Safari - Mikumi

We just got back from a two night stay at Mikumi National Park for a group safari. Mikumi is about a 4 hour drive west of Dar es Salaam, but it feels about a million miles away. After about a half an hour of driving, the landscape completely changes from bustling streets and densely packed buildings to open fields and beautiful blue mountains.



We all piled in to our safari vehicles and settled in for a long drive. The time flew by and as soon as we knew it we were entering the boundaries of Mikumi and we got to open the rooftops of our car and continue the last legs of our road trip safari style!





We went on four game drives total: two in the evenings and two in the mornings. Even the drive in blew all our expectations away - we saw giraffes, elephants, zebras, impalas, cape buffalos and baboons before even getting to the lodge! We had heard that seeing lions was very rare and certainly not a guarantee, so we kept our eyes peeled but had low hopes...and then we found three lions eating a zebra! And THEN we found FIVE lions - a mama and her cubs - eating a buffalo!!! It was unreal. We thought it couldn't get any better than that until we saw a male lion being chased by a herd of cape buffalo at a watering hole right behind where we were eating breakfast. The whole experience was amazing and something none of us will ever forget.









Now we are back at UDSM for three nights until we are allowed to go back to Zanzibar. We were told by the U.S. Embassy not to be on the island for elections, which take place on Halloween, due to the history of political friction between CCM and CUF, the two main political parties. We have been told that there will most likely be no problems, however, as this year the Zanzibari government has compromised and set up a coalition government, where the winner becomes president and the loser becomes vice president. Guess we'll see!

Sayansi

Yesterday we went to Sinda Island (I'm not actually sure if that's how it's spelled), a small island just off the coast of Dar es Salaam. In order to avoid traffic and make all of our transportation connections (bus --> ferry --> dala dala --> boat) we had to wake up before sunrise. The ferry, which based on our past ferry experiences here we had anticipated to be long, cramped and miserable, ended up only taking 2 minutes and literally just crossed the harbor, avoiding all of the morning rush hour.



We went on the trip with Matt Richmond, who is a Brit living in Dar es Salaam who wrote our field studies textbook - basically, he knows everything there is to know about organisms of the West Indian Ocean. Our activity for the day was studying the biodiversity of the region, by documenting organism populations in quadrats along a 50 meter transect. Found LOTS of crazy anemones, starfish, brittle stars, and sea cucumbers...and a lot of rocks.







After a couple hours of compiling data, we got to eat lunch, swim, and sunbathe. Becky and I found a dying baby squid that was squirting its ink into a black cloud in the otherwise very clear water. Sounds kind of sad, but it was pretty cool. We had to beat rush hour coming home so we couldn't stay too long, but we got to have a relaxing dhow sail on the way back to the mainland.



In other news, if anyone knows of any agriculturally-related NGOs or has any connections with businesses that would potentially be interested in donating masks, gloves or rubber boots to farmers in Africa...let me know!

-Brooke

Chuo Kikuu - UDSM

Feels like we're back in freshman year - moved into the dorms at the University of Dar es Salaam on Sunday. Living in Hall 3 with the rest of the SIT gang, which is just like any other college dorm (well, basically) and we have already decorated the rooms with whatever we could find to put up on the walls (and kept up some of the interesting decorations that we found already in the room - posters of "fancy rooms"). We have some kids from Mozambique in the dorm next door which I was really excited about because they speak Portuguese! My brain is so messed up with all of the languages I've been learning lately that I think I was speaking Portuswahilenglespanol, but it was a lot of fun to talk to them!





At UDSM we are having a lecture series that is focusing on environmental issues on the mainland, which is completely different from environmental issues in Zanzibar for two reasons. One, the mainland is obviously comprised of many different environments, ranging from the Kilimanjaro highlands to the northeast Rafiji coast. And two, though Zanzibar and Mainland Tanzania are united, Zanzibar remains semi-autonomous and governs itself for issues concerning the environment, among other things. We are also going to be doing some field trips to see alternative energy sites and to do some snorkeling, AND next week we are going to Mikumi National Park for a safari!

The campus is beautiful and offers everything that any American college would, although sometimes in a different fashion. The library has a wealth of books, some looking centuries old. We've already found our favorite study spot underneath a giant banyon tree - and there's even wireless there (sometimes)! There is this little footbridge over to the residential part of campus that crosses a ravine and is engulfed by draping vines that could undoubtedly hold the weight of a person. Monkeys run around and the people - who are here despite it being winter vacation - are completely unfazed. Rumor has it there is also a baboon, but I haven't been able to see it yet.

Having a wonderful time here! Haven't gotten to see much of the city yet but that doesn't make me too sad knowing how beautiful it is here. Definitely feels funny to be back on a college campus!

Alright well, that's all for now but...

Tchau/Kwaheri/Adios/Bye!

It's not goodbye, it's baadaye.

Just made it back to Stone Town after a week spent in Wete, one of the three major cities on Pemba Island. Wete is one of the main agricultural hubs of the Zanzibar Archipelago, which made it a perfect location for me and Lauren to work on our independent study focusing on pesticide use on subsistence farms.



We were fortunate to have the help of Amour Mohammed, who is a farmer and private pesticide retailer on Pemba, who let us interview him and gave us two mornings of his time and energy to bring us to the farming communities of Weni and Mangwena. We were so surprised to see that instead of having individual farms, most of the farms in the area were huge plots of land owned by the government and leased back to the people in 0.1-Hectare plots. Most of the farms were rice paddies, a few grew tomatoes and cassava. The farms were breathtaking.

