Before going to Serengeti, we stopped off at Ngorongoro Crater, more affectionately known by SFS students as a big bowl full of animals!
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| The view from above (it was very chilly) |
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| Water buffalo, wildebeest, zebra, and Thomson's gazelle! |
We only spent a couple hours in the crater before we left for Serengeti (which I fell asleep for and promptly woke up right before we reached the gate)! We did a game drive on the way to our camp. About twenty minutes in, the car I was in got a flat tire so I got to stand out in the middle of Serengeti. You normally aren't allowed to be out of your vehicles in national parks, and if you're caught, you get a huge fine (I can't remember if I already mentioned this so sorry if I'm repeating myself)!
After all the chaos, we got to camp at nightfall. The sunset in the Serengeti is beautiful. I wish we were allowed to stay out a little longer so that I could get more vibrant colors in the picture, but I'm still pretty happy with what I have.
For all four days we were there, we ate our meals out of tuppeware containers and had to use headlamps at night so we could see the food! If we wanted to go to the bathroom after dark, we had to have a guard (askari) guide us. I shared my tent with three other girls and it was surprisingly warm in our tent. It wasn't the most comfortable though...I probably woke up at least 10 times each night!
A lot of animals roamed through our camps at night, including baboons, hyenas, lions, and elephants! When I woke up Tuesday morning, there was an elephant by the kitchen pulling leaves off a tree. It was really peaceful watching the bull. If I had a chair and a cup of coffee, I would have been set!
Serengeti was exciting because I got to see all the big cats! The leopards were always far away and blended into the trees, making them very hard to spot, even with binoculars. There were a lot of lions! Mostly lionesses. I only saw male lions from far away. We got really close to a lone lioness one day. There was another car right in front of her, and when they finally pulled away and our car moved up, she became unhappy and roared! Everyone in my car ducked down, but my brain did not register any fear or anxiety for the current situation and, as a result, allowed me to take this great picture:
One car was lucky enough to see a cheetah kill one afternoon, but by the time my car got there, the cheetahs had disappeared with their prize. I was worried I wasn't going to be able to see them, but when we drove out of the park on the last day, I finally got to see 5 of them!
Of course, I enjoyed seeing many of the elephants. Out of the 400 pictures I took, probably 200 of them are of elephants!
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| Finally got a good baby pic! |
Leaving the park was bittersweet: I was ready to go back to camp so that I could sleep on a bed and take a shower (I didn't shower once during the four days we were at the park!) and have clean clothes, but I was sad to leave such a breathtaking place. You could be driving down one of the roads and on the left there would be endless, yellow plains and on the right there would be a riverine habitat surrounded by luscious green trees. At night, you could see so many stars, including the Milky Way, and you just felt small (in a good way) because things so much more brilliant than you existed. I wish everyone had the opportunity to go to the Serengeti. I think the world would be a much happier place!
Today we had a non-program day and it was jam-packed! In the morning I went to a batik lesson held by one of the gentlemen in the community. Batik started in Indonesia, but this guy brought it from Uganda to Tanzania and it was really beautiful! It's a technique that uses waxes and dyes. It's kind of hard to explain, but very easy to execute! The outlines he gave for us were very simple, but the ones he made and sold were very intricate. They were all so great that I ended up buying a piece for myself! It's called Drum Dancing.
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| An example of what batik looks like (not mine)! |
In the afternoon I went on an elephant cave hike. There weren't any elephants (a lot of elephant dung though!), but it was still a great hike with amazing views! It wasn't nearly as extenuating as the waterfall hike we took at the beginning of the session, so that was a relief, because I'm nowhere near in shape.
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| I was pretty excited about my walking stick! |
After the hike, me and some other girls headed to Mtu wa Mbu to go to the Maasai market. I brought some things with me that I don't want to bring back to the States to trade so that was a fun twist to the haggling scene! One vendor wanted the pants I was wearing! I luckily avoided that scenario, and got the sign I wanted for a decent price. I also ended up getting a bracelet for a mechanical pencil and 500 shillings (25 cents!) so that was probably my most exciting trade!
When we got back to Rhotia, some of us stopped at the tailor's to pick up our things. When we were walking back to camp, a little girl, probably no more than 3 or 4, came up to us and held our hands. She kept counting moja, mbili, tatu (one, two, three). At first we didn't know what she wanted us to do, but then we realized that once she got to three, she wanted us to lift her in the air. So we did all the way down the road, but then we got pretty far away from where she met us and we didn't want to get her too far away from home so we had to try to explain to her that we were leaving, but she kept say "nuh uh." It was insanely cute!
It was my banda mate's birthday so we got to do another fun birthday dance (my legs didn't hurt as much this time)! Each night, a student has to give a presentation on anything of their choice. Usually we just play games, but tonight the boys (only 5 of them!) danced to N'Sync's Bye Bye Bye. It was really amusing! I have to present again tomorrow, so it will be a tough act to follow!
All in all, it's been a busy, crazy, fun few days here in Tanzania. It's crazy to think that I leave next Tuesday!
Kwaheri!
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