Happy Days

The first few days in Tanzania have been amazing. As much as I miss the friends we made in Kenya and adored that program, this is like an entirely new study abroad program and it is great! We spent the first day moving in and getting settled. After that it has been a whirlwind! Our classes and professors have been very interesting so far, and the concepts are the same but the context is totally different which gives a great new perspective. For example, it is illegal to hunt wild animals in Kenya for bushmeat, but not in most parts of Tanzania. That kind of difference makes management issues very different here.

Class

We have gone on two big expeditions already this week; one to Lake Manyara National Park, and one to Ngorongoro Crater. Both were incredible. At Lake Manyara we spent 2 ½ hours studying the behavior of a single pack of baboons. You would think that this wouldn’t be my favorite activity, since I am not the biggest fan of baboons, but I thought it was fascinating. We often see really cool animals on this program, but since we are counting them or surveying entire populations, we don’t often get to really observe their behavior for long periods of time. I liked the opportunity to stop and watch the same animals for an extended period of time. After the baboons, we saw a bunch of elephants playing together in the water and rolling around, which our drivers said is extremely rare! It was really cute.

Being faced off in the road!

Today we went to Ngorongoro Crater, which was incredibly cool. The crater is around 304 square kilometers, and holds some of the highest concentrations of specific animals in the world. Particularly, there are many lions and rhinos, and we got to see both! The lions were lying with their cubs, which were really adorable, and the rhinos we saw were mating, which was pretty weird and is very unusual to see in the wild! The crater itself was gorgeous, and the lake in the crater was filled with flamingos. Ahh! Too much pretty!

The edge of Ngorongoro crater

Apart from the incredible wildlife and green scenery and interesting classes here, the situation with the local towns is really good. Due to the proximity and safety of the nearby town, Rhotia, we are able to leave the camp any time to visit it! This shocked me and is very exciting since it gives us the chance to interact with locals much more than we did in Kenya. So far we haven’t gone many times, since we have been going on so many expeditions, but it is only a five minute walk away. It is a tiny town and people are really friendly.

We have taken two trips into Karatu, a bigger town slightly farther away, over the past few days. This has proved to be one of my favorite things about the area. There is a lot to explore there, and a group of 18 year old “rasta” boys that live there and sells jewelry to tourists hung out with us both times and helped us find things in the town. The SFS group that was here last had told us at the border to find these guys, and that they had all become close friends. The guys were really helpful and fun, and got shopkeepers to lower all their prices for us to “Tanzanian” prices. It was nice to have someone to show us around, and according to our program director, they are good guys and have been helping out SFS students in the area for a while. Another guy named "Happy" also showed us around and helped us to find dye for our clothing, but first misunderstood us and led us to a hair salon where they tried to sell us colorful hair weaves. Oh, language barrier! You make life so amusing.

Last but not least, on our non-program day we went to a bar called “Happy Days” (funny coincidence) that sells pizza, macaroni and cheese, samosas, and hamburgers! What a shock. It’s the first time I have ever seen that kind of food in Africa other than at the fancy lodges we’ve visited. It was delicious!

Tomorrow we have a day to pack up, and the next day we head to Serengeti for a week-long expedition like the one we had in Tsavo! I can’t wait!