Village Life in Tanzania

While in Tanzania last month we traveled by vehicle through parts of the large cities of Arusha, Mwanza,and  Dar Es Salaam.  We were also on the island of Zanzibar, including driving through part of the historic Stonetown district.  And of course, being on Safari we also traveled through many rural areas.  Traffic was heavy in parts of the cities, and on Zanzibar.  The rural areas on the continent were a different matter.  This post will provide a few observations on travel and the villages and small cities, particularly Nkololo, the small city in which the Songambele hospital is located, and which hospital I wrote blog about that you can find here.

Concrete block and stick houses are common
As money becomes available they gradually build a concrete block home
Stick homes are covered with mud, and the sticks re-used when the residents relocate
This photo is from a village on the way to the Ngorongoro Crater

Nkololo was a small hamlet when Fr Paul Fagan decided to build a hospital and regional parish church at that location.  He had known about Nkololo as he established a parish south of the hamlet.  Health care is an issue in Tanzania.  Overall, the CIA Factbook identifies Tanzania (in 2010) as having .7 hospital beds/1,000 population (US in 2013 had 2.9 hospital beds/1,000 population).  In regard to physicians per thousand population Tanzania has .04 and the US 2.9.  The road to Nkololo was built by Father Paul so he could build the hospital in a central location to an under-served area.  The road is primarily dirt and in need of drainage improvements.  While the roads were built by Father Paul, they were turned over to the local unit of government.  He worked with the various town elders on road location.  The roads would be at least better than no road, but are certainly much more hazardous to travel on than most in the US, but this is a developing country and not the highly developed US.

Market in Village near Tarangerie 

As we traveled from Arusha to Tarangerie National Park on a Sunday morning, we saw many persons near the road edge, but few homes in site over the plains of northern Tanzania.  We came to the conclusion that the inhabitants walk an awful lot.  I think the little rain received to that point (we were at the end of the dry season) ran off the paved road and allowed more vegetation to grow which is why the cows and goats were attracted to graze along the roadside. It is necessary for vehicles to slow down or stop to allow animals to get off, or cross, the road.  This was a common occurrence on our trip, with our drivers.  While education is compulsory, I sometimes wondered about that as we drove in the very rural areas and saw young children tending herds of cows and goats.  Whether or not it applies to all of Tanzania, I don't know, but on Zanzibar children go to school either in the morning or in the afternoon.

Cattle grazing

On our second Sunday afternoon in Tanzania, a couple of young persons: Everett an attorney in Dar Es Salaam, and is the son of the Songambele hospital administrator was home for the week, and his cousin, a nursing student in Dar Es Salaam, and the young women's father drove us around Nkololo and surrounding areas.  The miles of roads built by Fr Paul has allowed the government to build schools to serve, the these former remote populations.  Universal primary education has been a policy of the Tanzanian government for years, but it has outreach, staffing and other problems.  Everett and his cousin explained the school curriculum, and other aspects of the schools and the related community.  We visited two school campuses, one south of Nkololo, and the other on the north side.  We could see some new classroom buildings under construction to handle the high number of young children in the area.  The school buildings are constructed of concrete block and the windows are open except for metal bars; that means there is no glass.  This can work in the temperate climate of Nkololo. There is no heat or air conditioning.   The school campuses had a separate building for each classroom, and usually two buildings per grade.  Some classrooms would hold over 100 children.  A group of boys, probably early high school age, were studying outside a classroom building that Sunday afternoon in the shade of a large tree.  They were working on trigonometry.

People congregate after Sunday morning mass

Classes in Tanzania for the primary grades are taught in Swahili, although they start learning English in the primary grades with a period a day set to learning English.  Starting in Junior High, classes are taught in English.  Hence, I looked at the trigonometry problem that the boys were working on, and  I don't think I would have wanted to tackle that problem.  English is quickly becoming accepted as the primary secondary language; we witnessed this among those of different language cultures using English as the common language.  This  was evident on airplane flights between flight attendants and non-primary English speakers on the plane.  It was also evident at places of lodging.  English as a second language was quite prevalent in Tanzania.

