Week 11: Makame Expedition

Hi guys!

This week I was camping with 8 other students in Makame Wildlife Management Area doing the first half of directed research (DR) fieldwork. I was helping with Dr. Kiffner's other two student groups: doing interviews with local Maasai regarding wildlife perceptions and doing transects looking for carnivore tracks and ungulate sightings. My group's project starts next week where we'll be analyzing plastic pollution in Manyara Ranch. So basically, this was a "free" camping trip for me!

Makame Expedition:

We left early Monday morning to commence the 8-ish hour drive to Makame. During this drive we drove through the edge of Tarangire National Park where we saw some giraffes and a dead wild cat on the road :(  We also met up at some point along the road with Mark and Dave from Carbon Tanzania: the organization that asked for us to analyze the wildlife health of the Makame region. Most of us took a nap at some point during this ride and we all woke up COVERED in a layer of dust/dirt...it adds character! Upon arriving at camp Evan and I struggled to setup our canvas tent and then before dinner we all had a discussion with Carbon Tanzania about their mission and their connection to SFS. Basically, they "sell" carbon to investors in order to protect land. To clarify, they pay locals with the money from investors to not cut down trees or take over the land for agriculture/grazing. In return, the investors play a role in conserving the land and the trees/carbon of the landscape. The locals benefit by receiving money to not use their land (more money than they would make if they were to cut down trees, plant crops, etc.) and the investors benefit by "making a difference" and certifying their businesses/organizations as sustainable since their profits go towards this conservation initiative. Carbon Tanzania decided to work with us in order to get data regarding the health of the ecosystem which they are trying to protect. A really cool aspect of our camp was that there were tons of bats flying around! - they lived in the roof of the ranger office which was right next to our campsite and was where we ate. Another cool aspect was that I had zero service in Makame...which meant that I didn't have to worry about the outside world and could just enjoy my last camping trip in beautiful Tanzania spending time with friends. Therefore, I spent most evenings reading my book. This particular night I also watched some Deadpool (which was downloaded on Alma's phone) and witnessed a GIANT scorpion by the latrines!

A scorpion under black light!

The next day we had breakfast super early (6:30am) but I was helping out with the interview group today which didn't leave until 8am, therefore, I went back to bed for a little bit. For interviews, I walked around with Elana (one of the two students in the interview DR group), our Swahili translator, Stanley, and a Maa translator (Maa is the language of the Maasai tribe) from Maasai boma (house) to boma asking individuals to identify wildlife species and state how they feel about each animal. My role during these interviews is basically just to be a body....we follow the buddy system so Elana needs another student with her...aka me. It was about an hour walk to the first boma. This family was very large and offered us chai which we gladly sipped while asking a male elder questions. Along with the dozens of kids sitting around us there were also tons of "kids"...baby goats...that tried to eat our backpacks and kept cutely nudging the bottom of our chairs! After this first interview I got tired of just sitting around (each interview was between an hour and an hour and a half) so I started writing notecards to my fellow students. Basically these cards are an "assignment" due by the last week where we write about our favorite memories and/or characteristics of each student. Today was a long day as we didn't have lunch until 2pm and we only completed five interviews by the time we needed to stop at 5pm (we were supposed to do between six and ten interviews per day). To add to this already exhausting day, we spent half an hour bushwhacking to get back to camp since our Maa translator said he knew the way but apparently didn't... by the time we got back at 6pm everyone else had already left to do a game drive which we obviously missed out on. Between this, the exhaustion, dehydration and sunburn, I was a little cranky and spent the rest of the evening just relaxing.

One of the bomas we interviewed at

On the second day of actual research I went with the carnivore tracks/ ungulate sightings group in the vehicles. I was able to see so many carnivore tracks that were fresh from this morning including lions, leopards, jackals and hyenas! My role during the day was mostly to record data on the data sheets or look out of the vehicle for ungulates. The local guides plus Dr. Kissui were the ones who identified the tracks along the roadway. The work was tedious but pretty fun. We had lunch in an area with tons of annoying flies and later in the afternoon spotted a HUGE elephant. Overall, we saw only one ungulate throughout the day...these low numbers of sightings was typical throughout the week. Once back at camp we went on a game drive again (since Elana and I missed out yesterday)! We went with Mark and Dave from Carbon Tanzania and they told us about the amur falcons that we saw: they migrate with dragonflies all the way from Mongolia, eating them along the way! We also saw a jackal and on the drive back witnessed Mark sitting on top of the roof of his vehicle...driving WITH HIS FEET over the terrain!

