Tight-Tushied Warthogs

Hi friends! I'm back in Arusha after an AMAZING week on safari :) As you can probably tell from the tone of my previous post, the last few days of homestay before we left were really emotional. On Friday, we had a Baba Jack “lecture” about power. He had us read, “To hell with good intentions,” a speech by Ivan Illich addressing the problems with Westerns travelling to other countries with intention of helping. It is definitely a worthwhile read, but be prepared to feel angry, claustrophobic, powerless, and frustrated. http://www.swaraj.org/illich_hell.htm

Safari was a much needed break from upsetting unanswerable questions. Last Sunday morning we left for Tarangire National Park, one of Tanzania's 16 conservation areas that in total cover 34% of the country. Within minutes of entering the park, we were greeted by a bachelor herd of elephants, a family of three twiga (giraffe), and a sounder of warthogs! Warthogs are probably the funniest wildlife to watch. They have short legs but run fast with their tail sticking straight up in the air like an antenna. Babu Leeky told us the reason for this adaptation is so they are easier to follow, but the last one in line always also has his tail up. They have really tight butts, unexpected for a general pudgy animal. I always laugh when these silly creatures appear. After arriving at our campsite, we set up our tents under a massive baobab tree. I like looking at the baobabs almost as much as the wildlife. They are majestic solitary trees – there is no such thing as a baobab forest – and they trunks often form interesting shapes due to the elephants that rip off their juicy bark to eat during the dry season. That evening we went on our first game drive. We had barely left the campsite when we ran into a huge troupe of baboons! Baboons are never boring to watch – they are always busy playing, grooming each other (which is a bonding activity between males and females), and trying to mate. Yesterday I even saw a baboon licking another one's butthole. Mmm. On that drive we also got to see elephants, impala, giraffes, more tight-tushied warthogs, and a ton of cool birds. I had a huge permasmile on my face.

The next day we began our field studies. We (the students) are spilt into four groups: ruminants, non-ruminants, elephants, and birds. I am in the ruminant group. A ruminant is an animal with a complex digestive system involving four stomach compartments. Basically they eat one time, digest it, regurgitate the food back into its mouth, chew it again, and digest it again. This allows them to obtain more nutrition from their food and prevents them from being eaten at Shabbat dinners (they're non-kosher). Some examples of ruminants are giraffe, gazelles, wildebeests, a variety of antelopes species, and cape buffalo. Non-ruminants encompass all other species (primates, zebras, big cats). I'm really happy to be in the ruminant group because I'm learning a ton about animals that I wouldn't normally focus on because some of them are hard to distinguish. The first morning we just did a basic scan – identifying species, counting the individuals, and determining the type of herd. Most ruminant herds are either bachelor (all male), or breeding (all female with calves and one dominant male, also a called a harem). We were lucky to see both types of gazelles, a ton of impala and giraffe, a hartabeest, and a species I had never heard of but now love, the waterbuck. They kind of look like donkeys but are bigger, and have herds of all females which our group has named Book Clubs. When we got back from the drive we presented our information to the group and heard about what they saw, then ate lunch and had a siesta. In the middle of the day it is too hot for all animals to move around. We then went on another general game drive in the afternoon on which we saw a lion! It was sitting on a tree branch in a valley below the road my safari car was on. While I was excited to see the lion then, I was not so excited to hear a deep growl near our campsite as I was falling asleep. The next our camp cook, Oakley, told us he saw three sets of green eyes near our campsite. Green eyes only belong to carnivorous animals. It was the first time I've had to create an escape plan in case of a lion-tent attack. My best idea was to throw my pack at it. Luckily, lions don't usually eat people.