Inside of a school building, perhaps 6th grade

What was fairly clear to me in large and rural cities is that street signs were not common, and they did they have regular highway identification as we see here in the United States.  The rural communities are very basic.  As we drove around Nkololo, that Sunday, I have to say the layout and design looked chaotic and unplanned, I wondered how things were kept straight.  However, once I got home and looked at the area using an online air photo, the layout of the community tended to follow a modified grid pattern.  There is some method to what appeared to be madness.  Thinking further, I believe the chaos comes from the lack of clear demarcation as to what is a street.  Being dirt roads there is no curb and gutter, there is no hard surface sidewalk.  Buildings often would enfront the street, but vehicles and people have no set location for separation.  Hence a very chaotic appearance that overrode the appearance of any pattern of streets and buildings on the ground.

School buildings

What is interesting is that, there are no street signs and no house numbers.  When I inquired how one would find a building, I was simply told you have to ask if you do not know where it is.  For example, if the driver of the ambulance is in a village of which he has little knowledge, he may well need to pull over and ask a person how to get to the desired home.  How this works late at night or early morning, I don't know.  House numbers are not the only thing missing.   There are no parking lots, those massive places of asphalt which consume half or three quarters of a commercial building site. (As an aside, as a rule of thumb, in the United States, a commercial or office project will usually occupy a lot 4 times the size of the intended building floor area, regardless of one, two or three stories to the building.)  Most persons in Nkololo, and other communities, travel is by foot, with bike or motorcycle secondary and tertiary.  Few persons have cars.   Parking, and delivery just happens,usually along the edge of the road in a chaotic manner.   With no parking lot, that means that while buildings are single story, the community is compact, and appears fairly dense.  This makes sense as to be able to walk things need to be closer than with an automobile.

Inside of a primary school classroom
Up to four students will sit at one of the desks

Besides schools, the only other public service provided to most villages and small cities, is Police (sort of).  Electricity is available, by private utility, but as we found out, even at Mwanza airport, it is subject to interruption.  I realized I did not want to know how human waste is handled with all of the houses. According to the CIA Factbook, only about 1/3 the of urban population has access to an improved sanitary facilities, meaning 2/3 does not.  In rural areas only about 8% of rural population has an improved sanitary facility.  (Improved sanitary facility means flush or poured into  sanitary sewer system with treatment capacity, holding tank or septic system.)  At Songambele, it appeared they had a holding tank.  Developing countries use much less water than we do in the United States, but that makes the waste that more concentrated.  A home or group of homes may be lucky to have a well, but many rely on the river.  Everett's mother, aunt, and uncle all share a well among three homes.  Father Paul noted the importance of being near a river for creation of a settlement.  The ubiquitous woman you see in photos carrying a five gallon bucket on her head hands free is still part of the culture. It is amazing what they haul on their heads.  The balance they have is extraordinary.   In some locations they may haul on bikes, or by donkey. Most of the household chores, and animal care is accomplished by the woman and children, which left the woman in our group asking what the men do.  Everett's cousin noted that the five gallon pails used to be carried near full, but now most are carried about half full.  Does this portend a decrease in the tradition of carrying goods on the head--hands free?

School Yard

The construction of a road network was not only necessary for health services, but also for education and economic development to enhance the quality of life of the population.  Education is one aspect to help overcome poverty.  According to the CIA Factbook, agriculture, much of it near subsistence, accounts for about 25% of Tanzania's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but accounts for 2/3 of the work force. Of the total population of Tanzania, 22% is below the poverty line.  Growth in Tanzania has been about 6 to 7% a year due to natural resources and tourism.  China is purchasing many of the mineral rights in third world nations, and that is said to explain their road construction in Tanzania.  After all, China needs better roads to transport their illegally obtained elephant tusk ivory.  We were on roads in Zanzibar which the Chinese built.  Pretty soon, the way China is cornering the market on mineral rights, all mineral rights will go through China.  For rare earth minerals, China has many and undercut the market which made the only US rare earth mineral mine go out of business.  The Chinese later bought it.  Rare earth minerals are important in the tech based economy on which we no rely.  A Toyota Prius uses 24 rare earth minerals, many in its battery.  One thing China cannot buy is location, so they buy the mineral rights in far off lands.

