Ecology Safari (Week 1)

Wow. Well I have a lot to catch up on, considering I haven’t posted on here in six weeks, and a lot has happened between then and now. I will do my best, though. In order to make it more manageable I will divide up the three major portions of the past six weeks. I will be impressed if any of you make it through all of them.  

      From Arusha we drove to Engerkarat, which is a Maasai village pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The ground was black volcanic ash, and it was extremely hot and dry. Water is scarce so the only plants growing were various species of Acacias, which have vicious thorns. We stayed in Engerkarat for a few days, and got a crash course on Maasai culture and traditions. We went on an herbal medicine tour, beaded with some Maasai mamas, witnessed an orpul (goat sacrifice), collected firewood, and participated in one of the night dances (which involved a lot of jumping and chanting in the dark). It felt a little strange and touristy at times, but never the less it was a really fun and interesting experience. The last night in the village there was a question and answer session around the fire, where we got to ask the Maasai some questions, and they asked us questions as well. They asked things like “how many children do Americans have?”, and it was difficult to answer for an entire diverse nation. It gave us a little taste of the types of questions we would be asked during our interviews to come. After leaving Engerkarat, we picked up our Ecology professor at the Arusha airport and began the Ecology portion of our safari. 

We drove all through Lake Manyara and the Serengeti, spending the majority of our time in the Serengeti. I got to spend my 21^st birthday on safari in Lake Manyara, which was incredible. Instead of getting drunk at a bar I got to see some wild elephants, so I think it was a fair trade. We would drive around in our safari caravan and every so often we would get out of the cars to talk about Ecological concepts we were witnessing. Each student had a designated topic, but our knowledge was limited at best. Our cars had a sticker on the back saying “special permit do not follow”, and sometimes we would drive for hours to the middle of no where so that the other tourists wouldn’t see us getting out of the vehicles. The off-roading was bumpy, to put it mildly. We saw so many amazing animals, including lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, cheetahs, leopards, hippos, etc. etc. For me the most thrilling animals to see were the cheetahs and leopards. It rained every day in the Serengeti, marking the beginning of the short rainy season. After about a week of traveling, we drove to Tarangire National Park, where we would spend the next month doing research.