Arrival in New Delhi - Welcome to India!

August 23, 2013

Dear readers,

I write with great joy and confusion.  Since we last spoke, I arrived safely in Delhi, India.  It was a bit of a long trip – about 14 hours in total – but not unbearable from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and finally to Delhi.  I have decided that meeting people in the airport is a wonderful way to pass time, exchange stories, and generally fight off the travel blues/loneliness, which is exactly what happened in Tanzania.  I met a really nice girl from the States who was on holiday with her friends in Zanzibar.  A law student at Georgetown with roots in India, she was able to share comforting stories about Delhi, transforming my anxiety to excitement and anticipation.  Since arriving here, I am overwhelmed with a mix of emotions.  For all intents and purposes, I should hate it here.  The city is crowded, pungent with a mix of aromas (trash, spices, urine, wet dog, and perfume to name a few), hot and humid, and the honking of vehicles is pervasive.  The climate really feels unbearable – during my brief two days here, I don’t think I stopped sweating once except in the haven of air conditioning, which was a rarity.  As soon as I “stepped out” of the shower this morning (read: you don’t really step out of bucket showers), I think I started perspiring immediately.  But for some reason, I am happy.  I can’t explain my premature draw to this country.  The strange internal pull I feel for it, deep in the fibers of my body and corners of my heart.  It sounds completely irrational, but I can’t ignore the magic that previous friends have conveyed to me after having traveled to India themselves.  Perhaps I am seriously romanticizing this place while in fact it is far too soon to judge how I really feel about it, but right now, my gut and intuition are telling me that I was meant to come here.  Maybe it is because it reminds me a little bit of home.  For instance, driving to the airport this morning involved passing through a tunnel reminiscent of the one before Logan International Airport in Boston.  I went to see a Bollywood film with my host (Chennai Express) yesterday, which although it was in Hindi (she graciously translated parts of the movie for me in real time), it felt like I could have been at the movies with my family.  Or maybe my proclivity for India is explained by the fact that it is not my first country on the Watson.  I have much to thank Tanzania for.  I think the beautiful East African country sensitized me to a lot of things: both vacant and vaguely threatening stares, modestly dressed women, litter and trash scattered everywhere, long drop toilets/latrines, language barriers, and poverty.  In fact, there are many things I thought I left behind when I departed from Tanzania, including stray, miserable looking dogs, little cell phone shops on every corner and that annoying Airtel ringtone, motorbikes/tuk tuks/dalla dalla buses.  However, tuk tuks (also known as “autos” or auto rickshaws; they resemble little buggies and come strictly in green and yellow) are of Indian origin and I rode them around Delhi.  And dalla dalla mini buses take on a new form here – they look similar but are slightly smaller and have a more appropriate number of passengers (read: six instead of 30).  Here, I also took the metro once, and I got my computer “fixed” (HURRAH! Though I don’t want to speak too soon, it’s been less than 12 hours).  It is only a temporary solution to the cracked monitor, broken touch screen, and epileptic cursor, but at least it is functioning more than it has been in the last six weeks.  Oh, did I not tell you?  My laptop broke while I was on a bus from Moshi to Arusha in Tanzania.  It was that time that the bus began smoking from the front and the rear and 40 passengers piled out in a frenzy.  In the chaos, luggage was tossed onto bus roofs and down to the ground.  Even though my laptop was wrapped in soft belongings, it did not survive the turmoil.  This has unfortunately made life a bit more difficult over the last month plus, but I finally feel like I can do something productive without wanting to gouge my eyes out.  A bit of a lesson in not getting too attached to material objects I suppose, while simultaneously teaching me that I should never, ever pack anything “breakable” in my luggage but instead keep in on my body.  Anyways, fast forward to real time – India.  Things feel easier here.  For instance, more people speak English (at least in the city).  It was also a piece of cake to purchase an external hard drive to store my photos and to fix my computer (it was almost effortless – in fact, the tech guy didn’t even want to charge me).  And speaking of time, I think I was transported back in time during my early trip to Indira Gandhi International Airport this morning.  Aside from the fact that I rose at 2:45 AM (I’m not sure if I actually slept…) and took a taxi at 3:15 for my 5:45 flight, time played tricks on me.  The taxi I took looked like it was straight out of the 1950s and the driver was a quiet old man with a white beard and Sikh-style turban.   I swear, I could have been riding around in 1940s pre-independence Delhi during the reign of the British; never mind the fact that more modern vehicles whizzed by us on the free way and that the taxi driver could have theoretically kidnapped me and taken me anywhere.   But I made it to the airport scot-free.  My two days in Delhi were really nice. 