Banana Tree in a Banana Plantation Associated with
a Village near Ngorongoro Crater

Being south of, but near the equator, northern Tanzania would have been spring at the time of our visit.  Because there is little temperature variation due to the closeness to the equator, I realized that the residents really don't  go by the seasons as we do--spring, summer, fall and winter.  What makes sense is they go more by the variation in precipitation that is evident in that area of the world:  dry season, wet season, and short rain season.  Our varied weather patterns make me wonder if we too need a different metric.

Street scene

Metric or not, there is an interplay between the built environment its inhabitants, values and social relations.  In other words, community vision is expressed in a variety of ways, most importantly through the built environment. Geographer David Sack, once wrote: “Understanding the spatial manifestations of behavior becomes increasingly urgent as social relations continue to increase in complexity.”  In Tanzania, the need to make a living is profound, and buildings start as stick homes and gradually may be replaced by a concrete block house.  However, the concrete block house is generally built in stages as the owner can afford to add to the walls, add the roof, etc.  We saw some were the walls were starting to fall down, that is how long it took some to make the earnings to build the house.  Even the stick homes covered with mud and with a thatch room, the sticks are reused when the house may be moved.  Some villages are still somewhat nomadic.  But, yet what I think we all found among the population was how happy they were, and proud of what they had.  I think of the nuns at Old Maswa who were proud of their convent and its adjacent animal pens.  Their hospitality was unmeasured; we had the best ginger ale at their convent.  I think of Everett's grandmother who invited us in to meet one of her daughters who has MS, or some other disease, but yet they wished us to come in to the house, into her bedroom to meet her.  Fr Paul brought back a wheel chair for her to use. They embody giving and thanks.

Cooking food over open fire

Overall, Tanzania is still a developing country and its lack of proper sanitation reminds me of many communities in the United States in the late 1800's into early 1900's.  While the Western World has much influence in terms of language and culture, there are things we can do to better emulate what is being done in Tanzania.  Let me just name a few: water conservation, use of LED light bulbs, and a ban on one time use plastic bags, such as grocery bags.  We could also walk more for our daily activities, but then again our form of development since WWII lacks good walkability. 

Photos by author or Antoinette Hovel, October 2019.  Tanzania

Rural Health

While in Africa last month we had the privilege to visit Songambele Hospital, which is located in Nkololo, Bariadi District, Simiya Region of Tanzania.  To make it simple, Nkololo is located in the northern part of Tanzania and just west of part of the Serengeti National Park and Game Reserve.  While it is near the Serengeti, the location of the Serengeti gate is distant from Nkololo, and the local road network resulted in a drive of about 2.25 hours (from gate to Songambele).  The last 12 miles of the trip took about one hour, due to the condition of the dirt roads that have not been maintained by the local government. To understand why the hospital was placed in such a rural and difficult to reach location one has to know more about the founder of the hospital: Fr. Paul Fagan.

Guest House at Songambele

Paul Fagan is a Maryknoll Missionary priest who is now 87 years young, but has already completed in the this part of Tanzania work of several lifetimes for several persons.  Fr Paul has been working in Africa for over 59 years.  He abided by the Maryknoll motto "If someone is there, go further."  This  led him first to construct a parish, and undertake social, health and educational improvements at Old Maswa and then about twenty years ago relocate even further from what had become civilization with Old Maswa to the more distant and rural Nkololo.  When he arrived at this hamlet there were no roads, so he built about forty miles of roads.   He decided to establish his hospital, and new parish, St. Peter's Church, in Nkololo as it was centrally located to an area that had no medical care.  (Interestingly, the hospital administrator, Stefano, was born in Nkololo and his mother taught Fr Paul Swahili.)  He first opened a small dispensary and today the hospital grounds contain about 19 buildings from staff and visitor/volunteer housing to surgical suites and inpatient wards.  The hospital laboratory is state of the art and has the highest possible ranking, and it is an official blood transfusion center. No small feat in a rural area of a developing nation.   Today Nkololo, is a community of about 10,000, but has a population of about 22,000 with adjoining villages.  The hospital, however, serves a much larger territory with a population estimated at about 250,000 persons.  To put this population in perspective, the State of Wisconsin has a population of about 5.8 million persons in 72 counties.  However, only four counties have a population of over 250,000, and the fourth of those, is Brown (think Green Bay), with a population of 263,378, so about the same population as that of the region served by Songambele.