The third day of research I went back to doing interviews, this time with Reilly and her translator, Bruno. The interviews with them were much faster than the ones I did with Elana, getting four interviews done by lunchtime. During these interviews I was able to hold a baby sheep and a baby goat, and while walking between bomas we saw some cool tracks including hyena and lion! We ran out of bomas to interview by lunchtime, so we just chilled out until we got picked up. We sat under a tree eating lunch when a group of baby cows walked over!....naturally I pet some of them and they laid with us while we relaxed in the shade. It took much longer for our ride to come than we expected, so we ran out of water and ended up playing card games and reading to pass the hours away. Honestly, we felt pretty stranded by the time we got picked up at 4:30pm. Once we arrived back at camp I found out that Evan's vehicle (the one I was in yesterday) saw 14 AFRICAN WILD DOGS - the last animal on my list that I wanted to see while in Tanzania! While I was a little jealous of them, I was happy for them and happy that I could indirectly see the wild dogs through the pictures that they took. Before dinner I took a "bucket shower" in the latrines, and while it sounds disgusting, it was SO WORTH IT. I felt rejuvenated after getting the layers of dirt and sweat off of my skin, and to make things better, we had an awesome dinner with deserts including fried bananas and chocolate peanut butter balls!!!

On the fourth and final day of research I helped out with interviews again, this time returning to work with Elana and Stanley. We left at 5:50am (YUCK!). One of our interviews today was with a man who helped found the WMA (wildlife management area) and is currently getting a degree in accounting in Moshi! He spoke English very well, therefore, I was able to help out with the interview instead of sitting around. He was very interested in our lives and talked to us about coming to America to study after getting his first degree. He gave us FRESH milk after the interview which was "sterilized" using smoked tree bark, and we even got his contact information! On one of our final interviews of the day, I was finally able to play with some kids. There were at least 30 of them surrounding us during the interview, and while they were scared of me at first (as all kids are scared of us and our unfamiliar skin color), after some warming up we did some funny handshakes and played around with sticks while Elana proceeded with the interview! I had a ton of fun and the kids seemed to as well....once they got over the astonishment stage where they touched my hands and my legs to see what a "mzungu"/white person felt like. It's amazing how used I have gotten to dozens and dozens of kids and even adults staring at me constantly. Elana and I were able to complete seven interviews before lunch and played jump rope with some kids after the last of these interviews was finished! We met up with Reilly and Bruno and had a lunch/nap break under a tree and chilled out until our ride arrived. After dinner this night we had a goodbye meeting where we thanked all of the guides and translators who helped us throughout the week. Without them, there's no way we could have gotten sufficient data and I appreciated how welcoming and fun they all were - especially Stanley and Bruno. The evening included doing more scorpion "hunting" with Kiffner's black light and listening to his crazy stories and encounters he has had with wildlife while traveling around Africa.

Me and Noah (one of the Maa translators)

On Saturday we left Makame to travel back to Moyo Hill Camp. While leaving we saw a Gerenuk, which is basically an impala with a really long neck! About 1-2hrs into the drive Amelia's car's radiator broke. I was in Kiffner's vehicle, and while the other students in my car got out to stretch and talk to the other students, I drove with him to try to find service to call one of our drivers back at Moyo Hill. While driving we got a flat which I helped Kiffner change, however, we used our last spare tire so we had to turn around and head back....if we got another flat then ALL of us would be doomed. As a whole, Kiffner and I drove 30km down this dirt road and could not find any service unfortunately. When we arrived back to Amelia's damaged vehicle, we found out that Michael (one of our drivers who drove the lori for us), miraculously was able to temporarily fix the radiator! However, because of the risks associated with this vehicle, the staff decided to cram all 9 of us students into the "healthy" car with Amelia driving and put the rest of the staff in the damaged car. After this long, excuse my pun, "bump in the road", we took off again. We barely made it a half hour when we got another flat tire! We changed the tire with a spare from the damaged vehicle which we exchanged prior, and then ten minutes later....we got our THIRD flat tire!!! We changed this tire with our last spare between all of the SFS vehicles and hoped for the best. Luck was on our side, as we did not get any more flat tires on the additional four hour drive back. Along the way we stopped at a gas station where I bought and devoured some well-deserved ice cream and a chocolate bar, and once back on the road I read a lot more of my book. Finally by 6pm we arrived back at camp (when we should have arrived around 3pm) and I spent the rest of the evening unpacking and relaxing...

Sunday was our free day! I slept through two of my alarms that I set at 2am to watch my Nascar race back home...but was woken up around 5am and managed to watch the last half hour of the race. In the morning I completed some laundry and in the afternoon I went to Karatu where I drank some fresh lemonade made from sugarcane juice and lemon juice, walked around some shops, and chilled in Lilac Café where I finished my book! The book is called "It's What I Do" and I started it before my freshman year of college, gave up halfway through, and never managed to reread and finish it until now. Anyway, I got back to camp in the mid afternoon and took a nice nap. Random note: I'm starting to get tired of my beard...I've been growing it out with the other male students for almost three months now and I can't wait to shave it all off in a few weeks! After dinner today I found out that I won the March Madness Bracket competition between all of the students, and then watched The Lion King before going to bed. It took long enough, but we were finally able to watch this movie while living in the ecosystem where it takes place!

Next week I will be continuing with DR fieldwork...this time spending four days working on my group's research regarding plastic pollution and plastic consumption by wildlife. Each day we will drive to Manyara Ranch which is about an hour away to do transects and collect feces samples! As the end of the program draws nearer and nearer, I am making sure to appreciate every day in Tanzania and have as much fun as possible...because before I know it I will be on a plane back to America!

Thanks for reading,

Matt