Back in Arusha

            We left Mto wa Mbu on Thursday and it was incredibly sad saying goodbye to all of the amazing friends that I made there.  Wednesday night we had a party with a campfire, beef-kabobs, Safari beer and pilau.  As always, the bus ride back to Arusha was interesting.  In a minivan sized dala-dala we somehow managed to squeeze 28 people, a month's worth of luggage for 7 people, and a screaming baby that peed on my friends’ feet. All for 3 hours. Thanksgiving went well, everyone decided that going to a restaurant would be more fun and productive than trying to cook at home over a fire so we went to a Mediterranean restaurant and ordered tapas and then all left starving.  Writing our ISPs has been painful and boring as long papers always are, but we are all excited to finish early and then have a last week in Arusha to hang out before the program ends. I can’t believe that I only have 10 days left until I come home! It’s definitely bittersweet.  But I still have a little bit of time to put off my emotions of coming home. Next week I am planning on visiting my Bangatan Mama and exploring all of the amazing markets here in Arusha!

Mto wa Mbu

ISP has been a great experience but is definitely a marathon. On the bus ride to Mto wa Mbu, where I am collecting my data, we were squished in to the usual level, with people sitting in your lap, when the bus stopped suddenly. Lots of people got out and were peeing on the side of the road but then just sat down outside.  We were extremely confused about why they weren’t getting back on when half the bus squeezed into a minivan and left. It took us another 20 minutes to realize that the bus had broken down and we were waiting for the next one from Arusha.  After an hour, the next bus showed up, already full.  But there is always room for one more in Tanzanian transportation, and we managed to slam 15 more people onto the already overflowing bus.  Needless to say, it was an interesting hour’s drive.

Mto wa Mbu has given me even more opportunities to battle bugs in Tanzania.  Giant three inch wolf spiders, six inch beetles, and thousands of mosquitos have allowed me to toughen up my anxiety to bugs.  Also living here for a month has its advantages because I can get in with the locals.  My friends and I decided to go into town to watch a big soccer game that all of the locals were talking about. Manchester vs. the Arsenals. Soccer is huge here, and since most people don’t have cable, everyone in Mto wa Mbu was downtown to watch the game.  Two local bars had screens and everyone paid an entrance fee.  It was insane.  I have never been in a more fan crazy environment, and that’s saying a lot since I grew up as a Buckeye fan.  My friends stayed outside and grabbed a couple drinks while I went in to see the game.  The guy next to me kept making fun of me for being white and I was annoyed because the entire town was literally cheering on 2 practically all white soccer teams.  But I looked around and I noticed that I was the only white person in the crowed room of hundreds of people and one of maybe three girls. 

Mto wa Mbu has definitely exposed me to some new things.  My grandparents have a cow farm in Pennsylvania and the candy “cow tails” have always been pretty popular.  But last week I got to try my first real cow tail.  It was definitely tough, thick skin (void of most hair), not much meat and cartilage. I wouldn’t recommend it. And I don’t know if I will ever be eating the candy cow tails again.

My project has actually turned out to be pretty cool. I am studying cultural tourism, which consumes of me spending 5 days with Tanzanian painters, 5 days with the famous Makonde carvers, and going on tours with the tourists and guides.  The cultural tours allow me to “do research” by going on bike rides to lake Manyara to see flamingos and other animals, chat with locals, learn more about tribal cultures, drink local banana beer, and eat Tanzanian food. So I can’t complain too much.  I also got the chance to spend 5 days with the painters who are amazing and taught me how to paint giraffes.  And I just started my research with the Makonde.  But in addition to my studies, I am taking carving lessons from a different group of Makonde in the afternoons and they are incredibly nice. I am learning how to carve my own elephant and they promise me that I will be able to make one completely by myself before I leave. 

I really love Mto wa Mbu, the people here are amazing and the atmosphere is great. My next challenge is going to be making a Thanksgiving dinner without a grocery store, and with only a fire! I know that it will be an interesting experience! Happy Thanksgiving!

Safari Adventures

The past two weeks have been indescribable. We traveled to the Ngorongoro crater, Oluvai Gorge, the Serengeti, and into the Rift Valley for Maasai home stay.  In the crater we had the opportunity to see 2 black rhinos, out of only 200 in all of Tanzania. The campsite was also very open to wildlife and zebras and elephants wandered within 25 feet of us. Also, Ngorongoro has the highest predator to prey ratio of anywhere in Tanzania so we enjoyed seeing multiple groups of lions, hyenas, and jackals. In addition to the animals, we got to visit Olduvai Gorge, where many species of humans over the course of evolution have been found.

At the Serengeti we had a chance to study a group of animals and for me that meant that I had three extra mornings to watch 2-3 week old baby elephants fall all over themselves. We also saw well over 20 lions and tons of hyenas.  One night a pack of spotted hyenas came into our camp in search of food.  They found a trashcan but then they started to fight amongst each other for the food. The fighting was loud enough to wake up almost every student and from under the flies of our tents we could see their paws.  There was one within 10 feet of my tent and the laughing that they are so famous for was pretty damn terrifying.

