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Latitudes + Longitudes
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” - Mark Twain
6/2/16
Today was our last full day in Arusha (until the final day of the program) and tomorrow we will be headed to Olkarien. This morning, we received two facilitating lectures on giraffe. The first lecture was given by Monica Bond and Derrick Lee who mostly spoke about the the conservation of giraffe and other ungulates through the Wild Nature Institute. This institute primarily focuses on the science, education, and advocacy for African ungulate conservation and ways that people and wildlife can coexist. Our next lecture was by Dr. Cavener, Dean of the Eberly College of Science, who spoke about his collaborative Giraffe Genome Project (please read, link below!) with Morris Agaba of the Nelson Mandela African Institute for Science and Technology and many other. Their project : - discovers the genetic bases of giraffes' long necks and legs. - Identifies unique adaptations related to nutrition and disease. - deciphers evolutionary history of giraffe and okapi. - Plus more. Both lectures really gave me great insight about the scientific, economical, cultural, and social aspects of people and giraffe and how there is intersectionality in maintaining biodiversity. There was really no set agenda for the remainder of the day, so students had a chance to do whatever they wanted. Sophia, Janine, Vicky and I decided to discover the city of Arusha a little more a visited a few markets and stores. Through this experience, we really got to experience Tanzanian culture firsthand and learned a lot more Swahili. We also had a tour guide, Dickson, who was super helpful. During dinner time Anna, one of the course instructors, took us to one of her favorite restaurants in Arusha, Nic's. We all got chicken, fish, and chips and even heard some live music so it was awesome. That's all I have for today! Random Notes: 1. Apparently I'm a magnet for Tanzanian men lol. 2. Giraffe are essentially the mascot of Tanzania. 3. Please go read Dr.Cavener's Project @ https://giraffegenome.science.psu.edu 4. Holding your elbow when giving someone money shows a sign of respect in Tanzania. 5. I miss my mom. <3 6. I still can't get over the fact that I'm in Tanzania or Africa alone. Thanks to everyone for making this happen.
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6/1: Before we left Ndarakwai, we did have a chance to climb the small mountain I talked about in the previous blog post ! It was very exhausting and I made a huge mistake of wearing leggings instead of field pants and just had an abundance of ticks on me (remember that I'm terribly afraid of ticks). The drive to Arusha was a little long (almost three hours), but was very scenic on the way in. It was really interesting to just see how the landscape and environment changed so quickly as we left and went to a new place. When we arrived in Arusha, we came to a guest house called Outpost Lodge. It's really nice and the beds have mosquito nets, which I thought was pretty cool and just gave me a better perspective of how some people have to actually live to prevent mosquito borne diseases. Later during the day, we went into the city. They people are super nice, but we're very aggressive when it came to selling their items so sometimes it hurt me to say no. A lot of people just followed and talked to me (which I found to be weird at first, but they were just being friendly) and even complimented me on my Swahili. Lots of people actually thought I knew it fluently, so they just hammered me with the language. It was interesting to see how they characterized (for lack of a better word) me. A lot of people thought I was from Jamaica, but I informed them I was from the USA. They frequently called me their "sister from another mother" and just told me I could be one of them, which actually made me happy. I think coming to Arusha will definitely give me a more cultural and people aspect of things so I'm happy to be here!
