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Published: March 7th 2009
So four days at Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Forest full of Colobus monkeys, mangroves, bird watching, camping, and no showers. Jozani is a large, conservation area (hence its national park status) with high biodiversity of plants and animals due to its many ecosystems (bodies of fresh water, salty water, intertidal areas, swamps, forests, ect). We've slowly been exploring more of it, each day a new adventure. One day we went on an early morning bird watch, another we did field work counting and measuring mangroves for Jozani's research, and a couple days we went on walks to watch/study/laugh at the hundreds of monkeys that live here.
The monkeys are by far my fav part of Jozani. They're hilarious. One day, as we waited for our lecturer, we sat outside for about 15 minutes watching a family of monkeys jump from one tree down to a lower tree, then scamper back to the higher branch to do it again. They're pretty social and tame, despite being wild. My professor walked 2 feet away from one monkey and it didn't seem to care much. And they tend to roam in groups. As we walked back from the mangrove forest on Tuesday, we came across a huge tree with about two dozen monkeys in it.
I camped out a few nights, how lovely. Perfect sleeping weather. Well, I've been lucky actually. We're entering the rainy season here in East Africa that lasts for about a month. Usually it starts in late march. This year, though, it’s a tad early. I avoided rain at night but we had had some incredible torrential rain during the day that we got caught in.
Jozani has been nice. I've spent lots of my time relaxing and most of my time outside. Yet once again, I'm living in close quarters with everybody in my group. I get along with spectacularly with nearly everyone in my group and I'm happy for it. However now that we're not in our homestays anymore, we're living with each other for the next month and it’s a little tougher to find some quiet time.
This weekend, each of us students gets to do a quick research project. Pretty much I have 5 full days to write 5 pages. For my paper, I'm going to a small village which is home to Zala Park, a very small nature preserve on Zanzibar with a petting zoo, and very limited ecotourism. There's a little guest house I'll be staying in there and with 3 meals a day, will cost me a little under $10 (SIT gives me $15 a day to live, so I'm actually making a profit. I'm finally getting paid to write, oh damn!!)
My project will be a research paper/cultural study on how this village uses various plants as medicines. While I've never been particularly interested in medicines, I think this is a good topic for a couple of reasons. For starters, it gets me into the field. I'm not going to be searching the internet or reading many (any?) books for this project. It'll require me to develop friendships, speak Swahili, and live by myself. It should also prepare me for my enormous month-long research project that begins at the begininning of April. Or rather, I hope that it gives me some direction for what topic I want to dive into.
We're exiting the mango season and entering the citrus season here. My new habit is to eat like 1 or 2 or 5 oranges a day. It all started when I was in Pemba and severely intensified at Jozani when I discovered a wild orange tree. Feast. But now that I'm back in society, I have to pay for my addiction, its unfair. But like any good addict, I am willing to pay. In Pemba oranges were about 10 cents and Stone Town, I've paid up to 20 cents for one. Maybe not as expensive as other addictions but probably more tasty.
Next week, we head to mainland Tanzania: tedious lectures, dangers in Dar El Salaam, and a safari await. Oh damn!! Cannot wait to see a giraffe. Alright, I'm out for now. Salama rafiki yangu.
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Mom
non-member comment
good thinkin'
Good luck on your mini research project. I think the topic may be even more excellent than you imagine: afterall, if you get sick, maybe one of the herbal remedies will come in handy. I google-imaged the colobus monkey to compare it with the all- brown howler monkies and white-faced black capuchin monkies that you would have seen in Costa Rica. I see the colobus look more like a skunk-turned-monkey than anything. How big are they? I missed your blogs for about a week while visiting Gma and Gpa in Maine. It's fun to catch up on everything.