Jennifer in Africa

A merging of the blogs

2007-06-01T04:25:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone,
My long trips to Tanzania are over, (I hope fingers crossed) at least for the duration of my PhD. Therefore, Brad and I have stared a new blog for the two of us at www.bradandjenschmitt.blogspot.com
So please come join us there and thanks for reading about my African adventures.
Cheers,
Jennifer :)

The end of an era

2007-02-20T18:48:00.000+03:00

Yes, I am back in the States now, after a long plane ride with a head cold (yuck) and as you all know after four trips to Tanzania in just over a year (I am a little tired of the traveling). I'm not sure what the future will hold for my travels to Tanzania (and thus postings on this blog), but I'll let you know :)
In the meantime....I snapped a shot of the garage where I spent so much time with my lovely car (which was working better AFTER I returned it than it was when they gave it to me).
Yes, that is the garage. They work right there (the main road is right behind me), without the normal safety precautions like we have in the States (like goggles or even welding glasses/helmets). And here is good old APA, I'll miss her, but I am glad to be back driving my Echo, it is so much more relaxing.

Bryan Emmanuel Lyimo

2007-02-10T10:30:00.000+03:00

Emmanuel, one of Savannas Forever's field team leaders, has a new baby boy. Bryan was born just over 3 weeks ago while Emmanuel was in the field with the SF team. On Thursday I went to Emmanuel's house to see little Bryan. Here is a picture of father and son.
Here is the mzungu na mtoto.

White flurries

2007-02-06T15:32:00.000+03:00

No, not snow flurries, but butterflies, hundreds of thousands of white butterflies. It was the most amazing thing. From the crater rim all the way to Arusha these butterflies were just flying across the road (for about 200 kilometers). It was really spectacular up on the crater rim because it appeared like they were just pouring out of the crater, up and over the rim and down the hillside. In some areas there were only a few and then I would get to some spots where they were highly concentrated and it was almost like it was snowing. One unlucky butterfly flew in my car and hit the inside windshield (many hit the outside), but it allowed me to take this picture.

So this spectacular event took place yesterday (Monday) and today. Yesterday I left Serengeti with a family who needed a ride (Dad, Mom, baby, and two young kids). It was nice to have some company and (like I mentioned in my previous blog) to have potential help if I got stuck or a flat. But no problems and after interviewing the antipoaching head of the Ngorongoro conservation area authority I dropped the family off in Karatu (to catch a bus somewhere else) and I went to Allen's guest house for a nice warm shower, electricity, and a soft bed. This morning I got up early and headed back to the crater rim to talk to someone in community development. Turns out the person I needed to talk to is in Arusha, but I spoke a little with someone else so it wasn't a total waste. I picked up 2 guys and 2 girls and headed to Arusha. Again, nice to have the company, and we made it back without a problem. However, the travel gods must have been watching because the moment I parked in my driveway and started unpacking my tire went flat. So, with the help of 3 guys from the field team I changed the tire, put on the spare and realized the spare had a slow leak. So rather than relax it was off to the tire place to get the tires fixed. I put a new tube in the flat tire and then they changed out the spare and patched the spare's tube. After about 1.5 hours I was finally able to return and relax after my long journey.

This past weekend

2007-02-06T15:24:00.000+03:00

On Friday I went up to Grumeti (the high end lodge and management area of Tutor Jones, a multi-millionaire). The folks who work for their conservation and wildlife management company are fabulous and I had a good talk with them both for my work and in general. They housed me in one of their research “dorms” and paid for my meals. There was hot water (without having to boil it) and 24 hour electricity. Here is a picture from my porch.

A picture of my porch.
Here is the “dorm”.
Here is a picture from my bed when I woke up the next morning.
After a leisure morning of breakfast and e-mail (they have wireless) I headed back to Seronera, with a plan to stop at the photo safari camps in Robanda (3 of them). I picked up some folks about 30 minutes from Robanda. It is common practice here to give a lift to people, and while I would never do it in town, out in the rural villages, it is safe, almost safer than not because if I get stuck or get a flat I then have people to help me. SF actually has a policy to pick people up to maintain and improve good community relations. Anyway, I filled my car with people and we headed to Robanda. At Robanda I let everyone out and told those wanting to go to Seronera that I’d be back, in an hour or so. I popped in at one photo safari place and they were very nice and gracious, especially considering I just randomly stopped in wanting to interview them. The interview went so well I decided I really wanted to find the two other photo safari places so I went back through Robanda, asked where the other places were and headed to one. Along the way I said hi to this guy that had asked me for work when I dropped off everyone the first time and well he kind of invited himself to take me to the next camp. I let him get in the back seat and we continued onward. I quickly started to think that this wasn’t the best idea, esp because I could smell the beer on his breath, but we continued to chat away in Swahili (he is 19, is from Robanda, brother at the University in Dar es Salaam, etc), with me keeping an eye on him in the rearview mirror. After turning off the main road to head towards the camp the path quickly deteriorated and got very muddy. After about 5 minutes I was thoroughly stuck in the mud. The guy jumped out and started digging me out of the mud. We tried and tried, I got out, got all muddy, he then got into the drivers seat and tried to get the car unstuck. I then realize that I’m in the middle of the bush, a drunk (or at least tipsy) teenager is at the wheel and I’m standing outside my car in mud. I mentally prepare myself to run after the car if he breaks free of the mud and doesn’t stop (I know, over active, negative imagination, but what can I say). Well after a few more minutes he was able to free the car from the mud and stopped safely out of the mud. He wanted to continue driving, but I insisted no, and I got back behind the wheel and continued onward off the road in the 4 foot high grass. By this time I’m hot, sweating, muddy, and realize we are in a tse tse fly infested area and the tse tse files are continually swarming around me, trying to bite (somehow I escaped with only 5 bites, though again one got in my shirt, under my bra and bit me, why they seem to like to do that is beyond me!). After another 5-10 minutes we arrived at the campsite only to find it abandoned except for this one old man who tells us that due to the road (the one we couldn’t even drive on), the camp was closed until after the rains. Ugh, all that way for nothing. He tells us the name of a manager/driver who works for the company, speaks English and lives in Robanda so we head back. I decide that it was getting late and I just wanted to get back to Seronera before any afternoon rains came (about a 1-1.5 hour drive). But my drunk friend, who I paid for his help, but insisted he couldn’t buy beer with my money (yea right, but I tried) ran off and found the driver so I talked with him. However, the driver wasn’t knowledgeable enough about the company or English for it to be a worthwhile interview so I packed up everyone who wanted to go to Seronera and we headed off. On the way back we saw this lovely elephant which terrified one passenger and thrilled another. They couldn’t decide if they wanted to sit and watch or get the h#%$ out of there.

Amani Peace Amani

2007-01-31T11:14:00.000+03:00

After my 7.5 hour drive yesterday to Seronera (by myself) I have finally named my car, Amani Peace Amani. The license is T 664 APA so people here in Serengeti refer to their cars by the letters, as I said, mine is APA which I decided in long form is Amani Peace Amani (Amani means peace in Swahili). I decided on this mostly because my ride went fairly smooth and without a hitch. There was twice I had to engage diff lock and go off road around two loris that had become stuck in the mud in the middle of the road. After doing this the first time my car started making clunking noises that got me worried, but I made it here and my car is now in the garage. I also lost a windshield wiper during the downpour (see picture), but considering what could have happened things went really well (hopefully I'm not jinxing myself for the rest of the trip). Here are some pictures:
Giraffe
Armageddon, as I was driving the last hour and a half I saw a storm in front of me and it was the most ominous thing I had ever seen. I saw only one other car as I was driving strait for what was obviously a torrential downpour.

All's quiet on the blogging front

2007-01-28T18:21:00.000+03:00

Hello all,
Reporting here, all alone, from the Arusha house. I've been quite these past few days sorry. I've been busy getting my manager questionnaire finished and starting my interviews. I've talked to two and a half companies (don't ask about the half), one of which I didn't think I'd be able to talk to (they are very secretive). I have plans for two others and I plan on heading out to Serengeti on Tuesday to talk to 4 other area managers. Oh, I also spent a day in the garage getting the car fixed up after my trip to the NCA. Yes, almost a full day, but the car works better now. I'll go back to the garage tomorrow and just check on everything before my long drive to Serengeti.

Pictures in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are

2007-01-20T09:03:00.000+03:00

Except in this picture, yet another one from my time in the crater last Wednesday. In this picture the lions were closer than they appear. One lion pride decided that our car offered great shade and 7 grown lions descended on our car. Ifura (another lion researcher) was able to touch the back of one of the lions and another lion’s tail hit the rear view mirror. With 3 females lying on my side of the car, trying to eek out an ounce of shade I rolled up my window. Good thing, because one of the males walked over and looked right in my window (nose basically touching the window and he was tall enough that he could look straight in the land rover!). I don’t have a picture though; I was too busy leaping into the lap of Dennis on the other side of the car. Somehow a windowpane is not thick enough for comfort when a male lion is staring right at you.

Ngorongoro crater

2007-01-18T21:46:00.000+03:00

So the purpose of our crazy scary drive yesterday (see next blog) was spend a day in the Ngorongoro crater. I was with yet another Lion researcher and thus our day was mostly filled with searching for lions on and off road. We saw 42 lions (about half of the total crater population) and I’ve tried to spare you from more same old same old lion pictures ;) and just post the really cute ones.

This is the oldest lion alive in the crater (and older than any of the lions in the Serengeti research area). She is 18 years old and at first Dennis Ikanda (the lion researcher) though she was dying because she looks so thin. But, the entire pride was thin, they probably had not eaten in about 5 days and as long as they catch something soon she should be fine.

Here are some other pictures from the crater:

This is a picture from atop a large hill in the middle of the crater. To get there we put my car in diff lock, kept it in first gear, and drove basically straight up a 65% grade. Kind of freaky, but the view was worth it.

This is a baby Thompson’s gazelle, probably born that day. They are hiders, meaning the young lay flat down like this and do not move when there is danger. We also saw a baby wildebeest with its umbilical cord still attached trying to learn how to walk, but no picture of that one.

