After finishing my history of conservation paper at 1 AM, I decided to pack my things for our journey to Arusha, Tanzania, which was in 4 hours. I am a pretty punctual person… not. Also, getting ready for this journey was quite difficult because we were just finishing our second week of classes and honestly we do not sleep. We start at 7 AM and get home to the compound at 5:30 PM due to traffic. That is honestly longer than most days I had in high school.
Anyways, we had to wake up and basically break apart half a chicken breast to make sandwiches for the journey. I was so exhausted I ripped half the breast and did not know what to do with the other half so I ate it. The night before a caterpillar attacked my hand when I decided to do handstands in the grass at 1 AM. Thus my hand was ridiculously swollen with caterpillar hairs in it. So I showed Sinnary right after he told the group, “You guys are rough in the morning.” He created a sodium bicarbonate solution for my hand and it was the only thing that brought the swelling down. Benadryl and Hydrocortizone both failed me!
We got in the car delirious and began our 8 hour journey to Arusha. When we got on the road, there was a fog storm. Ha. Basically you could not see more than ten feet in front of you. So I decided to sleep instead of get freaked out. A few hours later we arrived at the border. Entering Tanzania is like entering Mexico with mountains around the desert. You walk through to the other side. Tanzania definitely has the most interesting visas. It was really sad it was such a hazy day though because we would have been able to see Mt. Kilimanjaro if it was not.
We kept driving on this really nice road funded by the World Bank but of course that turns into an awful rocky road through the desert. I hate riding on the buses but I love driving with so much interesting scenery. You look out your window and you have to do a double take because you see an ostrich running. Surreal. Also, there were these amazing scrawny trees all around that had at least twenty birds nests on the branches. It seems as if the trees could hold no weight at all. Along these roads there are so many Maasai. It is like they are imaginary with the extravagant jewelry hanging from their ears and their bright red and purple clothing contrasting so strongly with the desert. But after miles and hours of driving, you realize there are thousands of these people and this is a symbol of their culture. I am so excited to learn more about their culture.
Finally, four cranky hours later, we arrive in Arusha at the Dorobo Tours location. We jump out of the stuffy bus and are greeted by four friendly faces: Maggie, Killerai Simon, and Peter. Honestly when we left for Tanzania, I really had no idea what we were doing because the schedule they provided was completely wrong and none of us did the readings ahead of time. All I knew was no United Kenya Club or Swahili class for a week! So when I met our guides I was wondering, who are these people?
We said goodbye to Njao and departed on an open air bus with our guides to our campsite for the night. Honestly, I was delusional on this bus ride because I was so tired and so overwhelmed by the location. It was stunning. As we drove with our broken speedometer, we stopped suddenly to observe the three giraffes running through the land. For such a large animal, they can blend in with their surroundings better than many large animals. We passed the Ngorogoro crater and drove past a gorgeous national park full of storks. We stopped to observe a huge lake that had hundreds of flamingoes around it. Breathtaking.
Eventually we arrived to the campsite and began our six days of living in tents. Everyone was telling me I was being quiet and boring. I am pretty sure I spoke less than one hundred words this day. I tried to pass right out but it sounded like a fifth grade sleepover outside my tent. Oh women.
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