Safari!!!

So I have had a bit of a change of plans. My original intent was to go on a week long safari at the end of my trip. But for a variety of reasons, I decided to extend my volunteering stay and go on just a weekend safari and volunteer for a total of 8 weeks.

This weekend I went on Safari with 16 other volunteers from my group. Most of these are new arrivals and a few were veterans. We went with a local company here that has a good rep with CCS. On Friday, we drove about three hours to the west to just outside Lake Manyara National Park. This is located in the Maasai mara and the Rift Valley. We went to a local Maasai village as our first activity as the sun was setting. There were twelve huts in a circle. The village is one man's family, each of his wives has a hut for the wife and her children to sleep in. The man then rotates weekly to each hut. As the sons grow up, they make their own villages and the daughters are married off. The whole livelihood of the people revolves around the cattle. They eat the meat, drink the milk and the blood, and use the dung for various purposes like to build houses and as fuel. The cattle sleep in the huts with the women and children in order to protect them from night bandits. We got to go into a hut which was tiny and had two beds- one for the man and his guests and one for the women and the children. There is a fire set up in the middle of the hut. Now a days the Maasai burn containers of kerosene using fabric as wicks.

It was a bit awkward being there, taking pictures and observing their culture so close up. I attempted to put myself in their shoes and couldn't even imagine strangers coming in to my home to take pictures and ask questions about my way of life. The kids had flies in their eyes and were covered in cow crap but I didn't feel necessarily sorry for them. Every one of us had a different reaction to their lifestyle. My thought is that it is not up to me to judge the way that they live. While I of course want the best for each individual, I can not say to them that their way of living is wrong. Others felt pity for them, but again I think that pity and judgement are closely linked. It was an interesting experience, that is for sure.

Day two-

We went to the Ngorongoro Crater. This was at one point a large mountain that has now collapsed in on in itself creating a lush environment for animals. We saw whole herds of zebras and wildebeast, many elephants and a few (about 15) lions. We were really excited to see the lions as many other groups have gone and not seen any cats. At one point, the van was parked on top a culvert that a lion was under. He was on a "honeymoon" with a lioness and they were, uh, living it up. We came back to the same culvert after lunch and he was there, lying on his back. We got to watch him from the top of our car, about 10 feet away. At one point he sneezed which made us all jump. We also saw 3 Black Rhinos which are also very rare, there are only 24 left in the crater and they don't know if there are any others out side of the crater.

Day Three-

We went on a half day game drive to Lake Manyara and saw lots of hippos and elephants and giraffes. At one point, the van that was parked next to us had an elephant approach and stand there blowing sand at it. We all had to be dead quiet because the elephant was trying to see if it was a threat. At one point, it put its tusks right up to the window. It was a crazy experience, for sure. We were all a bit scared.

It was such a cool experience hanging out in the wild with these giant animals. It is absolutely surreal to have giraffes and elephants just walk past your car nonchalantly. The hippos are my favorite. They just lay in the water all day and eat a whole bunch of grass. What a life. There is such an obvious balance to the whole thing, with such great predators living together. I totally felt like I was visiting another culture and stepping into a whole new world. What amazing animals.