada named Emiliana. She is adorable and shockingly knows even less Swahili than myself! Last night, she said Dada for the first time, while she was playing with me, and it was very exciting. The neighbor kids are great at showing me around the village and a couple days ago they helped me count all the way to 300.  The first night when I arrived, my extended family presented me with a rooster with tinsel on it’s head in celebration of my arrival. We tied it up in the kitchen and for multiple nights it would crow in the middle of the night and wake me up. So far my biggest struggle has been not being able to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. My Mama locks the doors at 8:00pm and the bathroom is outside so I am unable to pee for 12 hours.

But all in all, my days have been very nice. I go to school Monday through Friday and I am learning a lot of Swahili. I am becoming more and more able to communicate with the people here and I have only had 2 kiswahili lessons. Its only my fourth day in Bangata and I already have so many stories, I cant wait to see what will happen in the up coming three weeks. 

Usambara Mountains

Photos from the trip so far

Treehouse that we watched the sunset from 

Maasai Herbal Tea 

Elephants super close to our tents!

Safari Advetures

Baobab Tree at Sunset

Sleeping leopard

Elephants at the Swamp

Lion Pride

Pool day!

Maasai Medicine Man

People carry everything on their heads here

Last Sunday we made our way to the Usambara Mountains and after arriving at the bottom, it took us over 2.5 hours to drive the 1.5 miles to the top. The Usambaras are not common travel sites, so Mamas, Babas, Grandparents, and children all were extremely excited to see us. On Monday we were set loose into the mountains for our “say hello to the forest” activity. We all split up and left behind our watches, cameras and electronics and walked into the woods.  I spent time splashing around and following streams, climbing trees and looking around, swinging from vines, getting ripped apart by thorns and sitting on the rocks of a waterfall. It was unbelievable being alone in such raw nature and exploring places that very few people have ever even been. After a few hours I trekked in the direction that I hoped was home, found myself on the edge of the forest and leapt out of the woods, over a stream and 6 feet down to the other bank, when I noticed an elderly farmer frozen staring at me. I spoke a little Swahili and didn’t understand why he wouldn’t respond. Later that day Baba Jack informed us that the locals strongly believe that all whites are vampires, so jumping out of the woods was probably pretty horrifying!

The Usambaras were amazing and because we were so close to the equator, the temperatures were very drastic.  During the day it would get extremely hot and at night it was so cold that you could see your breathe in the air. But the moon was extremely bright. I could get ready for bed without my headlamp because the moon was so bright that I could see everything clearly in my tent.

Our multiple hikes directly up and down the mountain helped me perfect a graceful butt slide. They also amazed me as I learned more about the plants and animals in the tropical forest. It was a pretty relaxed week overall, so we had a lot of time to spend chameleon hunting, working out at Baba Jack’s boot camp, and coming up with ISP (independent study project) ideas for the end of the semester. I narrowed mine down to researching and observing orphans within a Maasai tribe and how that affects their daily lives, schooling, and right of passage as a Maasai. Although we have a month until our ISP prep week, I am very excited to meet the kids and to start my study!

National Park week!

Heres a little more detailed recap about 2 weeks ago since I only had 15 minutes to write my last post. Our drive to Tarangire National park was so bumpy tgat one of the cars side mirrors literally just fell off! When we got there we chose our field study groups for animals to research while in the national parks and I got put in the elephant group. We spent each morning at Tarangire and Manyara National parks watching and deciphering elephant behaviors and recording data and I learned a lot! Fun fact, an elephant knocks over an average of 4.2 trees per day. But Tarangire is beautiful! It is known for its big animals and big trees because it has tons of baobab trees and over 3,000 elephants. The animals are everywhere and I saw cheetahs, lions, and a leopard all in the same day! Sleeping in tents in the national parks is definitely an experience because you can laydown and listen to the animals all night long. The elephants especially loved our campsite and they frequently hung out less than 50 yards from our tents.