Here are three black rhinos, very exciting for me since I have not seen a rhino since my trip to the crater in 1999. They are rare and it was a treat to see them. Despite the fact we were off road we stayed a good distance from the rhinos (so we did not disturb them), hence their small size in the picture. However, this is better than with my 400x zoom lens picture from 1999 where the rhino is literally a dot on the horizon.
Here is a female ostrich. I realized I do not have that many (or maybe any) ostrich pictures because they are so common and usually run away so thought I better start working on my ostrich collection.

Frightful drive back from the NCA

2007-01-18T21:45:00.000+03:00

To get to the crater and back in a day required us leaving the house at 4 am. The drive there was not bad, Dennis Ikanda (a Tanzanian lion researcher) drove and I got to sleep most of the way. Dennis also drove us all around the crater all day so once we got to the NCA gate on our way home I took over driving. Now at first things were fine, but it started to get dark and I started to get pretty tired. If you were reading my blog last June you might remember another drive in the darkness story where I tried to explain how freaky it is here. During that drive though, I was within city limits and not exhausted. This time however we were out in the rural country. Imagine one-lane each way, no median, no shoulder, no street lights, no reflective guard rails, people and animals on the sides and middle of the road. I’m driving a land rover, which is not an easy car to drive. You can move your hands, while holding the wheel, from 2 to almost 4 o’clock and still not cause the car to swerve. The last 3.5 hours getting home were on roads with potholes large enough that you get a sufficient thump if you hit them (and I worry about the shocks and tires). The light on the dash board for the bright lights is so bright that it almost blinds you, definitely ruining your night vision. This was not a problem the entire time because my brights went out about halfway through the 5 hour trip (we had to take an hour and a half detour to take someone home). So, I’m driving on these lovely roads, I’m tired, my brights aren’t working, I can’t see well anyway because of the light on the dash board, I’m trying not to hit the potholes, there are people and animals to watch out for and there are loris (TZ semis) coming towards me with their brights on. Twice the lori did not switch to the low beams and I almost ran off the road. I was further frightened by Dennis tell us that the lori drivers are often drunk and/or sleeping (which frankly I believe after last night) and so I always would start flashing my lights at them from a safe distance to get them to respond with a flash back so I was sure they were awake, all the while slowing down and preparing myself to go down the embankment should they not give me enough room to pass (which many only barely do because they drive in the middle of the road). Dennis took over driving with about an hour left, which was nice other than he drives faster than me (I was only doing like 45 mph the entire time) and I was still worried that a lori was going to hit us. On top of it all, this car passed me, then slowed down and stopped, I was worried there was a reason (like someone in the road, a car in the road, etc, all possibilities). As I slowed down Dennis says “don’t slow down, don’t slow down, keep driving, there are bandits on this road, don’t stop”. Now yes, there have been bandits on the road, but not often, but it just added to my anxiety. I mean if I didn’t get run off the road by a lori I was worried I’d hit a pothole, pop a tire and have to change a tire all the while hoping someone didn’t run us over or stop and mug us. I can be so frank now because I’m fine, but I really was pretty scared for the first time in this country and I will not be driving outside city limits at night again!

Mambo

2007-01-13T21:44:00.000+03:00

This is our dog, mambo (which is a greeting in Swahili). We actually adopted him in December during my last trip, well rather he adopted us. Apparently while Dennis and I were in the field the dog started to hang around and Susan fed him. When she left Mambo was sort of kicked out, but did not go very far. When Dennis, Craig and I returned home from Serengeti he was lying outside our gate. Try as we might, we could not convince mambo that he was not wanted (Craig hates dogs, and Tanzanian dogs are often dirty and annoying). After determining that he did not belong to anyone around us we overruled Craig and adopted him. He is quite friendly and does not bark too much, except when Craig locks him outside our gate (which he does just to be ornery). I brought him some treats from the US and I am trying to teach him to sit and not to jump (kaa and chini are respectively the Swahili commands). He is listening to me, sort of, probably because I have taken it upon myself to feed him and I give him treats. He still needs his shots so we have sent requests to the dog vaccination team in Serengeti that works for Craig to get some vaccinations sent back to Arusha. I have no idea how old he is or much else about him, but for a Tanzanian dog he is quite clean and friendly.

And again

2007-01-10T15:35:00.001+03:00

Hello all,
As many of know, I am again back in Tanzania after a christmas break in the US. I flew back out yesterday and will be here for 5 weeks. The plan this time around it for me to talk with all the managers of the conservation areas and see what community projects they have done in the villages to cross reference with what the villages have reported they are receiving from these managers. Not as exciting as going into villages, crossing raging rivers, etc, but I'll keep you all updated nonetheless. :)

The non-duma pictures

2006-12-16T14:34:00.000+03:00

Here are some of the other things we saw yesterday....

A hyena (fisi in Swahili)A baby topi (the Topi's all just had their calves in the last month). It is wierd, their coloring is very different from an adults.
An owl, yes look closely there is one there in the grass. During the wet season there are lots of raptors here, I've seen more than I can count.
A tortoise
An a beautiful male lion

Duma!!!!

2006-12-16T14:31:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I got to go with Anne with the Serengeti Cheetah Project to look for cheetahs. A truly spectacular experience, it was nice to just be in a car and with a person with the same objective as I always have. Yes we saw many other cool things, but the purpose was to find cheetah! J We did find two, a male and lactating female. Unfortunately cheetahs are more skittish than lions so I couldn’t get as close of pictures, but nonetheless I got pretty close. They can individually identify each cheetah by their spot pattern and the cheetah project has a computer program that take digital photographs of the animals, compares them to the database and identifies the individual. Tomorrow I head back to Arusha, in the problematic car, so here’s hoping that we make it back in less than 12 hours (or make it at all). ;)

Lion Darting

2006-12-14T15:17:00.000+03:00

On Tuesday I got the very unique experience of participating in a lion darting. One of the study lions needed a new radio/GPS collar (because someone, likely his brother) had chewed off the GPS. Ingela and Patrick went on a small plane ride to find the lion (a nomadic male) using the radio collar. Once found, we all drove out to the spot and sure enough, there was Va va voom (his name, don’t ask) and his brother Vishnu. Ernest sized up the lion and determined the right dosage of general anesthetic and muscle relaxant and with Va va voom just sitting there, easily darted him (the pink thing is the dart).

We waited for about 5 minutes, and Va va voom fell asleep. We had to scare off the brother with the cars (he only went a small distance away) and then Ingela put on the new radio/GPS collar, we took some measurements and blood samples (I got to measure the tail) :).

Once we were through Ernest gave the lion an antidote to the muscle relaxant and we climbed back in the cars to wait while Va va voom woke up (we have to stay around until the drugs have worn off to protect the lion from other lions, vultures, etc.). After about 45 minutes from the initial darting Va va voom started to wake up, but was hallucinating (one of the side effects) and kept trying to stand up and run, but only succeeded in turning himself in circles on his haunches.
We chased the brother back towards him, and that helped to calm him down and after another half hour he was much more lucid. Our car took off, while Ingela and Patrick stuck around a little longer to make sure everything was fine. On the way back I got and extra special treat when we encountered a cheetah J Quite the day, quite an experience.

The Aftermath

2006-12-13T13:51:00.000+03:00

Sunday: Took 12 hours to get from Arusha to Seronera. The car started overheating as we headed up the Ngorongoro crater so we used all our drinking water to try and cool down the engine. That worked for about 10 minutes, then it over heated again, but luckily there were puddles of rain along the road we could use to fill our water bottles and cool down the engine.

Due to our preventative measures of cooling down the engine (and frequent breaks up the hill) the car made it without completely dying to the highest point, though things just went downhill from there (he he he). But seriously, we encountered 3 rainstorms after getting down from the crater. One random car needed a tow across a river due to the high water level (what anyone was doing in a car on those roads I have no idea) and later on another car needed a tow to get jump started. While I was trying to drive and not get stuck in the mud, we found ourselves headed straight for a lori (a TZ semi). There was a foot of mud and one set of tracks that both directions of traffic were using. Dennis was driving the problem car and I was following in one of SF cars (a land cruiser that is a nice car, but not good for the wet season b/c it weighs more so gets stuck easier and it doesn’t have a very powerful engine for getting itself unstuck). Anyway, Dennis is going first, headed strait for the Lori. He gets over just in time and though I wanted to pull of in a dry area and just wait for 2 minutes, David (our driver) told me to just drive so I did and when I had to pull over as I got closer to the Lori (the right-away in TZ goes to the larger entity). I ended up getting the car stuck, though not too bad, David was able to take over and get it out. Well, turns out that Dennis didn’t get over, rather he ran himself into the side of the road b/c the breaks on the overheating slow car gave out. So now we were still struggling in the mud with a car w/o breaks (luckily no more hills were around). We thought we might actually make it when, with about 5 minutes to arrival, we find ourselves stopped with 5 other vehicles looking at what normally is nothing more that a crick, if water is even flowing.
Obviously there was much more water in it and we were unable to pass. We decided to wait a few hours to see if the water would go down and so drove to the little village where the workers in Seronera live. While waiting there we got a fundi (worker) to sort of fix the breaks on the one car. Meanwhile in the center of the village a huge tree just fell over. Luckily no one was hurt. We returned to the river after a few hours and the water level had risen! We had picked up some people at the village and they knew the long way around (about a 15-20 minute back-way) that we dared only because we didn’t really want to sleep in our cars. Well, the back-way was completely muddy and flooded, but not so much that we couldn’t pass (though there were at least half a dozen close calls of getting stuck and rolling over). But alas we made it and arrived at an empty house because the two lion research cars were stuck in the mud and Meggan and Ingela were being rescued by a third party.

Monday-Tuesday: With all the rain we got lots of mixed reports, mostly saying “don’t even try” to go either to Bariadi through the western corridor or to Loliondo. Well, we had arranged to get a functioning land rover and decided to try out luck with Loliondo. We made it there in once piece (about a 5 hour drive), no problems and spent one night there to do district level introductions.

