Last Days in Tanzania

Goodness, it’s been a busy few days in Tanzania.  After we got back from the Serengeti, we had an off day to rest which included a goat feast (more details on everything later), the next day we had a tribal day where we visited the Hazabe tribe and Datoga tribe near Lake Eyasi, today we had community service at an orphanage.  Tomorrow we pack up, and on Monday we leave for Kenya.  Man, the time in Tanzania has sure gone by fast now that I think about it! There were times where it seemed to drag on, but looking back, it was so fast! 

I’m excited to see a new place, but I have enjoyed Tanzania immensely.  I’ll miss the staff here the most I think; they are all so great.  I will also miss the village atmosphere that we have here; in Kenya we’re about thirty minutes from the closest village.  Also, the amenities here are nicer than Kenya I believe, we’ll be roughing it in Kenya far more than we do in Tanzania.  We did meet one of the staff members from Kenya, Charles, and he is fabulous so if he is any indication of how the rest of the staff will be in Kenya, I think I’ll like the staff there as well. 

Goat Feast:

Yohana, one of the staff members here, and one of my favorites, announced at breakfast on Thursday that we would be having a goat feast for supper.  Around 5:30 he brought in two goats and announced that he would be slaughtering them shortly.  I was unsure if I wanted to watch or not, but I ended up watching out of curiosity.  As Yohana held the goat down, another staff member, Paulo, slit the throat of the goat.  Surprisingly, it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would, which I thought was odd.  We don’t have any visibility in the US’ meat industry.  No one ever really gets the inside glimpse into the process between alive animal and packaged meat in the grocery store, so this was a treat to see the whole process.  I really think it’s important to know where your meat, or any food for that matter, comes from. 

Anyways, after the slaughter, Yohana skinned the goat, and got all of the skin off in one piece, which I thought was impressive but he has been doing this since a young boy.  He took all the internal organs and showed us the four stomachs of the goat, which was pretty interesting.  One of my classes at Bethel, we learned about ruminants and the differences between the different stomachs so now I got to see the differences up close!  After a little anatomy lesson, he put the legs, ribs, and liver on sticks and roasted them over the fire.  The goat was ready in time for supper and it was absolutely delicious! I went back for seconds!  It was such a great opportunity to witness the entire process of butchering, skinning, cooking, and finally eating meat.  One I probably would not have anywhere else.

Tribes:

The Hadzabe tribe is such a different tribe than any we have visited.  They are still a hunter/gatherer and nomadic.  They speak in a language that includes lots of clicks.  Definitely a culture shock!  The tribe we visited was less nomadic because they are a tribe that hosts tourists but they still had no permanent houses.  The Hadzabe have a special permit that allows them to hunt animals on any land.  When we arrived at their camp, we passed by a tree that was covered in skulls of baboons, kudu, bush pigs, zebra, and other animals.  The men wore denim shorts but had baboon pelts for shirts.  There were about 15 to 20 people in this tribe, including the children.  When we were introduced to the tribe leader, I was surprised how young he seemed.  He looked like he couldn’t be more than 20 years old.  In fact, all of the adults in the tribe looked to be in their early 20s.  No one seemed older than that. 

We were shown how they make fire and were allowed to try it out for ourselves, and one girl actually got a fire going!  After the fire, we were shown how they search for roots under certain trees.  They found these roots or tubers, I’m not really sure, and peeled them and gave them to us to eat.  They use this type of root in the dry season to provide extra water because they were very succulent.  They tasted interesting, some people thought they tasted like watermelon, but I got dirt crossed with a water chestnut.  After the root finding session, they showed us how to shoot a bow and gave us the chance to try.  We were all pretty awful, if we had to live with the Hadzabe, we would probably starve.  They were excellent however.  Finally, they performed a dance for us. 

The cultural presentation was interesting, but it’s not the part that will stay with me.  There was a little girl, she was beautiful and she was kinda tagging around the entire time.  At the end, people were buying bows and arrows and jewelry but I saw her standing off in the distance and decided to go up to her.  I noticed she had a toy truck, like a matchbox truck, and somehow we started playing with the truck.  She would push it to me and I would push it back.  Then we began driving the truck up trees and trying to make it stay on knobs in trees.  She would giggle really hard when the truck would fall of the knob.  I can’t even describe what the experience meant to me, I got really sad when we had to leave.  Any tourist can have the experience of seeing how the Hadzabe live, but to be able to play with a little girl and enjoy the time without even being able to speak the same language is so special.  She may not remember me after yesterday, but she will stay with me.  Its those real human interactions that make this trip worth it, it’s even better than seeing animals or learning about environmental policy.  It’s the times of making connections with people that I will never meet again or can’t really communicate with that just creep its way into my heart. 

