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Published: June 15th 2007
Just two weeks removed from my “last day” volunteering in Dar es Salaam and there’s so much to talk about! During this stretch I met up with Erica, a friend from the NOLS India trek (refer to “The Trek”) who joined me to visit the island of Zanzibar where we met up with two more friends - Carrie and Rob - who’ve recently finished graduate school at UW in Seattle. After a few days of relaxing beach time followed by cultural immersion in Stonetown, the four of us hopped on a plane to Kigoma for a visit to Gombe Stream National Park, the place made famous worldwide by Jane Goodall’s chimpanzee study (now in year 47). After a couple days of hiking, I tagged along with Jane as the unofficial photographer for her visits to a number of Roots & Shoots clubs in local schools and villages outside of Kigoma.
I’ve posted lots of
photos here, so make sure to take a peek! And now, on with the show ….
Zanzibar On Monday morning, June 4, Erica and I took an early morning ferry over to Zanzibar. During the two hour crossing I managed to experience motion sickness for the first time in my life, which eventually turned into full blown vertigo (apparently caused by going to sleep with my head upside down in my lap … I’ll never do that again!) and there in turn causing the most severe sickness I’ve ever experienced in my entire life. During the vertigo, it felt like my head weighed at least 100 lbs as I tried to lift my forehead and look up. Meanwhile the entire world, as seen through my field of vision, began spinning upwards like the tiles of a slot machine. Only the spinning didn’t stop for a jackpot. It didn’t stop at all. I closed my eyes, rested my head on the seatback in front of me and broke out in a cold sweat as waves of nausea passed over me from head to toe. Fortunately, we only had about five more minutes remaining on the two-and-half-hour journey so I was able to relocate to solid ground rather quickly. I called my friend Genevieve who was also on the island and asked her to come by and carry my backpack to a nearby restaurant. Meanwhile, I slowly sauntered along, pausing to kneel and rest every few paces, eventually arriving at the well-known bar Freddy Mercury’s. (Later my friend Genevieve would tell me she had never seen anyone with the shade of skin I was sporting at the time, a pale and ghostly yellow; lovely)
Once seated at an ocean-side table, I ordered some tea, sipped on a bitter lemon soda and swallowed a Dramamine pill, albeit belatedly. Sometime during the recuperation period I also visited the washroom where my body ejected all recently digested food items. This was done quickly, matter-of-factly and in a nearly simultaneous fashion coming out of both ends (if you catch my meaning). It was that bad.
After a few minutes resting my head on the table, I was able to sit upright long enough to eat some pretzels which Erica had brought all the way from a farmer’s market in new york city. They hit the spot, and after an hour or so we hired a cab to drive us over to the east side of the island. Our destination was a hideout known as Robinson’s, just north of the village of Bweju, where we would spend the next three days doing a whole lot of nothing on the beach - the perfect antidote to my bout with vertigo.
Robinson’s is a quiet beachside place with only five rooms and no electricity. Each morning I went for a dip in the high tide followed by some yoga and a plate of chai, chapatti and fresh tropical fruit. One day the three of us rode bikes up the beach and hired a fisherman (who’s entire grasp of the English language was the lone word: hello) for a snorkeling trip on the nearby reef. Zanzibar was relatively desolate at this time of the year, at the tail end of the rainy season. Most beach resorts were at low capacity or completely closed, which gave us a great feeling of remoteness and solitude on the white sandy beach. We ate our meals - usually some variety of freshly caught seafood - sitting in empty beach side restaurants and staring out at the blue and green shades of tropical ocean waters.
On day three, Erica and I broke off for a spice tour that took us to a number of farms in the central area of the island where we saw all kinds of trees and shrubs growing cinnamon, clove, pepper, cardamom, ginger and on and on, and including a number of fresh fruits as well. The tour concluded with a meal of curry and pilau and then Erica and I headed back to stone town, where I met back up with the others to visit the market and buy food for our outing to Gombe National Park. We ate a fancy-schmance dinner at the rooftop Emerson’s and Green Tower Top Restaurant … definitely the best (non-home-cooked) meal I’ve had in Tanzania.
Gombe Stream National Park On the morning of June 8, the four of us made our way to the airport and hopped on a plane to Dar (20 minutes in flight, and no vertigo). There we met up with Jane in the airport terminal and hopped on another flight to Kigoma town in far Western Tanzania on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, the jumping off point for Gombe Stream National Park. We later learned that our flight was chock full of other notables - UN officials and ambassador/diplomat types - who were in town for work related to Congolese refugees who stay in the nearby Lugufu refugee camp. Of course, our own party wasn’t too shabby either, as an entire JGI motorcade met up with us along with a discovery channel film crew who were in town to get footage of Jane with the chimps, and otherwise back home in Gombe.