Wednesday-Thursday: We decided that with two days of no rain the western corridor should be okay and so we (minus Dennis who didn’t need to come b/c we knew there was no way we were going to be able to get to Maswa and thus we completely scrapped that part of the trip) headed to Bariadi. Now, Bariadi is the whole reason I am back in TZ. It was that district councilman (DC) who made an issue of things that then required we get a letter from TAWIRI who then required I get back in the country. I think it was safe to say that Emmanuel and I were both nervous going into this meeting. We had a letter from TAWIRI and we had the district natural resources officer with us, yet from all the stories we expected to still get chewed up and spit out. The first few minutes of the meeting were tense and the DC was rude to Emmanuel and threw him some curve balls, but he recovered well and after explaining my project, and then me saying that I had nothing to add, the DC switched to English (something he refused to do in previous meetings) and spent the next 15 minutes telling me all about his 21 day trip to the US in 2004. It was more like a monologue rather than a conversation, but when it was over he said welcome to the district and that others are to help me (others down the chain of command like the natural resources officer with us). Frankly we were shocked, but glad to be heading back to Seronera so soon. Along the way home we stopped by Lake Victoria since I had never been there and bought some tilapia. I entertained myself by talking to the many children who were shocked that I knew Swahili.
The road to the Lake was iffy, and we definitely did some sliding, wheel spinning, and got really muddy, but didn’t get stuck. There was also more water on the road in the park, but nothing that posed a major threat.

Friday-Sunday: I was glad to be back on Thursday because that meant I could go on the camping/hiking trip to Lake Natron (E of Serengeti) and Lengai. Around 9 on Friday morning and in a caravan of 5 cars (a total of 11 people, with 3 more meeting us at the campsite) we all headed East. I was riding with Anne, a cheetah researcher and we saw a cheetah on the way out so got to go in for a closer look J.
The trip took us until about 6 that evening. The drive was long and hot, but beautiful with all the greenness from the rain we’ve had. Near Lake Natron it looks a lot like the southwestern US.

Martin and Felix stopped by the nearby village to find guides for our climb up Lengai (I believe it is about 12,000 feet though everyone says it is harder than Kilimanjaro because it is so steep and you just go strait up). The group decided they wanted to take a different route than usual, along the back side of the mountain so rather than leaving at midnight to drive to the mountain, we had to leave at 10 b/c we had a long drive to the backside of the mountain for our alternative path. We made some dinner, but I couldn’t eat it, I felt nauseous. We then went to bed (at about 8:15) and it was so hot I was just laying in my tent sweating. I didn’t get sleep and wasn’t particularly thrilled about the climb, but got in the car nonetheless. I ate a quick PB and J sandwich (since I didn’t eat dinner) and was trying to decide if I really wanted to climb as we headed towards the mountain. I decided I didn’t and was still not felling tip top, but then we went off road to get there, going through car high grass on a mountain side with deep crevices (from lava flows). We could only see like 3 feet in front of the car so my adrenaline shot up and once we stopped (when our cars couldn’t climb the mountainside anymore) I was feeling much better (gota love adrenaline). So I decided I really should give the climb a try. Well, there is no path, it is really steep, you basically head strait up and I was breathing hard right away. Anyway, within a half hour I threw up, I just felt awful. Afterwards I headed up a little more, then needed to rest and told the others to go ahead while one of the two guides stayed with me. I rested, and then threw up again and that is when I decided not to keep going up (I had no strength left and couldn’t eat or even drink water to gain it back). We headed back down (remember this is all in the middle of the night) and when we finally got to the cars I curled up on the back seat and went to sleep. I awoke at about 5:30am when Meggan and Felix, who had turned around after about halfway, returned. We took one car back to the campsite (which was nice b/c I still felt sick and needed to sleep, and it had cooled off enough I could actually bare laying in my tent). I slept until it was too hot to remain in my tent (about 9:30) and then just sat outside reading in a chair, drinking lots of water and eating a little. Everyone else (well three people didn’t go on the climb) got back at like noon or one. Turns out no one made it to the top, the guide who stayed with them was drunk and didn’t really know the way and they were encased in clouds at the top. They couldn’t tell how much more they had to go, everyone was exhausted and tired, they knew the guide didn’t really know how much further, so they turned back (a smart thing to do I think). They got back, went to bed and then at 3pm I, the three people who didn’t climb, and a few others we for a walk/hike along a river (about 45 minutes) until we came to a beautiful waterfall and we went swimming. I was feeling better, though still tired b/c I hadn’t eaten a lot, but the walk was good. We returned to camp relaxed and after dinner everyone was pretty pooped so we went to bed pretty early. On Sunday we left by 8 or 8:30am and took a slightly different way back. It was really beautiful, still really green and we went right through the migration, saw quite a few lions, and essentially had a grand old time (we didn’t get back until about 7).

Overall, all our bad luck seemed to happen on the first day of our week and afterwards things worked out better. I was pretty exhausted after running all around the ecosystem (other than Saturday I spent at least 5 hours everyday in a car), but overall it was fun and a success.

Pictures from the Camping Trip

2006-12-13T13:35:00.000+03:00

Lengai
Lake Natron Area

The Waterfall...we stood underneith for a great shower and went further back to where there was a really strong flowing current that we could play in.

Along the way home....

Rest stop....
The migration....
These vultures were just waiting for this zebra to die. The zebra was fine other than its front leg was injured (so as soon as a lion or heyena showes up it will be dead), but for now it was just eating and these vultures just kept coming. It was very eerie.

Lion Cubs...

The plan

2006-12-02T18:52:00.000+03:00

Well, I'm off to the field tomorrow and here is the plan:
Sunday: Travel to Seronera/Serengeti (in a car that maxes out at 60kph).
Monday: Travel from Seronera to Bariadi (though reports from the area suggest it is raining hard and rivers are flooding).
Tuesday: Meet with the district commissioner of Bariadi to get permission for our field team to work there (this is the guy whose fault it is that I'm here. He is the reason we are behind schedule. He is the devil).
Wednesday: Try to go to Maswa Game reserve headquarters (about a 5% chance given the reports of rain in the area, even in the dry season this place is difficult and long to get to).
Thursday: Travel to Loliondo (requires going from the more southwestern part of the Serengeti ecosystem to the northeastern part, in a car by the way with only two seat an four people).
Friday: Introductions to Loliondo district commissioner (we'll have to watch out for the bandits that apparently are in the area, thus all valuables will stay in Serengeti).
Saturday: Return to Seronera/Serengeti and/or try to climb Lengai (though with the rains the chances of climbing Lengai are low, but don't worry mom and dad, the boots you bought me will come in handy getting our car out of all the mud we are sure to get into).
Thereafter: To Be Determined, but likely in Seronera with internet access a little so I'll check back in with you all then.
Wish me luck ;)

X-mas in Africa

2006-11-30T14:06:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
Here is a picture of my little Christmas tree that I brought with me from the US for our house here in TZ. I figured if I was forced to miss most of the holiday season I'd just bring it along with me. I wasn't going to decorate the tree until Dec 1, but it turns out that I'll be leaving for the field Dec 2, and thus wouldn't have as much time to appreciate the tree unless I broke down and decorated early. So the other night, while listening to Christmas music on my computer I decorated the little tree. :)

The $2000 letter

2006-11-28T18:31:00.000+03:00

Well, we got it. The letter from TAWIRI to the DC (political head) of Bariadi District. Dennis, Emmanual (one of our team leaders) and I went in at 9 am this morning and after a short lecture on how I should be in the country (though if I were to leave again I just to need to let our field team know, which of course they did, but alas, don't look for logic), they wrote the letter and we picked it up by 2 pm! Was it worth a plane ticket here and back? Well we didn't have much choice, se la vi.

I'm Back

2006-11-27T09:07:00.000+03:00

Hello all,
Yes, surprise (or it was at least for me), I'm back in TZ. I found out a week and a half ago that I needed to return to TZ to talk with the head of TAWIRI (the research institution that grants research clearance). TAWIRI, or rather a particular individual is being difficult for no real reason other than to be difficult and insisted I had to be in the country while the SF field team was collecting my data. We know this isn't true, but he wouldn't budge so it was "how soon can you leave" and well now I'm here. In typical TZ fashion, I found out after arriving that just yesterday (as I was somewhere over the Atlantic) we found out this particular person is retiring today. The new person seems like he is on much less of a power trip, so while it is still probably good that I'm here, things should go relatively more smoothly (keep your fingers crossed).

I have to say it is very surreal being here, probably b/c it was such a quick decision. That and my parents were out for Thanksgiving so just four days ago I was cooking a 12 lb turkey for the first time (very exciting). Then, to make things even more surreal I got bumped to world business class from Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro (an 8 hr flight). I actually slept for 4 hours in a deep sleep (I think my first time ever on a flight). Nice reclining chairs, footrests, wide seats, etc. The food was good, the ice cream was great, and the dessert wine was fabulous! J We each got our own little TV, nice noise minimizing headphones, socks, even a toothbrush and tooth paste.

On a side note, yet just as surreal, on my little individual screen I watched “An Inconvenient Truth”. As I’m flying over Sudan, Al Gore is talking about how areas like Niger and Darfur are likely going to have even more drought problems as climate change continues to happen. The movie discusses problems of CO2 emissions with the US (as we all know) being the largest producer of greenhouse gasses and the increasing droughts, rains and other extreme weather events that result. All this as I’m heading to Tanzania where there are power cuts 7 days a week (and as you’ll remember they’ve been rationing power here since June) because the country relies on hydroelectric power and last years awful drought has left the reservoirs really low. Even in rural Tanzania people acknowledge climate change and here, in one of the poorest countries in the world I have seen advertisements on TV promoting solar power. Yet in the US, where we need to be changing our energy consumption we still predominantly use coal power. So if you have not seen “An Inconvenient Truth”, watch it, you have the electricity (and responsibility) to do.