Fee Chart

To say it is difficult for persons to receive health care in this area would be an understatement.  Just the travel time, and road conditions are well beyond our normal first world comprehension.  My goodness, even Minnesota has better rural gravel roads. I will have a future post to deal with the local community conditions.  Ambulance services are not provided by the local unit of government, but by the hospital.  The ambulance owned by Songambele, prior to our arrival, had been run off the road by another vehicle and turned over, and so now they await a different ambulance. I am glad I did not have to drive anywhere in Tanzania.  My wife app would have been on overload, and I would be concerned that the app would have required a re-set.

Lab

Health care is a core human need, which Fr. Paul recognized.  Songambele fills that need in an under-served area of the developing world.  In a recent 12 month period over 15,000 patients were treated at Songambele.  Almost 1,900 were admitted to the wards (daily capacity of 30).  Ninety major operations and 220 c-sections were performed.  There were 388 normal deliveries.  The hospital has a staff of 66 including four doctors and 4 clinical officers who do diagnosis and make rounds.  Nursing care, at least in terms of number of nurses present, is no where near that of what we have in the United States.  Although nursing staff at Songambele is equal to that at the largest regional hospital.   Lack of staff has led to problems.  At times infant mortality is high, due to length of travel for the mother to get to the hospital, prenatal care, or other medical reasons which lead to complications.  But it is also due to lack of proper medical equipment, and the need for better infant resuscitation methods.  They have tried to work on the latter, but a recognized pediatrician  from Minneapolis who was going to train staff at the hospital developed his own medical emergency after arriving and needed to go back to the United States.  A Canadian ER Doctor, working with the Italian Group Doctors with Africa, which usually works only in the AIDS section (and which he says their AIDS section is well run) is hoping to provide some of that training. He needed to take a week off after his experiences in the infant unit. He also said, that even though Songambele may have some issues, Songambele is better than the large regional hospital.

Care Room 

Unlike US Hospitals were most all patients are in one large building, in rural Tanzania, care is spread out in separate buildings.  To assist with improvement to mother and infant care, a maternity care center was under construction.  This state of art facility will be one of the first in that nation, and the government cites it as an example to be copied.  When we viewed the structure it had its concrete block walls and roof in place, but they were awaiting regulatory approval of the final layout before continuing with construction.  They would receive that approval on the day of our departure, only needing a few minor interior wall modifications.  Realizing the dearth of nurses in the region, and that the region has no nursing school, the next large planned project is a $3 million dollar nursing school to be constructed on property near the hospital.  It is hoped the school will improve staffing at such a busy hospital.

Mixer for Concrete Block

A workshop on hospital grounds produces the concrete block used in building construction.  One benefit of being near the equator is that neither day light or temperatures have great variation.  Temperature variation, I believe I was told, is generally from 60 to 85 degrees F). This means they garden year round producing various produce for nourishment.  Two fish ponds will soon produce Tilapia.  They  are only a few degrees south of the equator, so it was their "spring."  Corn planting was being accomplished in much of the rural areas in which we traveled.  Other staples grown are beans and rice.  My fall planting of radishes, lettuce and spinach was froze out by the early freeze we had in Wisconsin this year.

