Lions and Zebras and Monkeys, Oh My!

As I mentioned in my previous post, earlier this month I went on safari with one of my fellow Mbeya PCVs, Tracy, and her sister, Kaye, who was visiting from the United States. I met up with Tracy and Kaye in Moshi, a beautiful city in northern Tanzania that is home to Mount Kilimanjaro:

The view of Mount Kilimanjaro from downtown Moshi.

From Moshi, the safari company drove us to the Ngorongoro Crater. We did a tour of the Crater the afternoon we arrived and then spent the night in one of the camp sites. We were not exactly roughing it, as the safari company takes care of all of the work: the driver set up our tents, cots, mats and sleeping bags and the cook prepared and served our meals. While we were eating dinner, an elephant wandered up next to the dining hall (unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me). I’m convinced the safari guides slipped a little something to the Maasai locals to bring in the elephant to thrill the wazungu tourists and make sure they felt like they were getting their money’s worth.

The entrance to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Posing at the Ngorongoro entrance. Naturally, I assumed this sign was too small to fit “except for the monkeys”, so I kept some bananas in my bag just in case we ran into one that was looking to be adopted and relocate to the Mbeya region with me.

Overlooking the crater. This is right before we drove down into it.

A rainbow over Ngorongoro. This photo really doesn’t do it justice.

On the second day, we drove through the Ngorongoro conservation area into Serengeti National Park. We stopped at the entrance to Serengeti, where I had an up close and personal encounter with an elephant. It was both amazing and scary to be so near to such a large animal – all of the animals were quite comfortable and used to being in such close proximity to humans and carried on with their daily business seemingly oblivious to the gawking humans all around them.

Entering Serengeti National Park.

This guy was doing a floor show in the parking lot at the Serengeti entrance. I think he is a Maribou Stork, but I’m not 100% sure. He was huge, whatever he was.

After the show, he was kind enough to pose for this portrait.

Notice the elephant munching away right behind me. It was even closer to me than it appears in this photo. You can probably pick up on the “hurry up and take this picture before this thing steps on me” in my eyes.

We camped for two nights in Serengeti and it was amazing. You really do get up close and personal with all of the animals (from the safety of a safari car). And the sunrise is amazing:

The sunset isn’t so bad either:

We saw lots of different birds:

I believe this one is some type of vulture.

I’m pretty sure this is a female ostrich because of the brownish-grey color.

A male ostrich.

A heron of some type.

There were tons of guinea fowl in both parks. I can’t help but think of women’s hats when I see these guys.

Flamingos!

A very distinguished looking eagle. (Is there any other kind?)

A crowned crane gives me the side eye.

Vultures feasting on the remnants of a pride of lions’ lunch.

A kori bustard.

I think this guy is also a kori bustard, but I’m not positive.

I loved these birds – their feathers look like a watercolor painting

There were tons of rabbits but this is the only guy who would pose for me:

We saw cheetahs:

We saw these guys from a distance – they were stalking something but we couldn’t figure out what it was.

And cape buffaloes:

And hyenas:

I know hyenas are quite ferocious but I feel bad for them because they always look so sad.

Although this one seemed a little more upbeat.

This guy has a cute little face. (And teeth that could probably rip your face off.)

We saw this guy in Ngorongoro and, for several minutes, we debated whether it was dead or not.

But it moved so we realized it was only napping.

And jackals:

We were lucky enough to see a serval cat, which our driver told us was a pretty rare sighting:

There were all types of beests and deer and beest- and deer-like animals:

A wildebeest.

A waterbuck.

I’m not sure what he’s trying to say here.

An impala (I think)

Hartebeest portrait.

A hartebeest.

Another view of the hartebeest.

A dik dik

This is some type of deer. (I probably should have taken notes while the driver was talking.)

I’m not sure why this guy is standing like this. At first I thought it was peeing but nothing seemed to come out. Perhaps it was a yoga pose.

And I’m pretty sure this is an antelope. Or not.

There were gazelles everywhere! I think they sort of serve as nature’s fast food as they are a frequent snack for bigger, fiercer animals. What I loved about the gazelles is that they looked totally surprised and confused every time they saw a safari car. They must have very faulty short-term memory because there are hundreds of safari cars traveling through the parks but each time they looked as if they were seeing one for the first time.

A typical gazelle pose. “What in the heck is that thing with the wheels and the people sticking out of the top?”

Maybe if I stand still, they won’t see me.

They really are beautiful animals. So delicate and graceful.

I feel like their tails could generate some serious wind power:

There were hippos:

Hippos chilling in the water.

This was either a yawn or a hippo fight.

But this was definitely a fight. I would not want to get on the bad side of those teeth.

Hippo butt.

And lots of elephants:

Elephants seem to be eating all the time. I guess it takes a lot of food for them to maintain their figures.

Such a sweet face.

Do you need a small, medium or large?