But for now, I am about to live out an almost two-year dream: I am heading to Ladakh.  Ladakh, also known as “Little Tibet” and translating into “the Land of Mountain Passes” is a trans-Himalayan region of high altitude desert in northern-most India, bordering China.  As one of the highest and driest inhabited places on Earth, the environment is fierce and rather unforgiving: 8 months out of the year it is winter with temperatures dropping to -40 degrees F and they have a short 3-4 month growing season from roughly May/June-August/September, with agriculture (mostly barley and wheat) depending on irrigation from glacial streams (elaborate canals and terracing have been developed over many years).  Farmers are small-scale, with about 5 acres each, and depend on animals for farm labor/transport, meat, dairy products, wool, and dung as fuel (sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, cows, yaks, and the dzo, a hybrid of cow and yak).  Ladakh is predominantly Buddhist (Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism) with monasteries dotting the mountainside and the capital city of Leh residing at an altitude of 11,500 feet above sea level.  I received an email from someone who has already been in Ladakh and she wrote that she is “at the top of the world.”  I hope I feel the same, though without the nasty side effects of acute mountain sickness (aka altitude sickness).  I have been dreaming about coming to Ladakh since I saw it in the documentary film The Economics of Happiness, which critiques the current model of economic growth, Western-style development, and globalization, juxtaposing it with the benefits of localization.  The filmmaker, Helena Norberg-Hodge, came to lecture to my program while I was studying sustainability in Australia.  She was in Ladakh at the beginning of the month giving a series of lectures/workshops called “A New Model for Development” (along with other prolific speakers such as Vandana Shiva – super sad I missed this, but hopefully I will meet Vandana when I go to her biodiversity conservation farm/center  Navdanya in Dehradun in October).  Ladakh seems like it will be close to ideal for carrying out my research.  Because of its remote location and relatively hostile environment, it remained closed off from the West until fairly recently (1974 is when tourism arrived) and the culture really sits at the nexus of tradition and innovation.  Helena writes, “Our Farm Project has also worked to provide Westerners with a greater understanding of the value of indigenous cultures.  Despite the negative trends [of globalization], much of traditional Ladakhi culture is in fact still intact, and despite recent changes, the region still provides an opportunity to learn about decentralized ways of economic organization.  In past years, participants in the Farm Project have come away from Ladakh with a deeper respect for a culture in which knowledge, wisdom and methods of livelihood are finely tuned to the local ecosystem.  Equally important, Farm Project participants are able to witness first-hand the tension between traditional and modern that is characteristic of so many places on Earth.  By combining practical involvement in daily life with reading about the destructive impact of globalization on traditional cultures around the world, participants are able to gain a more balanced and rounded view of the issues and problems faced than is generally available at home in the West.”  I’m about overflowing with excitement to get on with farming, and as I sit in this comfortingly modern airport, my flight to Leh, Ladakh was just called.  Will write more later.

Hugs,

Lauren

My first auto rickshaw ride!

