The Circle of Life

      If someone a year ago were to come up to me and say, “A year from now you will be going on an African Safari” I would've said "Shut the front door!". The safari we did was a 4 day/3 night camping safari, were we camped at each park we went to. On Friday July 6 (little late on the post, Ha!), 28 of us piled into 4 trucks and headed out to our first stop, Lake Manyara!

            When we first got to Lake Manyara area, we set up our campsite, had a delicious lunch (the food on Safari was incredible!), than headed out for the first full safari. Excitement started filling the truck as we were heading into the park, literally like kids on christmas morning. Lake Manyara was filled with tons of Monkey's, Baboons, Giraffes, Zebras, Elephants and so much more! 

                                                           

   

   Everyone from our truck                                              

After Lake Manyara, we headed back to our campsite for a delicious dinner. During the safari we had 2 cooks cooking breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food that they cooked was so delicious. Every morning we had eggs, fresh pinapple and mango, coffee (instant through), tea, hot coco, toast with butter and jam. Then for lunch, they made us lunch boxes with a sandwich, like half a chicken (no joke, also best chicken I have had here), juice, chocolate, little pastry, and fruit. Then for dinner they would make us soup (AMAZING!), then have either fish, chicken, spaggetti, veggies, wine :), then of course fresh fruit again. After Dinner, there was african music and dancers for some entertainment, sadly didn't get a picture. Then we all headed back to our tents for the night. The next morning, we had some breakfast, packed up our tents and gear then headed out for the Serengeti!

The View on the drive

Maasai huts on the way

The drive to the Serengeti took us about 4 hours and the road was all dirt and bumpy the entire way there, but the view was beautiful. We saw tons of maasai villages and maasai people walking along the road. I wish I could of gotten a picture of the maasai we saw, but they get very upset if you take a picture without asking and they want you to pay. Once we got to the Serengeti boarder, there were white markers across the plain, so I asked Chui (our guide) why that was and he said that the Maasai are not aloud to live or step foot in the Serengeti, so those were there to remind them of the boarder. We drove a little bit further to the park entrance, were we had to get our permit to get in the park. While we were waiting for all that stuff to be filled out, us volunteers went on this little nature hike that over looks the Serengeti Plains. It was pretty breath taking because you can see for miles and you can just feel how peaceful it is. After getting the permit to enter, we started our trek into the Serengeti. 

The nature hike over looking the Serengeti

Alena, Me, Ashley, Katie

       

 After the first leg of our Serengeti trek, we headed to the campsite to set up camp (that's right, we camped in the Serengeti! Whoop whoop!) and to have some dinner. After dinner the guides prepared us for the next day and also warned us about going the bathroom in the middle in the night, for hyenas come into the campsites looking for food. If we see yellow eyes, we are to stay in our tent and hold it, for its probably a lion or a hyena. I kind of had a little bit of anxiety just thinking about possibly a lion or hyenas coming into our campsite and the only thing separating us from them is a thin tent... Later that night we were woken up by the Hyenas calls and something was scratching at all of our tents. 

The next morning we woke up at 5:45am to head out for the Serengeti sunrise game drive! There is nothing like a African sunrise. And yes the Circle of Life song was playing in my head the entire time. 

After the Sunrise, we started the morning game drive. We drove around for quite sometime scanning the horizons hoping to see a lion, cheetah, or leopard take down its breakfast. As much as you say awe poor zebra, gazel, wildebeast, etc. the fact is you really want to see it. I mean let's face it, that would be really awesome and one hell of a story. Unfortunately we did not get to see such a show but eventually caught up with a cheetah family. Let me just take this time to say that our guides on this trip had eyes like a hawk. We would be far away from something, something that looked like a dot to us, and Chui our guide would stop the truck, scan the horizon, point to it and say that is a lion, rhino, cheetah, etc. We of course are like what the heck are you talking about? but when he would take us over there, sure enough that is exactly what it was. Amazing! So this is exactly how we found our cheetah friends. Cheetahs are such beautiful animals and if they were friendly (not attack me), I would go cuddle with them. It first started out with just one cheetah scanning the savannah, most likely looking for breakfast, then all of a sudden another cheetah came out from the grass, then there were 3... 4... then eventually 5 of them. 

