I can’t believe my 9 months in Tanzania has come to an end. I left yesterday and I’m currently in Paris with five other SIT students. We are staying with Sorina, one of the girls on the program, and trying to readjust to Western culture. But France will be the next post…now it’s time to talk about ZANZIBAR.

After a rough few weeks writing and presenting our ISPs, I got to spend an amazinggg two and a half weeks relaxing in my favorite place in the world, Zanzibar.

Unfortunately the journey from Arusha to Zanzibar started off on the wrong foot. The supposedly 8 hour bus ride from Arusha to Dar es Salaam turned out to be 14 hours due to several break down. And to make the ride feel even longer…I spent the first four hours throwing up. And of course there are no toilets on the bus, so plastic bags had to suffice. So we missed the last ferry to Zanzibar and spent a night at the YMCA in Dar.

But once we made it to Zanzibar the next morning, everything was nzuri sana! For the entire two and a half weeks there were always SIT students coming and going so I always had someone I could show Zanzibar off to. I traveled from Arusha with Kristen, Polly and Amanda and just when Polly and Amanda were leaving, Alex and his friend Mathias showed up. Just when Alex and Mathias headed out, Leana and Emily arrived, followed soon after by Grace, Alan and Laura who arrived from Rwanda. And the day they all left, James and Casey arrived.

I was so happy I got to return to most of my favorite spots in Zanzibar. I took the crew to Jozani Forest to see the Zanzibar red colobus monkeys, the forest reserve, mangroves and feed sea turtles.

We went snorkeling at Bawe where I saw two hugeee squid.

And of course we went to Forodhani every night for dinner. For all of you who haven’t been, Forodhani is the waterfront park in Stonetown where probably 50+ food vendors set up tables every single night and sell cheap street food such as chapatti; samosas; all sorts of fish, octopus and shell fish; sugar cane juice; grilled corn on the cob; chips; Zanzibar pizza; lots and lots of other things…and last but not least…mixi (which of course I got all of my friends hooked on).

Cooking Zanzibar Pizza

Of course we spent some evenings at Livingstone, dancing to our favorite Bongo Flava and pop songs. And for a vacation away from vacation…we spent every weekend at Kendwa, which, despite its touristy-ness, is still my favorite beach on Zanzibar. If I’m not mistaken it is one of only two beaches on Zanzibar that has had great swimming at both high and low tide. Plus there is white sand, perfectly clear water with no waves, no rocks, no icky seaweed, and most importantly no jellyfish (except for one). And there is beach volleyball. And of course Fee performs there as Michael Jackson every Saturday night which is always a blast to watch.

And in addition to my favorite old spots, I explored some new great places. Of course we had to spend some time exploring new beaches. We took a day trip to Pwani Michengani, the beach where Polly and her parents were staying. They kindly treated us to a free fancy lunch at their resort which provided a much needed break from rice and beans and dafu. I also checked out a few new markets with Fee…the second hand market that had lots of ‘80s tshirts and we visited another market out in Bububu where I found much needed rugby cleats. There I also tried some new fruits…including custard apple which is kind of a slimy white substance that tastes like bubbleicious gum. Yum!

And of course I got to see some of my favorite people…I went and visited my host family from fall semester, hung out with Fee’s friends Masoud and Wize, and my SIT friends happened to be staying in the apartment right next to Lode and Sarah so we spent some time with them and their adorable kitten, Leila.

Leila!
And of course I got to hang out a bunch with Fee’s family. For once his little nieces didn’t cry out of fear every time they saw me…in fact they starting giving me hugeee hugs every day when I’d get back to the house.

Masoud, Fee and Wize

Fee teaches his neices Rayani and Arafa how to be baller

James, Masoud, Casey, Fee, Kristen, Wize

But alas, I’ve had to say a sad kwaheri to Tanzania and here I am, back in a world of too much waste, personal cars, flaunted wealth, where everyone is in a hurry and always busy, and where strangers don’t exchange greetings. But at least I’m here (in France) with some of the wonderful people I got to spend time with in Tanzania. Being back in the Western world is making it very difficult to live the way I have been for the last nine months. As I’m experiencing this reverse culture shock, I keep reminding myself of Fee’s motto that told me nearly every day: “Money is nothing…people are everything”. If you’re fortunate enough to have more money than you need to survive, share it with those who don’t. In a country where 50% of the people live on less than $1 per day and 90% of the people live on less than $2 per day, a little help can go a long way. While Fee may be slightly wealthier than the average Tanzanian, he is by no means a wealthy man. But nonetheless he never fails to put a few coins in the hand of every beggar he passes. He buys extra meals at Forodhani just to give to those who can’t afford it. He doesn’t try to accumulate money just to have it. One weekend at Kendwa his entire pay from his performance that night was pickpocketed from him. That was his entire week’s pay. And of course he was sad, but there was nothing he could do about it. He just said, “hii ni maisha”, put on a smile and spent the rest of the night doing what really makes him happy…dancing. Overall it seems to me that Tanzanians have a much better grasp on what is really important in life. As one Zanzibari told me “Westerners live to work, Tanzanian’s work to live.” If a Tanzanian can put in a few hours of work and make a sufficient amount of money…he’ll close up shop for the day and spend the rest of the day doing whatever they fancy.