My hosts in Delhi - my home/family away from home

Farewell Tanzania: Final Reflections

August 20, 2013 – Farewell Tanzania at the Julius Nyere International Airport

I don’t think I can bring myself to begin reading about Indian culture, history, and agriculture until I properly digest my time in Tanzania.  The problem is that who knows if and when said digestion is going to be complete.  When I try to reflect on all that I’ve seen and learned here, I become overwhelmed – my body, mind, and senses seem to shut down.  And airports seem to be the worst place to self-reflect.  They’re loud, dirty, chaotic, and have many distractions, especially if you’re like me: waiting to check in because I showed up four hours before my departure.  I think that India is a time for new beginnings.  A fresh Watson start if such a thing is possible.  A new continent and a new culture – it seems fitting.  I hope this can be a time of healing and continued self-discovery.  I want to take better care of myself – eat when I’m hungry and most importantly, know when is enough/sufficient.  In Tanzania, I had a habit of gorging because meals were space so far apart.  I want to eat better, be more active, and have more mental clarity.  Perhaps India will help me achieve these goals.  My friend Katie who studied abroad here a few years ago told me that the vegetarian food in India is some of the best I’ll ever have.  I want to go on hikes and do yoga.  I want to farm.  I was able to get my hands dirty a little bit in Tanzania – harvesting potatoes in the Usambara Mountains and helping the boys at the Watoto Foundation weed –but much of my research here involved going to NGOs and research institutions for which I sat at a desk asking questions.  I want to be an active participant, not a passive observer.  I think both roles have advantages and disadvantages, but I long to experience the former, though I also recognize the importance of being comfortable with just “being” instead of always “doing.”  As I’ve said in many previous entries, it’s tough to balance my time.  I want to read relevant literature, listen to pertinent podcasts, meet farmers, talk to agricultural researchers, and explore NGO efforts.  Just today, I listened to an hour long podcast about permaculture/natural farming, which examined notions of efficiency, yield, sustainability etc.  I wanted to side with the man who was asking the questions because his were the same as mine: can we feed the world’s growing population with permaculture design principles and multi-layered food forests?  Can the yield compete with conventional or large-scale organic?  He seemed to think so.  For instance, he posed the scenario – imagine you take a 2,000 acre piece of land being farmed by one conventional farmer and then replace him with 500 individual farms, each cultivating two acres using permaculture.  He argued that the latter would most definitely be more productive and high yielding.  His rationale was that small-scale diverse systems, strategically deisgned for layers etc. can be incredibly high yielding.  The woman did not seem to think so.  She’s had experience farming conventionally, as well as large-scale organic (2000 acres with a 5000 member CSA) and most recently veganic permaculture (without animals or animal inputs).  She argued that farmers that use off-farm inputs (whether organic manure from another farm or synthetic fertilizer and pesticides) will always be more productive/high yielding/efficient because there is simply more land area going towards production, rather than a farm that uses part of its land to raise animals for manure or for cover crops or perennial woody plants for shade, all of which doesn’t’ result in food products/yield.  The problem may be that permaculture or diversified farming is viewed as chaotic (e.g. scattering seeds freely and randomly to mimic nature) and definitely more difficult to maintain on a large scale, compared to monocropping, ordering into rows etc.  The podcast also raised the questions of economic versus biological efficiency, the latter I still don’t really understand.  She also disagreed with him that population can continue to grow and that permaculture can support it.  She claimed that in contrast, if we want truly sustainable systems that are self-regulating, we simply need a smaller population. I agree with her on this one and think that his opinion on the possibility of limitless growth is naïve and ill-informed.  She is also no longer interested in competitiveness, yield, etc. and wants to create equitable and environmentally responsible food systems.  I agree with her that may be we are barking up the wrong tree, asking the wrong questions – that it shouldn’t be a matter of yield at all but rather a question of holistic healing.  That we cannot possibly fix the broken food system using the same flawed metrics and language, that looking to market-based and capitalist driven solutions may not be the answer since these systems bred the current catastrophes.  Perhaps we need a new language/vocabulary and total worldview shift.  One article I read suggested the seemingly radical and farfetched idea of taking food out of the world market, effectively decommodifying it.  Something else the woman in the podcast said that resonated strongly with me with avoid being the armchair type that preaches sustainable food systems but hasn’t even gotten dirt under their fingernails.  I fear being that person.  I want to get my hands dirty and understand farmer struggles and how they might be using technology to overcome them.  It seems, however, that some of the most important practices for long term sustainability (environmental and economic) is to conserve the soil and ensure that its water content and nutrients don’t disappear.  This is where low/no till conservation agriculture comes in, however, without the heavy spraying of round-up.  Cover crops and mulching can help to some degree but at what scale can they be used?  Scale always seems to be an issue.

