Neubea! (Hadzabe for "Thank You" and "You're Welcome")

As mentioned in the previous post, Kenya is safe to enter again. So here we are, back in the good ol’ Kenyerrrr. However, my time in Tanzania was incredibly beautiful and unbelievably eye opening. Because of the Kenyan elections, we were mandated to take extra precautions and had the luxury (and it sure was a luxury) to spend not one, but TWO weeks in Tanzania. (All other SLU student groups spend only one week, but we were surely the lucky ones.)

            On top of being the most beautiful and picturesque country I have been to, I really did learn a lot. We had many discussions with local community members and were able to get a glimpse into their lifestyles and saw not only the vast differences but focused more on the similarities. We had a pretty jammed packed trip (some called it vacation) so I will refrain from giving you a day by day recap and just highlight the most interesting and fun times.

Camping schedule for 2 weeks :

March 2^nd: Drive to Tanzania. Stay at Dorobo Safaris (Most awesome Safari group in the world http://www.dorobofund.org--check it out if you want to read more about Dorobo)

March 3^rd: Panel discussions with various community members (DANNY’S BIRTHDAY!)

March 4^th: Panel discussions with more community members and a soccer match with the locals. (Yes, we did win!)

March 5^th: Drive 7 hours to Tangere National Park and have a mini "game drive"

March 6^th: "Game drive"—saw some incredible wildlife (lions, giraffe, elephants, ostrich, water buffalo, SO MANY birds…Cody you would have loved it.)

March 7^th: Drove to the Iraquw forest and had a panel discussion with the community members (JACK’S 21^st BIRTHDAY…!)

March 8^th: Visitation with the Iraqw people and 15k walk to the waterfall

March 9^th: Soccer game with the locals (sadly, we lost this time)

March 10^th: Drive to Yaida Valley

March 11^th: Gather Tubers with the Hadzabe women

March 12^th: Walk across Yaida Valley (Over 10 mile walk). Honey hunting, archery practice and Baobab tree climbing

March 13^th: Hunting with the Hadzabe men

March 14^th: Loooooong drive back to Arusha…11 hours…we had some sick kids and car trouble. Happy Pi Day!

March 15^th: Group Presentations and drive back to Kenya 7 hour drive. (Yes, I am sick of driving now!)

The highlight of my trip was spending time with the Hadzabe people in Hadza Land in the Yaida Valley. The Hadzabe people are some of the last original hunter gathers in Africa. This means that they live VERY sustainably off of their natural land and use their resources to live abundantly. It was absolutely amazing to experience this different way of life and felt such a strong connection with the Hadzabe people--they were an inspiration. I’m now looking at the way I live my life through a very different lens.  The Hadzabe community was nothing but friendly, warm, welcoming, hospitable and very funny. We all exchanged laughs, funny stories and cultural songs—however I can say, without hesitation, that their songs and dances were SO MUCH better than ours. We sang, All Star by Smash Mouth, Country Roads by John Denver, Wagon Wheel by OCMS and the Star Spangled Banner…they did not seem too impressed hah. We got the opportunity to find, dig and gather tubers with the women. A tuber not cooked tastes a bit bitter, but cooked it tastes like a combination of a sweet potato and a regular potato.

Secondly, we “hunted” with the Hadzabe men. This was more of a crazy experience. We split into groups of 3; my group was Ally, Chloe and me. Our leader “Ai” (pronounced eye) was a young, fit man—who seemed to be about our age. However, he clearly possessed light years more knowledge then I, or anyone in our student group did, when it came to hunting. Ai caught a long horned bird, chipmunk like animal (I could not understand the Hadzabe word) and a Hyrax.  I am very happy to have had this experience, but do not see the need to try this again. I think it is so very interesting and fascinating but believe it is not a practice that I am very well suited for.
      I wish I could stress how amazing and inspirational this trip was but I am finding it very difficult to do so. I will leave you with some photos from my beautiful, incredible, unbelievable and remarkable trip!

TMFL Ally!

Our humble abodes for 2 weeks! 

Flamingos 

The VERY VERY slippery/muddy walk to see the Flamingos 

"Futbol Match" against the Iraqw locals (we lost 3-1)

Tangere National Park

All the amazing beautiful animals we saw!

SO MANY ZEBRAS!

Yes, we were this close!

CAUTION: LION CROSSING!

One of the highlights of the trip: getting caught in a flash rain storm while being surrounded by lions...!

Sick and skinny lioness--she didn't make it much further than this point :(

Over 400 Water Buffalo!

Twiga (Giraffe in Kiswahili) 

Watering hole for the elephants

Lions sleep for upwards of 20 hours a day...lazy?

Yes, again, we were this close. 

European Weaver...I think?

Karibu Tanzania

Tangere National Park sunset

Digging Tubers with the Hadzabe Women

Archery practice...sweet form Megan...NOT

"Pole sana Moshi, ngefindisha!"

Making an arrow with the Hadzabe

Final product!

Climbing a Baobab tree

Our professor, Sinarry, attempting to climb the Baobab!

My Hadzabe hunter, Ai, smoking out a Baobab tree to get honeycomb

The honeycomb Ai got--note it was actually dripping honey

Ai with his first kill--the Long Horned Bird

Ai and his Hyrax (closest living relative to the elephant...what?!)

SUCCESS! Note: Ben petting the Hyrax, Chloe genuinely excited, Me--more of a fake excited, and know the chipmunk animal is sticking out of Ai's left pocket.

Sunrise in Yaida Valley

Waking up from sleeping on the rocks

Last morning in Hadza Land

The most beautiful and incredible place I have ever been. (Our camp is at the bottom of this)