Camping at Lake Eyasi and a visit with the Hadza

We wanted to go camping one last time before school starts in two weeks, so we asked around and two different people (both whose opinion we highly regard) told us we should go to Kisimi Ngede at the very north end of Lake Eyasi.   They were right.  I don’t think we’ve had such a great camping spot since we started car camping when we had kids over 6 years ago.  The site was huge!  It was also a shorter drive than we were anticipating which is certainly the first time that has happened since we came to Tanzania 6 months ago.  It took us just over 3 1/2 hours – not too bad.  One other reason we were excited about this area was because it is home to the Hadza.  The Hadza are one of the last hunter gatherer tribes left in the world and we were excited to maybe catch a glimpse into their life.  How lucky are we?

Lake Eyasi - near Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Even the kids were happy about only being in the car that long.

Our campsite.  Surrounded by palm trees with lots of vervet monkeys and birds to keep us entertained.

There really is a lake out there, but we are in the dry season now, so the water has receded way out. 

  The kids are happy and enjoying some more quality family time.

We did have a couple of camp visitors.  The vervets were around a lot, but this was the bravest one that came up to try and steal some of our scraps from breakfast.  The striped hyena walked past the outskirts of camp.  He didn’t seem too concerned that we were there.  We also saw our first bush baby; it was even carrying its baby – usually we only hear them screaming at night, but this time we went out just as sun was setting to see if we could find one.  After the sun went down, if we shined our light up in the trees you could easily find glowing sets of eyes staring back at us.  Turns out that Ashlyn is an expert spotlighter. 

Here we are with our camp host – he’s giving us some tips before we go visit the Hadza in the morning.  After talking to some other folks we decided it probably wasn’t the best plan to head out for the super early visit to the Hadza where you head out hunting with them (before which they usually smoke a lot of marijuana).  So we opted for the later visit after they return from the hunt.  Turns out there was still a lot of smoking, but at least we didn’t have to wake the kids up to try and keep up with a bunch of hunters. 

This is a hadza ‘house’.   They usually sleep outdoors but will sleep in this hut if it’s raining or, as in this case, you need to give birth.  This story, unfortunately, does not have a happy ending.  Our guide asked the girls where the mama was that gave birth here about two weeks ago.  They told us that the baby died and the mama was crying and went off into the bush.  The baby is buried right inside the house (see the wet spot just inside the door?).  The guide told us that since the baby was less than two weeks old they buried it inside the house.  When people die and they are older they usually just leave them outside and then move camp.  They will bring a new kill from a hunt back to where the deceased is (I gathered it was to draw carnivores).  Very sad.

 

One of the younger males who was quite adept with a bow and arrow.

The men sitting around after their unsuccessful morning hunt.  The entire time we were there, they just sat around and smoked.

Matt getting some hunting lessons. 

Apparently, they need a little more mjThe women took us out to show us how they dig for roots.  The ones they found for us looked a lot like sweet potatoes, but the inside looked more like a radish.  There is a lot of water inside and it tasted a little bitter.  Ash and Anderson were brave and tried some, but they did not like it nearly as much as the little hadza kids (they both spit it out which made the hadza kids giggle).

   

Our visit this trip was ‘hadza-lite’; Matt and I hope to do an overnight at some point with a Hadza troop to really get a better feel for their lifestyle.  It was still cool to get a glimpse of their life in person.

For more on the Hadza, there was a great article in National Geographic in December.  I was glad that I re-read this before we went.  It really helped me understand what was going on.  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/hadza/finkel-text