So despite the power rationing, I’ll try to keep updating my blog. I’ll be here for 3.5 weeks and then return home for Christmas, only to return again in early January (most likely). So stay tuned for the newest installments of “Jen in Africa”. :)

We're back

2006-09-02T15:24:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
Brad and I returned back to the US on Thursday. We had a great time in Norway (hiking, picking berries, fishing, and relaxing) and fun in Amsterdam (shopping and sight seeing). Thanks for staying tuned into my travels and thanks for all your comments. I'm not sure when I'll be going back, sometime October-January is my guess, I'll let you know when I know. Have a great fall!

N 64 degrees 01'08.1" E 011 degrees 29'47.8"

2006-08-24T21:25:00.000+03:00

That is Brad and I's new coordinates. We arrived safely and without drama. It is very odd going from Tanzania to Norway, definately a little culture shock. My brain is still in Swahili mode, but everyone is speaking Norweign so I can't understand or communicate, but we have our friend Eva (thank goodness). I saw a moose on the way to Eva's place, very exciting. Tomorrow we are heading to Trondheim via train (Brad is very excited) and then to Eva's parents house in some tiny rural town. We'll be back in touch when we return from the Norweign "bush". På gjensyn (see you later in Norweign).
PS Brad says to tell you all we are 3,887 miles from our home in MN.

Next stop....Norway

2006-08-22T22:34:00.000+03:00

Hi everyone,
Just a quick hello. Brad and I leave tomorrow night and head to Norway for 5 days :) We don't have power tomorrow so we just wanted to say kwa heri kwa sasa (goodbye for now) before heading to bed. Brad is doing great, he has finished his full course of medication and in between me working to get our SF field teams ready to go back into the field, Brad and I were able to sneak away to Tarangire National Park for a day. We went with three of Allen's kids (the ones I lived with last time I was here), a driver, and his kid. We were lucky enough to get a free room for the evening at Allen's new luxury tented camp :)

Typical Africa (says Brad)

2006-08-18T15:01:00.000+03:00

Jen and Brad here...with an update
We are back in Arusha, got back yesterday (two days early) because of a little (well not really that little) shida (problem). But let me preface the story with BRAD IS FINE NOW, so don't get too freaked out.....
Brad went out Tuesday morning with Ingela in the lion research car, which meant he got to go off road and get up close and personal with the wildlife.
When Brad got back he was dehydrated and hot (which wasn't that unusual for being off road for 8 hrs). In retrospect, this was likely the beginning of his fever. We went out for an afternoon game drive and Brad was exhausted. He ate a little dinner and went to bed. At about midnight that night I woke up and Brad was really warm so I used a head thermometer (this dinky little thing I got at some health fair that works like a mood ring and give you a rough idea of temperature). It showed around 101 or 102. I gave Brad two tylenol, which broke his fever (and he later told me he was then able to sleep soundly). Previous to the tylenol Brad was dreaming/hallucinating about stacking boxes and they wouldn't stack...after the tylenol they all stacked. The next morning we went on a 6:30 am game drive. I didn't know if Brad would be up for it after the fever that night, but he felt better and we went out. It was a great drive, but another long day.
When we got back at about 2 pm Brad went right to sleep. A little later I gave him some more tylenol because had a little fever, about 102, (we now had a real thermometer we got from a friend). He woke up and ate a little dinner, had some more tylenol because his temp was still over 101, and went to bed early again. Now here comes the scary stuff... At midnight I woke up and Brad was an oven! I took his temperature and it was 104.1!!! I promptly woke him up and gave him advil (we had run out of tylenol). He was breathing quickly and I tried to coach him to slow down his breathing and massaged his leg that had cramped up while shivering. I took his temp at 15 and then 30 minutes. When I was convinced it was going back down I set my alarm for each hour afterwards and took his temp. It got as low as 101, but then at about 4:30 he started freezing and by 5 am his temp was back at 104.6!!!!! It shot up too quickly for me to catch it on the way up. I gave him more drugs and again tried to calm his breathing down. Once he seemed to be slowing his breathing and his temp was again on the decline I got out of bed, called a called a friend at lion house (who has lived out in TZ for over 5 years) and I started bawling. Truthfully I was terrified and was ready to call flying doctors (a medical airplane service that will fly you to Nairobi for medical care - a service we had gotten Brad just before our trip). My friend told me flying doctors wouldn't come out for just a fever and we were leaving for what was to be a game drive at 6:30 am anyway with our driver. However, keep in mind we are in the middle of the Serengeti - a 6 hour drive back to Arusha. So I wasn't sure if I should call flying doctors anyway, wait and go strait to Arusha with our driver, buy a plane ticket on a commercial flight or what. My friend looked in her "Where there is no doctor book", which mentioned that fevers over 40C (104F) need to be brought down immediately. I made Brad strip down, took away all his blankets (he wasn't thrilled), got a cool cross breeze going in our room, and started packing to leave. When the driver came we packed up and headed back to Arusha (instead of going to the NCA, staying in Karatu for the night, then heading back to Arusha today (Friday), via Lake Manyara National Park). I had borrowed the real thermometer from my friend, which was critical b/c I was still hourly or more monitoring Brad's temperature and at 9 (four hours after his last dose of advil) his temp was back at 104.5!!! I of course gave him more drugs and wetted an extra shirt to put on his forehead. I would hold the wet shirt out the window, cool it with the wind (thank goodness it was cool outside) and make him hold it to his forehead until it warmed up again. I did this on and off for most of the ride, and preempted what I was worried would be his fourth 104 plus temp by giving him more drugs and using the cooling cloth when his temp got back to 103.5 about 3.5 hours later.
Keep in mind for the first half of this 6 hour trip we were on dusty, bumpy, awful roads, Brad couldn't wait until we reached pavement (at which point he was able to nap a little, I had napped for about 30 minutes on the bumpy road, I was just exhausted with worry and lightly sleeping for two nights while monitoring Brad). I was trying all along to be calm cool and collective around Brad, but I was only barely holding it together. If it would have been me I would have been fine, but Brad....well we could not get to Arusha fast enough. When we got to Arusha we went straight to the doctor and luckily (After a blood, stool and urine test) we had a diagnosis. A stomach bacterial infection and possible amoebas. We got drugs for both, more advil and got back to the Arusha house.
After forcing some oatmeal down Brad took his first dose of Cipro and amoeba medicine. After a shower, a nap, and a few hours Brad's fever was below 101 for the first time in almost 2 days. I don't think I've ever been so happy and relieved. I've monitored his temperature since and it hasn't gotten above 99.5! :) His energy is still a little low, and his stomach and intestines aren't perfect yet, but he is well on the way to recovery!
Brad here...I really am fine now :)

On Safari

2006-08-15T09:41:00.000+03:00

Brad made it to Tanzania and after some boring days in Arusha while I did work, we left yesterday on safari. We hired a safari driver and car through Allen (my host father) and had a good drive out to Serengeti yesterday. As we passed the Ngorongoro crater there were few clouds, making for a nice view of the crater floor (often there are clouds that sink down into the crater making it impossible to see the floor).
Once we made it to the Serengeti gate we slowed down, opened up the top and enjoyed the view.
It was quite dusty, but other than that we had a good time.
Brad got this nice picture of some elephants.
Our driver radioed to others asking about cheetah so we took a short detour to go see three cheetah in the tall grass. They were eating something, but all we could see were bloody cheetah faces when they sat up (through binoculars so no pictures). It was cool. We will be in Serengeti until Thursday morning at which time we'll go to Karatu (stopping at the crater on our way). Then on Friday we'll leave from Karatu, go through Lake Manyara National Park and make our way back to Arusha.

Back from the field

2006-08-06T11:27:00.000+03:00

I got back from our two week pilot study after spending the last 5 days in the district of Simanjiro. I spent my first night in Simanjiro sharing a bed with the ward executive officer (Yenie) of Loiborserit, who turned out to be the sister of someone on the field team (he knew she was in Simanjiro, but was surprised when we ran into her randomly in Loiborserit). She was nice and put up a bug net because I asked our driver (who is from Loiborserit and had an empty house (really two concrete rooms) for us to stay in), if he had a bug net. He said there are no mosquitoes, to which I replied "I don't care about Malaria, it is the spiders I'm worried about". That became the joke of the week, they all think that it is hilarious that I sleep more peacefully with a bug net because of spiders, but whatever, I do. Anyway, so when we were offered a place to stay with Yenie she kindly put up a bug net which turned out to be even more important b/c as soon as she blew out the lantern and settled in the mice came out to play. All night I heard scurrying, squeaking, knawing. I woke up three times convinced that they were by my head so I shot up into the sitting position and would hit at my pillow. Yenie would wake up, pat my leg and say it was okay. The next morning I saw no signs the mice had come through the net...but it was not the most restful night and now of course everyone was laughing even harder b/c the mzungu is afraid of spiders and mice (which I'm not, unless I think they are crawling on me when I sleep). Anyway, we did our work in the first village (Terrat), returned to Loiborsiret and were told that they weren't ready for us so we ran off to Orkesmut where we stayed at the guest house pictured below. I bought a bug net and had it put up (I didn't sleep with one in Terrat for two nights and we'll this place was sketchy enough I wanted one, although it turned out to be a relatively nice place).

My room in Orkesmut
Outside my room and across the way the "bathroom"

On our way out of Orkesmut we saw what was to me at the time hilarious...the gas station was powered by a gas driven generator. Dennis and I just cracked up...just so typical.
Below is a picture along our 5 hours drive back to Arusha....it wasn't a mountain range like in CO just a solitary mountain here and there, but very cool.
Finally, here is the poor chicken that one of our field memebers bought on the way home. After what I'm sure wasn't the best ride in the back of our car he became their dinner within an hour.