We had some sundowners on the ocean-sized Lake Tanganyika before going to dinner with Augustino, the regional roots & shoots coordinator in Kigoma, and then called it a night at the Aqua Lodge, lakeside. Early the next morning we loaded our bags and food on to a boat and made a two-hour journey past fishing villages and baboon beaches en route to Gombe. In addition, we ferried the camera crew’s food and drinks, which included a few live chickens that presumably were not going to survive the week.
In addition to the aforementioned guests, the following day a number of notable JGI supporters including some members of the board would be in town as well, so the park was to be relatively full (keep in mind, we’re only talking about 25 people or so in total) and the four of us were relegated to the National Park guest house, another 20-minute boat trip up the lake. There, we were hosted by Michael, the lone staff person running the guesthouse, a converted school building with a porch covered in chicken-wire fence to keep the baboons out of our things and thereby making us feel like we were zoo animals being watched by visiting primates. We spoke with Michael for a while to get the lay of the land, find out the modus operandi and after a few minutes of seriously hysterical language barrier complications, we ended our conversation with Michael offering up, “I give you my sister,” which was not indicating marriage, rather letting us know she was available for hire to cook our meals (the food we purchased at the Zanzibar market; not include a pineapple we accidentally left behind, much to Carrie’s dismay, and some avocados that didn’t survive the cross-country trek). We spent the rest of the day swimming in Lake Tanganyika, contemplating the close proximities of both the Congo and Burundi borders, watching baboons, eating snacks and hand-washing clothes. The next afternoon would be our first in the park.
Park permits to Gombe cost $100 for a 24-hour visit, so we opted to purchase our permits and enter the park once on Saturday afternoon and once on Sunday morning. We were not disappointed. Accompanied by our guide, Joshua, we located four adult male chimps on the beach. Okay, we didn’t really locate the chimps per se, as there was already a research team who had been following the chimps all day, and then Joshua located the researchers who had located the chimps. Same difference! We pulled the boat ashore and hopped into the forest where we got our first glimpse of our four new friends - Freud, Frodo, Faustino and Sheldon - some of whom are rather famous chimps thanks to Jane’s accounts from Gombe.
Though we started with a relaxing stroll along the lakeshore, the chimps led us on a bushwhacking adventure across one valley and into the next as we paused watching them to forage and feed and relax in tree branches. All four of us (humans) had a blast following our chimpanzee cousins around the forest and talking to the researches. Gombe is a beautiful, dense forest of mountain slopes cut by parallel valleys leading westward to the lake. So even if there were no chimps, we would’ve had a very enjoyable hike for the scenery alone.
After two hours with the chimps, it was time to return back to our encaged hotel room for a swim and for dinner. After the sunset, the dark night was illuminated by hundreds of fisherman out on Lake Tanganyika going after dagaa, the small local fish which support much of the area’s economy.
The following morning we were at it again, heading back to Gombe for our second hike in the forest. This time the forest was full - of people - all the visitors we had mentioned before had now arrived as well. Within a few hundred yards of starting out, we ran into the discovery channel crew who were with Jane and some of the chimps, but to keep the impact on the chimps low, we continued on our way. We spent the morning heading to the waterfall and to “Jane’s Peak,” her famed lookout where she hiked in the pre-dawn hours each morning to look for chimps. There we were fortunate to meet Dr. Anton Collins, one of the senior staff of JGI who’s become one of my favorite friends I’ve made in my time in Tanzania. We spent a fascinating few minutes with Anton who shared some stories of the chimps and Jane from his nearly 30 years working in Gombe.
After a long walk through a couple of neighboring valleys - presumably to give adequate time for discovery channel and the other visitors time to see the chimps in turn - we returned to the spot we had passed earlier in the morning to watch Gremlin and her family, which included a young chimp of only three years. This time, the chimps weren’t on the ground, but were way up in the canopy feeding on palm nuts and grooming one another.
This visit was a little shorter, perhaps 45 minutes, before we headed back for lunch (fortunately just a few minutes before a heavy rain settled for the day). We had one more night in the park and the following morning we hopped on the “David Boat” (see my photos) with Anton, Jane a few staff members and some villagers for the return journey to Kigoma.
Kigoma and Back Again Back in Kigoma, we arrived at the JGI office complex on the lakeshore where I had to say some quick goodbyes to my friends (Carrie and Rob have left TZ; I’ll be meeting back up with Erica in Arusha tomorrow to climb Mt. Meru) and then I was off for my adventures with Jane.
