Iraqw Villiage

One of our last activities in the Ngorongoro region was to visit the Villiage and home of an Iraqw family. This is a tribe that has land near the Ngorongoro crater and they are primarily farmers. Where the Massai tribe primarily wear Red plaid clothing, the Iraqw wear green and yellow plaids.

This space serves as a living room and this is also where the kitchen resides. Smoke from the fire stays in the space and acts as a deterrent for flies and mosquitoes. This family has a son attending a state university who happened to be visiting home when we were here.

This is him enjoying my sister getting dressed in the typical fashion of the area.

This Villiage has also started mining clay for making mud bricks. There was a decision made by the elders to help make up for the deficit in education dollars from the government. The community gets $250 for each trunk load that they sell.

I was able to try my hand at using the molds to make brick with wet clay. This is pretty hard work under a very hot sun. Later the bricks are fired in these kilns. Each family is responsible for making 3,000 bricks for each member of the family per year. 

Serengeti Balloon Ride

On day nine Greg and Kim gave me the surprise gift of an early morning balloon ride over the Serengeti! Up at 4:30 we rode and hour in the dark witnessing the African night live including the elusive bat eared fox.

We took off at sunrise and saw a lioness enjoying a wildebeest breakfast and observed the trails in the grasses blazed by various migrating animals.

An elephant family was eating some fresh greenery and a couple cape buffalo graze in the early morning sun.

A pair of jackle were startled by the sound of our burner. Hippos scattered from their pool as we approached.

The Serengeti is alive.

Njia Panda Primary School

Today we visited the Njia Panda Primary School near the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. This is a public school near one of the nicer resorts we stayed at near the Ngorongoro Crater.

The campus was laid out pretty well with a nice garden between each of the classroom buildings. Many of the 45-50  students in each classroom who attend the school are poor but each of the students is expected To make it to secondary school.

We started the day by visiting a classroom of 12-13 year old children. They had all started learning English and they were clearly expected to speak with us in English to answer and ask questions. It was fun to hear the questions and ask a few of our own.

We then made it across campus to see the kitchen and green house, which had been funded by USAID. Again, it was great fun to meet the kids along the way, filled with joy to see these visitors from another country.

This kitchen serves 564 kids twice a day.

Kids get to wash the dishes out in the yard after lunch.

A very well equipped greenhouse gives an opportunity for the kids to learn about agriculture and also helps the school make money to help pay for the education of the kids.

Public Education in Tanzania is free for everyone. Apparently, the federal government promises to pay $6 per year per student. They often even fall short of that. There are certain costs that parents are responsible for. Parents are required to give the school something like 60 kilos of corn and 40 kilos of beans per child per year. Needles to say, not everyone can pull that off. 

Our visit to the school was set up by the tour company to give back to the local community and raise money for the school. This is clearly something worth doing given the situation these kids are in and the need they each have for a good education.

Wildebeest and zebras, by the hundreds of thousands - post 2 - continued

More pics of wildebeest and zebras! On most of these, when you see the landscape dotted as far as the eye can see with black dots, those are more and more and more wildebeest. They just went on and on and on and on..... Spectacular!

Wildebeest and zebras, by the hundreds of thousands - post 1

Not sure how to convey the experience of observing hundreds of thousands (not exagerating) of wildebeest crossing the Serengeti, and being led by their friends the zebras, in search of water and fresh grass. We watched in awe as these guys criss-crossed the landscape in solid lines that went for miles and sometimes bumbling in masses trying to get to the next best place. All along the trusty zebras led the way and used their better eyesight to sense danger ahead. And danger there was - we saw big massive lions hunting and eating these guys. They are easy prey in such vast numbers. Pics below don't quite do it justice but hopefully give a bit of an idea of the truly AWESOME experience of watching these herds migrating in the southern Serengeti. Video to come later. 

Grateful and happy - pics 2

And more photos

Family

Nice home

Awe

All of the babies are darling

More sketching

Masai women with traditional white neck decorations

Oh boy Masai Kim

Jumping high is a sign of manliness - go Greg!! He did great!!

The chief. 

Market - need any livestock?

My room at Ngorogoro Farmhouse. Nice!!

Serengeti Day 3 - Fabulous morning

Today we got up early in order to see a different part of the park. We saw a great variety! It started with seeing our first male lion, protecting his meal from his own children. Of course, I shouldn't be too critical since I do the same with my children at home.

Then we saw our first leopard. He was hanging out in a tree with his kill. See if you can find both the Leopard and the wildebeest in this pic. We were quite a distance away.

Next up Hippos doing what they do.

...and as we headed back for lunch we saw another male lion mating with one of his pride.

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And we were lucky to she another from the same pride relaxing in a tree to avoid some elephant wondering by. We were able to get WAY close. This photo was taken with my iPhone, as with most on this blog.

You can see the elephant family she was avoiding in the distance.

This was a good morning.