Well this chapter in my life has finished and I guess I’m just expected to go back to normal American college life…we’ll see how that goes…

I suppose that all I can say at this point is “hii ni maisha”. Once the phrase was introduced to me by Kellie Fatma Dada Chura McMahon in the fall, I started hearing the phrase everywhere. It’s used in good times, bad times and just…times. This is life. It goes on. So appreciate it while you have it. When I tried to explain to Olotuno in broken Swahili how amazing it was that I could just sit and watch birds and then all of a sudden a zebra would walk by just a few feet away, he just smiled at me and said “hii ni maisha”. When I gave my condolences to a Mama who had just lost her baby she told me “hii ni maisha”. As much as it pains that me that this journey is over, I hope I can bring what I’ve learned in Tanzania back to America and hopefully my life will lead me back to Tannzania in the not-too-distant future.

Tutaonana siku nyingine, Tanzania.

Ant highway

SIT Enashiva Crew, minus me

I’ve just returned from camping at Enashiva Nature Refuge where I was collecting data for my ISP for three weeks. Enashiva is a 12,600 acre private conservation area owned by Thomson Safari Company, located 20 km East of Serengeti National Park and 10 km south of the Kenya border. I camped in Enashiva with three other girls from the program—one studied herbivores, another studied predators, and the third did a social science study on the community relations between Enashiva/Thomson Safari Company and the neighboring Maasai communities.

Enashiva Nature Refuge staff

I’d done all the planning and preliminary research to do my ISP on grass (yes, a highly riveting subject). It would have contributed data on primary producing organisms and been one part of a three-part study being conducted by SIT students on the trophic levels in Enashiva. But alas, I couldn’t find an adequate field guide for grass; none of the guides working at Enashiva could identify the grass in any language; and due to an unusually late rainy season this year, very little of the grass was actually flowering (the flowers of grass is actually the only way to identify grass species). So after only one morning of attempting my grass study…I decided to switch to birds.

So I spent five hours a day as an amateur ornithologist. An average day at Enashiva consisted of waking up at 6 and leaving for birding session #1 at 6:30. (I’m no morning person but a gorgeous sunrise over the savannah…plus 9 hours of sleep a night…helped). From 6:30-9:30 I’d walk to a specific habitat with one of the workers and watch birds for two and a half hours. One of the best parts about the private conservation areas in Tanzania is that you’re allowed to walk through the park with a guide…in the national parks you must stay in your cars if you’re not at the lodge/campsite. (I could go on and on about the downsides to these private conservation areas…but that’s a discussion for another time). From 9:30-4 the other students and I entered data; read; played way too many games of bananagrams and cards; drew; attempted to weave grass (and failed); beaded; watched movies on our computers; laid in the sun; hung out with the rangers and exchanged stories/fairy tales and had impromptu mini language lessons; considered showering or washing clothes; attempted to help our cook in the kitchen…and I may have even birded for fun in my free time (ohh what a bird nerd I’ve become). From 4-7 was bird session #2. After that was dinner, then we told stories around the campfire and somehow always managed to scare ourselves into thinking there were lions/leopards/cheetahs roaming the campsite. The one time we did see green eyes in the night it turned out to be the housecat that we named Chui (“Leopard” in Swahili). (Although the night watchman did tell us that cheetahs did walk through the campsite at night several times during out stay.) Repeat for three weeks…

Enashiva Nature Refuge was a great place to study birds. I’d like to say I might start bird-watching back in Washington…but when it really comes down to it I don’t know if “Steller’s jay, lark, robin, sparrow, sparrow” in the cold PNW can really compare to “red-billed hornbill, African white-backed vulture, golden-winged sunbird, purple grenadier…” in the nice, warm, sunny Serengeti. Plus it’s not too likely in the states that I’ll be studying a bird through my binoculars and then suddenly notice a blurry giraffe’s head staring at me from behind an acacia tree in the distance. Watching the other wildlife was half the fun of watching birds. I had a lot of down time in the grasslands because there were so few birds so I got to spend a lot of time just watching the zebras, wildebeest, gazelle, impala, the shy (but hugeee) eland, warthogs, baboons, dik-diks, hares and giraffes. I particularly enjoyed playing “red-light, green-light” with the giraffes in the grassland. Whenever I would look at them they would stand perfectly still and stare intently at me…but as soon as I would turn my back to look at birds they would take a few giant steps toward me. I’d quickly turn back toward them and they’d stop moving again until I got redistracted by my birds. Some of my favorite times were when I was sitting quietly in the woodlands, looking for birds and a herd of zebra would walk by, only 10 feet in front of me…not noticing my presence. (Well to be honest, they probably could notice my presence with their keen senses, but it didn’t seem to keep them from coming so close to me).