Braids

2006-07-27T11:47:00.000+03:00

While running around Babati we were on dirt roads and even with windows all rolled up you still get covered in dust. This has the effect of making my hair feel completely grimy and take two shampoos before the water runs clean. So I decided to do what many people here do and braid my hair so that 1) my little hairs won't get all tangled as we drive and 2)as it gets dirty you can't really tell. The ladies in the hair shop had a field day when I arrived with Mimi and Susan, they were so shocked to see a mzungu who wanted to braid her hair. They didn't do it quite like I had wanted, but se la vi. My hair is still today (Thursday) in the braids, although the little fine hairs have started pulling out and I should really take the braids out. I will tonight provided we have warm water and that I get a comb in town. I had a comb, but on Tuesday it fell off the sink and into the choo (which is a porcelain hole in the floor, hence how it could fall in there) so I was left with no comb for my wet hair (there was no way I was reaching into the choo to get it!).

Babati

2006-07-25T12:01:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
I ment to post the message below on Sunday, but when I got to the internet place it was closed. Now I'm at the Lake Manyara National Park HQ and using their internet and can post my two day old message :)

As you read below keep in mind that US$1 = Tsh 1240.
So there is internet here in Babati….one place…but this is the first day I’ve had the time to write (I'm writing on my computer, but will go to the internet place after I'm done). I arrived on Wednesday to return to the district head quarters, get more information and to pick our study villages. We set up residence at this guest house that wasn’t the best. It just had a dirty feel to it, there were bugs, hugh holes in the bug net, and the choo (bathroom) stank. Needless to say, we changed guest houses on Thursday and for Tsh 1000 more we have very few bugs, a nicer choo, and no smell (is is Tsh 6000 / night, and Mimi and I are sharing). On Thursday we went to two of the villages and set up plans to come back and start interviews and focus groups and of course … we got a puncture…but it was okay our driver knew exactly how to get the tire high enough to change it (it requires two jacks) and while we were talking to one of the village heads he got the puncture fixed. Susan and the rest of the team arrived Thursday as well and on Friday we started in the village of Orng’adida (which means lion mountain in their native tongue). Friday morning was the village head interview which I didn’t do b/c I went to our third village to set up our time to visit them. In the afternoon I went with most everyone else to Orng’adida (S 4 degrees 17’46.6” E 35 degrees 51’ 39.5”) to start household interviews. We paired off (we have varying levels of experience so part of what we are doing now is training). We had an odd number of people so I went with on person to two households. The first household had 18 people (a husband, two wives, and the rest were children). They make less than $50 a year (the are subsistence farmers). The second household was better off, only eight people, and while they too were farmers they have a wider diversity of crops and had some livestock (the first household only had one goat). On Saturday morning we returned to Orgn’adida for focus groups. I listened in on the village game scout group and heard stories of people killing a giraffe with a panga (a knife like a machete). We talked to them about hunting companies, the protected areas, and photographic safari companies in the area. We also talked about resident hunting (legal hunting with permits), and about poaching. Saturday afternoon we went to Sangaiwe (S 3 degrees 56’25.6” E 35 degrees 49’23.2”) and did the village head interview and two more focus groups. We were told Sundays are not good days to do interviews/focus groups, I think because they are church days, so today is sort of a break…our questionnaires are still works in progress so I’ve been working on them, but at least things aren’t quite so hectic.
On a side note….every morning I drink tea (that has been mixed with whole milk and lots of sugar, no choice that is how it comes) and eat chapati for about Tsh 500. For lunch and dinner I either have the choice of rice and beans for Tsh 700 or chips (fries) and egg (cooked together) for Tsh 800. If I ate meat I would have a few other options, but regardless of where we go to eat, the menu is the same. The options are some meat (chicken, beef, goat or fish) with ugali or rice, rice and beans, or chips and egg. I don’t mind rice and beans once a day, but I can’t do it twice a day (The chips and egg is really greasy and not the best so I can only do it once very other day or so). Luckily, I brought some peanut butter and jam from town and I’m going to search for some bread on my way back from posting this at the internet place and have PB & J for lunch. I am VERY excited about this. Today or tomorrow we are moving from Babati to Makuyuni, finishing up in Sangaiwe, and starting in the village of Minjingu.

Porini (in the bush)

2006-07-19T03:49:00.000+03:00

I'm off for two weeks in the bush...well in the villages...but that is essentially the bush. It is curretnly 3:45 am and I'm leaving at 7:30 am. I've been working on trying to get the surveys ready to go. I will be meeting with the district and then ward and then village heads and setting things up for the survey teams to move in and do their thing! Yea. Okay gota go, I'll check back with you all in two weeks!!!

Now and Then

2006-07-16T12:22:00.000+03:00

Here is a picture of the Serengeti in March, once the rains had come.

Here is a picture of the same area when I drove through it last week. No wonder the wildebeest migrate.

Solo Game Drive

2006-07-11T12:33:00.000+03:00

This morning at 6:15 I took myself on a game drive. It was quite fun to know I could go where I wanted to and stop whenI wanted and sit for as long as I wanted. I was hoping to see a cheetah (of course), but didn't see one. I did see lions, a leopard, elephants, giraffe, gazelle, a hippo, and zebra. The elephants were in the road and that made me nervous (they can overturn and crush a car), so I let one of the safari vehicles drive up to the elephant and get it to move, then I just followed behind. On Sunday night I got to assist with the monthly night transects they do here in the Serengeti for one of the research projects. I was the driver and there were two people in the back with spot lights counting all the animals they saw and recording down the distance from the starting point. It was really neat because we saw a leopard just strolling about 10 meters away from us (my first leopard sighting since 1999). Here are some pictures of my game drive. :)
The full moon setting....

Tembo....

Twiga....

Simba...

Shida kwa gari yangu

2006-07-06T14:06:00.001+03:00

Or...My Car troubles...

I'm at the internet place in Seronera (in Serengeti). They have wireless powered by solar panels...But the can't power the outlets (yea for computer batteries!).

So we made it to Serengeti yesterday obviously. We brought Craig (my advisor's) 20 year old son with us, but didn't know until yesterday am that he didn't have Craig's free passes to get into the NCA and Serengeti. Dennis and I were worried that we'd have some major problems getting Craig's son through the gates, but Dennis and I are good and we talked our way though both gates (Swahili skills, it is the only way we pulled it off without having to pay). The road leading into Serengeti is really corrugated and we were fish-tailing a lot so I wasn't driving fast and we a little worried about time. We have to get to the last gate by 6 PM and you aren't supposed to be driving after dark (and the last gate is about an hour from where we stay in Seronera). We got to the last gate at like 5:10 but then about 15 minutes later our tire punctures, just pops. We had enough time to stop and get out to see it go fully flat. We tried to jack up the car with two hydraulic jacks, but they weren't tall enough, so we were using rocks, and trying this and that and realized it wasn't going to work. We didn't have a radio and our cell phones didn't have reception so we flagged down a safari vehicle. The first guy said he didn't have a jack and couldn't help us and drove off, but I think he radioed to the other guys behind him because 3 vehicles then stopped. It was like the descended on us, one pulled in front, one alongside and one behind and the drivers all jumped out and started helping us. The drivers lifted up the car, slide the jack on a large rock under the car, jacked up the car, then used the other jack to jack up the tire axel (I think), but even lifting the car didn't lift the tire. They got our tire changed (only to find the spare tire was low and bald - in once place you can feel the metal b/c it is sticking out). Yikes. Oh, and one of the tourists was totally fascinated and saying how he was worried about our spare and yada yada while his daughter was taking pictures of us! Meanwhile some of the other tourists were also taking pictures. Lord! So we get going again, totally freaked about our spare and by now the tourist vehicles have left us in the dust and it is getting late so no other cars would be coming. We had to drive slow because we were so worried about popping another tire so we didn't reach Seronera until after dark. In the dark we got turned around trying to find the lion house, but we found it and made plans to get our puncture fixed at the garage in the morning (and we called Susan to get us some new tires). I stayed at Stephanie's house (which is nice, has cockroaches, but at least has a flushing toilet). In the am Stephanie, Emelian (her field assistant) and I went to get Dennis (or rather to have him follow us in the car to the garage). When Dennis got in our SF car to follow us it wouldn't start!! We were able to push it and get it to start, but turns out we need a new battery so that too is coming tomorrow (with our 5 new tires that will be larger (and thus better for these bad roads)). I tell ya, it has been quite the time, but I'm out of Arusha, away from the chaos, and in the middle of Serengeti so all is good! :)

Serengeti - Grumeti - Maswa

2006-07-05T06:47:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
I'm sending a quick note, hoping to get it out before our power goes off at 7am (due to power rationing). I'm heading out to Serengeti today with Dennis. I'll be staying in the grassland house with a friend (the lion house is full, which is where I stayed last time). Dennis and I are going to Grumeti on Friday (I went there in March) and I'm going to talk to them some more about my research and data collaboration. Then we will return to Serengeti and then head out to Maswa game reserve early next week. Maswa is also in both of our PhD study areas and we are going to go talk to the reserve manager. Maswa is well off the beaten path so it should be an interesting drive, but we bought a satellite phone yesterday (well SF bought it, we get to use it) so just in case we have a problem we have a means to contact someone. I hope everyone has a great next week, sorry that I won't be responding to anything in that time.

PS
Dennis? Who is Dennis you ask? Check his blog out at www.tzden.blogspot.com (I've given him a hard time about how close his blog address is to mine)

Mtoto bila jina

2006-07-02T13:18:00.000+03:00

Congratulations must go out to Esther and Allen whose daughter was born last Tuesday (June 27th). I didn't post right away because I was planning on stopping by and taking a picture this weekend. I did stop by, but forgot my camera. Baby and mom are both doing well other than they still don't have a name for her (hence the title of my post which translates to child without a name). I had the house to my self on Friday so I invited the four kids (Emmanuel, Ebenezer, Eric, and Hosianna) over for dinner, a movie, and a sleepover. I was not sure how strange this invitation might be, but when I went to pick them up Friday evening the kids were super excited and I think Esther was looking forward to the break, or at least only having to deal with the new baby and not four other kids. I cooked them spaghetti and bought cookies, soda, chips, and popcorn totally spoiling them while we watched Shrek. It was lots of fun! :)

03 23.281' S, 036 42.356' E

2006-06-27T13:41:00.000+03:00

That is my GPS location in degrees, minutes, and seconds. If you type that into Google earth you'll see where I am. What you won't be able to see is our house, so I've included my own picture of our house. It has been relatively cold here. I'd say in the 50s at night probably mid 70s in the day, but I guess that is typical for this time of the year. The weather is much more like Colorado where the temperature fluctuates a lot from morning to afternoon back to night.

