Safari!

I did a four day safari to Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Ngoro Ngoro crater. There were nine of us from Hostel Hoff and a couple from Vienna; in two cars.

Monday

We left Moshi on Monday morning and had a two hour drive to Arusha where we stopped at a grocery store, then another couple of hours to our first camp. We had lunch and then went off for the first day of safari! Straight away there were baboons, a three legged one ran right in front of are car! We started at Lake Manyara, it’s a forest area.

The best that day was lions up in the trees. It’s the only place where lions climb trees; they go up to get away from the tsetse flies. We also saw elephants up really close, right beside the cars. We saw seemingly endless amounts of baboons, at one point one of them was throwing stuff at our car. The campsite was great, they were nice tents on platforms, with two actual beds in each tent, and straw roofs over the tents. That night there was a fire and some traditional dancing that was a lot of fun.

Tuesday

After breakfast Tuesday morning we packed up and set off to visit a Maasai village. I’m not sure how I feel about it, it was interesting but cost 20,000 Tsh  just to get in. They greeted us with traditional dance, then did a kind of jumping dance, where they see who can jump the highest. Then we each had our own guide take us in to see the houses. They are tiny huts made of sticks and animal dung. My guide Samwel mentioned that he wants to go to Harvard University, so later I said if you come to Boston you stay with me. Because seriously what is a Maasai going to do in America? He would need someone to help him out at first. So of course he said “Your husband won’t hate me?” I said I don’t have a husband, and he said “Oh you’re single? So we’re getting married?” I told him when he comes to Boston we’ll see, haha.

On the drive leaving the village we ran into a bit of a problem. Another car had rolled over and a passenger had broken her ribs and needed to be med flighted out. But the park authorities and the Tanzanian government didn’t care and weren’t doing anything to help. Also the reason the accident happened was because the park doesn’t maintain the roads. When a driver gets in an accident he gets a penalty on his license, and that can really destroy his living. So together the guides decided that they were going to go on strike until a park official came, help for the injured person was arranged, and they promised to fix the roads. This accident happened at 10am. We arrived sometime between 1:30 and 2pm and there were already hundreds of cars there. We had lunch in the dirt beside the road (forgetting about the scorpions). It was literally the middle of  the desert, the sun beating down and no way to escape it. More cars piled up behind us and eventually there were around 400 safari cars and thousands of people. If a car tried to leave and go around people would chase them and throw stones. It would be really bad for a guide if he left and didn’t support his fellow guides. They really cooperate and communicate, letting each other know via radio where the animals are. So if a guide left he risked not getting that information and losing all of his business. Eventually some sort of official arrived and there was a big mob scene, everyone screaming and chanting and surrounding the official. He apologized and requested to speak with a smaller group. They essentially had a meeting in the middle of the desert, and after a half an hour at the very least they settled everything and we were able to go. I think around 4:30pm. We didn’t have time to do our planned Safari that day because we had to hurry to the next camp in Serengeti.

That camp was probably the worst, still not bad, but not great. The squat toilet was disgusting, better to just go in the bush. We didn’t get dinner until around 9pm, in the dark, (the cooks are usually at camp while we’re at safari so it’s all ready when we return) with rats running around the rafters and walls of the eating area. I didn’t sleep great that night, the hyaenas were right in the camp, and I heard something quite large right beside my tent, there were also zebras everywhere in camp.

Wednesday

We got up really early Wednesday, we were supposed to be up and out by 6am but we ran late and missed the sunrise. As we were eating breakfast someone noticed that there was an elephant in the camp. Everyone went over and some stupid people got way too close, I thought he was going to charge at them.

Serengeti was the best day of the trip. Just amazing amounts of animals! Quite early on we had a super pride (yes that’s the real name) of twenty-two lions cross the road right in front of our car, feet away. It was absolutely amazing, my favorite moment of the whole trip. We also were right in the middle of the great migration, thousands of zebras and wildebeast. There was always something to look at, seeing a giraffe became quite commonplace. We also saw a bunch of hippos in a pool and a small crocodile.

