Never Thought I'd Say it, But I Miss the Mosquitoes.

The SIT group and I spent the past week on our first safari! The topic we are currently going over is the effectiveness of "small" national parks. That being said, our first stop was Tarangire National Park- one of the most visited of the Tanzanian parks, although I'm sure to most, it has fallen under the shadow of the Serengeti. To those who have heard of it, however, one thing comes to mind- Tembo. Tembo? Elephants! Tarangire National Park is famous for its elephant herds. Although it is "small", the whole of the Netherlands can fit within the boundaries of Tarangire- just goes to show how big Tanzania really is! Days at the park were divided into two parts- in the morning, we split into four groups based on classes of animal (birds, non-ruminants (warthogs, zebras, carnivores, etc.), ruminants (members of the antelope family and giraffes), and elephants), learning different methods of data collection, and evenings were spent behind our cameras as we all embraced the tourist role. I went into each day with a specific animal that I wanted to see but always ended up far exceeding my expectations. The very first day the park lived up to its reputation as we were greeted by a herd of elephants trampling the dirt road five feet from the front of our land rover. We saw more giraffes than I could count, many of whom stopped to make eye contact before galloping away with their somehow graceful, yet slightly awkward gait. I gained a lot of respect for the mongoose, as we observed a tawny hawk swoop down out of nowhere and grab one a member of their family, and end up being chased by the rest of the group, up a tree even, because the mongoose were simply unwilling to lose one of their own. Throughout our time there, I learned how to identify several bird species, saw a small pride of lions, two families of cheetah, jackals, tons of impala, waterbucks, dik-diks, and warthogs, to name a few. Unlike the seclusion of Ndarakwai, our campsite at Tarangire was in the wild. I learned to play a Tanzanian game called "Last Card" from one of my teachers to the chorus of lions roaring, and several of the other kids were awoken by "the smell of death" and sniffing, that indicated hyena activity around our tents (Don't worry Mom, it was safe). Sadly, I had no hyena stories to swap with the others come sunrise... One not so welcome aspect of Tarangire life was the presence of the vicious beast, the tsetse fly. Those suckers don't respond to any kind of bugspray, and managed to get into our cars every safari. People started keeping a tab of how many they killed and considered it a game. As opposed as I am to killing bugs, those things had to go. It is safe to say that they have officially beaten mosquitoes as my least favorite insect. On Thursday we bid Tarangire "Kwa Heri" and moved on to Lake Manyara National Park and the village of Mto Wa Mbu. Our first activity was a cultural tour where we explored the village and became acquainted with the 30 varities of banana grown there, the technique behind African carving and different styles of painting (I got to try both!), and even attended the local disco. Lake Manyara was much smaller than Tarangire, and encorporated more of a rainforest feel. It was stunning, and I saw my first hippo. Tomorrow we are moving onto the Usambara mountains to see the real rainforest. Best prepare for the 8 hour drive!

A warm welcome

The elephants Tarangire is famous for

Me and my spirit animal!