Mahale Mountains, western Tanzania

Had a great trip to Mahale Mountains National Park last week in western Tanzania.

Mahale National Park is the anchor of the ecosystem that is home to 800+ chimpanzees – the largest and most viable chimpanzee population in Tanzania. This forest also offers refuge for many other species as well as benefit to local villages. Today it is very in-tact, but farming and timber extraction are the leading pressure that are leading to deforestation. The steep forested mountains lead directly down into the crystal clear waters of Lake Tanganyika. Lake Tanganyika holds 17% of the worlds freshwater, has 1/3 of the world’s freshwater fish diversity and is the longest and 2^nd deepest (to Lake Baikal) lake on earth.

This place is probably one of the more remote and under-served areas of Tanzania. There is no cell phone coverage and people have a 22 hour boat ride to the district capital. There is a small clinic but medicine and trained staff are infrequent. There is a secondary school but no teachers. The villages suffer from a lack of maternal health care with frequent birth related deaths. We are working there with the Government and a local conservation organization to understand and map potential impacts of climate change on the vegetation, wildlife and people. We will probably increase efforts here to develop a freshwater and forest conservation project that may include protection mechanisms which bring benefit and share revenue with local communities.

Bike Ride

I went for my first long mountain bike ride on Sunday. I met members of the Arusha Cycling Club at 6:30 am at a road junction about five miles from home. I felt like a rookie immediately as I was the only one wearing a helmet. These guys were all on steel hard tails with saddle bags, lots of weight and clearly seasoned bush riders. My bike was easily 20 lbs lighter. My companions have all lived in Arusha for 20+ years and know this country like the back of their hand. We road south from Arusha across the volcanic highlands that are characterized by sporadic volcanic cones with eroded river beds and knee high grass. This is Maasai-land. There is some limited farming of maize and beans but mostly this is cattle country. It was an overcast morning – a perfect winter morning here on the equator for a 6 hour mountain bike tour. Not much different than a ride in Nederland, each trail junction precipitated a healthy debate about the best path to take. They all looked the same to me so I just followed. I was just happy to be on my bike and be around fellow cyclists. We talked politics, religion and of course bikes. As the sun rose higher the morning beauty was filled with sightings of herons, lovebirds, wydahs, bustards and gregarious weavers. After three hours we had a snack break by a small waterhole and watched Egyptian geese attempt to mate with each other. My five companions continued south as there were being met by a vehicle in the evening, but I circled back to Arusha to have some family time. I managed to retrace our trail and made it home before the girls got back from Sunday Brunch with friends. It was a good day at church.

Simba Farm

Last weekend (Ok it's almost 2 weeks by the time I finally finished adding pics)we drove about 2 hours west of Arusha straight toward Kilimanjaro where we stayed at a working farm for the night. We had a great time. The woman and man that run the farm sell their vegetables, etc in town (you may have seen pics in one of my first blogs of her veggies that she sells from her house http://tanzanytales.blogspot.com/2010/01/produce-day.html). The kids (and grown-ups) had a great time. We went with the Banks and Foley families. The farm rents out rooms and offers full meals with a lot of it coming from their own farm/garden. The kids enjoyed seeing the ducks, turkeys, chickens, pigs, goats, sheep, cows, and even got to ride one of the horses around the yard. We walked through the strawberry patch and watched as the kids gorged themselves on fresh berries. Driving around the area we got to see a herd of elephants going in to the forest. Also, after 'sundowners' (African version of happy hour) we saw an African wild cat. The men and Lara also went out for a night drive with spotlights (one of the benefits of being on private property and not a national park where it's prohibited) and they saw several more cats, a porcupine, and other fun stuff that only comes out at night. The spot that was set up for sundowners was absolutely gorgeous. We looked over the Masaii plains where we could see Mt. Meru, Ngorongoro Crater, and over toward Kenya. The sunset as the backdrop was amazing. Such a great resource and such fun to for us all to see where our food is coming from.

As a side story to that…I asked Mama Jackie how her weekend was since she had the Saturday off while we were gone. She was very excited that she'd had the day to take a dala dala (bus – sort of like a minivan) to the town of Karatu which is about 2 hours away. I asked her why she went to Karatu and she said that maize is cheaper to buy there. So, she spent her full day off to save a total of 10,000 Ts (just over $7 US). Really keeps things in perspective.

Last week we were invited over to the Peterson's house for dinner. He (Daudi) is like the father of Arusha – their family owns a very large safari company (the one that Matt and I used when we came in November) and they also do a ton of work with the communities in and around Arusha. A really interesting family. At one point during dinner we were talking about snake bites, etc and what they do if someone is injured in the field. Daudi disappears for a minute and comes back with something that looks like it could house a car battery. He said that to treat snake bites, allergic bee stings, etc they just shock the affected area. Amazing. Matt turned out to be our personal guinea pig as he cranked the handle and shocked himself on the chest (as Daudi says 'oh I don't think I've ever shocked anyone near the hear before' – ha, ha). I think this must be a Peterson family party trick, but it turns out that this is something that people here just know. They aren't quite sure why it works, but 'they' think it might be a few different reasons or some combination: proteins are broken down, blood vessels are constricted, and/or it jump starts the immune response. So in addition to the self-cranking car battery size shocker, he also carries a portable cattle prod on his belt specifically for this purpose. Very interesting. (Rat – I hope you're taking notes).

Tierney finally lost her first tooth and the tooth fairy came (we think it's the American tooth fairy because Tierney got a US $1). All very exciting.

New Puppy

Both families drove to a town about an hour and a half east of here called Sanya Juu to pick up our new puppies. I can't believe that I didn't bring my camera - ugh! Joey met this family at the hospital a couple of months ago when they were bringing a patient there. Hugh took a year off of his vet practice to volunteer with his wife and daughter at a school for disabled children in Sanya Juu. The kids had a great time at the school and enjoyed walking around their farm where they have cows, pigs, goats, a ram, and a tractor (Anderson's favorite). The children at the school all seemed to be fascinated by the influx of blond kids. The puppies are around 9 months old - it's nice to know that a vet has been taking care of them up to this point. Hugh, Nel, and Annie are headed back to the US soon, so they decided we'd make good adopted families for the puppies (both girls). Birch and Cole were immediately drawn to Oleander who is slightly darker in color. They have decided to call her Scratchy (although we can't convince Tierney and Ashlyn to call her that - they call her Bella...but only when Birch and Cole aren't around). We have Tumaini (means Hope in Swahili) who we have re-named Faraja (calling her Fara - after the school where she was born). They are both super sweet girls and have been very patient with all the attention the kids have been giving them.

In completely unrelated events, I found Honey Nut Cheerios at the store! Very exciting. I bought 4 boxes even though they are about $7.50 a box. I think I even need to go buy more while they have it because the kids ate a box in one day. (Yep, I really was that excited to find a cereal the kids recognize).