We then headed back to camp for lunch and to pack up the cars. To make up for the time we lost on the previous day, we did some sight seeing en route to the next camp. We saw three lazy lions sleeping on a rock. Someone had a flat tire really close to the lions, but they didn’t seem bothered. Then we got to see three cheetahs right up close, again right beside the car. Cheetahs are solitary so it’s really unusual to see so many, it was a mom and her cubs (but they were big, nearly full grown).  I’d talked to a man early who was traveling in the opposite direction and he had seen three cheetahs take down a wildebeast, so it must have been the same ones. They were tired and seemed to have full bellies. As we were driving someone noticed a lion just laying by the road so we stopped, and as we were stopped a male lion with a big mane walked right in front of us over to the female. She checked him out and sniffed him a bit, then turned him down! He stood and watched as she walked away. Eventually he followed after her.

{hopefully I can post a photo of him, but the internet is being too slow, TIA}

We then drove to Ngoro Ngoro crater. Our camp was up on the edge, and it was a pretty crazy road going up to camp. It was dark and raining by the time we got there. And really cold! I was not prepared for that weather, it was muddy and wet. We had another late dinner then headed to bed. I was really cold and everything was damp, but I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Thursday

Everything was cold and damp when we woke up at the edge of the crater. We were up and out before 6am and got to experience dawn in the crater. It was absolutely gorgeous. The animals of the Serengeti were my favorite, but the best scenery was by far Ngoro Ngoro. I took maybe one picture but was in too much awe, I just had to sit there and try to take it all in. We saw some black rhinos, from very far away though. There are only 16 left in Ngoro Ngoro crater. There are a couple in Serengeti, but I think all combined they total 25. We saw more lions up really close throughout the day. And there were hyaenas everywhere. Not phased at all by our cars. We stopped by a hippo pool for breakfast and there were these little yellow birds, and eagles, always swooping down to steal the food.

Then we had to go back up to camp, pack up and head home. After a couple hours we stopped for lunch at some unbelievably touristy shops. Then a couple more hours and we were back in Moshi town!

At first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go on safari, but I joined this trip at the very last minute, and I’m so glad I did! I was worried amount money, $620 seems like a lot here in Africa, but I realized that when I go home I can make that back in two weeks.


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Swahili for your thoughts:

Safari - travel
Tembo - elephant
Twiga - giraffe
Simba - lion

Jambo

4 weeks in! Time has flown by so far, I still feel like I've only just arrived.

Last week at Amani we had visitors from Canada, they raised $80,300! So school stopped for the day and we had a big party. The kids put on a gymnastics show and then a jump rope show, then we had a big cake and soda. It was crazy but fun, and I've got a ton of pictures!

We did percussion in music club last week, it was slightly overwhelming but the kids enjoyed it. I've actually never taught music before, so I'm just finding my way, the language barrier makes it a bit difficult. This week we did recorders. Yesterday was rough, I had the starters (kids who have just arrived off the street) and they are really difficult to control. Today I changed my approach a bit and it was great! The kids were good, they learned a lot, and are excited to learn more notes. I think I might do recorder again next week just because they really want to know more notes. In my second class today only one out of four kids showed up, so he got a private lesson, he was really good at it! This morning I actually lost my iPod on a dalla dalla, it might have been pick pocketed, but I think I just dropped it. So I was in a bad mood all day, but the kids changed that, class was great.

I am loving it here in Moshi town. I love the culture, I can't really describe why though. I feel like I fit in more here than I do in America. That doesn't really make sense though, since I stick out like a sore thumb. The hostel is great, it's nice having all these people to come home to, the lack of privacy actually isn't bothering me at all.

This is Kelvin on the left, one of the boys who came back with us from Arusha. And Jifti on the right, he gave me a mask on my first day, he's very sweet and smart!