Submitted by Lucas Walls on the 2018 winter session program in Tanzania sponsored by the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology…
Week 1 (1/8-1/13)
This week has been everything I imagined it will be. With a delayed flight causing us to miss the connecting plane to Tanzania, we got an extra experience by being able to experience Amsterdam for a night. It was the first time I’ve been to Europe, and it was really awesome to see how different it was from a city in America. It was filled with a ton of bikes, canal systems and very beautiful with all of the brick buildings. When we finally got to Africa, I could just feel the freshness of the air. We met one of our tour guides and learned some basic Swahili and arrived at camp very late. Throughout the week, we camped in tents, drove through cities and visited some national parks. Driving around, local people would stare as we passed, some happy and some angry. It was definitely an experience and at times it was fairly uncomfortable. One of the best moments was waving at children we passed, as a large majority of them would always be happy to see us drive by. As we traveled to Arusha National Park, the weather was cool as we climbed altitude. Coming into the program, I was thinking I would be in the blistering heat every day, but in reality I was wearing a jacket almost every morning until about noon most days. We had our first close encounter experience of the program with giraffes walking right in front of our trucks. We ended the week traveling to Tanagerie National Park, where we stayed at a beautiful lodge and saw our first elephants. It was a moment I’ve dreamed of as a kid and a fantastic first week with many experiences to come.
Week 2 (1/14-1/20)
This week, we stayed at the Nou Forest with the Iraqw people and Yaeda Valley with the Hadza. The Iraqw are a group of agriculturalists who rely on the forest’s ability to provide clean water sources and increased rainfall to support their crops and livestock. We had a chance to talk to a local woman and man to learn more about their sustainability and conservation methods. Women do approximately 80% of the work in their culture, taking care of children, cooking, building homes and some farming. However, men still have a higher social status. They established environmental councils in 1986 and have used them since to conserve the forest and its benefits. It was a great experience to gain a little insight into their lifestyle, which is completely different than ours. In Yaeda, we stayed with the Hadza, a group of hunter gathers. I loved staying with them. They showed us their bows and explained the different types of arrows they used depending on the animal. Women and men are equal in their society. Our first day with them, we spent gathering tubers with the women in the morning and making jewelry with them in the afternoon. The men also helped us make our own arrows. We also had a chance to have a little target practice with their bows, which pack a serious punch considering they’re very simple. The next day, we split up into small groups and went hunting with the men, a couple of groups got small birds, but nothing big. It really put into perspective just how important the women are in their society because without them they’d go hungry very fast. We ended our time with having a celebration around the fire. We joined in some of their traditional dances and even taught them some songs from America. Everyone had a fantastic time with lots of smiling and laughing. Words can’t really describe how awesome it was to be able to connect with such a different group of people on that kind of level.
Week 3 (1/21-1/30)
This week was a week straight off of the Nat-Geo channel. We started out going to the Ngorongoro Crater, where we constantly surrounded by thousands of wildebeest, gazelle and zebra just to name a few. There wasn’t a time where we didn’t see some kind of animal. We were able to see some predators like lion and hyena, and even better, the black rhino. Black rhinos are extremely endangered and there are approximately 30 left in the crater. We were lucky to see three, one of them being just about 100 feet from our truck at one point. Being able to see them in person that close knowing they’re at such risk was remarkable. We spent some time outside of the crater after that in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area with the Maasai. The Maasai are a group of pastoralists who are facing severe overgrazing issues and we were able to discuss some of the problems with the men. They asked for some of our ideas on how they might go about fixing it, and it was truly a great experience being able to discuss those big issues with them. We visited one of their villages and saw their houses, and played with some of the kids. They were so intrigued by our phones and cameras and they couldn’t stop running around all of us constantly smiling. It was a bunch of fun. We ended our program at the world famous Serengeti National Park. It really felt like I fulfilled one of my childhood dreams being able to stare across the savanna with the small trees and sea of tall grass. We saw lion, cheetah, leopard and over a hundred bird species in just two days there.
Looking back at the program, it couldn’t have been done any better. I’ve grown so close to the other students in such a short amount of time, and our tour company was amazing. It’s truly been the best month of my life and I was learning and experiencing something new every day. I cannot wait till I get the chance to come back.
