Non-Program Day

Karatu Market

So our internet has been down for the past couple of days, which is why I haven’t been able to post much. This is from last Tuesday (2/7), which was our first day off.. In the morning we went to an Iraqw boma, which is a house that was built into the ground. We learned about a traditional wedding ceremony with the natives and participated in a dance. After the boma we drove to Karatu market to shop but we mainly walked around the market square with other locals that we met in town. After the market we drove to an even bigger market square. It was like a once a month flea market where people trade cows and animals, as well as clothes and other goods. It was a little overwhelming since there were hundreds of people there. Me and Ashley (an SFS student) just ended up browsing around looking for some fabric so we can make dresses out of them. (we didn’t find any we liked). However, people were following us all around trying to sell us bracelets and trinkets or whatever they had on them and they wouldn’t take hapana asante (no thank you) for an answer. So we walked back to the cars and they followed us and kept persisting us to the point where I jumped in the vehicle to get away. But they still reached their hand inside wanting money. I felt really bad and that was probably the hardest part of the market. After that exchange was over we drove to a local bar called happy days for some cold beer and American food. It was delicious and a lot of fun. After happy days we ended up going back to camp for dinner (though no of us ate much cause we were so full from the bar) and I had no motivation to do homework after such a long day in the sun. So I took a cold shower and went to bed. Overall good day.

Kioko teaching us how to plot and survey grass

            Wednesday we went to Lake Manyara again the afternoon. This time we drove to the outside park corridors to study grass. We got out of the cars and were roaming the plains collecting grass samples and plotting points for a field exercise. I actually enjoyed it. It was a change instead of being stuck inside the classroom for 3 hours. I don’t know if anyone else like it though, I know it sounds kind of boring. After we were done we got to walk to the edge of Lake Manyara to jump in the mud and take pictures. The walk was very long and hot across the plains but we were close to some cape buffalo and saw bones from a zebra carcass. The cars came to pick us up at the lake to drive us home. It was so hot, I’ve never craved a cold glass of ice or ice cream this badly before. But I shove down those thoughts because I have 2 ½ more months before I can get my hands on some ice cream. Monday is our first community service day where we get to go to a volunteer at a local orphanage and then Tuesday were going to Tarangire National Park followed by our day off on Wednesday, so these next 3 days jam packed.

Me in front of Lake Manyara