Concrete block form

Being from the west, I think we all realized the importance of not being judgmental of the way things get accomplished in a developing country.   The Canadian Doctor said pretty much the same, as he noted his first intent was to watch and learn, but the infant mortality issue made him take a greater role sooner than he desired.  He will be in service to Songambele for six months, and when we met him he had been there for just over a month. He previously worked in an Iraq war  refugee camp in Afghanistan.  The man has seen his share of suffering. The ways of the western developed world may not be the correct way for a different culture, setting and environment.

Concrete blocks drying

Obviously most of the hospital equipment is from the west, but that poses problems for training and getting the equipment to work right.  After being set up and put in working condition the tech guru from the company for one high tech piece of equipment was to return the following week to train staff on the use of the machine. Weeks later they are still waiting for that person to return.  Calls are not returned.  In a recent purchase of some medical equipment from Europe, an infant incubator was thrown in, but upon its arrival it did not work. The Canadian Doctor knew how to operate it, but of course the staff had not training.  A technician from Dar Es Salaam said a new control board is needed, and they were awaiting his return with the control board from Dar Es Salaam.

Sunday Mass at St Peter Church

Yet, are they more open to other methods than perhaps is the west?  Two persons, who will be volunteering at Songambele, who hail from Richland County, learned a method of burn treatment from the Amish that uses a salve, and burdock leaves.  While they have had some success explaining its use to a few US clinics, here in the US a waiver is required since it is a method not approved by the FDA, or recognized by any medical group as appropriate protocol.  Yet it seems to have a better success rate than conventional western methods. They know what ingredients are in the salve, but not the proportions and they hope the hospital lab at Songambele will be able to breakdown the proportions so they can see if a salve from local products could be used.  A large shipment from the US arrived while we were there, but I understood it to be pretty much all damaged, perhaps due to freezing in the cargo hold of the airplane.

Children after Sunday mass

Yet, as much as we may think we are so much more advanced, let me point out an article that was in the November 12, 2019 Wisconsin State Journal.  This article noted that from 1996 to 2016 the number of counties in Wisconsin without an obstetrics care unit increased from 20% to 40%.  This means that there may be a travel time not unlike that experienced in the Songambele service territory, but over much better roads.  Of the rural hospitals in Wisconsin, just 56% provide delivery services.  Women's health is much more than the one issue.  The importance of mother and infant care was recognized by Fr Paul Fagan over twenty years ago in rural Tanzania.   Here in the west we think all places are like the well served urban areas.  Perhaps we can learn some things from Fr Paul's efforts in Tanzania.

Our Group with Fr Paul and Some Songambele Staff

Fauna, Flora and Climate

As I post this blog (Monday, Nov. 11) the daily high was 25 degrees below normal..  Added on to  abnormal extreme low temperatures last week one gets the idea something is cooking in the atmosphere--like a polar vortex.  The area in which I am located had over 8 inches of snow the last week of October, crushing the old record for the month and by November 10 we have had almost 13" and today we had a few inches more.  The oddities of weather, over the long term, can influence climate.  Weather and climate are interrelated, but different.  Weather is often described as the day-to-day state of the atmosphere, whereas climate is a long term effect of weather.  Having studied weather and climate while a college student, I can more easily discern the varied nature of each and how they interact.  For some reasons I liked the climate part of my courses more than the weather part. I think I disliked the weather part because of the math.  Often it is hard to figure out what is going on with climate.  If weather over the long term change is causing issues in our environment there will be effects on flora and fauna.

Zebras in Tarangerie

Flora and Fauna are usually manifested by their local environment, and the local climate.  This was evident in Africa.  For example, the day we toured the Ngorongoro Crater, which was our best chance to see a black rhinoceros, it was very windy.  Rhinos are hard to see to begin with, but the wind made them hunker down, so to speak, in the vegetation to protect their horn from the wind. Hence we did not see a rhino.  Not all animals and insects in one climate zone will live in another. That is a good thing.  A good World Atlas will provide general climate zone regions.  The climate zones can give a general expectation of weather in a region.  At a world wide level they are often generalized.  The US Department of Agriculture has their planting zones for the United States, which provide information on type of plants can be grown in what location.