As you probably know, Jane spent the bulk of her young adulthood living in the Gombe forest and nearby Kigoma had been the Tanzanian base for JGI for many years (the large office in Dar opened just a couple weeks before I arrived last January). But at present, Jane travels about 315 days a year and only spends a few weeks in Tanzania. So when she’s back in town, the pace quickens and the excitement rises.
I hopped in a car with two Roots & Shoots staff and Jane and we headed off to visit three schools that were having ceremonies while Jane was in town. I was nominated to be the official unofficial photographer. Two schools were opening small farms on their grounds (Jane cut the ribbons) and another set aside an area for environmental restoration (Jane cut the ribbon) and opened an educational exhibition center (Jane cut the ribbon) made up of original nature/art/sculpture done by the students.
At each school, masses of students gathered to welcome Jane with song and dance. One school held a play with students dressed up in animal costumes. At the the village gathering there were a number of children and adults dancing and singing and presenting posters. And at each location, Jane gave a speech.
At the final school, we were joined by a representative of the UNHCR for refugees working to repatriate refugees in the Lugufu camp and get them back home in the Congo. Roots & Shoots unveiled a giant peace dove for Jane to sign, which we later returned to the office and symbolically “sailed” over to the Congo. For this event, I traded over my still camera for a video camera (why me and not the Discovery Channel staff, who knows?) and balanced precariously from one boat while filming the other one - which included Jane, Anton, the UNHCR representative and a number of refugees - as it sailed off into the sunset.
Back at the office it was dinner time with the whole staff and a number of guests for Jane’s last night in Kigoma. All in all, the day had begun on the quiet shores of Gombe as I hopped in the boat at 7:00 a.m. to Kigoma; things didn’t quiet down until I walked into my hotel room 16 hours later, just before 11 pm. It was one of the most action-packed, work/fun-filled days I’ve had in a long time, and was just a glimpse of “a day in the life” of Jane Goodall. The energy she has to stay on this pace at over 70 years of age is incomprehensible and completely inspiring.
The next day was just as eventful: first we took the peace dove over to the harbor and boarded a refugee boat which was taking people to Mozambique (again, me with the video camera) followed by a visit to Roots & Shoots training program where a number of kids from nearby villages were learning to be active club leaders in their communities. We had just enough time for a quick lunch back at the office before Jane and I went to the airport and the two of us flew back to Dar es Salaam. I read and slept, she continued working on the next book project she’s finishing up. It never stops. By the time we got home it was night, the house was full, and I went to sleep at a nearby guesthouse.
The following day in Dar, Jane spoke at a Roots & Shoots Youth Leadership Summit organized by students at the University of Dar es Salaam and my housemates, the other international volunteers who are based in Dar es Salaam. I spent the whole day at the summit and returned to the house in the evening for dinner before going back to the guesthouse.
Yesterday - yes, we’re getting caught up to the present now - I was errand running, by visiting the US embassy to have new pages added to my passport, buying bus tickets to Arusha, etc. etc. and capped it all by playing my last game of basketball with the gamers at the Gymkhana court. We came home for another “last night with Jane” dinner at the house. This morning, I awoke at 5:45 a.m. to catch a ride to the airport. We were (a) dropping Jane off as she is headed to London and (b) picking up my friends Shelley and Kennet who were arriving from London (on the same plane) and joining me for nearly a month of fun safari outings. They’re currently jet-lag-napping at their guesthouse and I’m trying to get this blog out the door before leaving Dar. Tomorrow morning we’re off to Arusha and then a 12-day camping safari complete with game drives and hiking trips. Then they’ll join me for my first week in Uganda as well.
Okay, that’s the latest. Sorry if it feels crammed … I’m kind of rushing to get it all in as I need to go home and pack! Then again, it’s been a face-paced two weeks (with the exception of Indian Ocean and Lake Tanganyika beachside relaxation) so perhaps the crammed blog is appropriate. I’m also hoping to get more photos posted in this actual blog entry later, though there are lots and lots that are already uploaded on my photo page (linked at the top of this entry). I also expect to supplement with some of Carrie, Erica and Rob’s photos as well some time when I get back from safari.
All in all, the past two weeks have been some of the most fun and exciting of my entire time here, not that it’s fair to juxtapose vacation against standard work weeks, but if nothing else, I really felt like I scratched the surface of what life is like in most of the country outside of Dar es Salaam, and I’ll get to experience that for another two weeks before moving on to Uganda.
So one more blog regarding Tanzania to come, and then it’s six months in Uganda ... until next time!
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The Other TZ
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Dude, Dude. Good Pictures. Great Story. Incredible Journey. T-Zed