After we chilled with the cheetah's we headed out to see some more. Which, consisted of mainly Zebras, gazelles and hippos. Chui then saw a bunch of Safari jeeps gathering in a certain area and was determined it was because of a Lion, so we told him to step on it and to get us over there because this was going to be our first Lion siting. When we got there, literally every jeep in the park was camped out watching the lions. There were two female lions relaxing in the shade then one female lion carrying a freshly killed zebra. I was bummed that we didn't see her take down the zebra, but watching her carry it was pretty remarkable, she was working hard. You go girl! Whoop! Whoop! 

 

The Serengeti was by far my favorite out of the three parks we visited. There is a certain peace about it, that while we were driving through i was so content in my mind. Over the past year I have always had something in the back of my mind, even when I was at placement, I was constantly thinking of ways to help. I finally was able to really step out of my head, tell my mind to shut up for a couple days and just enjoy the moment. 

The last park we visited was the Ngorogoro Crater. This was my favorite campsite because we camped on top of the crater were the stars were so bright and an Elephant came onto our campsite while we were eating dinner and started drinking out of our water tank. Sadly I didn't get a picture :( 

           

 

Safar jeep with Chui our guide and Willam our cook!

               

Massive Update

     Sorry it’s been awhile… These past 2 weeks have flown by! As of Thursday I have been in Africa for a month and still have 2 weeks to go, and let me just say if it weren’t for school, I would be extending my time here. This experience has been so incredible, that the thoughts of leaving soon make me tear up.

Ceremony

     A couple weeks ago, us volunteers at Hillcrest got invited to a Maasai Circumcision Ceremony… Our teacher Elizabeth is Maasai (Issac isn’t) and her littlest brother was going through the ceremony, which is a big deal in the Maasai culture for it’s said that the boy becomes a man. I’m sure reading this you are probably thinking that shouldn’t this happen when he is born… Well he is 16. The Maasai don’t circumcise their boys until they reach age 12. This ceremony and procedure only happens every seven years, meaning one every generation. So the ages for this procedure can range from 12 to 30. This story gets more interesting.

            So when we first got there, we were greeted by the boy’s father (Elizabeth’s dad) and were told that all visitors are to try the traditional Maasai food. Here in Africa, it is rude to decline the offer, so we put on our happy faces and said yes. I really wish we said No… When the food was handed to us, Issac started explaining that it was soil milk with cooked maze. We all looked at each other with the most scared faces, but sucked it up and took the first bite. This was the most AWFUL thing I have ever tasted, all of us could barley choke it down. Thankfully Issac said that we didn’t have to finish it, and then after we were served a delicious meal that I gladly ate. As we were eating our dinner, Issac explained a lot about the Maasai culture and the ceremony that was about to take place. This is were things started getting very interesting…  As I noted before, the Maasai boys do not go through this ceremony until they reached 12, but the ceremony only happens every 7 years. The ceremony starts with prayer then all the Maasai go outside and surround the boy, start dancing and chanting around him, they do this for a good hour. The Maasai have their own language, so Issac had to get what they were saying translated. During the chants they were telling the boy how they were going to do the procedure and that it is going to be very painful but you can’t show fear, you have to be strong and courageous.  After the ceremony they take the boy into the forest and perform the procedure, then the boys wear all black, paint their faces white and can’t return back home for 3 months. During those 3 months, they have to live on their own, provide for themselves, and after the 3 months are up, they have to bring a cow to the family to show that he has completed the task and is now a man. If a Maasai boy goes to the hospital to get the procedure done, then he is banished from the family and is considered to no longer be Maasai. I wish I got a picture of our faces when Issac was telling us this; we all had the look of disbelief and just complete shock. We all understand that this has been a tradition in the Maasai for years, but it’s just hard to get over how barbaric it is.

Maasai surrounding the boy

About to take the first bite

 

Ewwww

           Even though it was hard to wrap our heads around the fact of what was going to happen to this boy in the forest, we were all really happy that we got to come to this ceremony and see a part of the Maasai culture that most people don’t get to see. 

Shanga

     

“Shanga Shangaa was founded as a for-profit company to create a community that would support and empower those Tanzanians who have been marginalized by their disabilities. By providing an open and safe environment, disabled Tanzanians are able to realize their potential, develop new skills, build relationships based on respect and improve their own lives.”