The next few days basically followed the same schedule. We woke up for breakfast at 7 am, did a morning drive with the ruminant group, doing different types of data collection, presented the data, ate lunch, siesta-ed, and went out again in the evening. While you would think looking at wildlife for six hours a day could get boring, it hasn't at all. Learning a lot about the animals makes me appreciate spotting and observing them even more, and I can't help but think about the parallels between animal behaviour and human behaviour. I also frequently imagine what it would be like if humans behaved like some of the animals we have seen. For example, the dik dik, a type of antelope which is ridiculously cute. It is one of the only species in the savannah ecosystem that pair-bond for life (they are monogamous); this is probably because their average life span is three years, and their lifespan is so short because their defense mechanism in the presence of predators is to freeze on the spot. I keep picturing what it would be like if people suddenly froze when they were scared or anxious.I have also been wondering what it is like for the wildlife to see us driving around in safari cars. Do they think we are a new species of really fast, noisy, and smelly beings?

Being in the park has also made me really consider the idea of humans as animals. While the idea of a national park created solely for the purpose of preserving “pristine wilderness” that excludes all human settlements (many communities of Maasai were evicted from the area of Tarangire) implies that humanity is intrinsically separate from true nature, there is nothing like an elephant coming a little too close to the safari car to remind us that we are completely a part of the chain of life, not on top.

One highlight from the few days we spent in Tarangire occured as we were driving to Tarangire Lodge to hang out for the afternoon and judge the tourists and the concept of high-end tourism. We saw three twiga by the side of the road but didn't slow down because the top of the car was down and we were all seated. Normally, when we drive by animals either run away or become vigilant but do not move. This time one of the giraffes starting running with the car. I know there are no words to describe the elegance and majesticness of a giraffe moving at full speed or why I felt tears well up in my eyes. It was one of those purely sensual moments and I wish I could share my visual memory of it with everyone.

The next day we left Tarangire to head to a town called Mto wa Mbu. The name of the town translates to Mosquito River because the town was originally all swamp. We pitched our tents in a public campsite in town and spent the afternoon on a cultural tour. We learned about the rice and banana fields, visited local carvers and painters, and tasted local banana beer. Our tour guide really emphasized how Mto wa Mbu was a place where many tribes and religions live together and harmony, which was strange considering that we heard gunshots and screams outside the campsite during dinner. We found out the next day that a Muslim in the town had been accused of a crime and beaten to death. That night the Muslim community was gathering to protest and police officers fired shots to disperse the crowd. One of the most frustrating aspects of being a student here so far has been the insincerity of some of the Tanzanian's opinions. In both focal groups, I felt like the locals were responding to our questions the way they thought they should. For example, when I asked a group of men what their ideal woman was like, they gave the stock answer that her values and respect of others is most important. I was looking for a vivid visual description (big/small boobs? long/short hair? chubby/thin?), but clearly none of them thought it was appropriate. I hope as I spend more time here and begin to do research, I will begin to break through this communication barrier and have real deep conservations.

Mto wa Mbu is ten minutes away from Lake Manyara National Park where we went for a game drive the next day. Lake Manyara is really cool because it is part dense tropical forest and part flat grassland. There is also a hippo pool where we could get out of the cars and watch. Personally, I'm not so turned on by the hippos but it was pretty funny when one farted. The coolest thing we saw there was a stampede of cape buffalo, wildebeests, and zebra!! It was absolutely breathtaking, and all the herds ran towards the largest herd of giraffe we'd seen yet! There was also the darkest giraffe we'd seen – darker skin means the giraffe is older. The black giraffe was a seriously wise looking babu(grandfather). Okay, I'm really out of time (the cafe is closing, oops). I miss and love everyone a lot. :)

A baobab tree :)

Animal bones at Ndarakwai.

The treehouse by the watering hole where we watched warthogs frolick and the sunset.

Not sure if you can see this, but the small brown thing beside the river is a warthog, and there is a herd of zebra behind him. 

My baby kaka (brother) Deonis. Smushiest face ever. 

Goat Cake

Goat friend.

The view of Mt Meru from my homestay house.

Big elephants (tembo in Kiswahili). They are taller than the safari cars and this one was less than 15 feet away!

Impala 

The thorns of an acacia tree. These trees are everywhere! And animals like giraffe have adapted leathery tongues so they can eat the leaves around the thorns.