Mama and baby head off in search of more food.

And zebras:

The animals seemed to spend a lot of time watching us watch them.

Baby zebra!

Baby and mama.

Warthogs:

I love the way warthogs bend down on their front legs to get closer to the food.

They definitely fall into the “so ugly they are cute” category.

Baby warthog!!

Feeding time for the babies.

Say what you want about warthogs, but they can really rock a mullet.

And giraffes:

Here I am, posing awkwardly in front of some giraffes having lunch.

What are you looking at?

I loved seeing the birds hitching a ride .

In southern California, a giraffe in the road would no doubt trigger a SIG Alert.

There were leopards, but all of them were in some state of napping:

This guy was snoozing up in a tree.

And this guy was napping right by the side of the road.

He perked up briefly and we thought we were going to see some leopard action…

…but then he settled right back down to sleep again.

Leopard paws!!

And we saw tons of lions (literally, tons – those things are huge!):

Under this tree…

there were several lions snoozing.

Spooning lions

And this guy was keeping watch.

Snack time!

It’s nap time again!

Lion belly.

On our way out of Serengeti, we saw some baby lions! I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but I was too busy cooing over how cute they were.

Technically, we didn’t see any rhinos but I think this sort of counts:

And the signage continued at the choo:

There were remnants of former inhabitants present everywhere:

At least this guy went out smiling.

Of course, my favorites were the baboons and monkeys:

Baboon!

That’s quite a profile.

This dude snuck into the dining hall while we were eating lunch. He grabbed a can of powdered milk off one of the other empty tables and headed off to a nearby field to enjoy his booty. We had our backs to him and didn’t see a thing – another camper told us about it after the fact. I can’t believe I missed it!

It’s a little difficult to see, but these trees were full o’ monkeys.

Chillaxing monkey.

Mama with baby monkey on board!

Baby monkey!!

Grumpy monkey.

When he bared his teeth, I decided to postpone my adoption plans temporarily while I locate a good monkey dentist.

The highlight of my life so far was when a monkey jumped onto our safari car. I was urging him to join us inside but the driver shooed him away. Some nonsense about being arrested for stealing wildlife. Hello? It’s not stealing if the monkey comes to us!

Baby on board!:

The safari company paired us up with a Swedish girl named Hanna who had just finished climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Just thinking about that makes me tired.

Me, Hanna, Tracy & Kaye

Here’s a group shot with our driver, Kepha, and chef, Erasto:

Kepha, Tracy, Kaye, Erasto, Me & Hanna.

All in all, it was an amazing trip even if I returned home sans monkey.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Happy New Year from Nulty & me!

[If you have any trouble viewing any of the videos embedded on this page, you can see them here.]

There’s No Business Like Choo Business…and a safari!

[Please note: an incomplete version of this posted earlier today by accident because I have no idea how WordPress works yet.]

Time is flying here.  We just started on our fifth week of training, which means we are halfway through already!  I’m still struggling with learning Kiswahili.  I know it will come, I’m just not sure it will be on time.  I’m not the only one feeling this way and I’ve been reassured the language isn’t a make it or break it issue for us.  As Education volunteers, we’ll all be working in secondary schools, where English is the official language (for better or for worse).  Some of us (possibly many of us) will be placed in villages where English is not spoken in daily life, so we’ll need Kiswahili to function in our daily lives.  Fortunately, I have enough confidence in my Charade skills that I’ll be able to make it work until I’m up to speed on my Kiswahili.

Adjustment to Tanzanian life has come pretty quickly.  It’s amazing how your expectations change when there are no other options.  For example, back in the U.S., I was someone who loved taking a long, hot bath at the end of the day (and I was pretty sure I couldn’t live without them).  Now I’m taking bucket baths every night, which involve a 5 gallon bucket of cold water and a cup that you use to pour the (sometimes very) cold water all over you.  Not only do I do this voluntarily, but I consider myself extremely lucky to be with a home-stay family that has running water in their home (some of the other volunteers have not been so lucky).  I even have a shower head, so technically I could take a cold shower at night but the bucket baths seem to be the most economical use of water.

My evening bucket bath.

And then there’s the choo (pronounced “cho”), which those of you who have lived and traveled internationally are probably familiar with.  It’s a squat toilet, which most of the world uses.  Again, I’m extremely lucky that my home-stay family has a working, flushable inside choo – this is a luxury that many Tanzanians  (including other home-stay families) do not have.   The upside of using a choo is that you really strengthen your quadriceps and increase flexibility.  It’s like a mini yoga class in your bathroom.

The choo in all its glory.

The alternative to an inside choo is a pit latrine, which is like an outhouse, only not as fancy.  (Kathy, you might want to skip over the following pictures.)

The pit latrine from the outside.

