Moyo Hill Camp – Day 10 – 2/14/11
Today was our first non-program day. This means that we had no classes and planned several fun things to do today. We started out early and drove outside Karatu Town to hike to The Elephant Cave. With a guide to lead us it took us about 25 minutes of somewhat steep switch backs. The hike up was fascinating. I spent the whole time at the front bothering the guide to tell me the name and origin of every bird, plant and pile of dung that we passed. He showed me a plant they call “elephant perfume” because when the leaves are crushed it smells just like elephants. They put it on their clothes when out so they can pass near to elephants without raising the alarm. He also showed us the wild version of spinach which tasted really good and reminded me why I have missed salad so much since I left the States. I also got to meet (very up close and personally) the acacia plant with thorns that face backward to grab your clothes. I learned the tracks of elephant and buffalo along with how their individual dung looks too. Elephant Cave is really unique because it is where many of the elephants in the area (and some from Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area) come it dig into the hillside for minerals. The hill rises up impressively high across this medium sized stream. The richly red clay of the hill is deeply carved to make four of five huge yet shallow caves that our group of nearly 30 could easily have stood in together. When entering these caves the roots from the vegetation above are visible through the roof and the walls and floor are cool to the touch. After visiting the caves the group went to visit the nearby waterfall and take some more pictures. The waterfall was very steep and no one volunteered to look over the edge to see the bottom.
Our next activity for the day was to visit the Cultural Iraqk Boma, the local tribe in this area. While the idea was similar to the Massai Boma we visited the culture of the Iraqk tribe is very different. They have two building that show the evolution of their housing. The older version of their house was round with a tall pointed roof, and partially opens sides. This design was abandoned because the Massai kept coming and stealing their livestock. The newer version had completely enclosed sides that are divided into sections by the posts holding up the roof, is built into the hill, and has a flat roof. This model worked very well because the roof blends into the environment to be almost invisible from far away. Also the flat roof looks like part of the ground if approached from down the hill. That way if the occupants heard people on the roof in the night, they knew it was the Massai coming to steal more animals and they could defend themselves. Besides hearing all about how and where they lived, we also got to do some traditional dances, walk with gourds on our head (that’s how they carry water), and see the beautiful embroidered garments the women make out of goat skin to get married in. We of course had to opportunities to buy jewelry, baskets, and wood carvings.
I then elected to come back to camp with a few others while the majority of the group stayed in Karatu Town to shop, walk around, and eat and drink at a tourist bar. Having fast, unhindered internet allowed me to find all of the sources I needed for my papers and having some time without everyone around was really nice too. Back to school tomorrow…
Moyo Hill Camp – Day 11 – 2/15/11
My day began by waking up at 3:40 am while a huge thunderstorm raged. We have had several storms recently so this was not shocking. What was surprising was the dark. We had lost power at some point during the night and laying there in my bunk it was so dark I could not see my hand in front of my face. There was no natural light at all. I couldn’t see the edge of my bed, my mosquito net, the window, the ceiling or the floor. I have never experienced such total darkness in my life. In the middle of the night, hearing the rain pouring down, and the thunder roll across the sky I felt like I was suspended out of reality for those few minutes I was awake.
Once waking up again and getting up it to help make breakfast, it was still raining. We were supposed to go into the field and do vegetation analysis but our professor called it off due to the weather. I was surprised since the plants are not going anywhere in the rain and we were told to bring rain gear. Anyways we ended up having two free hours before our 10 am class. Our afternoon was especially interesting. An associate professor of SFS came to give a guest lecture on analyzing large population dynamics. While the lecture was fairly interesting, speaking to the visiting professor afterwards was fascinating. He has been doing research in Tarangire National Park on lions for the past 7 years. Talking to him about what they are looking at and how they are comparing it to the 40 year data set in Serengeti was very interesting.
After classes ended for the day, several other students and I took a walk outside the camp to enjoy the evening and stretch our legs. The rain had stopped at this point and a cool breeze was wafting the smell of warm damp ground, and the locals evening fires toward us. It was too cloudy to see the sun setting but it was great to get out of our small world of the camp. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the power stays on tonight even though this is the second day without internet. It really amazes me that so many people here are so dependent on the internet for all forms of entertainment. The amount of complaining that I have heard from not being able to check facebook, email or do research for our papers is amazing. Yeah it’s really nice to have internet. But we have had almost constant rain this week, of course things are not going to work! Plus the internet and power are less reliable in our next camp in Kenya so they had better just get use to it. Tomorrow afternoon we are having our first community service day. We are going to a nearby orphanage to learn about it and have some time with the kids. Our long term project for the community is to help the local school build a kitchen so that they can cook for the children under cover instead of the open air kitchen they currently use. That’s all for now folks
Myo Hill Camp – Day 12 – 2/16/11
This morning we had an hour of Swahili covering three of the eight noun classes in the Swahili language followed by an hour and a half of Wildlife Ecology. During this period the power went out and came back on several times yet the internet never revived long enough for me to do more than log into facebook before crashing into oblivion again. Because of this internet issue there was a general feel of frustration at lunch. After lunch we had two and a half hours to meet with our committees before heading off for our community service day. The electrical committee met and evaluated yet again how to get this energy generating bike working. With the help of one of the camp’s mechanics, we removed, greased and replaced many parts of the back wheel which consistently gets stuck at a certain point after about three rotations of the pedals. After an hour of trying this and that we believe we have identified the problem. The place where the pedals and the larger gear join is loose which causes the chain to twist slightly when its approaches the smaller gear on the back wheel making the gear teeth mis-align with the chain (I apologize for the very un-technical description).
Feeling encouraged by our success with the bike, the whole group loaded up and headed to the nearby orphanage. Since coming to Tanzania I have become less shocked at the housing conditions but this orphanage was the most basic and dilapidated I had yet seen. Twenty kids, aged between three and twelve, live at the orphanage currently. These kids have lost their parents to HIV and AIDS but all the kids here have tested negative. Entering the orphanage you go through a loose wobbly wooded door into an unlit cinderblock room, through another similar wooden door to a gravelly depressing courtyard area where we were enthusiastically met by about a crowd of kids of all ages and sizes. We were each chosen by a child instantly and treated to the common demands of being picked up, played with and dragged around. The kids were dressed in clothes that were tatty, ripped and often too small and added to the general feel of abandonment that hung about the place. The teacher and director of the orphanage showed us the few very modest rooms where the kids sleep (1 for boys, 1 for girls - 4 to a bunk mattress or piled together on a floor mattress), the classroom, the construction room, and what passes as a primitive kitchen. Across from the rooms where the kids currently sleep were a few rooms in the process of being made into better sleeping arrangements. The director explained that the progress of this project was extremely slow because it is dependent on funds from the government most of which must go toward feeding the orphans. Escaping the gloomy rooms and courtyard, we presented the face paint, paper, and pens we had brought with us and spent over an hour drawing, painting and playing soccer/on the few wooden playground elements with the kids. Our two musicians brought their ukuleles and sang for everyone to enjoy while the kids drank a rare treat of sodas. Once all the pictures were hung on the classroom wall, all the songs sung, and all the sodas finished we waved good bye to our new little friends and headed back to our camp each profoundly grateful for the families we have at home.
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