Hakuna Matata!

It means no worries! Everything is fantastic here in Tanzania- just got back from safari and research is going strong!

This past weekend our entire group (minus one Tanzanian student) went on safari to Ngorongoro Crater and to Tarangire National Park. We left Peace House at 9 am on Friday and headed into town to buy a park pass. We didn't leave town until about 11 am because we had to change money about a thousand times. If you are not Tanzanian and want to buy admission into any of the parks in this country you have to pay in US currency. Of course all of us don't just carry around $200 US cash, so we had to use the atm, which spits out shillings, then go to the change bureau and get it changed into dollars. What a fiasco! We all spent more money than we planned on this trip- but it was totally worth it!

We got to our lodge/camp on Friday afternoon and went on a sunset hike up a big hill. Then we were served a huge 3 course dinner. All of us had rooms with bathrooms except for Jarod who had a tent to himself (if you don't count the fleas). On Saturday morning we had breakfast at 6:30 and headed to the crater. This crater was formed by an explosion of a mountain larger than Kilimanjaro. Now, it is home to many animals and one of the two places you can see about ten of the 20 Black Rhino that are left on earth. We saw two of them! We also saw mating lions, tons of zebra, fighting wildebeests, hyenas, cheetahs, hippos, one really old elephant, water buffalo, and a bunch of other things I shot- with my camera of course! It is really dry in the crater and we were so dusty afterward from all of the safari vehicles kicking up dust.

On Sunday we left the lodge (and the good cooking) and headed back toward Arusha to Tarangire National Park. The crater was dry and open with no trees and Tarangire was dry, but there were many acacia and upside down trees. There was also a river the animals used for watering. Our group had two land rovers and each car had a driver. Our driver/guide- Alphi- heard about a leopard sighting over the radio. At this point the leopard was the only animal out of the Big 5 that we hadn't seen! I stand corrected from my last post- the Big 5 are: elephant, lion, leopard, rhino and buffalo. This is because they are the most sought after by big game hunters. At 10:15 am our vehicle won the race in our group to see the Big 5! A leopard was hanging out in between a termite mound and a tree. It was kind of hard to see him in the tall grass, but he had the fur of a cheetah and the body of a lion. Way cool! Alphi said we were very lucky see all that we did. We saw many elephants, zebra, wildebeest, monkeys, and the coolest thing we saw were 3 lionesses and a lion after they had eaten their kill. You could tell they were really full- pretty much just napping under a tree with the carcass of a buffalo near by. 2 of the lionesses got up to get a drink and walked 3 feet from our car to cross the road to go get a drink. Scary! They definitely are the kings of the jungle!

We got back from safari on Sunday night and I made HUGE progress with my research yesterday. I am going to teach students about water consumption tomorrow in biology class in order for them to help me collect data on how much water they use. I also got more information about the wetland system from Andre- the school's grounds keeper and the person who built the system. He said they would stop up the sewage flow for me today in order to determine how much waste is entering the system, but now it is 2:30pm and it hasn't happened yet, so I have an idea that it might not happen today. Tanzanian time is def. slower than the pace I am used to.

Tonight we are going into town for pizza to celebrate the going-away of part of our group. Dave, a professor, Melanie, Dave's girlfriend, and Robyn and Kat (U of Minn.) are heading back to Dar es Salaam to catch flights back to the States on Wed. and Thurs. Our group will almost be cut in half and it will be a big change without them. Time has been flying, and I have been learning so much!