Inside, the horror lurks…

Somehow, in a little over a month, I went from only using the ladies lounge at Nordstrom because it was the best public restroom in the Grove (an upscale, outdoor mall in Los Angeles, for those of you outside of Southern California), to regularly using a pit latrine and carrying a roll of toilet paper with me everywhere.    That being said, there is a restaurant here in Morogoro called Dragonaires that caters to ex-pats and charges way more than other local places.   It has pretty good pizza, but the main appeal for me is its Western bathroom, which includes a flush toilet.  There’s even a hand dryer!  I’ve been known to pay over 3000 Tsh for a beer just to spend a few minutes in that bathroom.

Last weekend we trainees finally got a day off and the chance to go on a safari!  It was the culmination of an exciting week for me where I actually had two monkey sightings at the training center (one which included witnessing monkey fruit thievery, which is always entertaining).  Saturday morning, instead of our usual language training, we all met at the training center and took a couple of small buses to Mikumi National Park.

Mikumi National Park entrance

Take no liberties with wild animals…words to live by.

We took the same buses through the park to check out the wildlife.  Unfortunately, it looked as if there had been a fire there fairly recently so there wasn’t a ton of vegetation and not as many animals as we had been told were usually there.  Still, we were able to see giraffes:

A giraffe in one of the few pictures he/she was not turning and running away from the camera.

…zebras:

We saw lots of zebras (including the ones in my new header photo).

…hippos:

All we really saw were the top of the hippos’ heads – they weren’t too keen on taking any more of themselves out of their hippo pool. I don’t really blame them.

…wildebeests:

I’m pretty sure these are wildebeests.

…and elephants (I didn’t get any pictures of them because they were a bit camera-shy) but, alas, no monkeys.   Needless to say, I was beginning to think the word of my arrival in the country had spread like wildfire along the monkey network and they were all avoiding me, lest they be lured into my banana filled hut and dressed in tuxedos (for the boy monkeys) and tutus (for the girl monkeys).  As we pulled out of the park, I shook my fist at the passing scenery and cried,  “You can’t hide from me the whole two years, monkeys!”

That night, we stayed at a nice little hotel outside the park that offered all of the expected amenities: televisions, ceiling fans and, of course, a snake park.  Being completely terrified of snakes, I, of course, decided a great way to spend a Sunday morning would be to check it out.   (This is the same person who is deathly afraid of heights and, during its heyday in the early 90’s, decided it would be a great idea to go bungee jumping.  I’m not clear on why I do these things.)  During our health and safety training, we had been warned about black mambo snakes, which are extremely poisonous.  The Peace Corps doctors told us, “If you are bitten by one, you could try to get help but you probably won’t have enough time,” which was extremely reassuring.   They also told us the black mambo was the only poisonous snake in Tanzania that we had to worry about.  But it’s a good thing I made it to the snake park because now I know there’s about eight other deadly snakes slithering around Tanzania and jumping out of trees that I have to worry about.  I took a photo of the wall mural that outlines the different types of poisonous snakes and how exactly they will kill you (sorry the picture’s not so great, but I would have had to get into the crocodile pit to get a shot without the shadows and I’m just not that dedicated to this blog):

The handy dandy guide to Tanzanian snake venom.

On Saturday night, the twentysomethings in our training group decided to blow off some steam.  Because I am old, I was in bed and asleep by 10:30pm, but I learned the next morning that there was drinking, dancing and someone fell into the Tanzanian equivalent of a septic tank.  These kids can really party!  (I’m leaving out names and distinguishing characteristics to protect their identity, but the person this happened to had a way better sense of humor about things than I would have in their situation.)  It must be said the septic tank incident had less to do with alcohol consumption and more to do with non-existent lighting and the apparently acceptable practice of leaving septic tanks full and uncovered here in Tanzania.   Note to self: always wear a headlamp when wandering around outside after dark.

I’m happy to say the weekend ended on a high note.  On our way home the next day, we saw a few more animals by the side of the road – including a large number of baboons!!!  Unfortunately, I was too busy jumping up and down and shrieking “Monkey! Monkey! Monkey!” in a very high-pitched voice (involuntary reaction) to get many photos, but I did take one of a lady baboon with a baby on her back:

Mama baboon with her babies.

Eventually, I did manage to get it together enough to yell out the window “I have bananas!  Come live with me!”  I think one of the baboons wanted to take me up on my offer, because he chased behind the bus for a while.  Everyone else said he was the alpha male and was actually chasing us away to protect his pack, but I think we all know that they were just jealous of my new monkey friendship.

So that’s what’s new here.  I’m teaching my first English class to actual Tanzanian students tomorrow and afterward I have my Kiswahili written midterm.  The oral midterm is on Friday.  Neither of the tests are going to be pretty.

Also, as you can probably tell, I have figured out how to upload photos but it can take a looooong time, depending on my internet connection.  So, enjoy these now because it may be a while before I have the stamina to post a bunch of them again!