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Tanzania 2009 Updates

September 14 | October 8 | October 9 | November 1

Program Leaders:
Charsey Cole Porse and Erik Porse

Greetings from Tanzania!

A few weeks ago, on a Sunday evening in the small Kilimanjaro International Airport near Arusha, we picked up our students, and the Earlham 2009 Tanzania program began!

Everybody arrived safely, and we proceeded to stay in Arusha for a few days before heading out on our first safari. In the first part of our program, we are studying wildlife conservation and rural development (as well as learning Kiswahili), so our early ventures into these areas concentrate on learning about the habitats, wildlife, and people who live near Tanzania’s National Parks. We started by visiting Lake Manyara National Park and Tarangire National Park, both remarkable natural settings that preserve crucial habitat for Tanzania’s wildlife. Along the way, we learned a great deal about animal behavior, as well as the history of Tanzania’s national parks. Afterwards, we visited the Maasai village of Loibersoit, staying for a night by welcoming hosts while visiting traditional Maasai bomas and being treated to evening dances.

After the early safari, we returned to near Arusha for two weeks of intensive Kiswahili training. Our teachers, who work with Earlham students every year, were once again fabulous. In addition, we stayed with families in our first homestays, getting our first tastes of Tanzanian life.

Next, we set out on our second safari to the famous Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, and Lake Victoria regions. There will be lots of driving involved, but it will all be worthwhile for the scenery and wildlife.

For our updates throughout the semester, we are also going to have contributions from our students, who can speak to their experiences while in Tanzania. The first part comes from Perry Rothman:

We've been here three weeks now and the people we have met in our travels could not have welcomed us more warmly.

Our arrival to the country was uneventful and we stayed the first few nights in a small lodge in Arusha to get our bearings in the country. During that time friends of Earlham College welcomed us into their home with a traditional Tanzanian feast featuring a whole roasted goat prepared standing up and decorated with vegetables. While in Arusha for several days, we enjoyed from lectures from the Africa Wildlife Foundation, an international NGO focused on building African leadership for wildlife conservation. They spoke to us about community-based conservation efforts in Tanzania. We also learned the ins and outs of navigating our way through an African city, Arusha, as well as its vendors who were ever eager to bargain their wares with us.

On our third day, we left on safari with a journey through Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Park in the north of Tanzania. At Lake Manyara we stayed in a small campgrounds near a village called Mto wa Mbu (“mosquito river”) where we were invited to see their banana farms, rice patties village life, as well as taste the very special banana beer and wine.

In Lake Manyara, we were greeted by ambling elephants, curious giraffes and nonchalant baboons, among other wildlife including zebras, warthogs, blue faced monkeys, and an endless variety of birds. At midday we stopped by the hippo pool to watch what first appeared to be a pile of moving gray mud, but was in fact hippos lounging around in the sun, occasionally getting up to sink themselves (up to their eyes!) in the pool. After lunch at a designated place where we were allowed to get out of the vehicles, we drove as close as we could get to Lake Manyara. Although we were still very far away, in the distance we could see a sea of pink on the beaches of the lake, which we were told by our guides and knowledgeable leaders were flamingos!

After a day in Lake Manyara we continued on to Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is a prominent dry-season habitat for animals due to its central river that supplies the wildlife with a critical water supply. At Tarangire, we were treated to a host of animals, including herds of elephants, which the park is famous for. During this time, we were driven by our awesome Klub Afriko (an educational safari company) drivers, who kept us entertained the whole way. At Tarangire, however, we were treated to a special sight: a lion nursing her small cubs under a tree! We stayed inside the park boundaries for one night, waking up to elephants close behind our tents in the morning! We then piled into the vehicles again for the long, extremely bumpy ride across the Maasai steppes to visit the tiny Maasai village of Loibersoit where we were greeted by many smiles, and eager children. There we had the opportunity to interview different community leaders about their thoughts on the community-based conservation efforts and the effects of wildlife on contemporary Maasai life.

After camping one night in Loibersoit, we returned to the area near Arusha to begin our first homestays in Usa River. We have just now completed two weeks of intensive Swahili lessons. Tomorrow, we depart for the Ngorogoro Crater, Serengeti National Park, and Lake Victoria. We end the first part of our program in the lakeside city of Mwanza, which is situated on the southern shores of Lake Victoria and is a mining “boomtown” in Tanzania.

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