         Shanga is a little slice of heaven here in Arusha. It is known for their glass blowing and their relaxing environment. You can come to Shanga just to enjoy the relaxing vibe and check out all the wonderful art and glass or you can also enjoy a nice lunch at the restaurant that is part of shanga as well. One Sunday, Ashley, Rachel and I decided to head to Shanga to have lunch and to see this wonderful place. When you first arrive, you are greeted with champagne in the garden, were there are monkeys freely running around. You then go inside to the restaurant and have a 4-course meal. Our first course was a choice between spinach soup and tomato ginger soup. The second course was Samosa’s with Mango Chetni (most likely spelled that wrong). Our third course was a salad bar and our choice of BBQ meat. Then last but not least, our fourth course was dessert that consisted of coffee, fruit and a little pastry thing. The food was incredible, probably the best I have had yet in Tanzania. We got this lovely four-course meal for only 25,000 Tanzanian shillings, which converted to USD, is only $15 USD!!!! This type of meal in the states would be close to over $100 USD. After the lovely lunch, we hopped into the group that was touring the glass blowing areas. Some of the glass that they blow and the art that they make is in incredible and so beautiful. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough money to get anything, but more of a reason to return to the beautiful shanga. 

New Faces

     On July 1^st TVE/IVHQ received close to 40 new volunteers. And 8 of them came to the new house. So now we have 12 volunteers living in the new volunteer house and they are all girls! Everyone is manly from the US, Australia, and the UK, and we all get along very well. Every night we are cracking up at someone or something. Here is a photo of some of the girls from our house and then a picture of all the volunteers during social night.  

I will have a post about Safari soon!! 

           

  

                 

Placement

When I first got here to Arusha I was placed at an orphanage called Hope Orphanage Centre with 2 other volunteers from my house, Ashley and Xing (pronounced Shing). This orphanage has 12 kids who live there prementally but kids from the surrounding area come for basic schooling and English. Orphanages here in Tanzania work differently than what most people expect. Tanzanians are a very family oriented culture, for example, they will refer to you as sister or friend. If a child’s parents have left, passed away, etc. the extended family member will take in the child, or if there isn’t an extended family member then a neighbor usually will take in the child. But most of these families do not have enough money to provide or give basic needs to the child, so the children who are affected by this will come to get basic schooling and food. We were only at Hope for 3 days because the staff was making it very uncomfortable for us, the teacher kept trying to get us to do business with her and it became very frustrating. So we were able to switch to a placement called Hillcrest, which is a school.

            Hillcrest has about 20 kids, ranging from 4-7 years old and they are the cutest! We get up everyday at 6:45 am and start walking up to our placement around 7:30. When we get to placement we usually welcome the class and then start with either the alphabet or counting. The teacher Elizabeth has been sick with malaria, so she hasn’t been able to come to the school, but her husband has been watching over the school while we teach. I must say all those child development classes that I took are definitely paying off! The only draw back is of course the language barrier, but with their basic English and Issac to help we have been able to communicate, as well as learn some new Swahili words.  

On our first day, Stephanie, the volunteer who has been there for 3 weeks, organized a doctor’s to come out and test all the kids for HIV and Malaria. How the doctor’s test this is they prick their finger and then apply the blood to two different testing sticks. Everyone tested NEGATIVE for HIV!!! WHOOO HOO! But a little girl named Winnie, tested positive for Malaria. Stephanie paid for the doctor’s time and the medicine for Winnie to knock the Malaria out of her system and then Ashley and I pitched in some money to help. Here in Arusha only 3-4% have HIV, which is very low compared to other parts of Tanzania. For example, Dar Es Salam is 45% of the population has HIV.  Some of the other volunteers at the volunteer house (Sophie and Lauren), did the same thing, were they set up a doctor to come to the orphanage they volunteer at to test the kids and one tested positive for HIV and he is only 4… Sophie said that it was pretty hard to sit there and see that this 4-year-old boy has a disease that will change his life and there is a high chance that he might not get the medicine that he needs.  Tanzania has free health care for children under 5 years old but since he is 4 he might only get free medicine for 6 months and then his parents might not be able to afford the medicine. Tanzania gets aid from western countries, but the rumor is that number will be decreasing.

My trip has opened my eyes in so many ways, and I am so happy to be able to have this experience!