After leaving the Serengeti we spent one night at the local favorite “Peace and Love Bar and Guest House” and had a great time celebrating our last safari. It wasn’t until after we were signed in that we realized that the Peace and Love Bar really was more of a brothel, but it was fun nonetheless! Then we traveled on to Maasai land in Engaresero.  In less than 5 minutes of driving temperatures went from hot to unbearably hot when we hit the rift wall. After arriving at our campsite several of us were lying in the shade when something slithered by me less than a foot away.  I sat up and everyone turned to stare at the snake.  It was red with a black head and roughly 4 feet long. It stopped, raised its head and then proceeded to try to slither up our tents. One of the extremely animal friendly people on our trip tried to pick it up to no avail while we got Baba Jack and asked what kind of snake it was.  The Maasai men at the campsite confirmed that it was a poisonous cobra and they all pulled out their spears and daggers to kill it but it escaped just in time.

The next day Maasai homestay began and I got the chance to live in an incredibly traditional way for four days.  The huts or bomas are made of cow dung and the beds are cowhide.  After arriving my family dressed me in their shukas and jewelry and then sent me to the river with my sister and her friend to bathe. While I bathed my sister washed my underwear and then laid them out to dry while she washed my hair for me. Sadly, my underwear didn’t dry in time for me to put it back on so my sister laid it on her head for better sun exposure and gave my bra to her friend. I also learned how to make Maasai jewelry, milk goats, dance and jump like a Maasai, carry wood, and sleep without any personal space.  Privacy and personal space are foreign to the Maasai and that was by far the hardest thing for me to deal with.  Each night when we went to bed my Mama would pull the cowhide outside and lay it on the ground with a log for us to use as a pillow. Then, as it got cold at night we would pull the cowhide inside and all sleep in the hot boma together. Hygiene was not too important and multiple times I saw my Mama drop peeled and prepared yams into the dirt with cow and goat poop.  She would kind of rub it off and then throw them in with the other food. One of my friends was milking a goat when the goat pooped into the cup that the milk was in. She apologized to which her family replied “hamna shida”, no worries, and proceeded to dump the bad milk into the jar with all of the other milk.  I was able to go to a dance one night when the women were getting ready to sacrifice a goat to the gods for rain.  The women all wore incredible jewelry that jingles when they move and they formed a circle around a goat in the middle of the boma. The women would jump and chant together and although I eventually went to bed, the dancing continued until dawn. Then they took the goat to the base of the Maasai holy mountain and sacrificed it in order to bring about the rainy season.

After the four days all of the students were happy to see each other again and be back at the campsite.  Together we killed a goat and drank its blood, a Maasai tradition.  Then we each had the opportunity to be branded by a Maasai.  In Maasai culture branding is a form of beautification that everyone has all over their bodies. Getting a brand was definitely a great way to end our safari and remind me of the amazing experiences that I have had in the past two weeks and during my entire time here in Tanzania.

Alone in Maasai Land

 Before leaving town on Sunday I was frantically trying to find a doctor to go to because of a rash on my hands and feet that I have had for practically the entire trip (turns out I am allergic to something here).  But the rash was getting worse and I wanted to find a doctor.  I woke up early and was disappointed that everything was closed because it was a weekend when a man offered to show me a clinic that he knew was open.  I was pretty desperate because I was leaving that day and wouldn’t have access to a doctor for a week so I followed him.  We found a small malaria clinic and it was one of the biggest culture shocks that I have had.  It was just like the clinics in movies that I always had thought were exaggerated.  But people were lying in beds in front of me so sick.  This was at 7:30 in the morning and started my week off for the many crazy stories that would follow. This week was prep week for our Independent Study Projects (ISP) in November.  I was originally supposed to do my project on a Maasai orphanage in an extremely remote village of Engaruka.  I got all the way there and found out that it was actually a boarding school with a couple orphans and I couldn’t do my project.  But even a couple days with the Maasai make for several interesting memories.

On the “bus” to Maasai land I quickly found out what situation I was in for.  I jammed myself into the van with Maasai men and women only to find out that the bus didn’t leave for 3 hours but that if you got off you risked your stuff being stolen or loosing your precious seat on the bus. While waiting I spent 15 minutes talking to an old Maasai elder in slow Swahili so that he could understand. It wasn’t until 15 minutes had passed that another passenger finally told me that the man was speaking Kimaasai and not Kiswahili. When we left for the 3 hour trip the road got so bumpy that I swear a baby could probably get shaken baby syndrome from riding along.  All of the passengers were shoved right up into everyone else and every minute or so we would stop to drop off a Maasai in, literally, the middle of nowhere. I don’t have any idea how they even knew where to stop because there were no defining characteristics whatsoever.  They would get off, someone threw them their 100lb bag of beans off the top of the bus and they would drag it away into the savannah. This one bus boy had the job of making people run to get on the bus so that we didn’t need to stop for long and he had multiple ways of doing this. Sometimes he pushed them to hurry and other times that didn’t work.  Maasai mamas in particular didn’t like to run so sometimes the boy would grab the child in their arms so that the Mama could run faster and had something to run for. However, multiple times the Mama or baby were not supposed to be on the bus and screaming would ensue after a man ran off with her baby.  The same bus boy tried to tell a Maasai elder that he wasn’t allowed on the bus and the boy pushed him away and the Maasai swiftly whipped the boy with the stick that he was carrying in his hand.

