Tanzania-Week 1

crazy bus terminal

Hi Friends!  We have been here just over a week now, and we are having an amazing time.  When we arrived, Sebastian from the Kilombero Valley Ornithological Center met us at the airport and had a driver get us to a hotel while the other volunteers arrived in the coming day. Thank goodness, as our Swahili has improved much over the last week, but we were really lost the first days!  We arrived at the crack of dawn to the busiest bus terminal we've ever seen, jumped on board and watched all 100 buses leave the tight quarters at the same time. Our travels were long and in cramped quarters, but the highlight was driving through Mukumi National Park where zebras, giraffes, hartebeast, and baboons were along the roadside to keep us entertained.

all our rides in the back of the truck

After a 12 hour bus ride, we were excited to travel the rest of the trip from Ifakara to our site at KVOC near the town of Lupiro, and even closer to the village of  Kichangani. For this part of our travels, and all others we ride in the back of a truck- bumpy, dusty and holding on for dear life as children, bicyclists carrying 50#sacks of rice, and chickens run out of the way! On the way to Kichangani and camp, we also must cross the ferry- 3 cars at a time, and lots of beautiful people.

camp

Our camp is simple to say the least. The bandas consist of a bunk bed and mosquito netting, the kitchen is a cook fire in which Cecilia prepares us rice and beans with a cooked vegetable for nearly every meal, and the showers are even simpler, a cold bucket of water we scoop over our heads in a wooden stall. We share the camp with our Tanzanian crew of scientists, trackers, and helpers.  They are all amazing!

emmet's new friend little Sebastian

After the first few days of orientation, bird surveys in the area, and walks to and from the village, we headed out on our first field survey excursion.  We are lucky to be here at such the infancy of a new project as us and the other volunteers are building a scientific project to document the wildlife, birds and vegetation via a rigorous study in a nearby teak plantation and the surrounding protected area (protected by the teak company).

The last 3 days we spent at the first camp getting trained on the local bird species, the local track and sign possible in the area, and adapting to the

heat!  We've been working early mornings and early evenings, and swimming in the lily pad pond to keep cool during the heat of the day. This is the same pond we've found centipede-eater snakes, giant kingfishers, and many spp of frogs. We've also had amazing wildlife sightings here, such as a hyena tracks and yelping very near to camp, African civet, water mongoose, and genet tracks and scat regularly, and even an aardvark visited our camera station. Amelia also had the opportunity to teach Angel, one of our new Tanzanian biologist friends, how to swim!

cameleon at the swimming pond

african civit tracks

tarantula in our plot survey

termite mounds are huge here

The kids are doing fantastic!  Of course they have adapted well, and they are all eyes as the beautiful people here are too.  There is so much exploring to be done, colorful birds to gawk over, andcameleons and snakes to photograph.  We are all well, and loving our adventures thus far.  We miss you all, and especially hope anyone who gets to visit with Mica can give her some extra love from us.

love and misses to everyone,
kim, steve, amelia and emmet