While in Tanzania, I feel like I was able to see the spectrum, though not as equally as I would have liked – with many more visits to small farms (1-2 acres that can’t afford a hand pump) and a few community garden projects, but not nearly as many commercial and large-scale operations as I would have liked.  But perhaps that is reflective of farming here – many, many more small farmers using hand tools and maybe animal power or other appropriate technologies if they’re lucky.  However, large-scale operations do exist.  I saw this with Hortanzania, Quality Food Products, and Mick Dennis.  However, they are much much capital intensive, requiring loans or other financing schemes at the outset.  On the high end of the technological gamut, I saw pivot sprinklers at Hortanzania (straight from the American Midwest/Plains), the BioAGtive Emissions System (“the most cutting edge in the industry”) and QFP’s usage of high tech no till seeders and glyphosate.  These are definitely not the norm though and it is interesting to compare the models of a foreign-owned company coming in and farming large tracts of land (With the help of machines and local labor) versus a foreigner coming in and integrating their technology and business models with local farmers.  In the latter, it seems like the advanced technologies are received with mixed responses: that in some cases, farmers are too obstinate to change the crops they grow, let alone embrace a foreign and advanced technology.  On the other hand, some farmers may be so impoverished and desperate that they will jump on any opportunity to help themselves.

All in all, I was able to visit 25 individuals/organizations/groups/NGOs/companies/research institutions while in Tanzania: 9 NGOs, 3 farmer groups/community gardening projects; 3 cooperatives (with some overlap with the farmer groups), 4 research institutions, 4 large-scale/commercial/plantation-style operations; 1 individual doing post harvest processing and consulting; and the agricultural trade show (Nane Nane).  Each person I spoke with naturally had different opinions and approaches to farming.  There were some unexpected pieces of information learned along the way, including a strategic planning training given by TAN-EDAPS, an introduction to the benefits of low-till conservation agriculture, and learning about one of the most cutting edge technologies in the industry.  I felt like I came away from Tanzania better understanding the plight of small impoverished farmers, though I didn’t experience them first hand.  I could ask and listen attentively to their problems and perceived solutions, but could not live them.  I felt like I learned more about the power of cooperatives in farming: that they can help individual farms by pooling resources and using collective bargaining power to achieve many of their goals (e.g. access to credit, sharing a tractor, or building an irrigation scheme together).  I found myself startled by the apparent lack of education in the farming population.  Obviously, I’ve always known that slash and burn agriculture exists, but seeing the burning and charred fields firsthand made it much more real.  And then I Question the Slow Food emphasis on traditional wisdom: where is it?  If these farmers are following in the paths of their parents and grandparents, there must have been some knowledge transmitted but I’m not sure where it’s gone.  Some farmers, agricultural extension officers, and government officials acted like life didn’t exist before chemical inputs, as if this is how it’s always been.  This seems absurd, but if we’re talking about low life expectancy, then maybe they really can’t recall another way.  Moreover, it definitely seems like farmers here are receiving conflicting information: e.g. that chemical inputs are an absolute necessity or that tilling is paramount or that high quality seeds are the be all, end all (which I’ve heard that its more about good timing and maintaining healthy soil that actual seed).  I come away with the understanding that we still need to take great measures to reduce food waste.  I hadn’t really considered post-harvest processing technologies when I first conceived of my project, but it’s actually come up so often in Tanzania that it seems foolish that it didn’t make it on my radar initially.  I understand more how much the availability of funding affects the capacity of NGOs and how the equality of their work and capabilities vary significantly (e.g. comparing AVRDC with WODSTA).  Being taken around in a company car and flying with a research scientist across the country to follow up on a project versus being asked to help bring volunteers to Tanzania or help them identify donors.  The stark contrast was a bit startling.  I was also surprised by how little support agriculture seems to receive when it makes up such an enormous portion of the  GDP and employment.  Despite Kilimo Kwanza (the national agriculture policy of “farming first”), it seems like the government is all talk (i.e. outdated research stations and poor farmers with unfair subsidy systems).  I also wonder and ask who should be “teaching” or “helping” who (e.g. Australian permaculture training, Dutch-owned Tanga Fresh dairy cooperative, QFP and Mick Dennis versus Tanzanian-led Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania and TAN-EDAPS).  It seems like in some cases, foreigners can come in and train Africans, who then train each other but the issue of long term financial stability of donor dependent NGOs is crucial.  The Watoto Foundation is a unique example because through Kiboko Lodge, it aims to become economically self-sufficient.  And through value added products, groups can generate additional income for themselves.  IT seemed like the most damaging and least positively contributing operation was a foreign owned one like Hortanzia that doesn’t disseminate knowledge or technology to farmers but rather uses local labor to mass produce crops for export.  But of course, I am biased.  Is food self-sufficiency and localization the answer?  Are these models sustainable?  And are cutting edge technologies appropriate?  They aren’t locally produced, are usually expensive, require technical knowhow, and may be large-scale. The idea of appropriate technology versus modern is hugely important.  The issue of climate change further exacerbates the problem and may render traditional farming techniques obsolete and new technologies the only way forward (though I’m not convinced).  My gut tells me it’s probably a marrying of the two.  Gender also complicates my research – how many and women are participating in farming activities (usually women are subsistence and men are commercial).