Lion in Tarangerie

While on safari a few weeks ago our safari guide made note of a few things, which he said are thought to be affected by a warming climate.  First, that the manes of male Lions in some areas are not as large as they had been in the past.  He made this comment while we were in Tarangerie National Park.  He went on to explain that the gland that produces the mane of the male lion requires some cooler temperatures.  In a sense, it is almost like hair, head hair loss aside, on persons of European descent being, in part, an adaption to cooler climate conditions.  As a previous post noted a Maasi Warrior comment, while looking at my arm hair, that I am like a lion.  Tarangerie National Park in Tanzania is about 3.9 degrees south latitude, so quite close to the equator, and has an elevation that varies from  3,232 to 5,013 feet.  Temperatures in this park are said to change by 3.5 degrees (F) for every thousand feet change in elevation, so this temperate near equator climate can have varied temperatures due solely to topography.

Detail of Giraffe 

The change in temperature over the long term is also affecting the color of some animals, like Wildebeest and the colors of spots on some animals. In other words, the melanin, which produces skin color in some East African animals, is thought to be affected by the warmer temperatures.  They are getting darker in color.

Male and female Lions in Serengeti

In the Ngorongoro Crater National Park, which has a crater top edge of about 7,500 feet sees the crater floor about 2,000 feet below, so the base, the caldera, is higher in elevation than the highest point in Tarangerie National Park.  The crater is so high that when we saw it from a distance it seemed to be stuck in the clouds.  To relate it to the United States, the top of the crater is above the elevation of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and a few hundred feet higher than Harney Peak in South Dakota.  Harney Peak is the highest elevation in the US east of the Rocky Mountains.  Due to its elevation, and cooler temperatures the lions in the crater have larger manes than those in Tarangerie. The Wildebeest in the crater are more grey than black in color.  These Wildebeest do not participate in the major Wildebeest migration which we saw occurring in the Serengeti.  Temperature is only one aspect of climate, another aspect is precipitation.

Male Lion in Ngorongoro Crater

The crater, so it seemed, was somewhat drier than usual at the time of our visit.  The salt lake/marsh part of the crater, which is home to flamingos was fully dry so the flamingos had fled.  Our visit to the crater was at the end of the dry season and the guide said such dryness as we saw is not necessarily unusual.  Because of the variation in elevation, the crater can see variation in weather patterns.

Wildebeest with Zebra in Ngorongoro Crater

The penchant for rain following my wife and I was clearly on display while we were in Tanzania.  We had rain on all but one day of our two week excursion, and the day it did not rain was the day we had  to catch a 4 pm flight (after a four hour drive) only to find the flight was cancelled and they placed us on a flight that would leave at 8 pm.  Thus, we wasted a good part of the day at the small Mwanza airport.  While on Safari, our guide noted that the parks we visited were just entering what is called the short rain season, which follows the dry season, but before the heavy rain season.  The short rain season means a rain shower of about 10 to 20 minutes perhaps occurring a couple times a week. Locals tend to use the term shower and not rain to describe these rain events.  We had a heavy downpour for several hours while in the Serengeti;  the guide noted that the heavy rainfall was "not usual."  What I found amazing in this experience was something I had learned about in a hydrology class in college, but had never experienced first hand: Horton Overland Flow.  This theory shows how precipitation runs off soil that has been subject to dry conditions, due to ground hardness and compactness.  In this case the lack of infiltration is also due to a hard pan a few inches below the surface--hard rain and hard pan work to counter infiltration of rain water.  The underlying geology explains why some areas of the Serengeti Plain are, well, plain grassland as far as the eye can see.  If an area is need of precipitation, all one has to do is ask my wife and I to travel and (more often than not) the precipitation will follow.  I wonder how much more rainy the rainy season in the northern part of Tanzania would be if my wife and I were to visit at that time?