Tarangire was great but I was glad to leave behind the hundreds of tsetse flies and bees when we headed for Mto wa Mbo. Sadly, the mosquitos took the tsetse flies place and at my count, I have well over 50 bites. Our campsite was right inside of the village so we went on daily walks and met people from 7 tribes, although the village is made up of 120 different tribes all together.  We were able to walk through rice fields (thankfully I didn’t fall in the water) and banana plantations. We tasted banana wine and beer. On Friday we had the opportunity to go meet a Maasai healer and he gave me local herbs that I can put in my tea to cure me of any sicknesses that I may get. And from the stories that I have heard, these healers and their magic is extremely effective. This particular Maasai is so popular that he has 25 wives, and over 80 children. That night we went to the local disco and got to dance to Tanzanian music and hang out with the locals. Saturday we got back to Arusha and although we had less than a half hour at the SIT office, we had most of the day free to do whatever in the city. Most of us decided to split up because the experience is much less touristy when you are alone. Being alone in arusha was one of my favorite experiences so far. I learned so much Swahili, got to have long conversations with people, and got to just walk around. The food market is amazing, with one square block of ripe fresh fruits and veggies, fish, and meats. Its always fun to see how excited to locals get when I speak Swahili. Most tourists don’t bother to learn any so they are amazed and very patient with me. 

Quick Update!

We just got back to Arusha and have one hour to repack for the next week in the Usambara Mountains, wash our clothes, and get on the internet, so this is just a quick recap of the last week. We had an amazing week at Tarangire National Park and I don’t even know how to explain it. My field study group had 3 days to study elephants and I have learned so much. One day in particular while out on safari we saw a pride of lions, a sleeping leopard, and a hunting cheetah all in the same day!

At “mosiquito river” we got to look at rice and banana plantations and try locally made banana beer and wine.  We also had the chance to talk to tribes that are very well known for their carvings and paintings. We met a Maasai Traditional healer and he healed us of any sicknesses and gave us herbs to try. We also went to local discos and got to play with local kids at an orphanage. I have to go, but I will write in a week!

Bush Babies

Hey guys!

I got to Arusha yesterday and it was the first time in 7 days that I had stepped inside a building. When we got off the plane last Thursday Baba Jack our academic advisor handed each of us a 1.5 liter water bottle, loaded us in a bus and told us to start hydrating.  40 minutes into the drive we all had to pee more than i ever thought possible.  The group pee in the bush was our first group activity and it must of created a strong bond because we all are close friends already. We spent the next 6 nights in a ranch between mount Kilimanjaro and Mt Meru. The animals were awesome and on our group walks we easily saw impala, inland, zebra, elephants, giraffes, bat-eared fox, spring hare, wildebeest, antelope, water buffalo, honey badgers, baboons, verbet monkeys and amazing birds. We even saw an inland giving birth! We also learned about local Maasai tribes and got to go to their church, in some of their homes (bomas), buy jewelry, and try some herbal medicine tea. We also saw sunsets from a treehouse overlooking wildlife, went on nature hikes and night game drives, and ate at local bars and restaurants.

The driving here is insane!  If the car in front of you drops below your preferred speed you pass them on either side, whether there is a car coming the other way or not. Arusha is packed with people screaming "muzungu" at us and most assume that if there are any other whites in the city they must be our friends. But our 2 swahili classes are coming in quite handy and we are learning fast. I can usually have at least a 3 minute conversation with a Tanzanian here, and they are all eager to talk with us and very patient. We learned about our home stay families today and I found out that mine is a family of banana farmers with a bibi and babu (grandma and grandpa), mama, and 2 kids, and I am very excited to meet them. We have tomorrow free and Sunday we are off to Tarangire National Park for 4 days, than Mto wa Mbo (Mosquito River) and Lake Manyara before traveling to the rainforest in the west Usambara mts for a week. As you can tell Baba Jack is very successful at keeping us busy and off the internet but I will write when I have a chance!