We had made a 26-question survey for the farmers to take. We were expecting to only get 10-15 surveys filled during our time, but were fortunate enough to get 47. The farmers were so excited to take the survey, even though probably a third of them were illiterate. The ones that couldn't read or write were helped by their colleagues (or me or Lauren, which was pretty laughable). Still in the process of analyzing the data and putting the finishing touches on our paper, but it is definitely clear that some pesticide education and training needs to be made available to the farmers. About 50% reported wearing no protective clothing or gear during pesticide application, and about 40% reported feeling symptoms of acute pesticide poisoning post-application. Can't wait to get back there to get to work!





We stayed in a wonderful little guesthouse in the heart of Wete which became our home. At the guesthouse, there was a cute couple (who we think owned the place), Doctor Omar (who went to Harvard and speaks wonderful English) and his wife Nuru/Mama. They honestly became like a second family in the week we were there - we got cooking lessons from Mama, life advice from Dakatari, and lots of pleasant company. We had so much fun practicing our cooking skills and sharing "chakula marekani" with our friends in Wete. We were sad to leave but we are now off to Dar es Salaam which will be yet another adventure!



Time to write and study. Baadaye!

Jozani

For the last 4 nights we have been in Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park, learning how to conduct environmental field studies. The rangers at the park gave us lectures and taught us in the field how to conduct studies on mangrove biodiversity, bird population surveys, and primate behavior studies.



Jozani Forest is home to thousands of Zanzibar Red Colobus Monkeys, who are habituated to humans and would let us get inches away without noticing. Highlights of monkey watching included: seeing a mama and her baby, as well as an alpha male fight, and we learned that monkeys eat charcoal when they have upset stomachs.



The primary forest was incredible, the trees were bigger than I have ever seen (and that's saying something coming from Bainbridge) and we were able to see lots of Zanzibar Sombre Greenbul, Tropical Sunbirds, and Common Bulbuls, among others.



Spent a lot of time measuring DBH of mangroves, concentrating on the three main species in the area. Got to walk around in the muck but no pictures of that, bummer!



Sorry for the short post, but me and five other SITers are headed out in a few hours to take an overnight boat to Pemba to start our mini-indepentent studies on Pemba Island...so no internet for another week but stay posted!

-B

Wanafunzi walienda Pemba!

Hamjambo! Back from Pemba Island, where we stayed for nine nights. For the first two nights, we stayed in a little guest house in Wete. In Wete, we got to see small-scale charcoal production, a common part-time job for many Zanzibari farmers. The charcoal is made by burning wood, often mango or mangrove wood, after covering it with heaps of green leaves and dirt to slow the burning. We also got to see the Ngezi Forest and lots of gigantic millipedes.



After two nights, we headed to Chake Chake to meet up with our new homestay families. We decided to go the 25 kilometers by bike to see the countryside and get some exercise (finally!). It was such a beautiful ride, and every village we biked through we were greeted with "hamjambo!" and "habari zenu!" by the children and villagers who thought seeing a bunch of sweaty, panting wazungo was the highlight of their day. I'm sure we were quite a sight.

In Chake Chake, the biggest "city" on the island of Pemba, we had a short reception and were introduced to our new homestay families. Our families in Stone Town had spoken some English, but we knew that our families on Pemba wouldn't speak as much so we were a little nervous. Luckily, our Pemba families were incredibly friendly and despite limited vocabulary, we were quickly welcomed and got a LOT of practice with sign language. And, my mama taught me how to make some yummy pilau, chai, and bungo juice!





Every day on Pemba we went on different field trips to learn more about the local environment and economy, including a site of an oil spill from 40 years ago, a clove oil distillery, a rubber factory, a salt farm, etc. In the middle of our stay, we took a trip out to Misali Island, an island used as a fishing camp and a park that tourists can visit during the day. As students, we lucked out and got to stay the night on the island, camping out four at a time underneath a big baobab tree and monitoring the coconut crab population at night. It was unbelievably beautiful and just...surreal.



The moonrise was amazing on Misali and we had some fun with our headlamps.



We also got to go to Kidike, which is home to a huge population of Pemba Flying Foxes, an endangered bat species only found on Pemba. It was hard to believe they are endangered, because we saw SO many.



On the last night of our homestays, we all got together with our families and watched a traditional Maulid dance. It was a nice way to say goodbye to our families, and the dance and music were really cool.



We flew back to Unguja on a stormy, rainy day on a tiny plane...needless to say, it was a little scary, but we survived. Back to Stone Town, we indulged in running water and our favorite Forodhani foods. The next morning, half of us went to Chumbe Island Coral Park (the other half went today) to see some of the most well-preserved coral we have seen so far. The snorkeling was incredible - we saw giant sea cucumbers, parrotfish, every color you can imagine and even some that you can't imagine, and every so often you would find yourself swimming with a school of a hundred shimmering fish. Again, completely surreal. We learned all about the ecotourism project they have there, which includes bringing out local school kids to learn to snorkel and see the treasures their country has. It was a wonderful day and it was hard to believe that it was school!





(Hi from the Pacific Northwest girls)



Now, we are off to Jozani Forest for four nights, and then I'll be headed back to Pemba to begin my research project on pesticide use on rural farms.

Hope all's well! Kwaherini,

- B & B