Safari Adventuring!

Disclaimer: this post is a bit long, but there's lots of pictures to help you get through it :)

some of the Maasai mamas dancing and singing to welcome us to their "boma"

After our first few days of class, I can already tell that this semester will be unlike any other.  Although my professors are hard to understand at times, I don’t find myself tuning out or wanting to check facebook on my ipod or falling asleep like I would back home.  Swahili and Social Culture is our 2-credit language course that is supposed to help us communicate a bit with the Maasai during our stay here.  Wildlife Management and Wildlife Ecology are both biology labs and Environmental Policy and Socioeconomic Values is a more social-science course. All of these classes are 4 credits each and were approved by my awesome advisor to count towards my ESCI major at UST, which makes it even better just knowing that I’m getting credit for this amazing field experience (rather by than sitting in a fluorescent-lighted classroom or lab -- no offense to my wonderful professors at USTJ).  When we get to Tanzania we will begin our Directed Research projects, which is the heart of this program. This also counts as 4-credit class and culminates in a presentation to the Tanzanian community at the end, where we try to provide realistic options to manage the human-wildlife conflict that also improve the well-being of the local people.  We haven’t gotten too in depth in any of our classes yet—the first few days have been similar to the introductory days at the beginning of any semester, so I am very eager to get into the deep stuff! Monday (2/6) we went to Amboseli National Park to observe some wildlife on our first safari!!!

Another gorgeous sunset at camp.

The baboons in camp seem as though they are becoming more accustomed to us being here. Saturday morning when I woke up and opened the door of my chumba to go brush my teeth, I scared a baboon off our front porch and saw many others chasing each other around the central part of camp and playing in the gazebo—jumping off walls and running in circles around it. They also climb trees like it’s nobody’s business. It’s crazy. Then they bounce on the branches and shake the trees and occasionally howl at each other when there is any disagreement—which sounds like a very scary dog fight. There are a handful of smaller monkeys and even a cute little baby monkey with huge ears that clings to its mom’s back or on her tummy as she walks.We also have a family of vervet monkeys, which are smaller (and cuter) than the baboons.They are tree dwellers however and are very skittish when people come around but I’ve managed to get a few good pictures when we find them rummaging on the ground.

nom nom nom. some of the baboons in camp (look at the cute little baby!!!)

Friday night we had a bonfire at camp and got to ask some of the staff questions about Maasai culture and life in Kenya.  We learned about various cultural topics like clothing styles and marriage (polygamy is the norm in Kenya) and what they think of us students coming to see their homes (Saturday we went to visit a “boma” or traditional Maasai home).  Before the fire, we also saw our first Black Mamba, a poisonous snake prevalent in Eastern Africa.

beautiful Maasai mamas

Our visit to the Maasai boma was amazing.  We were greeted by a receiving line of Maasai mamas adorned with tons of beaded jewelry and wraps.  They then proceeded to dance and sing a song for us and even though we couldn’t understand what anything meant (Maasai and Swahili are two different languages) it was incredibly cool! One mama came and grabbed me by the hands to dance with her (basically jump up and down).  Our group then proceeded to sing and dance to that World Cup theme song by Shakira... and they looooved it! It was a cool way to bond despite language barrier and overall it was an amazing opportunity. 

We then learned a bit about their lifestyle and got to go inside one of the homes. These women live their lives taking care of their children in homes made of all natural earth products—sticks, cow dung, grass and other materials they gather—while their husbands (aka bad-ass Maasai warriors with spears) tend to their grazing livestock all day. I was amazed at how well constructed the homes were; they were practically pitch black inside except for a few holes for sunlight, were a comfortable temp, and were practically sound-proof. It takes them about 2 months to build their own home after marriage (the woman is responsible for this task) but they are assisted by other women in the boma community.

This is part of our group waiting to tour the inside of the Maasai home or "boma" pictured in the backgroud. Multiple bomas are in a circular fashion, which makes up the community, and the livestock are housed in a central pen surrounded by fences made from the branches of Acacia trees (basically, mother nature's barbed wire). The bomas were surprisingly spacious and you could stand up straight inside! These are the style of homes you see everywhere.

These particular Maasai are not accustomed to any tourists or visitors besides the semesterly visit from SFS. They are our neighbors and live about a 5 minute drive away down a dusty car trail—not even a road. We were told that we would later go see a commercial Maasai boma geared towards tourists for comparison, which will be interesting since we got the authentic experience first. Also, a few of the mamas come to our camp to do laundry for whomever desires to pay about two hundred shillings (=a little more than 2 dolla) but I think I will take a stab at hand washing on my own first.

lovely sunset at camp. I am obsessed with the trees here!

After returning back to camp, my friend Paige and I watched the baboons in camp while pretending to do some reading for class.  We then decided to take our cameras to go look for bush babies! We saw a few but they didn’t emerge enough for very good pictures before we had to head back for dinner.  However, around 9 that night, I was walking to the bathroom with my trusty headlamp and on the clothes line poles I saw a couple pairs of huge eyes that lit up bright orange when they looked towards my light!  Kilimanjaro Bush Babies!!!! We were so excited and stayed to watch these adorable, tiny, nocturnal creatures for about half an hour. They are actually little primates that jump through the tree branches and eat bugs, while somehow managing to not impale themselves on the huge spiky thorns of the acacia tree. We were also lucky enough to see the marvel of one hopping across the ground like a tiny kangaroo—leaps literally 3 or 4 feet high and about 6 feet in distance! So cool. And cute J

When we woke up the next morning, it had snowed a lot on Mt Kili! The staff says they haven't seen it this snow covered in a while. (also, those are spherical bird nests hanging in the trees in the top right corner)

Monday we went on our first safari adventure to Amboseli National Park! We had brief Wildlife Ecology and Wildlife Management lectures before heading out in the field.  Everyone was so ecstatic to see a herd of zebras and an elephant right as we entered the park…little did we know we’d soon be seeing hundreds of zebras, wildebeest, elephants, gazelle, antelope, hyenas, hippos, birds, and even a lion pride in the distance!  Unfortunately no pics of the lions yet....I'm holding out until I get some good ones! You'll thank me later.

awww! zebra love.