The Datoga tribe seemed fairly similar to the Iraqw tribe that we have had experiences with throughout the semester.  The Datoga tribe members are usually blacksmiths so at the cultural Datoga boma, we watched a woman grind corn and got to try it out, watched the men do their blacksmith work and watched a dance.  Honestly, nothing really special stuck with me from this experience.  This experience was just another touristy cultural trip.  I guess it just shows how much those personal connections matter. 

It is interesting how tribes are the fabric of life here.  Every person in Tanzania comes from a certain tribe, there are around a hundred and fifty or so tribes in Tanzania alone.  At our camp, the staff all comes from different tribes.  Most are Iraqw, but there are also people who are from the Chagga tribe, Sukuma tribe, Maasai tribe, and Wey Wey (I think I spelled that one wrong) plus more that I don’t even remember.  It is interesting because at first when I heard all the staff is from different tribes, I thought there would be conflicts among them, but from what I can see at least, there isn’t that.  I’ve been asked several times what tribe I come from in America.  I try to explain that we have tribes, but I’m not a part of any tribe.  One time, I had a long conversation with my ecology professor about the Native American tribes, especially the ones in South Dakota.  He was fascinated by the concept of reservations.  I told him the tribes were once hunter/gatherer tribes but have now lost a lot of traditional ways of life.  I told him that there are lots of problems associated with reservations and he told me to bring all the tribes to Africa so they could learn how to make a fresh start for themselves.  I have really enjoyed the diversity different tribes bring to the cultural makeup of Tanzania.  Tribes always fascinate me. 

Orphanage:

Today we had community service all day at Amani Orphanage in Mtu wa Mbu.  They have 38 children there ranging from the ages of 3 to 12.  All the kids there are orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and come from all over Tanzania.  We raised some money and were able to buy paint for murals and walls, beds and mattresses, food, and bricks to start building an office building.  The orphanage consists of three rooms, a sleeping room, a classroom, and another room that they’re remodeling to be another sleeping room. 

When we got there, the kids were all in the classroom and they got up and sang us songs.  It was the first time of many that I cried today.  After that, the orphanage director gave an introduction and other people such as a pastor of a nearby church who helps out welcomed us.  The pastor told us that they already loved us, it was the second time I cried. 

There was no real structure to the day, just chaotic playing and painting of murals.  At one point I was helping out with the mural with a little girl that had decided to stick with me and we didn’t have paintbrushes so we decided to use our hands.  Unknown to us, the paints were all oil-paints.  So after at least 8 washes and using water, sand, straw, soap, paint thinner, and a metal scrub brush, my hands are still green.  I look like I am slowly morphing into the Grinch or a reptile. 

The kids were great.  They had so much energy.  The favorite thing today was putting kids on your shoulders than spinning around in a circle.  “Tena tena” the kids would shout (again again).  My shoulders killed and I was exhausted but it was fun!  I mainly hung around two kids, a girl who was 11, but I don’t remember her name and this adorable little boy who was 6.  I saw the little boy in the classroom when we first got there and told the girl I was standing next to that I wanted to keep him, and fortunately he wanted to hang out with me today!  He was pretty quiet and didn’t talk much, but he had the cutest smile.  As soon as he would get on my shoulder or another person’s shoulders, his face would light up.  It was precious. 

The kids have so little but they were trying to offer us all their things.  Like at lunch, they tried to feed me their measly rice and beans.  Or when I was washing off my hands, the kids would take over and get a rock to scrub my hands.  Once again, they just creep into my heart.  

If anyone wants a precious little Tanzanian child, no one has been adopted since 2009.  I was tempted. 

Well, like I said earlier, we leave for Kenya in a day.  Tanzania has offered me so many new opportunities and experiences.  I’ll be forever grateful for everything I’ve learned in Tanzania.  I definitely feel like I’m growing.  God’s doing a good thing.  Though I don’t want to live in Tanzania, it’s crawled inside my heart and will be a part of me forever.  I hope all that I’ve learned in Tanzania I will carry with me and will shape my life in the future.  It’s a beautiful country with absolutely beautiful people.  Wow, that sounds cheesy, but it really is beautiful in a raw sort of way. 

Next time you hear from me, I’ll be in Kenya! Kwa heri!