Wildebeest Migration in the Serengeti

What is interesting about Tanzania is that different climates are evident in not just the crater, but also on Zanzibar.  While on the island of Zanzibar, we visited the Jozani-Chwaka Reserve and saw Red Colobus monkeys, unique to that archipelago, and Mangrove swamps.  What is interesting is that this reserve is in the central part of the island of Zanzibar, but it is a temperate rain forest.  It was hot, and humid, and of course since we  were there it rained during our visit.  What is most interesting is that Chwaka Bay is over a mile away from the reserve, and salt water will come in at high tide inundating the mangrove forest.  This also shows how little topographic change exists in this area of the island. Mangroves are unique in the flora landscape as they handle both fresh and salt water.  What is also interesting is that a small crab sets up home at the base of the Mangrove roots and digs into the nutrient rich soil, allowing salt water to feed the root systems of the trees.  Each needs the other.

Wildebeest and Zebra in Ngorongoro Crater

The rain from Jozani also followed us several miles north and east to the historic Stonetown district of Zanzibar.  The rainfall was to the point our driver had to admit the rain was not usual.  That was two not usual rainfall.  We are the rainmakers.

Kudu in Tarangerie 

Whether it be precipitation, or temperatures, we humans, and our earthly companions of other fauna and flora can be affected by changes in weather which over time can change our climate.  Is something afoot in our climate?  Clearly, weather seems more variable than the more recent past, as can be seen by the increased frequency of  large storms and greater temperature variations.  The question is whether or not these form a long range pattern, to affect climate.  I don't think the color of a Wildebeest is subject to minor variations in temperature, I tend to think it is a long range reaction to changing climate. Wildebeest and lion manes and animal spots are just one indicator of how fauna are affected by changing patterns of weather and climate.

Images by author, October 2019

"We Kill Lions"

One thing about travelling is that something unexpected can arise.  The unexpected occurrences can be good, bad, or weird.  While on Safari at two lodges we needed to be escorted to our rooms from the main lodge.  At a third lodging location they used regular patrols.  The persons who provided the escort were generally Maasi Warriors.  In Zanzibar, some Maasi were used to patrol the beach, and provide guidance.  A weird unexpected occurrence was on the beach in Zanzibar when one Maasi said to me: "We kill lions."  There is more to the story.

Banana Beer in cup, and Banana wine in bottle
Courtesy of Antoinette Hovel

The Maasi are one of 125 tribes that make their home in Tanzania (although some say it is 180 to 200, but I am going with the 125 number provided by our safari guide).  A consistent note was that the Maasi seldom marry out of their tribe, and tend to stick together.  The Maasi are native to the area of the Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and to around Arusha and Mount Kilimanjaro.  They have settlements in these national parks and raise cows and some goats and dab in other agricultural activities. Their settlement, at its peak, reached into most of the great rift valley.  As an aside the rift valley (in particular Olduvai Gorge which is part of the Serengeti) is important as the site of discovery of some of the earliest human remains--think of the early hominid bones referred to as Lucy discovered by Dr Richard Leaky and his wife Mary.  Perhaps the Maasi may have a connection to some of the earliest humans.  I noticed that the Maasi are generally tall and thin.  What is interesting is how far they walk--miles in a day.  As we drove to Tarangerie from Arusha I was struck by bus stops along the highway in the middle of no where.  You may see one or two small homes or villages, but there were people all around tending to the grazing cows.  I wondered from where they came.  I also concluded that since we were at the end of the dry season, and entering the short rain season, the road sides provided some green grass due to runoff from the road, and hence why many cows and goats were grazing along the road edge.  As we were driving up to the top of the crater all of a sudden a Maasi would appear out of the thick brush along the road with a herd of cattle, or firewood, or water.

