Safari njema sana!
We had our first visit from our fellow volunteers from Zanzibar last weekend. It was super nice to see them and to compare projects, and we had an awesome weekend together! They arrived (sort of unexpectedly due to the typical lack of communication in Tanzania) on Friday and we went out to the wonderful Western style Acropol hotel for dinner. We even managed to score dessert this time- oh chocolate cake, it has been too long my friend! Gidibo, the project manager for the Zanzibar girls, helped us organize a day safari to Mikumi National Park the next day. Get ready for it- it was freaking amazing!
We got up before dawn and our daladala driver Leonard picked us up at 6am. It was cool to have a daladala because we each had a window seat, I was in the back corner with a window that opened- pretty sweet deal. It was dark whn we left but it didn't stay that way for long. We were driving out of town in the dark and gradually it began to get light, the dusky outline of the Ulugurus was visible and we started to be able to see the speckles of trees dotting the land at the base of the mountains. As we passed by more remote areas and villages, where people were already up and working outside, the sun began to cast some light in the sky and over the mountains. The misty grey sky became streaked with gorgeous bright pinks and oranges, and the entire sky lit up in a shade of periwinkle. The array of greens and browns of the trees and shrubs appeared and we all got a little camera happy. Then, just like in the movies and National Geographic videos, a perfect golden disc rose from behind the mountains and slid into the sky- and it was totally worth the blazing circular sun spots left in my eyes to see it. It was so gorgeous and we were all kind of lost in our own worlds- it is impossible to express on a blog how amazing it was, I am no where near doing it justice!
As the sun rose we got closer to Mikumi and soon we passed a sign saying we had enteredt it and would reach the actual national park gates in 30km. Well it took us around 2 hours to get there because we started seeing animals immediately. We all had our eyes peeled and it didn't take long before we saw our first giraffe! They are so amazing- their spots are gorgeous and the way they move is so cool, it's like they're in slow motion. They are such cool animals, it was unreal to see one up close. Next thing we knew someone screamed "elephant!" and the daladala screeched to a halt and the flashes started going. Talk about huge! And so cool. The first one was actually pretty close to us and it was so exciting. Our driver was reall good about stopping and backing up and waiting for us to take a bazillion shots every time we saw something. Before we reached the gates we also saw a bunch of baboons, which was really cool- I felt like I was living in one of my anthro class videos! We even saw them climbing in trees, and mamas with babies on their backs and fronts. We also saw some gazelle/antelope animals and some pretty cool birds (not like the gross things wandering around our neighbourhood!).
When we reached the gates we ran into some troubl though- but what did we expect?! Karibu Tanzania wazungu! There was an issue with pricing and our visas and residency- blah blah blah- bottom line: mzungus pay more. Katherine and Shawna handled it so well and we ended up having to pay another 16,000/s each- annoying but c'est la vie and it was better than getting the boot right out of the park! The park also has a bar/restaurant and hotel which I saw a bit of when I used the choo. It was so cool, they have little cottages looking right out on the park and a swimming pool, which I'm sure would give you some wicked ringworm but it was cool. It was around 9:30 when we set off into the park. It was so ridiculously cool to think of what we were doing and to take it all in. The park is huge and has a bunch of routes but I'm pretty sure our driver was lost the majority of the time. We saw lots more giraffes and elephants, even babies. It was strange how exciting it was to see them at first and by the end of the day we were almost not phased by them- I had to remind myself how amazing it was to be seeing such cool things! We also ran into our fair share of zebras, which are so fantastically cool looking- their stripes are so perfect, even in their manes. It was so peaceful out in the park, I kept thinking to myself how awesome it was to be there- even when we didn't spot a new animal for a while the scenery and landscape were just so stunning. At the risk of sounding pretty cheesy I must say the whole experience was pretty breathtaking. And exciting- our driver made a few adventurous decisions and twice we had to get out of the daladala and push it out of a hole or muddy puddle. I don't know if everyone shared the same sentiment but I thought it was kind of fun and just added to the experience! Although there were probably lions lurking in the grass like 2 feet away!