Random Notes: 1. DO NOT TRY TO TAKE ANY PARTS OF A DEAD ELEPHANT. Or just don't take anything from the wild period. Leave nature in nature. 2. One of the acacia definitely pierced through my shoe and now I have a splinter in my foot. 3. I got side swiped by a car in Arusha. 4. I'm getting relatively ok at speaking Kiswahili. 5. I miss Ndarakwai 6. Tanzanian currency is pretty. The ratio is about 1 USD to 2100 Shilling. 7. If I ever make typos in these blog post, it's because I do type them on my phone and iPhone's autocorrect isn't the most dependable. 5/31 :
Yesterday we presented our notes and observations on baboons and monkeys (see photo attached). I think both groups did really well and got to experience how hard field work truly is. Later during the day we learned how to do vegetation plots. Vegetation plots essentially capture species diversity and abundance and how they change overtime. Today we finished the rest of our vegetation plots and then went over some articles we had to read. I am over summarizing, but the articles basically touched on the economic, political, social, and environmental aspects of Tanzanian wild life reserves. Later during the day, we hung out at the tree house and just watched some bird and wild life. Today is our last full day at Ndarakwai. My experience here has been unbelievable. The other students and I plan to climb one of the smaller mountains in the morning before breakfast then we will be heading to Arusha! So long Ndarakwai , but I'm looking forward to Arusha! 5/29
Yesterday we went on a bird hike where we saw and identified over 20 different birds. It was very cool to see how you can differentiate them based on barring, leg color, and beak type. Hearing the different noises different species make were also interesting. Later during the day, we went on a night safari drive (probably my most notable experience yet). We saw more Impala, wildebeast, spring hare, and even a giraffe! Halfway into our safari drive, our Land Rover broke down in the middle of the savannah and we had to get out and push it until we got it to turn back on. I literally thought we would get eaten by a leopard or something but I'm writing this so obviously we survived. Today, we tried to do a little field experience and analyzed the way different behaviors of baboons and Impala. For baboons, we tried to analyze how often mothers and older males watched after younger baboons or how alert the were to their surroundings. It wasn't that successful . For Impala, we analyzed the percent of time males herded females, ate, and guarded his herd. We also did the same for bachelor groups of male Impala. Our Impala data was probably way more reliable than our baboon data, but we'll see tomorrow! I've also been kind of sad we hadn't seen any elephant since we've been in Africa (their my favorite animal). However, while looking for our baboon, I quickly pointed out what I thought was fresh elephant poop. We finally realized I was right and we ended up seeing two elephant! Before we even saw them, our askari quickly stopped us and pointed out the elephant. He didn't want the elephant to see us, because they can be very dangerous and will charge without warning. We soon realized they were being guided by a ranger (and they they were orphaned). The ranger let the elephants wave at us with their trunks (I'm not kidding, they waved with their trunks!) and that was about the extent of our encounter. Random Notes: 1. The soup at Ndarakwai is delicious. 2. The past two days, I've seen three giraffe. 3. It's really weird, but I keep unconsciously reverting to Spanish when someone speaks Swahili to me (I spoke Spanish really really well once upon a time). 4. I don't have as many mosquito bites as I thought I would by now. 5. I've been wearing a jacket like everyday, it's colder here than what I thought. Day Two 5/27/16 :
What a long day! I woke up around 6, ate breakfast, and then went on an 8 AM hike with the group. On our hike, we identified different types of feces and assigned them to the correct animals, identified different paw/footprints, differentiated birds, and analyzed animal social behaviour. In the afternoon, we all had to present on a specific animal we were assigned (mine was elephant). Elephants are amazing mammals and happen to be my favorite animal also. After lunch, we set up a bonfire and just sat and had informal conversations. It doesn't sound like we did much today, but the hiking and presentations took up a lot of time and were very educationally beneficial. Tomorrow we'll be doing a bird hike so I'll be sure to tell you all about it. Random Notes: 1. My favorite part of today was definitely the hike. I saw a baby baboon being carried on its mama's back. My least favorite part of the day happened to also be an aspect of the hike; I had so many ticks on me and I'm like terrified of ticks. 2. Zebras are like the most beautiful animal ever. 3. There was definitely a monkey in our tent last night. I wasn't going crazy. 4. Bulls (male elephants) essentially rape cows (female elephants). Elephant gestation also lasts 22 months. 5. Cheetahs are actually scardy cats. 6. Hyenas are one of the most intelligent animals and are high up in the food chain. 7. Giraffes are very vulnerable to being eaten if knocked down. 8. The food is soooo good here. I woke up at about 4 a.m. (jet lagged) and watched the sunrise (I was also being entertained by my phone, because the wifi was working well) until about 6:30 a.m until there was enough light to walk. Everyone else was still asleep so I went on a short walk on my own, something I never would usually do in a place I'm unfamiliar with; but I mean I'm in Africa so why not ?! My walk was amazing, I ran into some of the Tanzanian camp staff (most didn't speak English, but I still tried to communicate) and even saw some more wart hogs and monkeys. I was frightened a little bit just being by myself and all, but I was safe. After about 20 minutes, I went back into my tent to shower. Contrary to what I thought, my shower was extremely hot (at times, too hot to handle) and everything was normal. I made sure to cut my shower time down to be ecologically conservative (something I should always be doing anyway). After showering, getting dressed, and waiting for the others we went to breakfast at 8 a.m. For breakfast we had mixed fruit, scrambled eggs, and bacon (it was delicious!). I had also managed to find an outlet to charge my phone even though at this point I stopped using it, because the wifi was spotty.
