Moshi Update
Updates at The Watering Hole
These past few weeks in Moshi have been really cool, exploring, building, and working on growing TruetoTanzania at The Watering Hole. In the day I work on whatever projects are taking place here, while also working on some social media projects and the website, like usual. Tomorrow, Fredi, me and three visiting teachers at the Mama Clementina Foundation are headed to Tarangire National Park in Arusha, for a game drive. Tarangire is a National Park renowned for its elephants which are known to travel in large groups. We’ve spoken to some guides that have advised us on routes to take to have optimal viewing of The Big Five, which is a list of Africa’s most well known animals, Lions, Leopards, Black Rhinos, Bush Elephant, and African Buffalo. Personally, I’ve seen all of the Big Five except the Leopard. Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a couple of videos and interviews with our staff. Me and our cook, Zatuapa have also done some amazing food creations that we’re proud to show off! Check out all our pictures below!
Tarangire National Park
Tarangire was amazing! I loved every second of our day-safari there and we were able to see many animals including, lions, elephants, and giraffe, among many others. The crew was Fredi, Teacher Sofia, three guest teachers from Ireland and me. We started our journey early this morning at 4am when we left for the park. It took about 3.5 hours to reach Tarangire, so we arrived just before 8am. The decision to leave early was based on biology, usually the predatory animals that are the biggest attractions (Lions, Leopards, and Cheetahs) are active most in the mornings and evenings and that’s the best opportunity to see them. Today we saw a couple of lions, a male and female relaxing under a tree near some fauna. After a while the female began stalking the nearby wildebeest and eventually took off on them. The video below was taken when she began her pursuit and chased the wildebeest away. Unfortunately, the pair didn’t catch any prey on this attempt, but it was amazing to see their raw athleticism in action and witness the power and beauty of mother nature through our own eyes. After eating a packed lunch, we went back out on safari again and saw more animals such as Cape Buffalo, Antelope, Impala, Python, Birds, and Warthogs.
Methali of the Week
“Cheche akilia, ficha kuku”
“When the skunk cries, hide the chickens”
Since we were in the wilderness this week in Tarangire, I thought this quote was particularly relevant. This quote deals with warning signs, both in life and in a very practical sense. Today in Tarangire we saw Wildebeest hanging out with Zebras; our guide told us that the Wildebeest depend on the Zebras for their brain because they’re more alert to the danger of lions or other predators. The Wildebeest also help the Zebras as they provide a greater chance of getting eaten than the Zebras if danger come lurking. In this way, I think that this quote encapsulates the danger of the wild and relates it to the struggles that we encounter in day-to-day life and how we can better protect ourselves if we pay attention and are self reflective.