Moyo Hill Camp - Days 23 and 24 - 2/27-2/28/11

Moyo Hill Camp – Day 23 – 2/27/11

This entry is day 23 thanks to Alice who pointed out that I have two entries under day 19!  Oops.  So today was our third non-program day.  Many people opted or asked to go to church but I remained in camp.  I had stayed up rather late the night before talking to people at home and star gazing.  It was amazing…the stars were so clear that they were literally twinkling; I didn’t know they could actually do that.  Plus there were so many shooting stars.  I read in one of my favorite books that the Bushmen or Hadzabe believe that every time you see a shooting star is signifies a person’s soul moving from this world into the world of the fallen.  It made watching these stars so sad even though they are so beautiful.  Anyways non-program day.  I stayed at camp in the morning and did my laundry.  This was not terribly exciting except that I almost got my white sock completely white again…this red dirt that I have come to enjoy so much is determined to come to the states with me.  After completing laundry and hanging it up to dry on the lines, I took my book (The Eye of the Elephant by Mark and Delia Owens…very good) under one of the trees and read for a bit.  At one point I fell asleep for about half an hour getting my legs rather sun burned since the sun had moved in this amount of time. 

In the afternoon everyone got in the cruisers and we went to an art gallery.  The owner is American and decided to open this gallery along the tourist track to showcase the art of African artist.  It is very Americanized with food that is familiar (I have never been so happy to eat a Caesar salad in my life), classic rock on the stereo, and interesting modern art created in Dar es Salaam.  She also had three labs which we all pet and cuddled the entire time we were there.  It is a very relaxing place and I found a lovely bush with some shade under it to read my book.  Tearing ourselves away we quickly went into Karatu where I bought more fabric before heading back to camp.  

Moyo Hill Camp – Day 24 – 2/28/11

We had traveling lecture all morning starting in Mtu wa Mbu amidst a large unit of rice and maize farms.  Here an older farmer spoke to us about the limited water resources and the crops produced here.  Much of the conversation centered on the irrigation schedule and how the government funded the building of a canal.  One of the final point which was particularly interesting was when we asked whether the farmers supported watershed conservation and compensation to the upstream communities for dominating the water supply.  He answered that they did not and why should they when their water come from the Nile River.  This of course is not possible since the Nile flows in the opposite direction and their water does in fact come from the hills surrounding Mto wa Mbu.  On second stop of traveling lecture was at the very edge of Lake Manyara NP.  We were sitting in the protected wildlife corridorlooking many miles down to Lake Manyara across a barren, gray savannah stretching before us.  Two herds of Maasai cattle were visible grazing the already overgrazed land and midway through our lecture another herd walked nearly on top of us also to graze also.  After lecture we walked out a bit on this plain.  The overgrazing was very apparent and one of my classmates compared walking here to walking on the salt flats in the US. 

We had one class in the afternoon, WE.  Lecture was about 15 minutes long and then we were paired up and assigned an article which we will present tomorrow in class.  The rest of the afternoon I finished my book, proof read my EP paper, and picked up one of my skirts from the tailor.  Today is the birthday of a fellow student (he is from New Orleans) so dinner was all southern comfort food.  Watching our Tanzanian staff try and eat fried chicken was hilarious.  We also had amazing cake for dessert.  Another day of class tomorrow…..

Moyo Hill Camp – Day 21 – 2/26/11

Ever since I adjusted to the time difference here I have been waking up before my alarm.  Usually no more than 45-30 mins before I’m suppose to wake up, but always early.  Today was no different and it’s a really nice way to start off.  I lie in bed, listen to the birds, try and remember the Swahili words I learned yesterday, and contemplate checking email or reading before everyone else gets up.  Checking email is pointless because everyone in the US is still asleep and will not have answered any of my messages, and facebook has not been working here for the past few days.  Of course none of my homework will motivate me out of bed so by the time I manage to get out of bed I have 20 minutes or so before breakfast. 

Classes today were a bit different.  Instead of sitting in the classroom we had traveling lecture today.  Everyone piled into the cruisers and we drove to the highest point in Kilimatembo (Elephant Hill) only a few km from Rhotia (the town we are living in).  We sat up in this high bluff overlooking the entire valley from Lake Manyara all the way to the highlands of Ngorongoro.  Here we had a combined lecture from our EP, WM, and WE (environmental policy, wildlife management, and wildlife ecology) professors.  After this we made two much shorter stops.  The first was where a seasonal river goes thru a tunnel under the tarmac road and a small riverine ecosystem has sprung up complete with a small population of monkeys, and the second was a curio stop run by local villagers.  At both of these locations we looked at the impact of tourism on the environment especially how the wood (illegally carved for tourists) and water (restricted and redirected) change with the coming of the many tourists. 