Male Lion Ngorongoro Crater
Author Photo

The Maasi are well known for their instincts and ability to defend themselves against the "wild" animals.  I use the term "wild" in quotes as our guide properly pointed out that to the animals we are the wild ones.  The Maasi will regularly graze and lead their animals to water in areas abundant with the native animals so they need to know how to protect themselves. When we took a 1.5 hour walk along the part of the top of the Ngorogoro Crater the ranger with us was a Maasi, but he carried a rifle.  The Maasi that guided us at Kubu Kubu lodge in the Serengeti carried a simple poll or spear, I did not look at its tip.  I decided to not ask if they also had a firearm.  At Sopa Lodge on the top of the crater I think they carried a side fire arm.  The Ranger on our crater walk said that he would prefer to fire the weapon in the air to distract the animal.   They practice prudence to avoid killing or injuring an animal.  While the Maasi walk a great deal, when we started our crater hike a few of us got too far ahead of the ranger, and he said "poli, poli" which means slowly, slowly. I heard that more than once on our trip.   For our own safety he did not wish us to get too far ahead.  Of course, the ranger may simply have been keeping pace with those who tend to not walk as fast.  Perhaps that is the key to their capability to walk long distances--use a measured and even  pace. At each of the three lodges we stayed that was in or near a park we could hear animal activity, but at Kubu Kubu, in addition to other animals, we could hear lions. It was neat hearing the lions, but not so neat hearing the hyenas.   This made one understand the caution exercised for the  need to walk.  If we wanted to leave the room at night, the wireless phone was to be used to call the lodge for an escort. My wife asked one Maasi who guided us at Kubu Kubu what he had seen that night and he listed off about five different animals.

My wife talking to Joshua as they walk the Beach
Author photo

Tuesday, October 22 we arrived in Zanzibar, which is quite different from the game reserves we visited earlier.  We were supposed to have arrived Monday evening, but our 4:00 pm flight from Mwanza to Dar Es Salaam was cancelled so we were placed on an 8:00 pm flight and missed our connecting flight.  By the time our plane was leaving for Dar Es Salaam on  Monday night we should have been near or at our hotel on Zanzibar.  So this was a bad unexpected occurrence.  My weird unexpected occurrence was on a beach along the Indian Ocean.  I went down to the beach to go swimming in the ocean and a Maasi struck up a conversation with me. He wanted to know if I was going swimming and if I knew how to swim.  I said I do know how to swim.  He asked where I was from, what I was doing in Africa and if it was my first time.  The mention of having been on safari peaked his interest and he asked where we had been.  The warrior then asked what if I had seen lions, and I said yes we had seen several, and in all three parks we visited.  It seems the lion was one of his favorite animals. I also wondered what he thought of mainly overweight white guys swimming.  Although, I noticed most persons preferred to swim in the pool, at which you could swim right up to a bar.

Maasi singers and dancers
Courtesy of Antoinette Hovel

As we walked the beach down to the water discussing lions, he put his finger on my rather hairy forearm and said, "you like a lion," he then said "We kill lions."  I snickered at his remark and an ability of two persons from opposite sides of the world to poke fun at one another.  As I was swimming, however, it occurred to me that the remark and his touching my forearm was kind of weird. I had been told the Maasi like to keep to themselves, so this interruption of personal space was not expected.  I had never before thought of myself as lion like. I should have given him a roar.  However,  he could have compared me to a lesser-liked animal--the hyena for example.

Banana beer brewing at a local Market
author photo

My wife went for a walk on the beach and struck up a conversation with a Maasi man named Joshua. Two days later, Joshua remembered her and joined us as we walked to a light house, which was about a 20 minute walk one way down the beach from where we stayed.  We had a nice conversation and he explained some things as we went along the beach.  I drew a map in the sand to show Joshua where we were from, and tried to explain the Great Lakes.  Joshua has a small shop  in the village next to where we stayed, and is earning money to buy 150 head of cattle as a dowry for his wife's family.    Our safari driver is of a tribe that makes banana beer and as part of his dowry his family needed to make 21 liters of banana beer, although part of that was used for the reception.

This video is part of the Maasi song and dance at Sopa Lodge.

Courtesy of Antoinette Hovel

The Maasi have a unique culture and we were pleased to able to see some present dance and song at the Sopa Lodge.  Really remarkable abilities of sound and dance.   They are not just good at walking, and song and dance, they kill lions too.