Safari!

What a crazy day on so many levels!

We just got back from our trip to the Ngorongoro Crater, which was both amazing and frustrating. We got to see zebras, wildebeests, water buffalo, giraffes (not inside the crater), hyenas, warthogs, flamingos, lions, elephants and hippos - all of which was completely awesome.

On the way there we passed lots of little villages and shops, including Maasai "cultural bomas". These, growing rapidly in number, are small clusters of Maasai huts, just off the road which are geared at attracting tourists. The deal is that a group pulls over, pays a fee to get into the boma, gets shown around, takes as many pictures as they want, and is then shown to the gift shop... Because of the way that land is being bought up, indigenous groups like the Maasai (who are pastoral) are being pushed out of and off of land they previously were free to roam. They are struggling to survive using the methods they have always survived on, and have turned to tourism, much like the rest of the country.

The Ngorongoro Crater is a conservation area - a term that in the west we tend to think of positively, but has had negative repercussions here. The Maasai, previously used the Crater for grazing their cattle, but now are facing restrictions on their use of the land. They are allowed to live within the conservation area, but not within the Crater. They may only enter the crater between the hours of 6 am and 4 pm, just like the tourists. Our driver, mentioned that some people are trying to move in the direction of making the Crater and National Park, which would mean no one is allowed to live there at all. The biggest argument the Maasai use to hold their ground against being pushed out, is that the park employees (rangers) are also living within the conservation area. But, we passed an apartment complex on the way in, just outside the conservation borders, that is going to house park staff and their families...

All of this makes me wonder what role we are playing as tourists going on safari. Are we supporting the country, by putting money into its greatest means of income? Or are we helping to promote and perpetuate a process which is making life for the indigenous peoples of this country impossible?

On our way our of the park, we stopped at one of the 4 hotels on the rim of the crater, the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge. In 2005 it was named 2nd best hotel in the world by a British travel magazine. It was the most lush and extravagant place I have ever stepped into! The rooms were shaped like clusters of Maasai huts, and decorations were matched accordingly, trying as best as possible to look African while remaining excessively comfortable. I asked our guide what it cost to stay there - brace yourself - - - $1150 per night per person. And they were completely booked. Of course, if you would like to come during the low season the price would be reduced by half... The amount of money that tourism brings into the country is astonishing, but I have yet to see where it is used in supporting the people who live here.

Days 2 and 3

On our second day in Arusha we visited a coffee farmer and his family, and got to see the whole process in action. Some of you know that I don't drink coffee, but I couldn't say no to the beans we had just harvested and roasted ourselves - and it was amazing!! If we had this coffee back in the states, I might be convinced to start drinking.


(Steven, our TCDC group leader; Bryanna, my roommate;
and Mussa, the coffee farmer)


During our morning lecture I had been amazed at the way Steven had talked about ecological sustainability today. His passion about our need to provide for ourselves and support the environment is so much greater than anyone I have ever met in the United States - and we (Westerners) are the ones at greater fault for the damage that has been done to our earth. Both Steven and the coffee farmer that we met talked about all of the ways that they make use of their land. They grow coffee with bananas, but also in recent years have been competing to see who can plant the most trees to be used for timber - and they are both at a standstill because neither has room for any additional plants.

After the coffee farm, we had lunch at a local restaurant which serves traditional African dishes. The place itself is beautiful, and after commenting so to the woman who runs it I learned that the idea behind her business was also. She made the comment in passing that this wasn't even her profession, and so I asked what it was - meteorology. She said she wanted to open up this restaurant so that she could show other people in the village that they could open and manage their own businesses, that a successful business could be run by a Tanzanian. And it has worked. She is currently expanding, to open a cafe in a neighboring building, which has the 4 bedrooms to accommodate guests. I am amazed that a person would go to such lengths and put their own comfort at risk in order to prove to their community that they were capable of doing the same.





The third day we visited another farm. I had originally thought that we were going to be harvesting either maize (corn) or soy beans, but it turned out that we were just in time to get in on some sunflower action. We cut down and collected the flowers, which were bigger than my head, and then de-seeded them by beating the flower repeatedly with a stick until all of the seeds fell out. By the time we had finished everyone had new blisters and fingers died the purple from the seeds!


Like the coffee farmer, this family talked about the way they planted all of their crops on the same land, but harvested them separately. Because each plant has it's own season for harvest they could grow together. This also helps to insure an income for the family, because if one crop does not produce what was expected they still have the others to rely on.

I'm here!

I made it into Kilimajaro airport on Tuesday night, after spending 8 hours on both my flight to Amsterdam and Tanzania. It was a long day, and a struggle to try and keep myself awake so that I would be tierd enough to sleep once we landed, but I haven't had any problems with jetlag.

We are staying at a place called TCDC (Training Center for Development Cooperation) in Arusha. The facility is amazing! I'm scared that we will all be in for a shock when we have to move to Dar es Salaam and into the dorms... Chris, being the only guy, has a single to himself as well as Shanea because we have an odd number of girls - the rest of us have paired off and are sharing rooms. My roommate, Liz is also a student at Olaf, starting her junior year. Each room is furnished with desks, a closet, two beds, two mosquito nets and a bathroom with a real, or rather Western, toilet(!). If you have ever dreamed of sleeping in a canopy bed, the mosquito nets here are pretty dang close. Liz and I have both decided it's like sleeping in your very own fort.

Our first day in arusha started with a lecture, introducing us to Tanzania. We break everyday at 10 for chai, an excellent tradition, and afterwhich we were troduced our new mode of transportation for the next two weeks... a 10 person van. The problem is that we have 10 students, 2 professors, and a guide. We have it worked out that Chris and the guide share the front seat, while the other 11 of us squish into the back which is esentially two benches along either side of the car. Some combinations of butts work better than others, but we haven't quite mastered the art of cramming inside yet, and inevitably one or two people have to spend the ride leaning forward into the middle of the van in order to accomodate all of our bodies.

We drove to a nearby lake where we got our first Kiswahili lesson (greetings, introductions, thank you's, etc.) and had lunch. After that we took a walking tour of Arusha, went to a food market, and then traveled to two other markets which had more crafts and clothing type items.

At the first market I was awakened to the fact that my name is very problematic. A guy approached Liz and me, and introduced himself saying "Jina langu ni Joseph" (my name is Joseph) and then extending his hand, asking me my name. So I relpied "Jina langu ni Siri" which I thought meant "My name is Siri", but actually translates to "My name is secret." Thankfully he laughed, thinking that I was joking with him. But even as he continued to walk and talk with us (he spoke some English) he kept randomly saying "siri ako". I would ask him what it meant, and he would just look at me, confused, and say "You don't know?" without ever answering me. After peicing more of the language together I realized a few days later that (he thought) I had denied telling him my name and he had been walking around shaking his head saying "your secret... your secret". Every family that we have met since then has remarked in disbelief "Siri?! Really? Siri?" Our guide has had a fun time teasing me about it and decided that when people at the Univeristy ask my name I should reply in disbelief "My name?! My name is secret!"