The afternoon was also different.  We globalized tether ball.  It is community service afternoon and we went back to the orphanage in Mtu wa Mbu (Mosquito River) and built a tether ball for the kids.  I was in charge of making the cement while two of the guys labored away to create a two foot deep hole in the hard gravel ground.  For the pole we brought a tall tree that had fallen down in camp and we tied a flat soccer ball onto a string.  This project took all of six people while everyone else played with the kids, sang songs, drew pictures, and socialized.  It has been a long week and everyone is feeling a bit tired.  Tonight I sat by the fire and learned the words for flashlight, wood, and sang more Swahili songs with Boo-ra before watching The Departed with a few other students.  Tomorrow is non-program day so we will get to unwind a bit. 

Moyo Hill Camp - Day 20 - 2/25/11

Really fantastic day today!  After an early breakfast we divided into our assigned pairs and gathered groceries into bags and headed out to our home stays.  My partner Liz and I, along with two other pairs, walked out of camp and across the cornfields to the families where we would be spending the day.  Liz and I were with the Herman Gaey family which consisted of mama and baba (mother and father) Gaey, their son Floridh, two nieces, four grandchildren (I think there were more but they were at school) and other assorted people who came and went without introducing themselves.  The family had a very interesting setup.  Right off the track there was a small mud hut with a smoky thatched roof from years of cooking.  Just beyond that and at about ninety degrees (all these building form a sort of courtyard) was a fair sized mud and stick house with a metal sheet roof.  This building is where the family has lived for quite a while now and they built it so they could move out of the first mud hut we saw.  This current house has four rooms that are shared among the family.  Behind these rooms, and accessed from the outside only, are two rooms where they keep their livestock of goats and cattle during the night.  Across the “courtyard” is a new house that is in the process of being built.  This new building has more rooms than the current house, higher ceilings, and lovely large windows.  The walls and roof are finished and the floor, windows, and doors will go in when the family next has money to spare. 

            Anyways we got there, introduced ourselves, and gave the family the groceries.   The family promptly sat us down and served us chai or tea with tons of milk and even more sugar.  After two huge steaming cup of chai, Liz and I got to wash the breakfast plates and mugs in two plastic tubs outside.  After finishing this one of the nieces was walking to the store in town to buy a few things and we went along.  In total we bought four tomatoes, two onions, and some quantity of rice.  Even though we had not been there very long, by the time we got back to the house it was time to start making lunch.  While Liz and I were perfectly willing to help we recognized that we would only be in the way so we were given two stools to sit on and we squashed into a corner of the old mud hut while the highly efficient nieces and mama went about making lunch.  The “kitchen” was six stones arranged into two groups of three near each other.  To cook a pot is balanced on three stones over the fire.  Lunch was a big meal.  They served us the traditional Africa meal of ground corn called ugali, rice, beef, and cabbage.  My favorites were the rice and cabbage which had amazing flavors (how I have no idea).  After lunch we sat and digested while the father of the family peppered us with questions about America through his son who spoke English.  This went on for quite a while and eventually turned into a lesson in Kiswahili since the son teaches Swahili to kids in one of the surrounding towns.  This was really fantastic because I have been a bit disappointed with our Swahili lessons here and I still did not know how to say basic sentences like asking for directions, how much something was etc.  I how have a small exercise book of useful phrases, the days of the week, the months and other things like that from my host brother.  Getting up to stretch our legs I pulled out my camera.  I ended up taking pictures of everyone there, in all of their best clothes, with and without the babies, the whole family, portions of the family, everyone.  The kids smiled shyly and the adults looked straight faced into the lens just like they use to when camera were new.  Showing them the pictures afterwards, the girls would hide their faces and the boys would smile and nod their approval.  Still holding the camera we were given a tour of their land which has been divided into smaller pieces for each of the son’s to have their own piece of land.  Returning to the house, Liz and I got to help with laundry and the little kids giggled as we hung clean clothes over the fence to dry.  Playing with the kids, looking through many family photos, and drinking more chai, we finished off the day very relaxed and eager to come back and hang out with this family.  Honestly we wished we were staying for a few days instead of just a day. 

