Thursday was a holiday so we chose that day to go on our safari this weekend so we wouldn’t miss as many school days with the wototo. Our drivers (Richard, Chui, Kevin, and Simba) arrived at 8am and all 22 of us loaded up. Ashlee, Angie, Matt, Katie, and I all hopped into Richard’s five person jeep. Richard is absolutely wonderful! He was so kind and knowledgeable about the animals we saw. Every driver was wonderful. I got along superbly with them all!
Our first stop was Lake Manyara National Park . It was a two hour drive from the house but on the way we saw many Masai villages and tribes. It was almost as interesting as the safari itself. Young boys would walk the cattle, donkeys, and goat to graze on the browning grass. Some of them couldn’t have been older than 5 or 6. They walk around with a spear or a stick to keep the animals in line and safely off the road. It’s also their job to protect the animals from other animals (like lions). Richard says that it doesn’t happen often, but if a lion leaves the Serengeti or Ngorogoro crater, the Masai warriors will kill it. The most amazing thing about the drive there was that all of these Masai boys were walking right next to wild animals like giraffes, and they didn’t care! It was normal for them. They were more interested in who was in our jeep. I made friends with one particular Masai boy on the side of the road. Our tire popped and as Richard was changing it, the boy ran up to the road from his village. He was hiding behind bushes at first but slowly made his way closer and closer to us. He was wearing western clothes, but was carrying a spear. I looked at him and smiled, and he quickly hid his face behind the bush. When he looked back up, I covered my face with my hands and started playing peek-a-boo. He laughed and came closer. We kept playing peek-a-boo until Richard was ready to leave. I said, “nipe tano,” we high-fived, and then our group piled back into the car to leave. As we were driving away he asked for water. I felt so bad that I had drank all mine. I had none to give him. I waved as he disappeared behind us. Katie laughed at me and said, “Wow, you really do made friends with everyone. 
We stopped at a camp site in Lake Manyara for lunch. It was pretty nice. We ate chicken, carrot cake, and fruit. There were huge storks in the trees and flying above. We have storks visit our creek at home but none this big or loud. We avoided the side walks directly under their butts. Birds that big have to have huge poop. Being in a position in which we were unable to shower for the next four days made us very careful of what we were walking near and under. We left the cooks there to make dinner and prepare the tents for camping that night. The drivers and the rest of us left to enter the park. Looking back, this park of the safari reminded me of Timone and Pumba’s home in Lion King. It was very tropical and green, and there were still creeks, even though it’s the middle of the dry season. We spotted our first elephants (tembo) here. There were three eating a tree, a mama and two younger tembo. The tembo was the thing I wanted to see most, and these were so close to the jeep and so early into the safari! After a dozen pictures or so, we drove farther. We saw hundreds of wild monkeys. Babies were clinging to mamas, some were asleep on the side of the road, and others were crossing the street or cleaning a fellow. I remember last weekend during the waterfall tour at the base of Mt. Meru we were stretching our necks to see monkeys and there we were at lake Manyara, bored of them because there were so many! We wanted to see more of a variety of animals. We leisurely drove through the winding roads, and spotted more giraffes. There were two grazing on bushes. We also saw hippos, but from a very far distance. There was a fence to keep us safe. We needed our binoculars to see their heads popping out of the water. I was disappointed that they were so far away, but Richard said we would see them more closely the next couple days. 
After the full day, we returned to camp to eat dinner. It was nice to have a change from what we usually get fed at the volunteer house. We also had dancers and music for entertainment. There were many families with children from Europe and the USA. The children all got a kick out of the dancers and were giggling so hard. I was exhausted and went to bed early. Ashlee, Matt, Angela, and I shared a four person tent. I didn’t get much sleep because Matt snored very loudly. Finally after two hours of no sleep, Angela and I woke him up. She kept picking his arm and dropping it on his face, to no avail. We finally punched his arm. He startled awake, and we told him to turn onto his side. He didn’t so Angela threatened him that we would write on his face and drag him out of the tent to feed to the wild animals if he didn’t stop snoring. He giggled, turned over, and so we all tried to get a bit of sleep.
Morning came too early but I was excited to wake and go to Serengeti National Park. We ate breakfast, and then drove on. We drove past Ngorongoro crater and stopped to look at the view. It was so huge and beautiful! There was even a rather large salt lake within the crater. We were going to go down into the crater in a couple days, after the Serengeti. We just stopped here at this time for the breathtaking view. At this point we were given the opportunity to visit the Olduvai Gorge or continue on to eat at the gate. Half of us visited Olduvai Gorge while the other half continued to drive to the gate to eat lunch. I chose the Gorge, and am very glad I did. It only cost 3000TZS and I learned so much. This is where the oldest bipedal footprint fossils were found. They have been reburied since for protection, but there was an exact replica that we could look at and touch. Also, the view I had as I was eating my cheese and butter sandwich (surprisingly tasty…) was absolutely gorgeous. 
