It's been too long...

It's been far too long since my last blog, but all is well. For many reasons it was tough to stay in contact, mostly it was due to me getting Malaria, an unfortunate plague that left me quite tired but now that I am fully recovered, I can look back on it a unique experience, a true Tanzanian experience, if you will. I am grateful, at the least that I got treated, but all my friends were very supportive as well. Also to make communication harder, shortly after my bout with Malaria, our group started traveling a lot more. We moved into host families, had a week long break, went on safari in the Serengeti, and now are safely settling in to our field camp outside Tarangire National Park.

It has been really nice to be away from the big city. Exploring the northern part of the country has been quite an adventure. For break I went back to Zanzibar and saw even cooler beaches than on my first visit. We stayed in beach bungalows and went snorkeling in the north before heading to the southern part of the island to a place called Jambiani (place of Arab knives in Swahili). Although I didn’t find many Arab knives, I did find some of the best food I’d had in Tanzania, very relaxed and interesting locals, barely any tourists (which was quite refreshing), along with some pretty great sunsets, and one incredible sunrise. My friends and I then headed back to mainland and took a painfully long and cramped bus ride (especially with my long legs…miguu mikubwa!) to the beautiful mountain village of Lushoto, easily one of the most beautiful places I have even visited. We spent most of our time at Irente farm, hiking by day, eating fresh cheese, veggies, and fruits by night, only to awake each morning by the aromas of fresh coffee…MMM! The hiking was incredible. We saw monkeys and waterfalls, walked through rainforests and hiked up to the highest cliff lookouts we could see, and fought over whether the chameleons were cooler than the fireflies and the bright butterflies. What a trip!

We then met up with the whole ACM group in Arusha before heading out on safari through Lake Manyara National Park and Serengeti National Park. As you can imagine, I expected the wildlife to be pretty cool…but there are no words for the magic that these parks contain. Seeing such interesting creatures roam so freely is unreal. I loved it! But now as we are beginning our research projects, some harsher realities are revealing themselves such as the relationship between the parks and the local people not being as healthy as they appear. It is interesting to see both sides, as a tourist and as a researcher. And I am learning a lot as a result. Time is flying and we are having a blast! Sending love as always!
-Brendan
P.S. Internet is super slow in the field so I will work on posting more pictures once we get back to the city, my apologies.



a lion stalking a heard of gazelle across the river.

Home sweet home. Our fieldcamp

so many elephants!!!

The view from one of our Lushoto hikes.

Me next to Ngorogoro Crater. Beautiful. (The Crater).