Another cool thing we saw- hippos! They were just lounging in their pool so we couldn't really see them but you could definitely tell that they are huge! One thing we didn't spot was our simba- I'm sure they were around but it got pretty damn hot so I don't blame 'em for hiding. Besides, we need to save something for Ngorongoro and the Serengeti! We decidd around 1 that it was time to head back and we eventually found our way out of the park, although our drivr did have to ask for direnctions at the park headquarters because I'm pretty sure he couldn't understand the English signs! On the way home I found it ironic that I hadn't really been nervous when we were outside pushing our daladala withink sight of crazy wild animals or when our daladala was speeding, leaning, and teetering on the sketchy bumpy safari roads but I was a little unnerved by the fact that good old Leonard was swerving and appeared to be falling asleep on the drive home! And to make things truly Tanzanian our trusty daladala overheated before we reached home. We pulled over and Leonard made multiple trips to a well or something to get water to pour into the smoking engine. We stayed at the daladala in the sweltering heat and marvelled at what we had just seen- and at all the random white butterfulies that were everywhere at this roadside village. Eventually the daladala was up and barely running and we were able to make it home. We thanked the driver and gladly got inside for some much needed maji and a huge delicious lunch of rice, beans, fish, pineapple, and cookies.
The rest of the weekend was relaxing, we went to another Western-ish place on Saturday night for dinner- Dragonaire's where we had pizza and chapati. We were going to go hiking on Sunday but got rained out by a massive thunder and lightning storm on Saturday night. Something to look forward to still. On Monday I took another safari- this time to Dar with the teacher from the shule to buy books for my reading program. I do not miss Dar! Correction- I do not miss the humid air and constant profuse sweating that is inevitable in Dar! The day, which was meant to begin at 7am, got going around 8:15 when Mama Peace decided to show up over an hour late to meet me. We daladala-ed to the bus station and got into Dar around 11:30 where we waited another hour before her brother-in-law finally picked us up. I'm not totally sure on the events that followed as everything was in Swahili but we drove around to a few different spots and talked to a guy who I think was a friend of the brother-in-law's who knew where we could buy books. Eventually we drove downtown and looked in a few book stores, setting on one and spending a whopping 115,000/s on Swahili storybooks. We did talk the guy down a bit and saved around 9,000/s. After we got our books we went out for lunch near the bus station- I had chapati, which I love, but it was a sore disappointment compared to the fabulous ones that Oliva makes! We left Dar around 4:30pm and got back to Morogoro around 7pm where the girls and Deanna, who was visiting from Dar, picked me up. Deanna was just here for a few days to help us out with our International Women's Week plans and she's on her way back to Dar now.
Next week is International Women's Week, which will be nuts and I have my first Play Day at Home-Based Care Play Day this weekend. Along with my ever-constant and always elusive promise of pictures soon to come, I assure you I will update you with all the excitement of my projects soon. It's so great to finally actually be busy!
We got up before dawn and our daladala driver Leonard picked us up at 6am. It was cool to have a daladala because we each had a window seat, I was in the back corner with a window that opened- pretty sweet deal. It was dark whn we left but it didn't stay that way for long. We were driving out of town in the dark and gradually it began to get light, the dusky outline of the Ulugurus was visible and we started to be able to see the speckles of trees dotting the land at the base of the mountains. As we passed by more remote areas and villages, where people were already up and working outside, the sun began to cast some light in the sky and over the mountains. The misty grey sky became streaked with gorgeous bright pinks and oranges, and the entire sky lit up in a shade of periwinkle. The array of greens and browns of the trees and shrubs appeared and we all got a little camera happy. Then, just like in the movies and National Geographic videos, a perfect golden disc rose from behind the mountains and slid into the sky- and it was totally worth the blazing circular sun spots left in my eyes to see it. It was so gorgeous and we were all kind of lost in our own worlds- it is impossible to express on a blog how amazing it was, I am no where near doing it justice!
As the sun rose we got closer to Mikumi and soon we passed a sign saying we had enteredt it and would reach the actual national park gates in 30km. Well it took us around 2 hours to get there because we started seeing animals immediately. We all had our eyes peeled and it didn't take long before we saw our first giraffe! They are so amazing- their spots are gorgeous and the way they move is so cool, it's like they're in slow motion. They are such cool animals, it was unreal to see one up close. Next thing we knew someone screamed "elephant!" and the daladala screeched to a halt and the flashes started going. Talk about huge! And so cool. The first one was actually pretty close to us and it was so exciting. Our driver was reall good about stopping and backing up and waiting for us to take a bazillion shots every time we saw something. Before we reached the gates we also saw a bunch of baboons, which was really cool- I felt like I was living in one of my anthro class videos! We even saw them climbing in trees, and mamas with babies on their backs and fronts. We also saw some gazelle/antelope animals and some pretty cool birds (not like the gross things wandering around our neighbourhood!).