I had two Maassai guides that traded off walking with me while I looked at birds. We aren’t really allowed to leave the campsite area without a guide because of the danger of lions, leopards, etc. Olotuno, my main guide, spoke no English, had legs nearly up to my neck, and is probably one of the biggest characters I’ve met in Tanzania. He spent the majority of our birding time together napping in the grass with his hat over his eyes. (Each time I went out to look at birds I would stop five times along the transect and look at birds for half an hour at each stop). I’m not sure that he was really accomplishing his duty of protecting me from snakes, lions, cheetahs and leopards…but luckily the most danger I was ever in was when I would impale myself on acacia thorns while distracted by looking at a bird through my binocs. I once stepped on an acacia branch and it went completely through the sole of my tennis shoe and punctured the bottom of my foot. (Acacia trees are the bane of my existence and make up at least 90% of the trees in Enashiva). When he wasn’t napping he was usually imitating birds…he put branches in his mouth and would pretend to build nests or else he would be running around, imitating the erratic flight patterns of some birds.

Acacia tree

Olotuno anapumzika

Godwin searches for birds in his stocking cap

I once returned to Olotuno to find him lying face down in the grass with his face about 6 inches from a baby black mamba snake. “Bucky, angalia. Kuna nyoka mtoto hapa. Mimi na nyoka tunapumzika pamoja” (“Bucky, look. There is a baby snake here. Me and the snake are napping together”). After he saw the fear on my face and I ran a few meters away he reluctantly poked the baby snake into the bushes with his cattle herding stick. Baby snakes are arguably more dangerous than adult snakes because they don’t know how to regulate the release of their venom when they bite so they release much more than an adult snake would. Also they are harder to see and hence easier to accidentally step on.

Olotuno

Despite his laziness, Olotuno had an amazing ear for birding. He would periodically sit up from his nap and flip through the entire Birds of East Africa book until he found the bird that was singing. Then he would stand up, take me by the arm and lead me a few meters, and point to a far off tree. And lo and behold, there was the singing bird, correctly identified every time. I, on the other hand, couldn’t identify bird calls for the life of me and would forget the call about two seconds after the bird stopped singing.

Lily’s birthday was toward the end of the stay and we did our best to arrange a memorable birthday for her out in the bush. Our cook agreed to secretly bake her a cake, and all of the rangers and the three of us decorated it with Nutella. We even managed to scrounge up soda! (I’d never been so excited for soda in my life). In terms of food, the cake was the most variety we had for the whole three weeks and it was delicious (hardboiled eggs, rice, beans and chapati was about it). In the evening we surprised her with a trip to “sundown rock”, a ledge high up on the ridge with a breathtaking view of Enashiva and the sunset. That night the rangers took us on a night game drive (another thing that’s only allowed in private conservation areas). The ranger’s car was a pickup truck with handrails installed…so we stood up in the back and were forced to play the dangerous game of “dodge the acacia branches” while we drove. On the night game drive we saw hares, bat-eared foxes, jackals, spring hares (which are adorable…pretty much mini kangaroos) and the usual gazelles, wildebeest and zebras. We startled one of the spring hares and it jumped directly into three consecutive acacia saplings. Poor guy.

On the drive back to Arusha we helped a man who had broken down near Lake Natron (the hottest part of Tanzania I’ve been to). He was miles from a town or even a boma. His car had broken down four days earlier and he was surviving on the little food and water he had with him. He was nearly in tears when we stopped to help. We towed his car for three hours with a short strap he’d fashioned out of belts and pieces of fabric he had found. Unfortunately the strap broke (for a final time) a few miles outside of town so we gave him a ride to town and gave him all the food and water we could. I hope he makes it home…

Now here I am, back in Arusha, writing up my ISP report. I can’t believe the semester is almost over…only two weeks left!

Just returned from an amazinggg two week safari! I'm back in Arusha for a few days now...but it's finals week so I'm rushing to finish a bunch of papers before I'm off to start ISP on Friday. So unforunately I dont have time right now to write a good blog post, but I'm putting up pictures and hopefully I'll be able to write more later.