We had a small break and had to report back to our meeting spot at 9:30 for our first lecture. We learned some introductory information about Tanzania, the campsite, Massai, and a lot of other things. A few things I picked out was that there used to be conflict between Tanzania and Kenya simply because of Kilimanjaro. Kilimanjaro sits on Tanzanian territory, but sometimes Kenya would claim it as theirs to make profit, therefore hindering Tanzania's ability to profit. Another interesting thing we learned was about the relationship of the Massai people and other people of Tanzania; usually, they aren't treated as well as others. Of course we learned about more animals, plants, and national preservations , but I won't talk your head off about that stuff (if you really would like to know more, please feel free to ask me). Additionally, we learned some more introductory Kiswahili. At around 12:30, we ate lunch (spaghetti) and then headed out for our first safari! The safari was amazing (look at the pictures), we saw so many different types of animals and we could even see the snow on top of Mount Kilimanjaro at some points. We were out on our safari adventure for about two hours, then we came and ate dinner (pork, avocado, potatoes, string beans, banana fritters). Now, I'm in bed still trying to figure out what's wrong with the wifi but everything is still great. We have to be ready by 7 a.m. tomorrow morning, so I'll attempt to go to sleep now. Hear from me tomorrow when Day 2 in Ndarakwai begins! Random Thoughts: 1. Paul bought us all kokois (thank you, Paul!) 2. It's actually chilly in Tanzania; I wore my jacket and kokoi the whole day. 3. Bush babies like to steal your food. 4. Wart hogs can never keep still for a picture. 5. Safari rides cause you to be dusty. 6. We didn't see any elephants so I was disappointed. 7. Monkeys are terrorizing my tent at the moment. It's 2AM. I'm scared. I somehow managed to delete my previous post named "IAD," but that's okay. I just talked about the drive to the airport from RVA and the arrival of other students. Well after about 16 hours of flight time, we had finally made it to Tanzania. The flight to Amsterdam was not too bad and it wasn't my first time at that airport so I was familiar with it.
I know I didn't write a post while in Amsterdam, so I'll just tell you a little about it. While getting off the plane in Amsterdam, I was stopped by a Tanzanian man also going to Tanzania (he told me he was Tanzanian). He asked me if I was from Ghana, but I told him I was from America. He kind of just sat and smiled and asked me why I was going to Tanzania, so I told him. He seemed really excited that I was going and I told him it would be my first time in Africa. The conversation continued and he simply told me that I would love Tanzania. We arrived in Tanzania at about 8:00 p.m. local time and met up with the rest of the students and faculty (6 students, 4 faculty/older adults). We had to take about a two hour drive to our camp site, Camp Ndarakwai. Before arriving to our camp site, we met our driver, Petro, who is a native of Tanzania. He was super nice. The skies were very clear and we were able to see many stars and constellations on our way to camp; we even saw the Big Dipper. The drive was very interesting, because they drive on the opposite side of the road and their steering wheel is placed on the right side of he vehicle. I sat in the front of the van too, so it was pretty cool to watch and take it all in. About halfway there, the road turned into dirt and then from dirt to rocks. We arrived at around 10 p.m. and saw the reception area of our camping site which was beautiful. Soon after, we ate dinner (chicken and rice, cabbage, soup, salad, and custard) and it was so appetizing. We eat dinner in an outside type of area (I really don't know what you would call it, but it's nice) so that made seeing animals very accessible. In fact, while eating we saw a wart hog, bush baby, and some type of cat looking animal (forgive me for not knowing the exact species, I'll definitely know next time). Currently, we are all in our in our tents becoming accustomed to everything. The tents that we are staying in are not your normal type of tents. They include three twin size beds, a sofa, a few desk, and a walk in bathroom and shower, so they are huge. That's all I have for today. Tomorrow is our first official full day, so stay tuned for some great things. OTW to RVA (On the way to Richmond, VA). Well, I wrote this after I arrived home to Richmond, VA so I guess that means I'm really not "on the way." Anyway, I'm home now and the 5 hour drive turned into 8 due to traffic. I went home, because my plane leaves out of IAD (Dulles) and it's more convenient to leave from Richmond than State College. Packing the items that I need for Tanzania from State College was hard mainly because I suck at packing and I'm slow at it. This might be because I do things like this instead of packing: TWO MORE DAYS 'TIL TANZANIA. Catch me for my departure post.