When we reached the gates we ran into some troubl though- but what did we expect?! Karibu Tanzania wazungu! There was an issue with pricing and our visas and residency- blah blah blah- bottom line: mzungus pay more. Katherine and Shawna handled it so well and we ended up having to pay another 16,000/s each- annoying but c'est la vie and it was better than getting the boot right out of the park! The park also has a bar/restaurant and hotel which I saw a bit of when I used the choo. It was so cool, they have little cottages looking right out on the park and a swimming pool, which I'm sure would give you some wicked ringworm but it was cool. It was around 9:30 when we set off into the park. It was so ridiculously cool to think of what we were doing and to take it all in. The park is huge and has a bunch of routes but I'm pretty sure our driver was lost the majority of the time. We saw lots more giraffes and elephants, even babies. It was strange how exciting it was to see them at first and by the end of the day we were almost not phased by them- I had to remind myself how amazing it was to be seeing such cool things! We also ran into our fair share of zebras, which are so fantastically cool looking- their stripes are so perfect, even in their manes. It was so peaceful out in the park, I kept thinking to myself how awesome it was to be there- even when we didn't spot a new animal for a while the scenery and landscape were just so stunning. At the risk of sounding pretty cheesy I must say the whole experience was pretty breathtaking. And exciting- our driver made a few adventurous decisions and twice we had to get out of the daladala and push it out of a hole or muddy puddle. I don't know if everyone shared the same sentiment but I thought it was kind of fun and just added to the experience! Although there were probably lions lurking in the grass like 2 feet away!
Another cool thing we saw- hippos! They were just lounging in their pool so we couldn't really see them but you could definitely tell that they are huge! One thing we didn't spot was our simba- I'm sure they were around but it got pretty damn hot so I don't blame 'em for hiding. Besides, we need to save something for Ngorongoro and the Serengeti! We decidd around 1 that it was time to head back and we eventually found our way out of the park, although our drivr did have to ask for direnctions at the park headquarters because I'm pretty sure he couldn't understand the English signs! On the way home I found it ironic that I hadn't really been nervous when we were outside pushing our daladala withink sight of crazy wild animals or when our daladala was speeding, leaning, and teetering on the sketchy bumpy safari roads but I was a little unnerved by the fact that good old Leonard was swerving and appeared to be falling asleep on the drive home! And to make things truly Tanzanian our trusty daladala overheated before we reached home. We pulled over and Leonard made multiple trips to a well or something to get water to pour into the smoking engine. We stayed at the daladala in the sweltering heat and marvelled at what we had just seen- and at all the random white butterfulies that were everywhere at this roadside village. Eventually the daladala was up and barely running and we were able to make it home. We thanked the driver and gladly got inside for some much needed maji and a huge delicious lunch of rice, beans, fish, pineapple, and cookies.
The rest of the weekend was relaxing, we went to another Western-ish place on Saturday night for dinner- Dragonaire's where we had pizza and chapati. We were going to go hiking on Sunday but got rained out by a massive thunder and lightning storm on Saturday night. Something to look forward to still. On Monday I took another safari- this time to Dar with the teacher from the shule to buy books for my reading program. I do not miss Dar! Correction- I do not miss the humid air and constant profuse sweating that is inevitable in Dar! The day, which was meant to begin at 7am, got going around 8:15 when Mama Peace decided to show up over an hour late to meet me. We daladala-ed to the bus station and got into Dar around 11:30 where we waited another hour before her brother-in-law finally picked us up. I'm not totally sure on the events that followed as everything was in Swahili but we drove around to a few different spots and talked to a guy who I think was a friend of the brother-in-law's who knew where we could buy books. Eventually we drove downtown and looked in a few book stores, setting on one and spending a whopping 115,000/s on Swahili storybooks. We did talk the guy down a bit and saved around 9,000/s. After we got our books we went out for lunch near the bus station- I had chapati, which I love, but it was a sore disappointment compared to the fabulous ones that Oliva makes! We left Dar around 4:30pm and got back to Morogoro around 7pm where the girls and Deanna, who was visiting from Dar, picked me up. Deanna was just here for a few days to help us out with our International Women's Week plans and she's on her way back to Dar now.
Next week is International Women's Week, which will be nuts and I have my first Play Day at Home-Based Care Play Day this weekend. Along with my ever-constant and always elusive promise of pictures soon to come, I assure you I will update you with all the excitement of my projects soon. It's so great to finally actually be busy!
posted by Leah | 7:29 AM
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