Week 5: Homestay Week!

Hello there everyone!

This week was once again very busy but a ton of fun! I can't believe I've been in Tanzania for over 6 weeks already. With our two-week Kenya trip less than two weeks away, time has been flying way too fast! Anyway, here are this weeks highlights...

On Monday we had a FREE DAY (what?!? you may ask....free day Monday?!? Yes, free day Monday!). In the morning I went to a wood-carving class where I was able to choose what type of thing I wanted to carve from their shop - I chose a giraffe. The wood carvers there were absolutely incredible at their craft and my finished product looks amazing since they did a solid 95% of the carving (I just carved out in between the legs lol). While the other students and I wished we could have had a lot more freedom in the carving process, I realize that my giraffe would've looked like a four-year-old did it if they didn't help! Following the wood carving class, Evan, Harrison and I walked to Sulemani's art studio (where I did the knife painting class) where I ended up buying yet another painting (it's becoming a problem but I figure there are much worse problems to have in life!). Sulemani is such a nice guy that I couldn't not support his business! From the studio we walked to the Maasai Market where Evan and I finally bought the tire shoes we wanted. Tire shoes literally are sandals or flip flops made from old tires and they are the type of footwear the Maasai wear. After this we went back to camp where I did some laundry and chilled out for the rest of the day.

On Tuesday we had a travel lecture to the Mto Wa Mbu Conservation Area where each vehicle went a separate direction doing animal counts. Most of our counts were livestock besides a few Grant's Gazelle and Vervet Monkey sightings, and after 8 transects we ended up at Selela village - where we had a traveling lecture last week. The rest of the day we had classes, I worked on my vegetation assessment report with my group, and I played volleyball with some of the local soccer players (they were invited into campus to play) before dinner. That evening the cooks made a dessert too: chocolate covered peanut butter "balls"! Being the sweet tooth I am, I MIGHT have eaten 8 of them that night...

The view during our animal count exercise

Wednesday morning we had a traveling lecture to start the morning. We were taught about the Iraqw tribe culture from an older gentleman who was full of energy AND knew more facts about America than all of us: he knew the specific date each state joined the US as well as the exact size (in km) of several states!!! During this lecture we also went inside a traditional Iraqw underground home, tried spear throwing, and looked at their biogas system which extracts the methane out of cow poop.
In the afternoon we watched a video in Environmental Policy class about community conservation practices in Kenya and Namibia. In Kenya, one example was that local Maasai members constructed and ran a lodge in which a portion of its earnings went towards conservation. Some struggles that came with community conservation included convincing locals to change their negative views towards wildlife, severe drought, amount of livestock grazing land, preserving indigenous knowledge and culture, and receiving enough funds through tourism. That evening I played soccer at the field with some of the local kids and ended up having to redo HOURS worth of data analysis for our vegetation assessment report because some data points were missing in the group excel sheet...let's say none of the group members in charge of the "results" section were happy (me included).

Our speaker "battling" in front of the Iraqw underground home

On Thursday we had a full cultural day! In the morning we visited the Hadzabe tribe which is a very small hunter-gatherer tribe with around 2000 people. They don't live in one place very long and are legally allowed by the government to hunt in non-protected land areas. While with the tribe we learned how to make fire (using two sticks) and shoot off a bow and arrow! Then in the afternoon we visited members of the Datoga tribe, where we learned how to turn corn into flour and melt down metal "trash" and turn it into jewelry and knives/arrows! I ended up getting a beautiful bracelet that was made from old aluminum pots and copper padlocks. We finished the day by dancing with the Datoga people: overall today was so much fun and it was nice to witness some aspects of each tribe's lifestyle and culture. We take so many things for granted and we forget to realize that there are people in this world who work extremely hard everyday to find their food or earn enough to just survive and support their families.

Hadzabe fire making

Friday morning we did river analysis transects for Environmental Policy class. Over 6 transects my group analyzed factors such as erosion, fire, crown cover, encroachment by human practices and herb presence. Then in the afternoon we had our last Swahili class...our SSC course is split into a Swahili section and a culture section, which we will be starting in the upcoming weeks. I was pretty sad about this, as Frank was such a fun professor and was our only professor to date to learn all of our names (there's only 26 of us). I also was expecting to learn more Swahili so that I could become as close to fluent as possible and this wasn't the case. However, despite there being no more classes I am going to keep practicing Swahili and hopefully learn more on my own! That evening my group FINALLY submitted our vegetation assessment report which everybody was getting tired of doing and getting grouchy in the process...

Saturday was our homestay - this is where we stay with Rhotia families for the day! From 8am until 5pm myself and two other students stayed with Mama Tino, where we did some of her family's daily chores and lived a day in their life. They were one of the wealthier families in the neighborhood and had a really nice house and yard. We swept up leaves and rocks from her property and prepared and cooked our lunch on the wood-fire stove: this included ugali (a local staple which is basically corn flower and water), cabbage, beef and rice. We also did dishes, laundry, and played around with Mama Tino's granddaughters: Maggy and Diana. Maggy was age 6 and loved to play with our hair - she was even combing my beard at one point! Diana said she was 14 but definitely looked closer to 11 or 12. She literally did EVERYTHING for the family: making the food, serving the food, doing the dishes and chores and laundry....I felt bad for her but I had to realize that these types of gender roles were a part of their culture. I was also able to do a climate change interview (for my one class) with one of Mama Tino's sons, Peter, who spoke decent English and was a biology and chemistry teacher waiting for employment. Throughout the day we also drank some delicious sweet/milky tea and Maggy took TONS of pictures and selfies on our phones. When it was time to leave we got some photos with the family (Mama Tino wore a gorgeous dress) and Maggy and Diana walked us back to Moyo Hill Camp. I had so much fun and wish there were more homestay experiences throughout the semester...

Me and Maggy!

Diana making ugali

Combing my beard!

Ooh fun fact: parents names are based off of their eldest son. So we called Mama Tino "Mama Tino" because her eldest son's name is Tino: it is a sign of respect to call parents these names rather than their actual names.

Today (Sunday) was our free day, and in the morning I went on a bike ride tour around Mto wa Mbu. We had several stops along the way including a wood carving shop and an art gallery. We also tried tons of food including green oranges, red bananas, fried bananas and banana beer (although I already tried banana beer after my Kili hike). Additionally, we road alongside vervet monkeys within a banana plantation and checked out rice fields with stunning views! The ride overall was a ton of fun but super humid. In the afternoon I did some laundry and relaxed while many of the students went to Karatu to drink. Evan was able to get a group of six of us together to play capture the flag before dinner and after dinner I wrote this blog, called my parents and got ready to watch some Nascar (go figure)…

Have a nice week everyone!
Matt