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Chizi Kamandizi means crazy like a banana in swahili. I chose to name this blog that because its just going to be a smattering of completely random things that happened this week, as I am NOT going to sit here for 2 hours again and write (Sorry...haha).
I have spent the past week in Chogela camp. It was founded by a man with the last name Chogela, and I have had the priveledge to meet this man. He is a rastafarian lookin dude who is fluent and english and extremely nice. He has 2 employees that run the camp with him and they are super nice as well. One of them kicked my butt in football (soccer to the americans). one of them also builds a fire for us mzungus every night. its fantastic. This camp is GORGEOUS! its just an oasis of beauty...I could live here the rest of my life. On the first day I arrived, not far from my tent was a lush jungle, where vervets were running around and swinging through the trees! I was so excited that I would be able to spend my off days watching vervets, but sadly, the following days, they never returned! Did I scare them away?? No matter, there are tons of other wildlife here to enjoy. There are lizards running around everywhere, toads that hang out in the bathroom at night, incredibly interesting insect life (i found one beetle that plays dead!!), bats that I love watching hunt the moths that hang around the one lone light in the kitchen at night (sometimes they almost fly into my face! but thanks to their incredible sonar techniques, they always veer away at the last second), bush babies ( i have yet to se one, but the employees keep seeing them and brag to me the next morning) and last but not least, the birds. There are 542 bird species in the Ruaha area, and I have only seen one species that is a solid color. All the other ones are multicolored and have breathtaking patterns on their bodies...and their songs, it's like I wake up to a symphony of bird music, worthy of a grammy!! The best bird watching time is around noon, for some reason thats when they all come out together and fly from tree to tree and chirp/sing incessently. On my off days I just walk around the wooded area, sometimes for multiple hours with my binoculars trained on every species I can find. I'm not going to bore those of you who arent birders by spending forever describing my favorite species, but if you are interested to see the wild bird color palatte I am seeing, google Tanzanian birds or species of Ruaha national park or something. Although, I will say, Rowland (our safari driver, who knows everything about every animal ever) showed me this cool bird that makes a MASSIVE nest...it has 3 rooms! One room for eggs, one for resting and one for sleeping. And only 2 individuals of this species occupy a nest! And its a small bird! Geez its like the white house of bird world or something. I took a pic of it. Chogela is gorgeous and if ANYONE i know finds themselves at this area, STAY AT THIS CAMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On our second day, Kylie's friend Sean that she met on the bus from Dar to Iringa came to go on a fun safari trip with us. Sean is a VERY BRITISH 19 year old on his gap year before college. He spent this year travelling around the entire continent of Africa. Devin got a kick out of his british slang usage, and even though he is gone now, we are still using it..haha. Along with the hilarious aussie slang word 'root' which means have sex. We had a fun time that night making fun of each others slangs and customs (australia, britain and america) BRITS DONT EAT PEANUT BUTTER AN JELLY! WTF MATE!?
Anyway, Sean came with us on probably the best safari that I will see in a long time. During this safari we took a break at one of the gazebos. we probably hung around there for about an hour or so talking and laughing while rowland slept. when I first saw these gazebos that you can eat lunch in in the park, I was concerned. Wouldnt a lion be able to get you or something since you were out of the car? well I had no wildlife out of car experiences until that day. We had just gotten up from our seats and walked down the path around the corner to our car. we came face to face with an elephant!! He watched us the same way we watched him. We were thinking 'oh shit, is he going to charge?' he was right by the car so we couldnt get into the car, but just had to stand at bay and watch him. I bet he was thinking 'are they going to hurt me?' He kept an eye on us as he continued eating. I learned later from Kylie, the elephant expert that we were never in danger. he was fine with us and felt no threat becuase if he did, he wouldnt have continued eating. We watched him and took several pictures as he moseyed over, eating the whole time, to the gazebo where we were just sitting not 10 minutes earlier (he HAD to have known we were there...we were rather loud foreigners) and we go inot the car and went on our merry way. Kylie, Devin and Sean had gone on MANY safaris before, and they all said that that was by far the best experience they have ever had.
The next day on safari, we came across a VERY dead, VERY half eaten and VERY VERY smelly giraffe. Members of the lion pride that killed it were sitting under a shady tree, panting about 5 feet from the carcass while jackals (if you dont know what these are, google a picture of them, they are adorable) were tearing at pecies of flesh they had ripped off and were about 15 feet from the carcass. I got both pictures and video.
While I'm not on safari, or bird watching, or other wildlife viewing at chogela ( I have also seen many monitors running around.,.they always escape into thick brush before I can get a good picture) I am reading. I either read my swahili book, which is coming along ever so slowly, but I'm getting the hang of it. and the african guys I'm with are very helpful in instructing me. ( i learned today that nimeAlehwah means I understand, while nimelehwah (no A) means I'm very drunk. Rowland told me that one after I said the second one to somebody...haha oops) anyway, the book I am reading right now is Global Girlfriends, by Stacey Edgar, one of my moms friends. Look her website up, or facebook and BUY THIS BOOK if you are a girl. That is an order...its incredibly inspiring, and she is such an incredible woman.
Lastly, the village I took out 2 days ago had several masaii tribe members on board. The Masaii are infamous and probably the most well known tribe in Africa. I thought they were only in Kenya!! But I guess they are in TZ as well. They wore very colorful clothes, but one woman stood out to me. her name was Mariam, a 60 year old resident of the Malizanga village about 40 minutes from Iringa. For some reason, she loved me, despite that I could barely communicate with her. On the safari day, she kept wanting to take pictures with me while we were in the park. 2 days later, on the post interview day, I met up with her again, and she wanted to take more pictures with me from my camera! This time, I had a sustained conversation with her using Felisto as our translator. She told me she wanted the picture we took on my camera, I told her I would be happy to print it for her and pay for it myself. She also said she loved Ruaha and wishes she could go into the park more often, and that its a beautiful place, and she is so happy she got the opportunity to go. She also said she is a jewlerry maker, and wants to sell more to make money to rent a car to go into the park again. I told her about Global Girlfriend, however, I dont think Felisto really understood what I was talking about, and that message kind of went by the wayside. I also told her I'm VERY happy she had such a good time on safari. Opening peoples eyes like that is what this program has set out to do. I bid her goodbye, not knowing if I would ever see her again. she was such a wonderful woman. She is my new profile picture on facebook. also, in this village, while I was waiting for Rowland to help me with pictures, I started playing a 'I'm gonna get you" game with the local kids. they were having a ball! They would push each other closer to me so I could grab them. It was adorable and hilarious. Speaking of little kids, that reminds me of the litle girl I walked with in the village that I tposted on facebook. I noticed that kids here dont really have the sense of "stranger danger" that they do in America. They juts come right up to me and follow me wherever I go. i mentioned this to sonya, and she said that Nepal was the same way, and she did not realize this once she came to America, and some of the parents freaked out on her! whoops!
I also attended a soccer match between 2 villages. Devin ayed with them, and the localsd were really into it! i hung out with more kids on the sidelines, and we watched more Brian May videos ansung Queen songs to them There were about 15 gathered around me! oh these kids are adorable.
once in iringa, the kids who hung around me the other day came back. she hugged me and then she started singing using her fist as a microphone, and then she took my hand and we danced around. she aso kept chanting some chant in swahili that i did not understand...
that may be it for now, the whole blog did not save at neemas so i dont remember what else i said.
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Nancy Fenimore
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SOOOO Happy!!!
There are no words to say how cool this is, Leah. Thank you so much for taking the time to write your adventures - your imagery is amazing and I just LOVE reading your posts. Love you!!