Arriving to the Serengeti was quite a relief because the Masai tribes were not there to try to sell stuff to us. They were moved from the Serengeti to Ngorongoro by the Tanzanian government to protect the wildlife. Seeing them is always amazing, learning about them is very interesting, but being asked for water, food, and to buy stuff from them is both heartbreaking and rather annoying. We couldn’t stop for any reason without them running up to us. I want to give them all a waterfall to drink from, but I can’t. I wish I had more to give. I couldn’t imagine spending all day grazing my cattle in the beating sun, with no water to drink. I can’t imagine having to work so hard at age four, and with so little food. I asked Richard why I never see Masai women, only young men and children. He said that it is because the women are responsible for all of the work at home. They cook, they clean, they collect water for the cattle and family, and they even build and maintain the houses. They also believe in polygamy so each village chief has several wives and many children. One particularly large tribe chief that we passed had 42 wives and hundreds of children. I wouldn’t even be able to remember every one of my child’s names!
After the sunset we drove back to camp to set up our tents. We camped in the middle of the Serengeti! How cool is that!? We were cautioned to not stray from camp, and also to not have any sort of food in the tents with us. I slept in between Cameron and Katie. Katie woke me up in the middle of the night because she heard a noise and was convinced it was a lion. When I shined a flashlight out into the grass outside the camp, you could clearly see the reflection of dozens of pairs of eyes. Who knew what was out there watching us. I fell right back asleep, but woke up to find her cuddled up near to me. Here was this 6’4” woman, curled in a ball, cuddling with me. I couldn’t help but giggle before falling back asleep.
When we woke and had breakfast the next morning I found out that everyone had trouble sleeping. We talked about all the noises that were heard and how everyone was too scared to go to the bathroom until morning. The bathrooms during this trip, by the way, were mostly holes in the ground. I wouldn’t even label most of them as squatters. They were literally holes in the ground within separate stalls. I got used to squatting days ago, because you have to squat over even the toilets because of the lack of seat covers. What I can’t get used to is the strong smell of hot human waste. We left to see the sunrise over the Serengeti and to find more animals. We had yet to see a cheetah, leopard, and rhino. The sunrise was magnificent but the weather was much colder than I would have expected. I stuck my head out of the top of the jeep as Richard was driving so that the wind would help wake me. We saw a crowd of jeeps in the distance and rushed to see what they were looking at. It was a leopard up in the tree, right by the jeep. It was just dangling on a branch, sleeping. It rolled over, got up a couple times, but didn’t do much more.
The next thing we saw was a cheetah! It would have been nice if it was in action or at least gnawing on a bone, but it was asleep also. It was as if everything in the Serengeti sleeps constantly! (The closest thing we saw to a hunt was a lioness crouching in the grass, waiting for a pumba to get closer. The pumba smelled the lioness though, and turned away. There was no chase.) Back to the cheetah! There was a woman doing research, watching the cheetah also. I wonder if she thinks her job is magnificent or not. I mean, she studies wild cheetahs. That sounds awesome, right? But as we were there, she was just sitting in her jeep, waiting for the cheetah to do something. She looked so bored! We got some good pictures, and moved along to see more. 
By the end, I was terribly homesick for the volunteer house! Pulling up to the gate of our house, enjoying dinner with the other volunteers, and finally taking a shower (luke warm as well!!) felt amazing. Now that I’m clean and have had a good night’s rest, I wish to go back! Things I’ve learned for my next safari:
1. Bring and wear lots of bug repellent. Also, bring a book to identify different types of bites.
2. Always carry hand sanitizer and more toilet paper than you would believe necessary. You’ll have to share it with everyone who forgot to bring their own.
3. Go to bed early.
4. Bring anti-diarrheals AND laxatives. Bring enough for everyone, because everyone will ask you for them when they discover you’re a nurse.
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| We got so close! |
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| My Masai friend |
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The Bull drinking from our water tank.
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Ngorogoro
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I had another nursing emergency that I had forgotten to write about! During one of the bathroom breaks on the Serengeti, a woman came running up to the group of us in a panic screaming for a nurse or doctor. Everyone turned around a pointed at me. I first thought, “SHIT! She is panicking, I’m a new nurse and don’t know what I’m doing, and I hope to God she is exaggerating the seriousness of the situation.” She started running down to her car and I followed her. As we were running, she told me her friend was having severe abdominal pains and thought he may have appendicitis. I went down there, and saw him lying flat in his jeep. I started to ask him questions about his signs and symptoms and trying to figure out what to do. It sounded like he had a bowel obstruction. Thankfully, just then, another friend found a doctor from England. He came, did a make-shift assessment, and also said it sounded like it may be a bowel obstruction but he should go get an ultrasound right away to be sure. I hope he is okay now!
