We got up early and prepared to head out for our 48 hours of reward time. We piled in two vans and weaved our way out of Arusha. The climate became more dry and arid, and the vegetation grew sparse. Every now and again, we would see a herd of cattle with a Masai man in tow. Some were elderly men, some were young men, some were clearly children. They walked, staffs in hand, draped in their shukas of vibrant red, blue and purple plaid. They are all slight of frame, deep ebony skin and shaved heads. The women wear elaborate beaded jewelry, earrings that travel up the entire ear. Their bomas, or mud huts, sit grouped together, usually surrounded by bushes or handmade fences to keep lions out. We pass many cattle herds headed towards watering holes. The weather is cloudy and cold, from the car I can tell it is very windy out. The Masai wear a shuka on their head and covering their face to protect them from the dust. For some reason, seeing these people makes me really happy. It is so interesting to me that in a world of so much technology and change, these tribes are able to live so closely to how they always have. It’s the sort of thing you read about or watch documentaries on, but to see it in real life is amazingly beautiful. The simplicity is calming. There are plenty of aspects of their life I do not exactly agree with, but I find it all intriguing none the less.
After a few hours, we arrived in the village of Mutawombo. We settled in to our campground, the students staying in large roomy tents and Lisa Marie, Krissy and I sharing a room. We had two guides arrive, Vincent and Nickson, to give us a walking tour of Mutawombo. We started in an area called “mosquito river”, which terrified us all. Apparently, these types of mosquitoes only come out at night, and only the females bite. We then wandered through a rice field and made our way to a group of tribesmen from the Makonde tribe. This tribe is originally from Mozambique but migrated to Tanzania in 1975 due to a civil war. The Makonde men are expert wood carvers and we were able to watch them work. They use four different types of wood; rosewood, ebony, teak and white mahogany. These men work painstakingly hard to create wooden works of art. To walk around the town was so amazing. Children chased us down, asking to hold our hands. One little boy walked past us, dragging a toy car made entirely out of cardboard behind him. He had the largest smile on his face as he said hello. It will never cease to amaze me to see people with hardly any comforts or materials be so unbelievably happy.
Today, Sunday, we were lucky enough to go on a day long safari. I had no idea what to expect; whether we would be in a proper safari truck, or Loth’s van, what animals we’d see… Kelvin had found us an incredible deal on a day long excursion and it was hands down one of the most amazing days of my life. As we began our trek in a real safari truck, we slowly started seeing animals; wildebeest first, then monkeys, zebras, giraffes, elephants and gazelles. Every animal was so amazing. I didn’t get tired of seeing the same ones. They wandered the park free, living their lives with no concern for the passing trucks of people watching them. The entire time I could not get over the fact that I was looking at these wild creatures in their natural habitat. My adrenaline was raging from the first animal we saw, and I felt like it kept me going all day. I stood on my seat, head out of the roof of the truck, camera in hand the entire day. It was what dreams are made of. As it grew closer to the time that we were to leave, Copa, our driver, was on the lookout for lions. They were the only animal in the park we had yet to see. As we grew closer to the river bank, boy did we finally see lions. Two females and two young males were drinking water. As we watched, a gazelle approached. The male lions were laying down watching the gazelle, and the gazelle was watching the females. One of the females started to slink closer to the gazelle and we were sure we were going to see some action. The action that followed was not what we were expecting. The gazelle ended up running away and the female didn’t chase him. Instead she went over and started to wrestle with a male. The other female made her way back and they began to roll around too. For about 20 minutes, we watched the lions chase each other around, and occasionally when they caught each other, mate. At one point they were under ten feet away from the other safari car. It was by far the coolest, craziest thing I have ever experienced. By the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted. The level of excitement and adrenaline had completely drained me, not to mention I still had not entirely processed the adventure we had lived.