In sum, I don’t know if I had any burning questions answered while I was in Tanzania, but rather, my brain has become further saturated and muddled with uncertainty.  If anything, I think I saw (or tried to see) a good variety of worldviews and each person I meet challenges me to think more. I saw both the dire reality and also what is possible given a location and resources.  I also hope to skim the surface less and delve more deeply in the future.  Tanzania felt like a whirlwind, though a good introduction to farming issues as a whole (seeds, water, synthetic inputs versus organic, subsistence versus commercial etc.) and how I want to explore more in depth.  Bring it on India – I’m ready for you!        

Slow Food Thousand Gardens Inaugural Ceremony at the Watoto Foundation

August 17, 2013 – Watoto Foundation/Slow Food Thousand Gardens Inaugural Ceremony

On my final day in Arusha-region, I went to the Watoto Foundation where we were to hold the inaugural ceremony for the Slow Food Thousand Gardens project.  It took over a month’s time, but we were finally able to solidify the sponsoring/partnership between Slow Food Mohawk Valley in New York State and the WF in Tanzania.  At the ceremony, those present included my homestay mother, Helen who the Coordinator of the Slow Food Thousand Gardens Project in the Northern Zone of Tanzania), Aristarik Lucas (Slow Food Youth Network Coordinator, Arusha), Noud Van Hout (Founder and Director of the Watoto Foundation), five staff members (Watoto Foundation), and over 50 WF students.  We began the festivities by gathering and discussing Slow Food.  Helen gave a brief introduction and then asked what the boys’ hopes and expectations were on the garden project.  They replied with moving answers:

-Educate the community back home, with an emphasis on reducing idleness and being a more active member of the community

-Maintain traditional indigenous crops such as cassava and amaranthus

-Educate AIDS patients on good nutrition

-Teach others about biopesticides

-Have good nutritious meals in the Watoto Foundation kitchen

-Supply organic food to the Kiboko Lodge and local markets

-To own an organic garden in the future to generate income and each on the use of herbs and organic products

-Not to buy vegetables for the Watoto Foundation (growing their own will save money)

-Improve health of students and general self-improvement

-Create self-employment in the future (e.g. "start a company/build a place to grow these foods, teach others, and sell products")

Through the generous donation made by Slow Food Mohawk Valley, the Watoto Foundation was able to purchase:

-Cuttings/splits, seedlings and seeds such as: aloe vera, coco yam, rosemary, lemon grass, papaya, moringa, hot pepper, spinach, swiss chard, pigeon peas, rosela, climbing beans, neem, and herbs

-Tools: sprayer, small garden hoes, watering cans, garden works, rakes, fork hoes, garden hoes, drum for mixing biopesticides, and garden signs

With hopes to purchase local chickens, honey bees, and tilapia for a fish pond.

