Week 6: the Archeology week, and returning to Dar

This was probably my least favorite week, but that’s because I was sick to my stomach for the majority of it. We went to Laetoli, Olduvai Gorge, Ngorongoro Crater (where we even saw a rhino!) and Lake Eyasi. On Sunday we drove back to Dar, which took about 12 hours or so.

I have mixed feelings about being back in Dar. It is insanely hot and muggy. Now that students are back on campus it is crowded. After living with everyone for so long, it feels odd to sometimes go days without seeing someone, and I miss having the whole group together. On the other hand, it is both mango and pineapple season. For lunch I eat a big plate of fruit (which costs less than a dollar) and my host family has pineapple for dessert after dinner. I’m very happy about this.



For Thanksgiving, a lot of us went out to dinner at Addis-in-Dar, an excellent Ethiopian restaurant. Four of us split a bunch of different dishes which were served on one giant piece of bread, which we ate with more of the bread. This was followed by coffee (real coffee, not the awful instant stuff that’s generally around) and ice-cream. All in all it was a delicious meal in a beautiful location with people I very much enjoy being around -- a very worthy Thanksgiving dinner.

Weeks 2-5 of the Field: the Research Weeks

We stayed at Zion Camp near the small town of Olasiti, about 6km from Tarangire National Park. This was definitely not a remote campsite with wild animals wandering around, sadly. Our group had a corner of the campsite (which is surrounded by a stone wall) to ourselves, where our fleet of tents was set up – we were 3 students to a tent. Additionally, we had a building for eating and such. Since that was one of the few places with shade, we spent a lot of time in there.



The first week was spent doing very little; projects didn’t start until the second week. My original idea didn’t work out, so I had to come up with a new idea that week. I had two main priorities: to get the experience of spending many hours observing animals, and to be able to work pretty independently. So I ended up watching birds at a puddle near the park entrance. I’m not sure how my paper will turn out, but I got what I wanted out of it: I got to spend a good 50 hours at the puddle and didn’t have to deal with park entrance fees, translators, having a spot in a car, etc. Moreover, since birds are more active in the early mornings, this gave me a great excuse to get up early every day. I’d wake up at 4.50am, get a sandwich from Eric, one of our fantastic cooks, hop the wall and be on my way by 5. It was still dark out by then, and the stars and moon were amazing. Over the course of the hour it took to walk to the puddle, it would slowly get lighter, and by the time I arrived at Tarangire, I’d see a gorgeous sunrise. Those mornings were probably my favorite times in the field. At first I’d go alone, but the last week or so other people came with, which made it all the more enjoyable.



Basically, each day felt really long, but the time went past very quickly overall. Most days were pretty similar (which isn’t a bad thing) but there were some really fun occasions too, like Halloween. We all dressed up as well as we could and each tent gave out some kind of a treat, and at the end of the evening we made a fire.

Week #1 of the Field

On October 10th the group met up in Arusha. It was so nice to see everyone again, and hear about people’s breaks. Everyone seemed to have done something amazingly fun! In Arusha we stayed at a place called Kundayo, which had a room with leather couches and a huge TV, as well as multiple seasons of “Sex and the City.” After a week of bus travel, lounging around watching trashy TV was very nice!



Our first destination was Manyara National Park, followed by Serengeti. In the campsite we stayed at there, there were hyenas that walked around at night. While walking to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I could see eyes moving around when my headlamp hit them. It was kind of spooky but awesome as well. During the days, we went on game drives and saw a ton of animals: lions, cheetahs, leopards, zebra, hippos, etc. One day we also went to a kopje and wandered around it for a while before going to see some Maasai rock paintings. There isn’t a whole lot to say about this week, but it was quite possibly my favorite time in Tanzania.

Fall Break

For fall break, I ended up travelling around by bus. I like bus rides, but I’m not sure spending 50+ hours on Tanzanian busses is an experience I’m going to want to repeat anytime soon… And if I do, I’ll choose a bus company based on something other than its name. But then again, how can you pass up riding on “Spider Bus”?



My first trip was from Dar to Mwanza, on Lake Victoria. The bus left at 6am and within the first five minutes narrowly avoided crashing into a car with a “baby on board” bumper sticker. I had a seat in the very front so could see out the front window, which turned out to be somewhat terrifying; busses here seem to spend half their time in the wrong lane! Every few hours we stopped for bathroom breaks and to buy food from various vendors. I got a bunch of passion fruit to complement the biscuits and chocolate I’d stocked up on before leaving. All in all, the trip was fairly uneventful until we got to the Kenyan border (the bus went via Nairobi). We were dropped off by the immigration office, and after getting a transit via, I went to board the bus again. It wasn’t there, but someone pointed to across the border. Crossing the border on foot, under an unbelievably beautiful starry sky was fun. About 10 meters into Kenya, though, I was stopped by two men who insisted I pay a “gate fee” of $25. That was of course total BS, and once I realized I wasn’t buying it, they switched from trying to scam me to being very helpful and helped me find the bus. The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful.



My next bus, “Air Jordan,” was far more exciting and much less comfortable. In the early morning the drivers burned incense, which I’ve never seen in a bus before. Mid-morning, the bus broke down. About 10 minutes later it was fixed. After another hour or so, it broke down again. This time it took about 2 hours to fix, but it was fairly enjoyable – we were in a small town where I could sit by the road and eat bananas from the market and read. In the early afternoon, we broke down again, this time in a bus station of sorts in some town. Here I could not get out, because I’d immediately have a swarm of people trying to sell stuff surrounding me. So I sat on the hot bus, trying to stay clear of the baby puke on the floor, and read and sweated. Six-ish hours later, we left, only to break down a 4th time shortly afterwards… Busses in Tanzania aren’t allowed to travel between midnight and 4am, so we spent those hours in Babati. People were sleeping on top of one another; I had a stranger’s head on each shoulder for most of those hours. By the time we finally got to Moshi, I was thoroughly exhausted but very happy.