After all of the chaos on the bus I walked back to my translator, Onesmo’s house, exhausted from a day of traveling and waited for a couple of hours to have dinner.  What was on the menu? Goat heart.  It was disgusting but I had to eat at least a little to not be considered rude. After choking it down I went back to my tent but the smell lingered on my hands so I decided to go to the bathroom and see if there was any water in a bucket to wash my hands with. I was greeted by 3 of the biggest cockroaches I have ever seen.  They were 3 inches long excluding the antenna. The next morning I woke up early and went to the school to meet the kids and quickly realized that some of them had never seen a white person before. I was the first, and they were quite terrified.  One mama forced her 3-year-old son to talk to me and he was screaming and crying the entire time. I also got the chance to watch goats and kind of herd them and one had a baby so I was able to sort of aid in that.  I tried to text my friend and was informed that the closest place with cell service was a 40-60 minute walk and then when you got there the ground doesn’t have service so you have to climb a tree. So I didn’t get to send the text.

I realized that I should figure out a new project so I decided to head back to Mto wa Mbu or the River of Mosquitos.  I woke up at 4:00AM to pack up my tent and walk to the bus stop.  Halfway through packing up my tent my headlamp stopped working and I had to get ready via moonlight. The long walk included thorns and crossing a creek with my giant camping backpack to get to the bus.  Once there, all 70 people, plus uncountable bags of beans, maize and rice, and 7 chickens jammed in and the bus took off in the dark. I honestly compared it to the night bus in Harry Potter because it was dark, I was sitting in the very front seat and we were zooming unbelievably fast through tiny towns.  Also, like in the movie when they count down as the lady crosses the street, the driver was forced to stop so that cows could cross the road.  He would sit and count down and then get impatient and start to drive too early, practically swiping the sides of the cows.  As we drove through the towns one man would hang off the outside and whistle extremely loud to let everyone know that we were there and leaving.  Then he would hold on to the top of the bus and swing from open window to open window and perch there to make sure that everyone had paid.  On the bright side, I was able to see my first real animals outside of the national parks, which was very cool because they were less used to humans and cars.  Then when we were almost back to Mto wa mbu 3 of the chickens tried to escape and everyone was scrambling around trying to catch them.  Sadly they didn’t escape and probably ended up as someones dinner.

In Mto wa mbu I met up with 6 of my friends already there and we found a great place to stay and got started on our ISP projects.  I decided to do mine on the cultural tours that Mto wa mbu is famous for and how the cultural groups are effected.  I am going to possibly look at the Tanzanian painters, the Chaga tribe’s banana beer, and the Makonde tribal carvings, and they even agreed to teach me how to do some of these things! It was a very nice week in Mto Wa Mbu; we went to the Maasai market, and had a celebratory pilau (spiced rice) picnic with our translators because of a holiday.  It was definitely an eventful week and I am much more excited for ISP now, although Sunday we leave for Serengeti, Ngorogoro, lake Natron, and Maasai home stay so I have plenty to do until then!

Last Week of home stay

My last week in Bangata with my homestay family was amazing and stressful at the same time. It was Midterm week for SIT students so we had 4 long papers to write, 3 other assignments and a Kiswahili oral exam. Needless to say, it was a hard week, especially since we needed to find time to do all of the outside work while also interacting with our families. In class last week we went into Arusha and used our Swahili bartering skills to buy fruits, vegetables, and spices at the markets. Then we went back to school and made guacamole, fruit salad, and traditional Chai masala, so it was a pretty successful school week. At home I was being bombarded with Tanzanian men and I am pretty sure that my Mama was trying to set me up. There were probably at least 6 different around 20-year-old men that would conveniently come over to talk to my Babu while I was home. Each of them would say hello to my Babu and then sit down with me somewhere and have extremely long conversations in broken English and even more broken Kiswahili. One morning I woke up at 6:30 in the morning and went outside to go to the bathroom and there was a boy waiting in our cooking hut to talk to me.  Luckily only 3 of them mentioned looking for a wife and children so they weren’t too obvious about it. I also got to milk my neighbor’s cow last week, which was very exciting.  My Dada taught me a few very important African skills such as how to tie a baby to my back with a kanga, and how to carry full buckets of water on my head.  I was extremely excited to learn and school children find it very funny to see a white person in her pajamas attempting to balance a too-full bucket of water on her head.

There was a big SIT party on Friday and I finished all of my work just in time to spend the day with my family. The party was a great way to say goodbye to my family, and my Mama even had a beautiful traditional Tanzanian dress made especially for me just for the occasion! My oldest dada, Amani, left for boarding school in Dar Es Saalam this morning, one hour after I left Bangata so today was an extremely sad day for my Mama. I really enjoyed my time in Bangata and saying goodbye to my family was pretty hard but I am very nervous and excited to leave for Engaruka tomorrow to begin my ISP research and learn more about Maasai culture!