Their future plans include:

-SF Youth Network Coordinator will train the students on good gardening practices from the Thousand Gardens handbook

-Youth Network Coordinator will make follow up on the garden in 3 months (asking what they've accomplished and if their hopes/expectations have changed)

-Youth Network Coordinator will present to the Watoto Foundation staff and students after attending the Tanzanian Slow Food National Meeting in Morogoro in August 2013

-Provide morgina seeds to students to plant back at their homes for nutrition and disease prevention

-Students will talk to their parents and grandparents at home to get information on food traditions and to bring heirloom seeds back to the foundation to be planted at the WF garden 

It was a wonderfully inspiring event and I was happy to be able to say a few words to the boys myself, though I am not sure how many were lost in translation from English to Swahili.  I thanked them and told them how inspired I am by all of them; how each of them can do anything they put their mind to and that the future has no limits (because realistically, they’ve come so far as former street children); and how Slow Food has been such a powerful force in my own life, helping me build relationships and community wherever I go in the world, that I only hope it can be just as inspiring and educational for them.  During the handing over of tools, the sign posting, and the planting, the boys were once again overflowing with energy and enthusiasm.  I am so grateful to have been a part of this beautiful exchange and cannot wait to hear about its future progress.

An inaugural planting of Aloe Vera

With my homestay parents

Host mom!

With my homestay sister

Safari!! Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara & Tarangire National Park