Back in Arusha

2006-06-23T13:18:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone,
I'm back in Arusha, arrived last night. Turns out our meeting was postponed until December because there was some official letters that were required to make everything run smoothly. Hamna shida (no worries), we will still move forward. The drive from Dar to Arusha, was as with last time, long. We left at 9 am and arrived back at 7:30pm. We did take an hour plus long lunch break, but still. Below are two photos, one of a road diversion that has apparently been in place for years and the other of a corn field. As you'll see, the corn is mixed with local vegetation which is interesting because here the lines between people and "nature" are blurred. It just seems to me there is much more of a distinction between human residences/areas and "natural areas" in the States, but here they are intertwined. Many houses often have open doors and or windows with no closing mechanism to the outside and the agriculture is often mixed with natural vegetation. It also makes using Satellite imagery for land-use classification difficult because there aren't as many large swathes of agriculture land like we have in Iowa that are obviously corn. Instead you get mixed pixels with some corn and some trees and native species.

Off to Dar

2006-06-17T05:56:00.000+03:00

I'm heading to Dar es Salaam in about 10 minutes. Four of us are driving so I won't have to endure a hot bus ride this time, but it is still a loooooooong drive. We have our big meeting with the hunting companies to really kick off Savannas Forever on Tuesday in Dar (hence the trip). I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Pole sana rafiki yangu

2006-06-14T18:49:00.000+03:00

My friend fell (while running in flip flops) last Friday and here is a picture of her foot the day afterwards. It was really blue and all swollen. It still hurt on Monday so she went to get an x-ray. Getting an x-ray required first finding an x-ray machine because there is not one at each clinic or necessarily even the closest hospital. But, after asking a Tanzanian friend, we found a place. Stephanie went and at first they weren't going to x-ray her foot because there was no electricity. Then they decided to try to use the generator...but that didn't work. They were going to make her come back, but then --voila-- the electricity came back on and they were able to take the x-ray. Turns out she broke the little toe bone about halfway down her foot. She took the x-ray to the same clinic I actually went to last time for my malaria. The doc decided that she needed a cast, which ended up being a old school plaster cast that took 24 hours to dry. I took Stephanie back the next day so they could add the walking part to her cast and the finished product looked like....
Yes ladies and gentleman somehow the above is a walking cast. She can't really walk on it and in fact, she just informed me that right around the smiley face I drew it has already started to crack. The thing weights a ton and they didn't have crutches for her so she's been hopping around the house like a one legged bunny. There is actually a piece of tire on the bottom of the cast (from general tire) that was supposed to aid in walking, but it is covered with plaster so we are unsure of it's usefulness. The whole thing is very comical, minus of course the broken foot. Pole sana rafiki yangu (very sorry my friend).

Birthday Bliss

2006-06-09T15:58:00.000+03:00

Here are some pictures of what Brad gave me for my birthday (I was good and didn't open it until today). It was just so cute I had to share.
It was full of fun little things: train wheels, messages, m&ms, those capsules that grow when you put them in water...
messages in a bottle and a pirate! :)
Don't ask. The best though was a message that said "Yes everything was washed before I put it in with the candy silly, who are we dealing with". What can I say he knows me too well.

Thank you to all of you who sent me a birthday card/gift/wishes before and after I left!

A Drive in the Darkness

2006-06-09T15:05:00.000+03:00

I’m not sure the following story will do my experience justice, but I’m going to try anyway. Last night, at about 10 pm I (along with Susan) drove Leela (an SF student) to her friend’s home. Obviously it was already dark and simply driving at night is eerie enough here. Things are just darker, no city lights, streetlights, or well painted roads and reflective guides to show you the way. Image the darkest dirt road you have ever driven on and keep it in mind as you read the rest of my story. Okay, after driving through town and into the outskirts for about 15 minutes we came to the turn off, which was dirt, but looked mild enough. I was thinking Leela’s friend lived just off the road, no problem, but alas not so much. The road swerved (because the “finished” part of it wasn’t fully finished so we had to go around the “work”), then it split, then it started getting a little bumpy. Next thing I know there is a deep crevasse in the road and Leela says “no, wait go over there, see those tracks, okay now swerve back to where you were and you’ll get around it”. With the dark driving image in your mind, place yourself in rural Iowa (there was lots of corn), but then give it the contours of the foothills of Colorado and you’ll get a sense of where I was driving. Next thing I know I get a “wait, stop this doesn’t look familiar” as we come upon what looks like dirt bike hills. I turn around (not an easy task considering the contours and gullies), backtracked a little, and then see a car coming from where we were so we then knew we had been on the right track. We go through/over/around the dirt bike hills and start one car width incline with large rocks in the center, erosion gullies, and big bumps (think Colorado 14er four-wheel drive road minus the steep drop off on the side). Once getting up the hill the road leveled off, barbwire fences appeared on both sides and we dead end at someone’s mud house. Susan and I had long ago lost faith in Leela’s ability to find the way to her friend’s house, especially since she had only been there once and we had been traveling on these back roads for about 15 minutes. However, we had passed a gate and she thought that is where we needed to go so we backtracked and sure enough, we found the house. Leela offered to drive another car down to help us get home, but we said we were okay (this whole conversation taking place as Susan and I look back into the back seat where Leela is sitting. She got out of the car, Susan and I turned around to look forward to drive and there in the darkness had appeared an askari (a guard) in Maasai dress carrying a bow. Both Susan and I screamed out of surprise and then laughed at our reaction. We began our way back down the hills and dirt roads and miraculously enough managed to find our way back to the main road.

Happy Birthday Brad!!!!!!

2006-06-07T19:19:00.001+03:00

Happy Birthday to Brad!! Today is Brad's 27th birthday, so I thought I'd send him a birthday hello. :)

Things here are going well. I locked my keys in the car this afternoon, luckily we were close to home so someone brought me the spare key. I've been meeting with hunting companies with Susan this week and working on logistics like getting a car motor vehicle registration, getting a driving license, etc. I hope you all are well.

Reunion

2006-06-04T14:31:00.000+03:00

Yesterday (Saturday) I went back to my host family's house. I drove our SF vehicle, a stick shift, which was interesting, but by the return home I was comfortable shifting with my left hand, and weaving in and out of lanes (a must in this country). Anyway, Esther knew I was coming, but I asked her not to tell the kids and it was so great and wonderful to see Peter's eyes when he opened the gate and saw me behind the wheel of the car. First it was curiosity, who would be stopping by with a car, then surprise that it was me, and then excitement that I had stopped by, all in the flash of an eye, but what a great moment! Everyone was happy to see me and I them. Apparently Hosianna and Erik began asking June first when I was coming back (I told them before I left last time that I would return sometime in June). The Swahili came back (somehow it is a lot easier speaking with them than others, I'm just used to their accent I guess, that and they speak with words they know I know). I brought some gifts which were fun to give because they were very personal this time, like an old maid deck of cards b/c I had taught the kids how to play with a normal deck and we played almost every day last time (and of course we played a few games yesterday). Esther planned rice and beans for dinner (my favorite) and I ended up sleeping there for the night b/c by 10pm I hadn't left and I felt more comfortable staying the night rather than driving in the dark. That and I wasn't ready to stay goodbye anyway. Esther is really huge, she is due within the month. She knows the sex, but wouldn't tell me because she doesn't believe the doctor. I miss not staying there, and I'm sure I could, but with wireless at our new house and all the craziness going on with setting up SF it just makes more logistical sense to stay in Njiro (the new house). Anyway, I hope someday you all can meet my African family, they are so great (I'm still hoping at least one of the kids go to college in the US so I can return the hospitality and have them come for breaks, summer and/or holidays).

I'm Back

2006-06-01T09:12:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone. I've returned to Tanzania, just got in last night. I'm at our new house in Arusha that Savannas Forever rents and thus I can stay for free. It is great, esp. because I have wireless internet here, yea!!! The first part of my trip is for our big kick off meeting with the hunting companies for Savannas Forever (for those of you wondering what SF is...go to www.savannasforever.org). However, we don't know exactly when the meeting is, it was the 3rd, then the 15th, then the 7th and the latest news is it will be the 20th so I'm just waiting to see. I hope you all are doing well and stay tuned for more updates as I get my summer adventure underway :)

Home

2006-03-22T05:33:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
I'm home! I got home without too much problem last Friday afternoon. I've been adjusting to the time change, culture change, and just relaxing with Brad, which is why I'm slow in updating the blog. I hope you all had a great winter, be sure to check back here in June when I return to Tanzania (dates to be determined). - Jennifer :)

Serengeti

2006-03-15T09:48:00.000+03:00

Hello all
This will be my last update until I get back to the States. I spent the weekend in Serengeti. As you can see I saw many lions, four cheetah (yea!!!), and many other animals. On the way to Sasakwa (a hotel outside of the park) we almost ran over what was likely a mamba that reared up to about our eye level in the car as it twisted backwards to get out of our way. The Serengeti was more beautiful this time then my previous two visits, totally awe inspiring mostly just because it was so green (thanks to the rains that have come).

To get home hitch hiked a ride with a Safari driver, who ended up knowing Allen (my host father). Although I got to the airport (where you can catch rides easily) at 10 am, and although we left the airport at noon, I did not leave Serengeti until 4:30 pm. We had to wait for the guys at his camp to take down and load everything into the lori (sort of like a semi truck). The workers had been working in Serengeti for 3 months strait, without a break so who was I to complain about waiting for half a day. It made for a long day, but I did get home for free.

These last days have been/will be busy busy busy and emotional. I am very excited to be returning home, but will miss the family tremendously. They have been so nice and wonderful, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to repay them.

