Things I forgot

Africa » Tanzania » Centre » Iringa
May 20th 2011

Published: May 20th 2011

Oh my, I realized I forgot to write about alot. Although that is good because I just finished eating, (this internet cafe is actually a cafe too...i'll explain more in a sec.) Kylie has more work to do for her project so I will just hang out in here until she is done.

I am at a place called Neema Crafts in Iringa. It's a community project, started by a mzungo who runs it. THe computers in here are all state of the art and completely virus free. THe food is fantastic. I had fruit juice, 2 vegetable samosas (which are MUCH better here than in the states...) a dish I have not tried before called ugali (basically just grits..) with beans and cabbage. IT was a nice change from the bland diet we have at camp...although Nesta makes it taste incredibly delicious. I love her cooking even though its simple. All of the employees here are deaf, so you write down what you want to order on a card and give it to them. They also have a sign language guide on the back of the menu. Its pretty cool. There are LOTS of mzungos in here too, in fact, there are a lot in Iringa just in general. It's a pretty worldly town. I feel very safe here in Iringa. Everyone is really nice and I have not been bothered at all in the streets. A lot of non africans live here, and you can buy everything you need here. Kylie said she feels fine walking around at night, which she has done several times. I don't plan on doing so, but its nice to know I can. There is also a bar near us that the volunteers hang out at a lot. THey plan on going there tonight but I won't be joining them. It's not Denver or anything, but its very comfortable.
I also feel very safe in the camp. The village people, although incredibly unlike Iringa residents, are nto dangerous at all. In fact, they are just incredibly fascinated by you. they don't see mzungos often. The only thing I think I would have to worry about in Pawaga is forgetting to take my malaria meds and succumbing to it, which thankfully I havent yet. we also have to look out for snakes, but I have not seen any. It will be fun to see what Chogela is like tomorrow.

I feel like i should explain a bit better how this project works
For safaris, we have 4-5 days in camp. One person per day goes on safari to take field notes. THe other two either catch up on post interviews that have not yet been done if we are behind or go to the schools. I have not been to a school yet. The 4th day, after everyone has done a safari, we go to the village we just took out and interview them and show them pictures they took from their camera. We give them a free one and they can buy however many more they want. 1-2 people do the interviews with Julius or Felisto and the other person does pictures with Rowland helping translate if need be. Then we save that in a special folder, and develop them when we get back to Iringa. Then julius hands them out to each person at a later date. Also in Iringa, we stock up on food, supplies, gas, and update all our field notes we took the previous week and send them to Sarah. This is if we have 3 volunteers, we are going to have 4 in June, so it will probably be a little different. Then we go to Chogela to do the same thing. We also have other projects going on (like the beehive fencing project) that we do inbetween safaris, and those I learn the week before basically. Theres a lot of various things we do here. Its been fun.
By the way, Pawaga is way far from the park...about 3 hours! we gotta leave at 545 Am!! we dont get back until like 7 at night too, so its a REALLY long day. But it was fun anyway! The villagers REALLY seem to enjoy it.

I feel like I MUST tell you about my experience 2 nights ago. The whole time in Pawaga camp, the sky was cloudy, so I couldnt see any stars. THe night before, the moon was SO BRIGHT that it drowned out any starlight that would have been visible, and we could see our ENTIRE camp in the moonlight. but the next night, before the moon rose, the sky was completely clear, and I could see EVERYTHING!! i almost couldnt pick out constellations! And we could see the milky way! Devin and I and Juliu just sat outside and stared at the sky for hours. We also watched the moon rise from the east, it was a brilliant orange and it slowly turned a very bright white like the previous night and slowly drowned out the stars as it rose. It was also fun to look behind me and watch the orion constellation slip slowly out of view along the western horizon. It was just a majestic night. I don't think I've ever seen a sky like that in Colorado, even in the mountains!! and before that, at dusk, all the dragon flies were whizzing around hunting. there were thousands of them! This is truly a gorgeous and amazing country I'm in. I am truly surrounded by beauty.

Oh, I also saw monkeys and baboons on the safari. And on the bus from Dar to Iringa, there were yellow baboons on the side of the road!!! crazy!

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