August 14-16, 2013: Safari

At first, I wasn’t planning on doing a safari while in Tanzania because it seemed like a huge expense and totally irrelevant to my research.  I was also having a tough time finding a group to join and considered scrapping the idea all together.  Miraculously, things worked out and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.  We went to Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, and Tarangire National Parks.  We saw lions, giraffes, baboons, zebras, gazelle, impalas, warthogs, water buffaloes, wildebeest, ostrich, dik dik, hippos, elephants, one rhino, mongoose, jackals, hyenas, and flamingos.  The only animals I felt like we missed out on were leopards and cheetahs, both of which are extremely difficult to spot.  Some general safari reflections: nothing like being jarred out of your post-lunch food coma by an elephant spotting.  Baboons are the most entertaining to watch; they’re ugly, loud, and confrontational and like a train wreck – you can’t look away.  Lions are lazy and really like oversized house cats: napping, yawning and licking themselves incessantly, basking in the sunshine.  They are also kind of overrated.  A lot of animals are unattractive (e.g. baboon butts, all wildebeest look old with shaggy gray beards, and the rhino looks like a dinosaur).  Hippos are pretty elusive creatures when they’re just hanging out under water and the rhinoceros was amazing but too far away to really see.  Impalas and gazelle remind me deer back home and the dik dik is the smallest antelope in the world (I think my cats back home, Hamilton and Oliver, are larger than the dik dik).  Overall, safari was an incredible experience.  The landscape didn’t look real – like driving down into Ngorongoro Crater, it was as if someone had painted the scenery.  The crater really is as magical as all the guidebooks and people say.  However, it was also the moment of extreme in authenticity.  Part of the safari package (in addition to transportation, all meals, housing etc.) was a Maasai cultural visit/boma tour, which proved to be awkward and uncomfortable.  It felt exploitative, inauthentic, and forced.  Each safari vehicle pays $50 (or is it $50 an individual?  People kept telling me different things) to watch them dance and give us a tour.  The girls in my group (including myself) even danced with them (When in Tanzania, right?), which was awkward as they placed their necklaces over our heads and we feebly attempted to raise our shoulders and jump in unison with them.  We toured a home, saw the cattle pens, and visited a kindergarten school.  They tried to sell us jewelry (for 4x the amount I paid when I stayed in Longido).  It felt like a zoo, like we were watching animals at Sea World put on a show.  We couldn’t possibly have formed relationships with these people in the short time we visited, yet they showed us their home, such an intimate part of their lives.  Then we felt guilted into donating to the school and buying the jewelry, which I firmly said no to.  I much preferred visiting the Maasai village outside Longido where I met the women and men.  I learned their names, helped prepare dinner in the boma kitchen, and learned how to milk the goats and cows.  I didn’t mind buying jewelry from them because I Felt like I had come to know them.  In contrast, this safari experience was so contrived.  They put on this show any time a car of tourists comes (probably upwards of 10 times a day) and it seems like they keep the cattle penned instead of grazing them and the children pretending to learn by singing songs and counting in English in the school house instead of actually attending school.  It makes me question the ethics of cultural tourism, its efficacy, and genuineness.  Otherwise, safari has been amazing.  The animals we’ve seen are straight out of the Lion King and I just wish my family could be here to experience it.  It feels like the type of once in a lifetime occurrence that one should take in and share with those closest to them.  Instead, I am with a group of total strangers – but an awesome group, thankfully.  We are almost perfect evenly spaced out in age: a 20 year old Chinese girl, Jane, from Malaysia who is studying culinary arts and is in Tanzania for a month on holiday, myself (22), a 25 year old Danish girl, Viktoria, who is studying development is in interning at a consulting firm in Nairobi, a 26 year old American, Kerry, who is a masters student in linguistics and education (enrolled in a university in Beijing) and doing her fieldwork/research in Maasai schools in Tanzania, and another Danish guy, Jenz (visiting Viktoria), who has an interest in cradle-to-cradle/circular economy and will start his job in marketing in September.  I was a bit nervous that I would be with either all old people or couples (I’m not sure which is worse, probably the latter).  But this couldn’t have worked out better - we are an eclectic group to say the least, but we’re also all young, single, and so excited to be on Safari in Tanzania.  On our first day, Lake Manyara was okay.  We saw an elephant right away but the park is very small and also wooded In parts, so we didn’t see nearly as many animals as we did in the crater.  However, we did see the sulfuric hot springs, which formed as a result of the Great Rift Valley.  And the second day in Ngorogoro Crater was magical.  It was almost as entertaining, however, to watch the mass of land cruisers follow each other around like an army of ants, congregating at different sites – where lions lounged in the tall grass or where the rhino wandered in the distance.  And we would all stop and look on together – a mass of tourists (maybe forty vehicles crowded at one site) with foot long camera lenses and high tech binoculars.  It was an absurd and slightly alarming sight, but strangely calming once all the driver guides cut the engines.  Human beings all looking on together at the same natural wonder, trying desperately to capture this fleeting moment and all of its wild glory in a photograph.  But nothing, not HD video, could accurately embody the rawness and pulse of life present in the crater.  It’s one of those things where you have to be there to fully comprehend its awesomeness.  And it’s also interesting as one form of life simultaneously reveres and subjugates another, one deemed inferior in some way.  I felt this with both the animals and the Maasai.  How much the villagers were exoticized, as they put on a show of “tribal barbarism” as some might perceive it, those having had no background knowledge of the pastoral lifestyle or Maasai customs.  However, we’re all human beings striving for the same goals in life: good health, happiness, prosperity etc.  And although these take on different forms and we exist in seemingly disparate spheres, we are not of separate species, as we all belong to the human race.  Instead of humanizing the Maasai, the village visit animalized them. And the problem of poaching is sickening.  One night over dinner, our group discussed at length the current state of poaching affairs in Tanzania.  According to our driver/guide Paul, poachers operate systematically like the mafia.  Some park rangers and government officials are also in on the corruption and take bribes, looking the other way.  Poachers can make something like $800,000 for one rhino horn, which mostly gets shipped off to Asia on the black market where people consume them as medicine or believe them to be an aphrodisiac (hello Viagra?!).  I know I am no position to judge other cultures and demean their belief systems but the thought of someone beheading a rhino and stealing the horn and skull, only to leave behind a still twitching carcass makes me sick.  It’s evil, money driven, and corrupt.  I also don’t know how much I Agree with hunting exotic animals in general (e.g. legally with a permit).  The thought of rich foreigners paying $50,000 + to come in and kill often rare game for recreation feels wrong to me.  And I am not sure if the issue of poaching is solvable until the issue of corruption is corrected for, which seems a long way off, since it’s so culturally engrained here at almost every level of society.

A view of Mt. Meru (Tanzania's second highest peak) through the Acacia trees

The elusive tree climbing lions

Sulfur hot springs

Friendly baby goats

Safari vehicles lined up to see the sole Black Rhino

Pumba is missing Timone

Typical traffic accident in Tanzania

Baobob trees

Love