Safari Summary

Hey everyone! Just got back from Safari so I thought I’d fill you in!

Safari was amazing! 

After placement and lunch on Friday, 16 of the volunteers were picked up in a convoy of Toyota Land Cruisers and off we went!  We stopped in Arusha (the big city about an hour away from Moshi) to pick up some snacks from a grocery store that somewhat resembled an American style grocery store.  They amazingly had Pringles and Cadburys!   

We got going again.  Our next stop was an hour or so down the only paved road for miles.  As we went along our guide suddenly pulled over and said “look to your right”.  I would have never noticed that 20 feet away from the road were 3 elephants just snacking on some trees!  We weren’t even in a national park or anything yet! I’m telling you, Africa is wild!

At around 6pm we veered off the paved road onto a dirt road in a small town.  A little while later we turned off the dirt road onto a (for lack of a better explanation) dusty trail toward a Maasai village.  The Maasai are just one of the tribes that live in Tanzania.  They are known for being brave warriors and the Maasai men used to have to hunt and slay a lion to enter into manhood.   The village contained about 12 huts surrounded by a fence made of thorny tree branches.  When we first arrived only the women and children were around because the men were out herding cattle.  When they returned, one of the Maasai tribesmen showed us the inside of his hut.  Honestly, it was horrible. These people live so so primitively! I understand that it’s all that they’ve every known and they’re perfectly happy, but it’s still hard to imagine people live like that. 

The hut itself was made using a frame of sticks covered in a mixture of soil, water, and dung.  Later on, I was talking to some of the girls about the huts and they were talking about all the cockroaches on the walls and ceiling…my skin was instantly crawling!  Honestly, had I known that I was walking into a den of cockroaches, well, I mean I wouldn’t have even gone in!  I also learned that the Maasai drink a mixture of cows blood and milk…sick.  In fact, the large majority of their diet is milk, meat, and blood. 

The kids in the village loved to have their picture taken!  That was the only English word they knew – “Pictah Pictah!”  After you took their picture they would run towards you and grab your arms in order to see themselves on your display screen.  I will definitely have to post some pictures of them!

We finally arrived at our camp site and were pleased to find out how nice it was!  Budget camping wasn’t roughing it at all!  It was 2 people to a tent and there were actually beds in the tents! Not even cots, BEDS!  On top of that, we had running water, showers, and there was electricity in the picnic area.  We had an awesome dinner followed by a bonfire and boxed wine (yes, oddly enough, even Africa has boxed wine)!  Honestly, it felt more like a weekend at Maple Lake than a safari campsite in Tanzania!

We woke up bright and early the next morning, ate breakfast and jumped in the Land Cruisers.  I had just turned my iPod to “The Circle of Life” when we crossed into the Ngoragora Crater National Park and immediately to our right was a whole fleet of baboons!  The rest of the day only got better!  We were 200 meters down in this crater surrounded by steep walls watching nature with binoculars!  Some of the time the animals got so close to the car I could probably touch them…with a longish stick.  We saw zebras, warthogs, flamingos, cranes, wildebeests, buffalos, giraffes, hippos, hyenas, ostriches, gazelles, a black rhino, an elephant, some other monkeys, lions, and a cheetah!  It was an amazing day and just like The Lion King!

The next morning we drove to the Terangeri National Park for some more safari!  Mostly, we just saw tons and tons of elephants!  I saw baby elephants, mama elephants, teenage elephants, and so on.  We also saw zebra, gazelle, ostrich, and more monkeys.  The only thing I didn’t see was a leopard, but I think I’ll live!  On the way back to Moshi we stopped once again in Arusha and had the opportunity to take a camel ride!  Naturally, I took that opportunity!  What I learned is that camels are sort of huge-ish and not that friendly. 

After the camel ride we headed for the home base.  The real cherry on top of the whole weekend was the view of Mt. Kilimanjaro on the way back!  Since I’ve been in Moshi there has been too much cloud coverage to see the peak and this was my first real sight of it!  It was honestly a perfect weekend, but I was exhausted!  I think I went to bed at 9:30, maybe for the first time since I was in elementary school. 

In conclusion, as requested by an anonymous commenter, here is a haiku about safaris:

Hippopatamus

Why are you so elusive?

 Binoculars please!