Tanzania summary

I am overwhelmed by the amount of things I should write about in here, as it’s been several weeks since I’ve written and a lot has happened in that time. Since I last wrote, my parents visited me in Tanzania and we did all kinds of fun things that I’m sure I should go into more detail about but the idea of doing so makes me sleepy. So, I will try to summarize the past few weeks of my life as best I can.

When my parents first arrived, we spent two nights at KIA lodge, a pretty upscale (especially by my budget African standards, where anything more than $10 a night seems expensive) hotel located only a couple of miles from Kilimanjaro airport. We spent a whole day just relaxing and catching up, and it was really nice to have that time and not start rushing all over the place.

From KIA lodge we went to the Makumira farm and coffee project in Mt. Meru, where we were able to tour the farm and the coffee fields as well as see how they process the coffee they grow. It’s pretty cool, because they only export coffee to Milwaukee, where it is then roasted and sold. The coffee costs a little bit more than other coffee might cost, but the money goes back to pay the workers fairly.

From Mt. Meru we went to Tarangire National Park, where we did a game drive, spent one night at a lodge, and then did another game drive in the morning. We saw all kinds of animals, but especially a lot of elephants – oh, and lots of baobab trees! We also saw a few baobabs that had huge holes carved into them, which was the work of poachers, who would carve the holes in order to hide in the trees. Depressing. Although now, according to our guide, poaching isn’t as much of an issue as it used to be, due to a crack-down by park rangers. Our driver and guide (who would be with us for all of our safaris), Mapesa, was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed his company. We stayed at Elephant Tented Lodge, which was in an extremely remote area and had wonderfully friendly staff.

In the afternoon, after our second game drive in Tarangire, we went back to Karatu, which would then serve as our base camp for the rest of our time in Tanzania. Mom and Dad were able to stay in the WellShare guest house with me (and Rick and Sharon, two other volunteers) which was extremely convenient and comfortable. We had a day off to relax in Karatu, and then took a day trip to Lake Manyara National Park, which has a completely different landscape and topography than Tarangire. I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to (I guess I had low expectations because it’s a smaller park) and we saw a lot of animals, including two adolescent lions lying in a tree right next to the road. I think that the varied landscape of Lake Manyara might be my favorite of all the parks we visited.

After Lake Manyara, we had another full day off in Karatu. One of the volunteers, Amy, was holding a training for taxi drivers on the topic of what to do when they transport women who are in labor. This happens a lot more than you’d think, and it puts the taxi drivers in a difficult position of suddenly having to act as an impromptu midwife as well as driver. The drivers had a lot of questions and were really interested in the topic (they were especially grateful to receive plastic sheeting to put over their seats so that the women in labor don’t get blood everywhere), and Amy did a great job explaining to them what to do in certain circumstances, i.e. if the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck, or if the mom is bleeding a lot. It was very eye-opening to observe the training.

The next day, we left for the Serengeti. We spent two nights in the Serengeti at Seronera Wildlife Lodge, and both the lodge and the park were absolutely incredible. As expected, we saw a LOT in the Serengeti – lions, leopards, crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, all kinds of birds, hippos, tons of zebras and wildebeest, ostriches, buffalo, impala, gazelle… Describing in words doesn’t do it justice. If the internet here was strong enough to post pictures, I would, but for now, see my facebook for pictures of what we saw.

Side note: one of the highlights of the trip was my realization that the Beast in Beauty and the Beast was most definitely designed based on a wildebeest. Google pictures of each and then agree with me.

From the Serengeti, we went to the Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world’s largest unbroken caldera (collapsed volcano). We spent a night at Rhino Lodge, which had a great atmosphere, great food, and enormous buffalos eating grass right outside our rooms at night. The next day we went into the crater, which is touted around these parts as the 8^th Wonder of the World. It really was amazing, and the concentration of animals inside the crater is astounding. There is an abundance of water and grassland on the floor of the crater, so although animals can move in and out, they crater is kind of like an oasis for them.

We had one more full day in Karatu, in which we relaxed and ate at our favorite restaurant, Happy Days. On Thursday we were driven to Arusha and all three of us went to the airport – me to fly back to Uganda, and my parents to fly back to the US a few hours later.

I’m so grateful that I was able to spend time in Tanzania – the whole thing really felt like a vacation, but I also learned a lot. Now I’m back in Uganda, where we have a new international volunteer (Suzanne), so I will hopefully stop talking out loud to the one (only ONE, not so weird) stuffed animal I brought along. Suzanne has finished her coursework for her MPH at Tulane, and she’s here for her practicum. She’ll be here until November. I only have a little over two months left here, which is crazy. As they say, time flies when you’re taking bucket showers.