10.1.10
Ngorongoro Crater. Awesome.
So we woke up bright and early this morning to leave for Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). It’s different from a National Park, in which no residents are allowed. NCA has Maasai living in it, but they have to cooperate with conservation efforts (i.e. they can keep livestock, but can’t farm or hunt). It helps keep this area free from detriment by human hands while still giving them access.
Within the conservation area is the biggest caldera (crater caused by a former volcano) in the world. It is GIANT. To get in, you have to drive along the rim and then take the zig zag road down the inside edge. It’s ridiculously steep.
I don’t want to talk about anything but the fact that I saw 14 lions today. FOURTEEN! A few people in my cruiser hadn’t seen lions yet, so we were on a mission. We passed a group who had seen lion CUBS and told us where to go. On our way there, Corina saw something out of the corner of her eye, and I’m so glad she did.
There was a lioness crouched in the grass stalking a line of wildebeest. It was amazing. Unfortunately, the wind was against her and she was detected by the nearby zebra. She was walking around and headed straight for us. She was no more than 5 meters from our vehicle when she crossed the road. She was big and so beautiful. These are the moments I live for; I lost my breath and couldn’t help but get emotional. There’s nothing like seeing a lion like this.
Moses, the staff member that was driving us around, thought that the lioness would eventually try to cut off the wildebeest ahead, but we were torn between that and the cubs. I seriously hope we didn’t miss a chase.
But we got to see cubs! Right along the side of the road by a watering hole sat two lionesses (pregnant maybe?), four cubs, and a male lion. Another one of our groups was across the stream from us and had two of the cubs lying underneath their vehicle. Free shade! Oh man, they were gorgeous. I know I say all these words that don’t do justice; I wish you could just see.
They were napping (lions hunt near dusk), so after a while we crossed the stream to keep going. Moses pulled us over and he and Erica stepped out of the vehicle only 75 meters from the lionesses.
We had a flat tire. And of course, being the fearless African he is, Moses decided to change it right then and there. He was crazy; and Erica was freaked out.
So I can say today that I stood watch over two of our staff members while they changed a tire. Stood watch for lions. LIONS. They were at first just looking at us with curious eyes, but they did get up to move around and at times disappeared into the grass, which is just ... really scary.
My favorite quote of the day is as follows:
Us: [urgently!] Uhm ... the lioness is getting up, she’s moving around looking at us!
Erica: Moses, they’re up!
Moses: [calmly, in his great Kenyan accent] Oh that’s ok ... just let me know when they’re 4 meters away
Bah! He was so calm and it freaked us all out! It seemed as if all day Africans were able to walk around dangerously close to lions as if it were no big deal while we mzungus were cautioned to keep a safe distance. According to Charles, another staff member, it’s because we’re salty and white. :P
After the tire changing, a few of us reallllly had to go to the bathroom. But we got to the bathroom area to find ... get this ... male lions laying on the steps to the ladies’ room. I’m not even kidding. I feel like I should be joking, but I’m not. There was another building for restrooms right next to it, so Moses got out (because he’s not salty and white) and kept watched while we snuck into the other bathroom.
Lions! Really!
So on our way out we saw a couple more lions, one of which was a male that was sprawled out on the sand. You know that thing your house cat does when it’s feeling cuddly and wants to get comfortable? When they roll around on their back and lay with their belly to the sky? Yeah, imagine a lion doing that.
One of the last things my dad said to me when dropping me off at the airport was advice against cuddling with lions on safari. This moment challenged me, but then I remembered the teeth and the claws and the MASSIVE size and the words of my wise father.
Thanks, dad.
10.05.10
On Sunday, five of us went to church with three of our staff, Charles, Paulo, and Safari. It was a catholic church in Rhotia and it was so beautiful! I’ve only been to pentecostal services in Africa (Uganda) and there was a lot of energy - singing, dancing, even the sermon was fiery! But at this church, it was in between the calm and peaceful services you find at catholic churches in the States and the rowdiness of many protestant churches in East Africa.
This church has two service Sunday morning, so when we were driving down the road to get there, there were masses of people walking the other direction (having just left the early service). It was really amazing to see the crazy amount of people that gathered for church!
We went in and sat down and I asked Charles a few questions. Practices are very much the same, just with an African touch. The service was in Swahili, but I was sometimes able to tell what was going by the order of the service.
I also learned a few sweet Swahili phrases: Pokea Mungu Wetu (Receive our God) and Sadaka wa Moyo Wetu (We offer our hearts).
My favorite part of the service was by far the choir. They started singing and dancing from outside and made their way into the church this way. Kids were in the front (with matching yellow skirts), followed by the women, then the men. Their voices were stunning. I love African choirs! Each song they sang was accompanied with some sort of small dance (pews don’t allow you to move much) - mostly sways and hand gestures.
I was very filled after going to church. I loved watching them worship and even though I wasn’t able to understand much of what was being said, the experience was still worshipful. God’s bigger than language barriers anyway.
Yesterday we had our last lecture before exams. Yesterday and today are study days and our midterms start tomorrow! Eek!
The lecture was for my Wildlife Ecology class and was about the bushmeat trade. You know you’re in the right program when you have lectures that churn your stomach and pull at your heart. Here’s what I learned ...
Bushmeat is a huge issue in East Africa, especially in Tanzania. It’s legal to hunt in Tanzania (unlike Kenya), but you have to have a license and and according to CITES, there are certain species that are off limits. Bushmeat is in part causing species decline because its over-exploited; while hunting used to be for subsistence (consuming the meat yourself), it is now more for income (selling it to others), so the more you get the better. There are a ton of reasons people hunt wildlife here - religious beliefs, preference, good sources of protein, to get rid of pests, easier access to wildlife areas and small arms, inadequate law enforcement (police and rangers are found inside Protected Areas, but rarely outside; once wildlife migrates outside of PAs, it’s more difficult to protect them).
An impala leg goes for 100 TSh (about 7 cents); or you can get any kind of meat by the kilogram (50 TSh ~3.5 cents). If you get caught and go to court, you only get fined 1500 TSh (about a dollar).
There hard part is (oh there’s always a hard part) many bushmeat hunters are poor. So how do you ask them to stop or decrease doing what they do for income? Alternative sources of income (farming, pastoralism) are difficult to get started - 1 acre of land in TZ costs about 10,000,000 TSh (~$6,667 USD), which is a LOT of money. And even then, it’s easy to run into cultivation issues due to lack of rainfall during certain times of the year.
Ok now I’m rambling. This issue just ... it gets to me. But what do you do?
...
Well we have exams tomorrow and Thursday. Saturday we’re off to a 5 day expedition in the SERENGETI!!! I won’t be posting until mid-next week, but I’m sure I’ll have a lot to tell you about. :)
