Brr, It's Cold in Here!

Unfortunately, I have no exciting pictures today. After tomorrow I definitely will though. We are taking our first trip to the Lake Manyara National Park where we will spend the entire day counting animals and observing giraffes for our upcoming projects!

Yesterday was our first real day at camp. We had two sessions of class. During the first session, we met our professors and learned about their interests. There is Bridget teaches wildlife management, Kioko who teaches ecology, and Mwamhanga who teaches policy.

We had a break between the two classes so we ate lunch and I went intown with some of the other students. Some of the girls from the first session took us to the local tailor. I found this really cool fabric that has giraffes and zebras on it so I asked the tailor to make pants out it! I also bought fabric for a shuka. A shuka is just fabric that the Maasai wrap around themselves to keep them warm. I slept with it last night and it was super cozy. Unfortunately, it is winter in Tanzania, and despite the close proximity to the equator, it will be getting colder throughout my stay.

On our walk home from town, we passed a group of school girls who were excited to see that one of us had our iPhones out. They like taking pictures on them. Lily, a girl from the last session, said  I they don't always takes pictures (picha), sometimes they just like to change the camera settings! The children here get extremely excited to see us, and they usually say hi and ask us what our names are.

We resumed classes and started learning about conservation in Tanzania and Africa in general and we were already introduced to our first assignment. It doesn't seem too difficult--we have to look at habitat choice of the animal of our choosing (big surprise, I'll probably choose elephants).

By 3 o'clock, the sun came out and most of us sat outside to soak it up. The sun doesn't seem to be out too much, but it comes out, you can definitely feel it. I think the weather is the most surprising part about Tanzania so far. I definitely thought it was going to be warmer. And in the mornings it might be nice to have a warmer jacket. I guess I just got caught up in the idea that because Tanzania is in Africa, it would be blazing hot 24/7.

Kwaheri for now (and I'll be back with pictures)!