Regrouped in camp, everyone was swapping stories of what they did that day and who had the best/worst tasks to do.  The kitchen staff let us celebrate with guacamole that we made ourselves…so good especially after a lunch of virtually all rice/ugali.  I re-read my paper, printed it and handed it in.  It was now barely 8:30 and I was work free.  I returned all of my stuff to my banda and headed to the fire pit.  There I found askari Boo-ra and one of the female kitchen staff named Rusty.  Askari Boo-ra is hilarious in general.  He can imitate any animal in Africa, he sings beautifully, and is the funniest comedian I have ever met.  He also thinks “mzungos” (white people) are very funny and spends lots of time laughing good naturedly at all of us.  So since it was just the three of us (me, Boo-ra, and Rusty) they began testing my Swahili and improving my vocabulary.  I now know part of a new song, stars, sky, tree, bird, lots of body parts, house, door, window, pot, cooking ware, ash, fire, and smoke.  My brain is pretty tired but I am elated at my small victory of Swahili vocab. 

Moyo Hill Camp – Day 19 – 2/24/11

Classes again today.  Started the morning with Environmental Policy class for an hour and a half, then we got into our PRA groups and presented our findings to the rest of the class.  Our next class we had our second Swahili test, this one on the eight classes of nouns.  There were a few surprises that many people were not prepared for but I felt ok about it overall.  After lunch I had a great chat with Allie (Goucher junior) in the dining hall about her road trip this summer across the US and what she is planning to do and what to see.  At two we watched a movie for Wildlife Management on the hunting strategies of carnivores.  Mainly featured were lions, leopard, cheetah, wild dog, and hyena.  Classes ended at 3:30pm followed by many of us lounging around outside doing work or chatting while we procrastinated.  At around 5pm a small group of us hiked up Moyo Hill to enjoy the view across the valley before heading back for dinner.  I have now started my fourth book this one titled The Eye of the Elephant by Delia and Mark Owens.  I very much enjoy their story and the perspective they have on conservation in really remote portions of Africa.  I also seem to have started a trend of only reading books about Africa while here. I’m four for four so far so we’ll see what I can find once I finish this one.

Tomorrow we are going for an all day home stay with families in the surrounding village areas.  My partner Liz and I are going to a family within walking distance and I am very much looking forward to getting out of camp for an entire day.  Well I just finished my first draft of my paper and now its bed time for me!

Moyo Hill Camp – Day 19 – 2/23/11

Got up early this morning and spent a relaxing forty minutes answering facebook messages and emails until the breakfast bell rang.  On the schedule for today was only one subject: Environmental Policy.  As I mentioned yesterday we learned about PRA (parcipatory rural analysis) in EP class and today we got to try it out in the real world.  The students were broken into four groups and each given a different task.  My group (group 2) was assigned to walk along a certain track and ask farmers we saw about their crops (how much water do they need, how is the market for them, are they hard to grow, how long of a shelf life do they have etc).  Our translator was Paolo, one of the staff members from camp that everyone is fond of and everyone in the village knows him.  We set off down into town, crossed the road, passed the new local dispensary, and entered into farm country.  We first stopped at Paolo’s relatives’ place so he could say hi and we could poke around a bit.  This was super awesome since their dog recently had puppies, there were some younger pigs running around, and one of the young women living there (who’s name was Margaret-small world) had a several month old baby.  Lots to ooo and ahhh at.  After spending far too much time there we continued on down our track to find farmers to chat with.  We found several people to talk to and got lots of opinions on the various crops that they grow.  On our way back we again stopped at Paolo’s relatives’ place to pet the puppies and ask the husband his opinions on crops.  In the afternoon we had a two hour EP class on the role of wildlife management areas on the conservation goals of Tanzania.  Despite my efforts I still do not find this class stimulating unless we are doing field work.  So two hours went by agonizingly slowly.  However after class the building group from yesterday walked to the school to actually do the job we went to do yesterday.  The builder was there and the kids were there and staring at us as usual.  We had the kids fill lots of buckets of water and we began mixing the cement on the floor.  I have never appreciated cement mixers before now.  Our beautifully mixed pile from yesterday quickly got heavy and very difficult to mix evenly while we were trying to preserve as much water as possible.  Thank heaven there were eight of us so we could take turns.  Only a few minutes in and your back starts aching, and the stuff doesn’t look any different from when you started.  We got it done and their stove look gorgeous but my back is paying for it.  Upon returning to camp, I finished my third book, played several hand of phase ten, and learned that we were having a goat roast.  So here I am full of dinner, goat meat, and marshmallows toasted over the fire.  I still have to study for our Swahili test tomorrow and begin writing my paper.