As many of you probably already know, I arrived in Chicago this Sunday with only a few incidents. All four flights went by quickly and my last flight from Philadelphia to Chicago was the only one that had flown between the two places the entire day! Customs was a breeze except for a misunderstanding involving vanilla vodka and baobab seeds coated in raspberry flavoring. But before I get to these, I’ll start where I left off all those weeks ago, in the fourth week of our stay in the Zion campsite outside of Tarangire National Park.
This week started off very slowly as Ian and I couldn’t do any interviewing because of Daudi’s (our translator) trip to Dar to register for his university classes. We ended up not going out the next day either as Daudi was still gone and our remaining translator had a bad case of laryngitis. So Ian and I had a few days to chill, run, relax, watch “A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”, and look over our data (ha!). When I picked up another bracelet at the Enyorata women’s coop on Monday, they said that they would like to teach me Kimaasai the next day and told me to come at a certain time to their store boma. Are you sensing a trend here with the Enyorata group? I commissioned so many bracelets there that some of my friends joked that I was singlehandedly supporting these women’s families. I was very excited about their offer and went the next day to learn from the wanawake wa Maasai (Maasai women). I sat without shoes on a flattened feed bag in their little boma as they beaded and made baskets. Let me tell you, learning a new language from women of an indigenous tribe when both the teachers and student have only a conversational grasp on the common language (Kiswahili) is challenging, but incredibly rewarding. I wrote down my newly acquired vocabulary in my notebook in English, Swahili, and Maa.
The next day we did three interviews before deciding that 33 interviews was enough for both of us. After our last interview, we saw bibi walking towards us. We greeted her and inquired as to her family and health. After we talked, she told us to come back and see her before we left for the US. That night as a few of us laid out to watch the stars and heat lightening race across the sky, we also watched a huge fire blaze in Tarangire National Park. We were all worried for the sake of the animals and people living inside the park and were not certain if the fire was a routine burn or was caused by poachers trying to divert the park rangers.
On Thursday, Stacey and I went into Tarangire to help Ian (the other one) and Sam with their project of running transects along the park border. Along the drive to the park’s boundaries, we saw two male lions and a female. While we were watching them, the older male lion (judging from the size of his mane) and the female copulated not ten feet from us. Ava, our graduate student helping out the Biology students in the park, said that the other lion was jealous and would have to wait 15 minutes before he could have his turn copulating with the lioness. Another highlight of the day was seeing an owl bathe in a puddle close to where we were eating lunch. We ran transects all day under the hot sun, got bit by tons of tse tse flies, and were able to get out of the vehicle to get close to wildebeests and zebras. After we got back, I prepared my presentation for our preliminary research findings open forum the next day.
The presentations on Friday were delayed in starting because we were waiting for various village chairmen to arrive. The forum took an unnecessarily long time, but the presentations were interesting none the less. During Noah’s presentation on languages, he was asked if he knew any Kimaasai. He replied that he did not, but that Neema does. When the crowd looked at me, I greeted the mzee (old man) who asked the question in Maa. He was very shocked, too shocked to respond, and when he was silent, the crowd started to laugh. My presentation went well and I was asked several questions such as: what are the medicine/treatment options in the US and what medical option - traditional or modern - is better for treatment. I answered about healthcare in the US and told the man that both traditional and modern medicine have their merits and their difficulties and the decision of better treatment should be based upon several factors such as: age, illness, past illness experiences, tribe, gender, etc. The man asking the questions greeted me in Maa, to which I responded and asked him a question of my own back in the language. I’ll attach my final research report if you want to read it. I should warn you though, it’s long and by far my best work as I only had a total of two days to crank it out. But if you’re looking for a quick overview, the abstract of the paper should be just what you’re looking for. Although many of the presentations were on topics that could easily have ignited conflict in the village, everyone handled things very diplomatically and all were pleased. After lunch and cards, Caleb and I printed out pictures that were taken at bibi’s house and at the Enyorata boma.
We then walked to bibi’s boma with Peter. She was very grateful for the pictures and asked when we would come and see her again. We told her that we would try to return soon and she said that she hoped we will return while she is still living. She said that if ever we wanted something badly enough - to return to see her, for example - that God would have no choice but to give it to us. We left her then and walked back to camp. On the way, Peter said that the crowd was impressed with my Maa skills - the ultimate compliment from a native Kimaasai speaker.
After returning to camp and Ian, Shahid, Bruce, Katie, and I loading our bags into the vehicle for our trip to Karatu that night, I walked to Olasiti to say my goodbyes to the Enyorata Maasai women. The reality that I will probably never see them again has hit me acutely. Although this is a harsh reality, I am grateful for the time that we did have together. We then all left for Karatu. Bruce took the four of us early, instead of with the big group coming the next day, because we had done research concerning medicine and health practices and he wanted to take us to the FAME clinic. I won’t go into the story of the clinic’s beginnings and their mission, but I encourage you all to take a look at the link that I’m posting! Our trip to Karatu brought me back to reality: the lights of the city, reliable running water, and beds! I can’t yet imagine going back to Dar because even the city atmosphere in Karatu was a bit overwhelming.
The next day, we went to FAME Medical Clinic and spoke with their special projects and volunteer coordinator and the founders, along with other volunteers at the facility. The clinic and it’s location and absolutely beautiful. We got a tour of the place and learned about their mobile medical clinics and their mission for the future. It was a really sweet place and if and when I return to Tanzania, I would like to volunteer there. We met up with the group later and walked around Karatu and watched soccer games on the tv (what a treat!).
Several of the wanafunzi (students) were not feeling well today, so Bruce and I took them back to FAME to get checked out. When we were waiting for the test results, I talked to Dr. Frank about my research and he told me of a program that he’s doing in conjunction with Gibb’s Farm to integrate traditional and modern medicine. Really cool stuff. Later today we went to Gibb’s Farm to eat a delicious lunch. I’m also going to post the link for Gibb’s Farm. Also don’t pass up the opportunity to check this out - especially for those of you interested in sustainable farming or you’re just interested in cool organic farming. After eating lunch, Ian and I met the resident traditional healer at Gibb’s. He is part of a project and movement, the first of its kind in East Africa, to integrate traditional and modern medicine, to find out the chemical and medicinal properties in traditional ethnomedicine, and to encourage both traditional healers and modern healthcare providers to be open to each other’s medical practices as to be able to dispense traditional and modern medicine at the same facility. At Gibb’s, they have this facility and Lazoro, the traditional Maasai healer, told us how he had learned to be a healer from his grandfather and father and how he eventually hoped to go to medical school. He gave us a tour of his clinic where we met his modern medical counterpart, saw the traditional medicine, saw how he prepared it, and learned about the validity of his traditional medical practices. He has already opened several legitimate traditional medical clinics around Tanzania and is working with an agency to discover the chemical properties in his medicine and exactly how they affect the body. Needless to say, both Ian and I were geeking out about the future of traditional and modern medicine in East Africa and imagining the possibilities.
After our time spent in Karatu, we packed up the safari vehicles and drove to Ngorongoro Crater National Park.
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