Our sweet Land Cruisers have hatches that pop open so we can stand up and view the wildlife easily…makes for a pretty sweet adventure.  However, it also means lotsssss of sunshine so I got to wear my awesome safari hat (Thanks Shelly!) but still managed to get a little burnt (Mother Theresa would not be happy).  Before lunch, I started to feel a little queezy but thought I was just carsick (read: was fully prepared to vomit out the window) …turns out I might’ve had acute sun poisoning or something along those lines, so lunch on a shaded veranda on top of a lookout hill was the perfect cure.  From this amazing vantage point, we got to watch elephants foraging in the swampy wetland below and even saw some hippos!

The view from our lunch shelter.

Elephants tromping through the swampy swamp. It looked so funny to see them half-submerged in the mucky water! The birds on their backs are egrets, with whom they have a symbiotic relationship (the elephants don't mind the birds who benefit by eating the bugs stirred up from the ground, and the birds will warn the elephants of any approaching dangers)

After lunch, we hopped back in the vehicles and had an amazing up-close elephant experience. A herd of elephants was crossing the gravel road, so our caravan of 4 cruisers stopped to watch as they entered the wetland and began feeding. Big elephants, medium elephants and absolutely adorable little baby elephants used their long trunks to drink up water and rip out chunks of grass from the ground. Our drivers turned off the vehicles and we could hear the elephants breathing, sloshing through the swamp and tearing the grass…it was unreal. One elephant got pretty close to a vehicle, which is a sobering reminder that these giants are real, wild animals – not in a zoo – and they are capable of causing great damage. But it was still insanely cool to see these amazing creatures so up close and personal. And I’m told there will be many more opportunities to come!

Why did the elephant cross the road? To go eat and splash around in the wetland, of course!

Our group consists of 27 students from across the US; a lot are from the east coast and a few from the Pacific Northwest.  I have one fellow Wisconsonite and was also surprised to find out that the intern at camp is from Eagen, MN.  There are 25 girls and two boys..that I feel kind of bad for.  Everyone is very friendly and easy going… but hey, I guess you’ve gotta be pretty legit [or crazy?] to voluntarily sign up to live in rustic Eastern Africa for 3+ months, so it makes sense.

I don't think there's a cuter baby animal than baby elephants!!! So in love with these guys.

There were elephants of all sizes and ages. These are all female adults because the adult male bull elephants tend to be solitary except when it's time to mate.

om nom nom....possibly my favorite picture of the day :)

Grant's Gazelle fighting and others on lookout as some lions approached in the distance (The lions must have just eaten because all they were concerned with was drinking water. So strange to see the gazelle and lion so close to each other!)

Lots of wildebeest. Such strange looking animals.

A spotted hyena on the prowl.

Basically, all of the animals were awesome to see in the wild (as I’m sure you can imagine) but I must say, I was super stoked to see a hippo! Ever since my Aunt Sandy and cousins Cindy and Cori got me this hippo stuffed animal for Christmas (I named her Hippie….creative, I know), I have been intrigued by these strange, huge animals. Turns out the hippo is the ultimate creeper of East Africa, and although we were lucky enough to see a few hippos foraging around out of water, many of them just peep their eyes above the water’s surface and straight creeeep (I really want to show a picture but it won't upload because everyone is on the internet right now).  Still awesome though.  The zebras were beautiful and hearing them “laugh” was incredible.  Leaving the park, we saw a few giraffes in the distance but I have yet to capture a photo…excited for that day to come! 

Today was our first “off-program day”. As you can imagine, we have a very nontraditional schedule due to the fact that we don't just "go home" for the weekend…wouldn't exactly be safe to just let us wander around Africa on our own, so basically, we have a day off from classes about once a week on average to do whatever we want, but usually there is some sort of organized activity. Today I did some laundry when I woke up (let's just say I'm grateful for whoever invented the washing machine) and then read some class material.  Then we went to Kimana, the small town about 10 minutes away, to go to the weekly market and buy (more) stuff. It was farmers-market style with tons of little wooden booths and people selling everything from "embe" (mangos) to "shukas" (fabrics). So incredibly interesting to see this aspect of their culture and also a bit overwhelming to get bombarded by the women selling jewelry. We also got stared at by just about everybody because each of us sticks out like a sore thumb. Everyone was so friendly and welcoming, and as I said before, I am simply awe-struck by the genuine happiness of each Kenyan (especially the adorable little children!) despite the fact that they have so little.

Well, I'm exhausted after a busy last few days...time to hit the hay!  In case you didn't know, we're nine hours ahead here. Crazy to think that when I'm waking up each morning, you all are just going to bed. Thanks for taking the time to read this ridiculously long post :)

lala salama! (sleep peacefully!)