Weeks in the Bullfrog

I cant find apostrophes on this keyboard, but I wanted to give everyone the low-down on all of our safari adventures \I cant find parentheses either, but now that you all know a little more about my ISP in Lushoto, heres some more about our adventures in the savanna and tropical forest.../

In Tarangire, Lake Manyara, and Mozambai we were all camping out, living in a little tent village. Ive been sharing a two person tent, the Bullfrog, with my friend Adrienne. It was great to have a tent buddy in the savanna, where we could hear hyenas and elephants roaming around and maybe black mambas. Our drives around the savanna, counting zebras and baboons, hanging out by the hippo pool at Lake Manyara, were all part of class. We would present our data on the diversity of non-ruminant species in the woodlands or plot the behaviors of baboon troupes before lunch. This study time was always followed up by an afternoon of tourist time. We drove down to the Silalai Swamp, the main water source in the park, and got to take group photos and check out the hundreds upon hundreds of elephants and birds. We even found a couple of lions, draped over tree branches by the road. Pictures eventually, promise.

At Lake Manyara, we stayed at a campsite and went on a walking tour of the village. Our group walked through the rice paddies and banana plantations, sipped some homemade banana beer, and checked out painting and carving shops. After a night out and some more field work, we headed back to Bangata, then spent the following week at Mozambai.

When we got to Mozambai, Adrienne and I pitched the Bullfrog in the grass, right by a flowing stream and manicured gardens, and the whole group went out into the forest to "greet" it. Basically, we had the whole morning without watches or a schedule to explore. I climbed trees, waded through streams, hiked through little farms and bushwacked through undergrowth, getting muddy and scratched and covered in bugs. This morning adventure definitely set the tone for the week. We would hike around the forest every morning as students, counting and measuring trees, laying out plots and estimating canopy cover in various parts of the forest. We had talks about the cultural and ecological history of the Usambara Mountains and the forest reserve and went over the data we collected. In the afternoons, however, we were released. We kept exploring the forest, finding valleys of prehistoric fern trees and getting trapped in their thorns. We would also nap, read, walk through the neighboring villages...this was our post-midterm "spring break."

even more love today then yesterday--I hope everybody is happy and healthy and enjoying the New England fall...carve a pumpkin for me

we're not watoto...

hihihi! Since my last post, I've been on a safari week at Tarangire and Lake Manyara national parks, wrapped up my homestay in Bangata, taken midterms, and spent a week at the Mozambai Forest Reserve for our tropical ecology course. Now, we've started to shift gears: instead of our host families or a safari camp crew feeding us, our Bangata mamas doing our laundry, and SIT organizing buses and hotels, we're learning how to get around Tanzania like grown-ups.

"Watoto" means children in Kiswahili. My Bangata mama always called me one of her watoto, serving me food, walking me to school, and giving me a potty for my room so I didn't have to leave the house and pee at night. Even after leaving Bangata for Tarangire and Mozambai, we didn't have to worry about buying bus tickets or food. We pitch our tents, wake up for tea and breakfast, have class from safari cars or under the canopy of a tropical forest, work on our readings and presentations, take naps, eat the enormous meals that our camp crew serves us, explore the savannah or forests or towns we stay in...basically, we don't have a lot to worry about. We're living on Africa time, with all of these opportunities to talk with students and our professors and to learn about the people, the wildlife, and the ecology of the places we visit.

Now, I'm living in the Usambara mountains in a town called Lushoto. It's smaller than Arusha, but is the center of the district, with a bank and government offices and some tourists that come to hike on their way to Dar Es Saalam, Zanzibar, or safaris. I'm staying in a guest house with another SIT student for the week, working on logistics for my Independent Study Project. In a month or so, I'll come back here to live for three weeks to study a few women's groups that produce briquettes (like green charcoal, made from corn husks, manure, newspaper) in the region. They have developed a sort of micro-finance loan system that funds their project, and I'm going to do all of these interviews, help make and sell these briquettes, and try to figure out how much money they're making, how they can get more materials or sell more briquettes...or something. Deforestation is a real serious problem up in these mountains, and all over Tanzania. People cut trees down for fuelwood or charcoal production, soil degrades, farmers cant grow things. So--thats what im learning about

I'm really looking forward to our upcoming adventures, but am most excited to be on my own in Lushoto. I have tons more to say, and 1 minute left on the computer. lots of love, becs