Serengeti pics

2006-03-15T09:42:00.000+03:00

Serengeti Pictures

2006-03-15T09:35:00.000+03:00

Left Hand Side

2006-03-07T07:53:00.000+03:00

After WWI Tanzania (or then Tanganyika) became a British colony. They therefore drive on the left hand side of the road with the steering wheels on the right side of the car. The roads here are almost all full of bumps, potholes and in places are just the width of your car. I have been nervous thinking about driving when I return this summer. Yesterday however, despite the technical illegality of me driving here, I had no other choice then to battle the busy, aggressive, horn honking streets of Arusha. Luckily I had an automatic car so I didn’t have to worry about shifting with my left hand and I was following someone so I could just follow them when they turned to make sure I turned onto the right (or left as it really is) side of the road. I made it home without incident (although I am not good at judging how much room I have on the left side of the car, but only side swiped some plants and not a wall). I drove myself into town this morning to write you all and will be happy to turn over the keys to someone else later this morning. However it was nice for once to be able to just get in a car go where I needed to without relying on someone else, a luxury I have been looking forward to as I get close to returning to the states.

Rains

2006-03-02T10:20:00.000+03:00

I think it is now safe for me to say that the rains have finally come, at least here in Arusha. We had a few rains last week that at least kept the dust down, but did little else. Then, for the past three days we have had some heavier, longer rains (it poured for a good hour or two yesterday morning). The rains have not yet reached or been around long enough to fill the reservoir down between Dodoma and Iringa that provides our power. Therefore, we still have no power from about 6am until 8 to 10 pm at night. But at least we have some power and it is definitely nice not to have everything covered in dust every afternoon. Hope everyone is doing well.

Clarification

2006-02-28T10:53:00.000+03:00

So it looks like my antibiotic medicine was mixed with something that will kill amoebas so that is good. I am feeling much better and will finish with my medicine today. Hope you all are doing well.

Lions and amoebas and malaria oh my

2006-02-25T10:51:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
The first of my bad news this trip. The doctor says I have amoebic dysentery and malaria. But, not to worry I have medication and am already feeling better. I only had a small malaria count anyway, 3 out of 500 units (I forget what the blood test units are) so it really hasn't been noticeable other than about 3-4 days of feeling as tired as I did when I had mono back in college. Not sure about the dysentery...The doctor didn't prescribe anything for amoebas, rather he gave me an antibiotic (which perhaps goes with the malaria medication, that is what I've heard at least). But he did use the word amoebas, but then also said there were eggs in my stool and amoebas don't lay eggs.... So really I have no idea other than since I've been on the medication all my sickness symptoms have been improving so I'm content provided I don't start to feel sick again. I will of course follow up when I return to the states and make sure I am not still harboring little fugitive bugs/parasites/whatever. If I don't sound as worried as you think I should it is because 1) I'm not worried and 2)Malaria here is like the flu. Not that it isn't really bad and kills a lot of people, but if catch it in time and treat it, it is more like the flu, hamna shida (no worries). Now if you want to worry, worry about the 4 month old nephew of my host family who has malaria. He is getting treatment, but it is scary for the little kids and babies to get malaria. Okay I hope everyone's health is doing well :)

Traditional Cake

2006-02-21T11:12:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone! I spent the weekend in Karatu, a town about 2.5 hours from Arusha, near the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Allen owns a bed and breakfast there. We went to a wedding on Saturday night with seating for 1000 people! Seriously, 1000! It was outside with all the seating under tents. We arrived at 4:30 because one of Esther’s friends that we were traveling with had made the wedding cake and needed to be there early to set up (it was cake like we have in the states, not the “traditional cake”, which I’ll get to in a moment). The reception lasted until 1 am, making for a very long evening. The ceremony was in a church (most others and we didn’t go to the church) and then the bride and groom came via horse drawn carriage to the reception site. Some things were very similar to US weddings including the coordinated colors, many flowers and decorations, and a maid of honor and best man. However, they also had a few dozen “brides maids” of three age groups each with their own similar style, but same color dresses. They served everyone dinner and there was free beer and wine the entire night, I don’t want to even know the total cost for alcohol. There was the cutting of the wedding cake and then the bride and groom fed a piece not only to each other, but to members of their family and really close friends. Then came the “traditional wedding cake” that, as you can see from the picture, was a full-bodied goat, cooked with head/horns/legs intact and then garnished with tomatoes and cucumbers. The bride and groom cut pieces for each other and again fed family and close friends. Then the goat was cut up and each person at the wedding was given a small piece of the “cake” (I politely declined, I had already eaten some meat for dinner and was at my limit). Afterwards there was the presentation of gifts, which took at least 2 hours. At first, it was just individual people who formed a dancing line and presented the couple with their gift and then received a keepsake handkerchief. Then groups of people would dance up to the bride and groom to present their collective gifts. All the while by the way, everyone dancing caused a dust storm of fine red silt to shower down on us coating our glasses, faces, drinks, and food (all I could think of was the bride’s beautiful white wedding gown and how dirty it was getting). Then after all the gifts there were some speeches (not by the families, but other people, I’m not sure who and why). Overall, despite how exhausted I was, it was a fun night and very interesting to experience a Tanzanian wedding.

We spent most Sunday just lounging around the B&B and then went to a very nice hotel (think many outdoor bungalows, not a Hilton type structure). Allen helped build the hotel and is good friends with the owners so we went to say hello and I had the BEST mango juice, I could live off the stuff! On Monday we relaxed in the morning and returned home in the afternoon.

Back in Arusha

2006-02-15T12:34:00.000+03:00

Hi everyone,

Long time without an update, sorry. I am back in Arusha. I returned from Dar on Saturday in an air-conditioned bus, which made the trip 100% better. While I was in Dar I spent two days getting my Costech permit (a requirement for doing research in TZ) and two days at immigration getting my residence permit. The entire thing was a frustrating endeavor in that customer service doesn’t really exist in this country and you have to vigilantly follow your paperwork through the process to get anything done. Things like “oh the lady who types the permit isn’t here today” and “I forgot to tell you yesterday, buy you also need…” are common. Immigration was the most frustrating and I almost had to stay in Dar over the weekend just to get my residence permit, but luckily things worked out okay. Originally, when I turned in the paper work for the residence permit they told me to return on the 16^th. I pleaded with the guy and he said come back on the 13^th. Well, that was last Thursday and I didn’t want to be stuck in Dar over the weekend (with no one around and not a whole lot to do) so I went back Friday morning under the pretense that I had forgotten to pay (when really I didn’t need to pay until Monday). Because I was back and the guy was in a good mood (and I like to think, because I was dressed as a Tanzanian and trying to speak Swahili) I got my permit at 4pm on Friday. There were actually two things that needed to be finished with the residence paperwork, but they said I could do it in Arusha, and sure enough, immigration in Arusha finished the permit in 30 minutes (I was shocked, things went so much smoother here than in Dar). Anyway, I’m still working on paperwork stuff but without the headache I had last week in Dar and Craig (one of my professors) and I have been meeting with hunting companies and paving the way for my research and the work of Savannas Forever. With all the crazy running around I have been doing, it was great to be back with my host family this weekend and be able to spend Sunday washing cloths and playing with the kids. Hope you all are well!

Mozambique

2006-02-07T11:15:00.000+03:00

Yes, Mozambique. Just yesterday I returned from a trip to Pemba, Moz. Craig and I flew down to Pemba on Friday and flew back yesterday making it a very short trip during which we talked with some researchers in Niassa who have been working with the hunting companies much like Savannas Forever plans to do. Overall it was a good trip. We stayed just across the street from the beach and while we spent most of the time talking to these other researchers and one of the hunting guys, it was neat to go to Moz. Pemba is one of Moz's larger tourist hub so the cost of hotels is expensive, but the town is tiny, there is really nothing to do. About half the people have shoes a good representation of how Mozambique is really one of the poorest countries in the world. The flight took about an hour from Dar on a larger Boeing, but then the return flight was an hour and a half on a 28 seat plane. This of course is not my preferred choice of plane, but tis the price to see the world. I didn't want to travel around with my camera so unfortunately I don't have pictures to show, but the proof is in my passport :)

Dar es Salaam

2006-02-04T10:02:00.000+03:00

Hi all,
Just a quick note. I'm now in Dar after a 10 hour bus ride yesterday in mostly 93-97 degree weather. It is my first time here, but I'm working on getting myself acquainted with the city. I'll be here for probably a week working on my research permit and immigration paperwork and will check back in with you all when I have more exciting things to report. :)

Duka

2006-01-30T17:24:00.000+03:00

Hi all,

Here is the duka (store) that is about 2 minutes from the house. I go there to get water, soda, soap, toilet paper, and other random odds and ends like that. There are a few larger stores (but nothing like super target) to get things at, but they are further away and people do not really buy in bulk here. When we need something the kids or the house help just run to the duka. I like to go myself because the more I emerge from the house the more the novelty of seeing a mzungu wears off.

Gecko Chooni (Gecko in the toilet)

2006-01-27T12:03:00.000+03:00

Yes, and I have the picture to prove it. There was a gecko in my toilet. I flushed and all the sudden there was this loud splashing and I turned around and screamed as this gecko was frantically trying not to get swished down the toilet. He got himself out and back up underneath a lip in the toilet where I couldn’t get to him. Well I couldn’t have him staying there so I flushed a half flush to get him down again and then coaxed him into an empty water bottle and took him outside. Not a big deal other than now, I every time I sit down, I think of big hairy buibui (spiders) hiding in the same place. Yikes! :)

Habari nzuri na chakula (Good news and food)

2006-01-25T11:06:00.000+03:00

Hi all,I haven't had any great adventures, but I wanted to say hello. Most of you know about the organization I've been working on with professors and students at school and I have good news to report....looks like we finally got a large sum of money so this summer you'll very likely have to check back here again to get more reports from Jen in TZ. :)

I think for today’s news I'll tell you about the food here, not the weird meat I have to eat, but the daily menu (it doesn't change very much). Most often, I use my hands to eat; sometimes I use a spoon, that is just the way it is done.

