Onto Week 3!

Habari asubuhi (Good morning/how is the morning),

Finally finished both of my research papers with one more Maasai: Ecotourism enterprise or cultural entity paper due tomorrow.  Also, we get to go on another safari tomorrow! We’re taking a day trip to Tarangire.  I’m most excited because this time, we will be over the crazy excitement phase of our first expedition and now we can focus more on studying specific behaviors that may be of interest for our next research paper.  Last time we were like, “Oh my god  look a Baobab tree from the Lion King!!” “Woooaho that rock looks like the one Simba was raised up on, let’s check it out I bet a lion is in there!!” …I think the staff was second-guessing their selection of students…hopefully our observations, this time, will be a little more…academic…although I wouldn’t mind spotting “Simba” seeing as I have yet to see a lion.  Additionally, I know I’ve told a few of you already, but if you are having a boring Sunday, watch the film “Africa: Playing God With Nature.”  It truly is a great representation of some of the conservation issues our SFS program is trying to solve.  There are a few dilemmas being discussed within this 90’s documentary, one of which is horrifying to watch.  Kruger National Park, in South Africa, has actually completely fenced in their park, in attempt to preserve the wildlife that still exists.  Surprisingly, the elephant population flourished, to the point the vegetation became so scarce because the elephants were overpopulating.  Instead of translocating these elephants, they simply just killed over 400 elephants in one culling process….and then continued to sell that meat at their souvenir store. It’s sickening, I won’t get into it anymore or you may never read my blog again.  But anyway, watch it, it’s a controversial subject we should all be informed about.

Yesterday we also went to Wakoto Children’s Orphanage.  Obviously I fell in love with a little boy named Joshua.  I left with 3 less bracelets, 1 less pair of sunglasses, and a kiss on my cheek.  These children were from parents who had HIV and could not provide the care necessary to raise a child.  The HIV prevalence, in Tanzania, is 8.7.  In 2007, it was estimated that 970,000 children were orphaned due to AIDS.   It is a very scary reality here in TZ.  Nevertheless, we brought extra wood from our new Tanzania site and helped the little kids build a Clubhouse & a see-saw.

This is my main man, Joshua.   He loved seeing himself on the camera.  Some kids had never seen their own faces before.    He fell in love pretty quickly, not with me, but my sunglasses.  He had quite the posse.   I had tanlines on my forehead from his little hands that not once, failed to let go.   After a few trial runs, he agreed to try out the see-saw (I had to pretend to ride on the back with him…) The only time he let me put him down was for a bottle of orange soda, which he then refilled with a girl’s Coke.    No surprise that everyone was smiling by the end.

Tarangire National Park tomorrow.  We’re doing population counts for the first time, cannot wait! Missing everyone, send the states some love!

☮ Hannah

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