It's only May 11th and I'm counting down the days until my study abroad trip! I'm still in State College working (PRCC and Auxiliary Police), so that's keeping me busy for now. After volunteering for PJAS (Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science), I plan to leave to go home (Richmond,VA) on May 17th, so I can spend a few days with my family. Plus, my flight leaves out of D.C. so being in Richmond is more convenient. I've been doing a lot of things to prepare for this trip to Tanzania. In fact, one month ago I bought my VISA, because there's is a little different from some other countries. In order for me to get a VISA to enter Tanzania, I needed to send my Passport to their office located in Washington D.C. They processed it and I got it back a few weeks later. Here's what it looks like : Cool right!? Aside from that, I've really been stressing out about what to pack for my trip. It'll be winter there (still mid 70's) but my thing is I'm there for three weeks and can only really bring one week's worth of clothes. For me, this is the ultimate challenge, so I'll let you all know how that goes. Aside from that, I'm really not too excited about taking my Malaria pills or having to get a Yellow Virus vaccine. There are 125+ languages spoken in Tanzania, but Kiswahili is the official language. As a result. I've been doing some google searches on some common Swahili words and phrases in hope that I can communicate effectively with the people of Tanzania and to show them how interested I am in their language and culture. People often ask me if I'm scared of going to Tanzania and I really never understood why. I feel like a large portion of the world has a huge misconception about Africa and that needs to change (here's a video that Penn State's African Student Association made that kind of talks about this). Overall, I have a positive mindset about Africa and I would say I know a good amount of information about the country itself. However, you can never enough and I'm sure may have some misconceptions about the country as well. I think the most exciting aspect of this trip for me is living standards. Unlike most study abroad programs, I'll be staying in tents for most of the time and I am so excited about that! I just think it will be nice to not be so technologically dependent and to learn to appreciate the things I have even more. I am also really excited to just observe, compare, and analyze certain aspects of Tanzania and how I can relate it to the Diaspora and other things. I think that's all for now though. Stay tuned for more! I literally get asked this so much and it surprises me! So, I'll clear this up a bit... Here is Tanzania! Tanzania, officially known as the United Republic of Tanzania, is located in Eastern Africa. The word "Tanzania" is derived from the names of the two states, Tanganyika and Zanzibar, that unified the country. Tanzania is bordered by Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. It is composed of 30 regions with Dodoma being the capital and Dar es Salaam being the major commercial city.
The official currency of Tanzania is the Tanzania Shilling and the National Language is the Kiswahili; English is also widely used in official communication. According to the Tanzanian Government Portal, Tanzania is one of the least developed countries in Africa. On the other hand, it has a large potential for growth and development. With its natural resources, economic, and investment policies in due time it can become one of the most developed countries in Africa. Overall, Tanzania is a vibrant country with a dynamic democracy that is "committed to good governance, rule of law, and respect for human rights (Tanzania government Portal). " For more information regarding Tanzania, visit their website. Sources : http://www.tanzania.go.tz |
Whitney BrownI'll try to update this as much as possible. however, I may have trouble with internet connection while abroad. Stay tuned! |