“I can’t
even imagine being anywhere but here right now.” That’s a feeling that I’ve had
many times on this trip; At Ndarakwai when I stepped into a Land Rover for the
first time, popped the top, and stood on the seats for the duration of the two
hour night drive; again at Tarangire when I had my first close up encounter
with my spirit animal, the giraffe. When we arrived in the Lake Manyara area,
it happened when I was given a block of wood, a mallet, and a piece of metal,
and encouraged to try my hand at African woodcarving. I could sit here and
attempt to recount all of the moments that I’ve experienced over the past
nearly three months that have served to assure me that my decision to live in
Tanzania for a semester was a necessary component to add to my life’s quilt,
but that would be boring. Besides, if you have been reading this blog up to
this point, you already know about the major ones, or at least those that were
somewhat possible to attempt to portray through mere sentences. After Maasai
homestay, however, those moments started to become fewer and farther between. I
was haunted by daydreams about food other than rice and beans. The language
barrier was testing my patience, and I was tired of mosquito netting and
Nairobi flies. On top of that, I told my parents on the phone the other day
that if I were to describe my research project in two words, they would be “Murphy’s
Law”…
Let me back
up a bit… After spending a week in Arusha completing finals, which included a
presentation on ruminants (those impala again) and determining what “IT” was,
and making a case for whether or not “IT” was working, Thea, Sarah, and I
headed for the coast again. It started off a bit unlucky, when we purchased bus
tickets for 9 o’clock AM, after being assured by a taxi driver that, “yes,
Airtel will be open at 7, so you can buy that phone your parent’s want you to
invest in tomorrow, no problem”, only to realize that Arusha is without doubt
asleep until at least 8 AM. So we headed to Tanga, I had no phone, we had no
minutes for our portable wifi stick that we needed to do our research projects,
and we were missing several other items that we had wanted to purchase prior to
leaving. Although Tanga is a big city on the map, it is not exactly a tourist
destination, and we had been warned by several people that there is not much in
the way of shopping there. Feeling pessimistic, we went to our hotel, were
forced to pay for two rooms even though we really only needed one, and were
then hassled about the importance of writing down our passport numbers for the immigration
official. Tired and irritated, we fell asleep without dinner. We woke up the
next morning, ready to have our hopes dashed regarding our supplies, but alas,
we were wrong. It turns out that Tanga not only had everything that we needed,
but it was also a whole lot easier to navigate than Arusha, not to mention the
people were much friendlier. It was incredibly refreshing to be approached by a
couple of Bibi’s (grandmother’s), who simply wanted to greet us and welcome us
to Tanga, rather than feed us a sob story about their fifteen grandchildren and
hold their hand out for shillings. We also met a lovely woman who presented the
three of us with beautiful headscarves, as a gift, and then decorated our hands
with henna drawings, free of charge. Mama Tumai, the manager of Drifter’s (our
hotel), also happened to be in town that day, and offered us a lift all the way
to the hotel. Each armed with hiker’s packs and regular daypacks, we were
beyond ecstatic at the prospect of avoiding a two hour daladala ride all the
way to Ushongo.
Luck for
me, however, seemed to end that day. I’m at the beach doing an independent
study on biodiversity in the intertidal zone. I thought that it would be a
simple project, especially after hearing the tasks lying before several of my
peers. That turned out to be as far from true as possible. The last time I was
here, I explored the reef during extreme spring tide (for those of you who do
not list “Ecology” as an area of expertise, spring tide is when high tide is at
its highest, and low tide is at its lowest), which meant that nearly the entire
system was exposed to the air, and it was very easy to walk out and see
starfish, crabs, and clams galore. Prior to my return, I assumed that it would
always be like that. Then I learned better… First of all, despite the fact that
I arrived during spring tide this time too, low tide was not nearly as low as
it had been before. I couldn’t even find the reef, and would probably still be
searching if Thea and I hadn’t visited the dive shop belonging to one of the
upscale resorts on the beach. Turns out that the reef is about 750 meters out
in the section that I was searching in. It gets closer to shore near my hotel,
but in any event, that factor blew my intended method of researching out of the
water (quite literally). Each day I created a new plan to attempt to overcome
all of the obstacles, redesigned my project again and again, but every time
when I returned and was met with the eager questions from my friends and other
people who frequently visit Drifter’s (the name of the hotel is incredibly appropriate),
I had to admit that, once again, I had been defeated. One day when I asked
Sarah to come out and give me a hand, I finished the outing thoroughly convinced
that I would have to give up and come up with a new project (Thea also came out
with me one day. Both started helping in high spirits, and informed me that
they were jealous of my project. Both ended with grimaces, and declared that
they never wanted to go back there again…). But giving up is not me. I’m as
stubborn as they come, just ask my parents, I’m sure they will back me up on
that one…
Floating on
the surface of the Indian Ocean, gently riding the waves, watching them stir up
phosphorescent algae, and looking up at the Milky Way, clearly visible in the
night sky. That was my most recent “I can’t even imagine being anywhere but
here right now” moment. It was magical. It put my unsettled mind to rest. It
didn’t matter that I can’t speak Kiswahili, or that Maasai homestay affected my
brain in a way that now makes me cringe every time a child touches me, or that
my clothes never get fully cleaned when I wash them. Something in me changed
that night, and I have been filled with a sense of optimism and a “you’re here,
be here” mentality that I thought had been wrung out of me the last 50 times I
heard a stranger yell “mzungu” at me on the street.
I started
constructing solutions to solve my problems before the Milky Way night. I had
constructed a quadrant out of beach debris to address the issue that rope and
sticks will float away with the tide, and are therefore useless for boxing off
a sample area. Every challenge that I came to from that point on, I faced with
the art minor side of my brain (people often question the connection between
art and science. I’ve learned from this experience that, at least when it comes
to research, one can’t stand without the other), each time getting a little bit
closer to accomplishing my goal, but always having one more thing to fix. The
optimism instilled in me that night, restored my patience though. I have
encountered everything from freak storms to my shoes getting stolen while
attempting to carry out this assignment, but today, I finally succeeded with my
sampling. Fingers crossed, the rest of the week will turn out similar results!
A very happy belated birthday to my best friend, Juliana
(April 14th), and a happy early birthday to Carolyn, one of my new
SIT friends who is doing her ISP in Arusha (April 18th). Wish I
could have/could be there to celebrate with you both!
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