Breakfast - Chai (black tea, not like our "Chai" in the states). Juice, fruit (usually pineapple and bananas, sometimes mango and/or papaya), white bread toasted just enough to make it hard with peanut butter, a hard boiled egg, and breakfast chapati (which is sort of like creeps, only without anything on it). The juice, chapati, and egg every day are because I'm still a "guest" in some senses. The kids only eat bread and chai for breakfast during the week.

Lunch/Dinner - They serve the same meals for both, although not in the same day. The meals almost always contain a starch and then a sauce. The starches are in order of frequency: ugali (a flour-water mixture that is very dense, almost tasteless and you ball it up to use to pick up the accompanying food), rice, spaghetti noodles, chapatti (sort of like Indian fry bread/naan, only not crispy), white bread, chips (fries).

The sauces are some mixture of veggies and spices (although not spicy), most often with peas, carrots, onion and a few tomatoes (this is the only thing served with the spaghetti noodles). Sometimes the sauce is entirely different and has ndizi (banana) and some veggies (served with bread). They don’t use sweet bananas, rather one more like a plantain that sort of acts like a potato would in our meals. Sometimes, instead of a veggie sauce, we have beans, some sort of red/brown bean; often with coconut in the bean mixture (I love the beans here!).

There are two meals that are served on their own. A corn/bean dish called makande that is common with the Wachaga people (the ethnic group of my host family) and pilao, which is best described as something close to fried rice.

For every meal we also have some sort of cooked greens, most often spinach. We also usually have fruit, the same as for breakfast and now that avocados are ripe, we have been eating those too. Finally, we have chai again before bed.

Of course, this is the vegetarian version of the food here. They would add meat to some of the dishes (esp. the ndizi and pilao).

Childhood fun

2006-01-19T14:00:00.000+03:00

Hi again (or Habari Tena)
Thanks for everyone's comments. Yes, the house I'm staying in is definitely not roughing it. I have killed at least half a dozen buibui (spiders) in my room though, but they are all babies so I'm not freaked out. I also have two geckos living with me, a mom and baby (well at least one is big and the other the size of a pen cap). They help keep the bugs to a minimum as well. So not much is new, just working working working. I came into town today in the back of a pick-up. My host mom thought I was crazy b/c I insisted 1) that I ride in the back and let guest ride up front and 2) b/c I thoroughly enjoyed it. Seriously it was like being a kid, only my parents never let me ride in the back of a pick up. This truck (envision a little truck, not the big ones we have in the US) has bars across the back so I got to stand up the whole way, with a big grin on my face. Of course it was like I was on show though, everyone could clearly see a mzungu standing in the back of the truck. Oh well, nothing I can do about that. Mom, Dad, don't worry I know it isn't safe, but we can't really drive that fast here, there are huge speed bumps every mile or so on the paved roads and the rest are all unmaintained dirt roads that you can't go above 15 mph. And besides, they don't have seat belts in the cars so it isn't that much worse than sitting inside. Seriously don't freak, when a seatbelt is available I use it (people here don't even when available). Okay, until next week. :)

2006-01-19T13:58:00.000+03:00

Rainbow in Tarangire

2006-01-16T18:30:00.000+03:00

This is an image of my very own bathroom and my adjoining bedroom with my newly handwashed cloths on the bed :)

A summary of my village/Tarangire trip

2006-01-16T15:56:00.000+03:00

Habari zenu? Last Thursday I went with a fellow student of mine (Bernard, a Tanzanian) who was in town, to visit some villages in the Tarangire ecosystem (part of my study area). Bernard has good connections with the villagers so he was introducing me to some of them, giving them a heads up that I would be back in the area. All the villages we visited were Maasai (a pastoralist people).The people were very friendly and it was good to get out into my study area and actually see what is going on. To get to the furthest most village was about a 2 hour plus drive on a paved road, and then at least two hours on a unpaved, unkempt dirt path. After visiting three villages, we spent the evening in Mto wa Mbu (Mosquito river). On the trip to Mto wa Mbu the exhaust pipe in the car fell off (or something similar bad happened) and the next morning we spent a good hour getting the car fixed (a very typical event for field research here). Fixing the car ate into our time so we only visited one more village (or the village office rather), but then went to a semi-protected area that I didn’t know about, but is a good area for my study. I spent the night at Bernard and Ifura’s “house” in Tarangire National Park after having tea with the Foleys (Elephant researchers). The next morning I returned with Ifura to Arusha. The whole trip was shadowed by the current drought, where many cows and goats we saw were starving. We saw a handful already dead along the road. Many told us of their livestock losses, and we even heard of some Maasai that had committed suicide b/c the drought had killed all there livestock! We had a little rain during the trip, but haven’t had any these past two days.

Mbuzi tena (Goat again)

2006-01-16T15:55:00.000+03:00

One interesting snippet of my trip….I had to eat half a goat! Okay, it wasn’t half a goat, more like half a goat shared by 6 people. We had it in Engaruka, one of the Maasai villages we visited where Bernard has a particularly close contact. As a welcome to the visitors the Maasai offered us food. Picture if you will, six people sitting around half a cooked goat sitting on a bed of leaves. One Maasai takes a piece of the goat and skewers it on a pointed stick anchored in the ground. This way he can take his big knife/blade and cut quarter size pieces off, one for each person at a time, around in a circle until the whole thing is eaten. Seeing as I was a visitor, hoping to ingratiate myself with the village and wanting to be respectful of their culture, I didn’t tell them I don’t eat meat. Instead, I tried not to think about the very juicy (sometimes red tinted juicy) meat, nor the fat still on the pieces of meat. Even if I ate meat, I have to say, I don’t like the taste of goat! Perhaps it is an acquired trait. After about 10 rounds of the meat, I was behind on eating my pieces, I couldn’t eat them as fast as everyone else, so I convinced the server to pass me up for a round every now and then. This allowed me to eat a little less, but I kept chewing and not thinking until the last scrap of goat was served. Well not really last scrap. When I thought it was all finished the server cut the bones and sucked out the marrow. Thank goodness he didn’t offer it to me because there was no way I could have eaten it!. It was bad enough hearing him eat it. Despite my best efforts, whenever my mind wandered for the remainder of the trip, it returned to eating the mbuzi. Ugh!

Wadudu (Bugs)

2006-01-16T15:52:00.000+03:00

A second story from my trip….Tsetse flies and falling bugs (including cockroaches). In Tarangire there were lots of Tsetse flies. The good thing, I didn’t feel them this time when they bit me. The bad thing, I got bit 14 times, including on my back, chest, and legs. How you ask, wasn’t I wearing cloths? Of course, but those damm things can bite through cloths and climb up them! I felt one on my leg and squished it, only to see it fall out of my pant leg! Ugh! The bites turn to big itching spots so when I got back to Arusha a day later I took two allergy pills to decrease the swelling. However, this caused me to sleep for three hours from the side effects. Se la vi. I think I was also tired b/c we had been up late both the previous nights and while all the Tanzanians seem to be cold, I did not sleep well b/c I keep sweating, waking up drenched, because it is so hot (it is all relative I guessJ). So back to bugs, falling bugs that is…. Bernard and Ifura’s place in Tarangire is very quaint and great during the day. However, once the sunsets, the bugs rushed to their light and for some reason we all sat around the table (with the light almost over head) for a good hour while these little beetle things (that were crawling on the tin ceiling) kept falling on us. Furthermore, lots of flying ants and at least three cockroaches dive-bombed our bodies on more than one occasion. I sat there, pants tucked into my socks, hand clenching my shirt around my neck so nothing would fall in my shirt, flicking bugs off me ever 10-30 seconds! And yes, we did turn off the light, hoping they would leave, and that help a little, but only for about 10 minutes then drop, drop, drop, back they were.

Nyama (Meat)

2006-01-09T11:01:00.000+03:00

Hello all,

Things here are moving along. Yesterday I hand washed my cloths over protests from my “mama” that she could do it. It was fine, but harder than washing a few nice shirts in the sink, and of course a mzungu (white person) doing laundry was entertainment for all those around. In the evening we went to Allen’s farm (or what will be a farm) where his cousin also has a farm and is building a house. I guess it is a weekly tradition; they all get together and talk, eat and play. It was a good time, a very REAL experience. Staying with a family is a 1000 times better than staying in a hostile or with other students. It is exhausting as well though. Everyone is eager to help me learn Swahili and continually try to talk to me, but I have to continually say, “say again” or “I don’t know that word” and 3 hours of that is tiring. They were all also very curious about me not eating meat so I tried to explain, which lead to the realization that I would eat meat in TZ so under their insistence I tried cow and goat. Cow was good, goat not so much. I think Allen understands I’d still prefer not to eat meat and it isn’t any trouble to not eat it at his house so that it good. I don’t mind trying, but I don’t always want to eat/like the meat. I’ll take some pictures next week or the week after. Love to all! ~ Jennifer

Habari from TZ

2006-01-06T10:46:00.000+03:00

Hello everyone!
I have made it to Tanzania with one bag making it a day after me. No surprise or big deal other than one bottle of my mosquito repellent burst, but didn't make too big a mess. The family I'm staying with is very nice and their accommodations are great. I've just been getting my bearings, going to TAWIRI (the place I need to get my research clearance), and getting to know my host family. Esther, the mother, is pregnant (about 3 months) and they have five other children that are getting used to a mzungu (white person) in their house. Although the rains should have already come, they haven't and things are very dry and dusty. I hope everyone is doing well and I'll post more (hopefully with pictures) later. Tutazumgumza baadaye (I will talk with you later). ~love jen

Pre-TZ

2005-12-29T04:55:00.000+03:00

I figured it would be easiest to create a blog to keep everyone updated on my adventures in TZ. So, here it is, my first blog. Provided I find a reliable internet source in Arusha I'll try to keep this blog up to date and somewhat interesting. :) Talk to you all again when I'm in Africa.
Love,
Jen
PS The date stamp is set up like they write the date in TZ (i.e. day month year) and I have my time sent to TZ time.